| These are the stories of men and women who changed the world. They were not inventors; some were not politicians. They were people with ideas and people of action. What they shared was a vision for their societies of greater justice, equality, and freedom. |
| Many of these men and women will be familiar to you from American or European historyGeorge Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Vladimir Lenin. But there were also heroic liberators in South America (Jos Mart and Simn Bolvar), Africa (Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela), and Asia (Mahatma Gandhi and Ho Chi Minh), to name just a few. Of course, as with any human enterprise, in revolution there are tales of tragedy as well as triumphsome of those who sought to save their nations turned out to be terrible tyrants, such as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. And some of our entries are about philosophers and writers who did not make revolutions but who inspired millions of others to pursue revolutionary dreams (Karl Marx, John Locke, Frantz Fanon). |
| The revolutionary writers and leaders profiled in this volume came from every walk of life. A few, such as George Washington or Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette, came from privileged backgrounds. Others, including Rosa Luxemburg, Fidel Castro, and Maximilien Robespierre, came from ordinary middle-class or professional backgrounds. Still others, such as Rigoberta Mench Tum, came from peasant communities or were former slaves, as was Franois-Dominique Toussaint L'Ouverture. Regardless of their social background, they did not let the customs and habits of their day limit their view of how society could be arranged. Taking great risks, these men and women dared to be unconventional, to seek a different path for themselves and their people. In this book, you will find their storiesthe lives of the greatest revolutionary leaders and thinkers of the past five centuries from around the world. |
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