An engaging and original historical portrait of eight of the most influential political figures of the twentieth century: Woodrow Wilson, Lenin, Hitler, Churchill, FDR, Gandhi, David Ben-Gurion, and Mao.
The Titans of the Twentieth Century
addresses an age-old question: what is the impact of individuals on history? The first half of the twentieth century offered political leaders enormous scope for changing the world. This book consists of essays about eight who, for better and for worse, did just that.
Woodrow Wilson
had a vision for a cooperative world order that failed after the First World War but gained in influence after the Second.
Vladimir Ilich Lenin
founded the totalitarian communist political system that controlled a large part of the planet for much of the twentieth century.
Adolf Hitler
started history's worst war and presided over history's worst atrocity, the Holocaust.
Winston Churchill
provided inspiring leadership to Great Britain, which made it possible to defeat Nazi Germany in World War II.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
steered the United States through the Great Depression and the Second World War.
Mohandas Gandhi
led the movement, and developed the philosophy of non-violence, that ended British rule in South Asia, paving the way for the end of empires throughout Asia and Africa.
David Ben-Gurion
led the miraculous restoration of Jewish sovereignty in the Holy Land.
Mao Zedong
, imposed totalitarian communist rule on China and became history's most egregious mass murderer.
Individually, each chapter offers fresh and often surprising portraits of the twentieth century's titans. Collectively, the essays present a vivid and revealing portrait of a turbulent half-century that shaped the world of today.