Series: Life & Times

Named "Man of the Millennium" in 1999, Johannes Gutenberg was the creator of one of the most influential and revolutionary inventions in Europe’s history: a printing press with mechanical movable type. This development sparked the printing revolution, which is regarded as the milestone of the second millennium and represents one of the central contributions in the turn to modernity. His...

An updated and revised biography of Patrice Lumumba, former Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Patrice Lumumba (1926-61) is perhaps the most famous leader of the African independence movement. He became an icon of anti-imperialist struggle after his execution in 1961, when he had been the prime minister of the newly liberated Congo for only seven months....

A narrative of the life of Francisco Franco, Spanish general and dictator. Growing up in the wake of the Spanish military's shattering defeat at the hands of the United States in 1898 over Cuba and having survived a bullet to the stomach while serving his country in Morocco, Francisco Franco’s fame and notoriety were eventually guaranteed by his ruthless pursuit...

A concise and comprehensive biography of Mao Zedong, published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of his death. A half-century after his death in September 1976, Mao Zedong remains one of history's most polarising figures: a peasant boy who became a revolutionary leader, a general in World War II, and finally the Great Helmsman, the founding father of the People's...