The Butterfly Effect by Andy Andrews

I would have enjoyed this book more had I not already read "The Boy Who Changed the World" by the same author. Some of the same material and ideas are also conveyed in this book. Nevertheless, the points are well taken in both. The main points diverge into one: Every choice one makes, makes a difference. Every choice you make, makes a difference. You can make a difference.

I found the first part of the book much more interesting because it was new material to me. It is the story of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a Colonel in the Union Army, who insisted that his men stand their ground, despite all the obstacles that should have forced them to run, at the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War. He would not allow his troops to allow the obstacles to keep them from standing and defending their position. And the decision changed the course of the War, the status of the country and its later ability to stand united as one country when other outside forces attacked.

The author, in the last part of the book, tells a similar story about the combined efforts of Henry Wallace, Norman Borlaug, and George Washington Carver whose lives were intertwined and each played a major role in discovering new plants and helping to feed the world's hungry. Borlaug is credited, rightly, with developing a hybridized high yield, disease resistant corn and wheat for arid climates. With this discovery, he truly changed the world for many starving people.

Andrews, in both cases, whether it be the Colonel of the Union Army or the intertwined roles of Borlaug, Carver and Wallace, calls the reader to examine his/her own role and responsibility for the experience of life today.