In 101 World Heroes, bestselling historian Simon Sebag Montefiore presents his personal selection of the 100 most heroic figures from the pages of world history. Emperors and queens, soldiers and statesmen, religious leaders and philosophers rub shoulders with composers and poets, scientists and explorers, artists and storytellers from three millennia. All are united not just by what they did in their own lifetimes, but also by the enduring legacy they have bequeathed to the sum of human experience and achievement.



The book is illustrated throughout with maps, diagrams, paintings and photographs, and an appendix celebrates a further 100 individual deeds of heroism with a special claim to immortality. The heroes include:



Ramses the Great



Leonardo da Vinci



Albert Einstein



King Solomon



Elizabeth I of England



Winston Churchill



The Buddha



Tokugawa Ieyasu



M. K. Gandhi



Aristotle



William Shakespeare



F.D. Roosevelt



Alexander the Great



Thomas Jefferson



David Ben Gurion



Hannibal



Voltaire



George Orwell



Jesus



Napoleon Bonaparte



Elvis Presley



Marcus Aurelius



Horatio Nelson



J. F. Kennedy



Mohammed



Duke of Wellington



John Paul II



Charlemagne



Abraham Lincoln



Nelson Mandela



Leo Tolstoy



Charles Darwin