Biographies About
Major World Leaders

From ancient Mongolia to 20th-century America, meet the emperors, monarchs, conquerors,
prime ministers, and revolutionaries who ruled the continents and left their mark on history.

Perhaps one of the best known of the English monarchs, Queen Victoria forever shaped a chapter of English history, bequeathing her name to the Victorian age. In Queen Victoria, Lucy Worsley introduces this iconic woman in a new light....

This is a remarkable and inspiring story of one of the greatest warrior-princes of the Middle Ages - and an unforgettably vivid portrait of warfare and chivalry in the 14th century....

In 1908, at the age of two, Henry Pu Yi ascended to become the last emperor of the centuries-old Manchu dynasty....

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) is the most important woman in Chinese history. She ruled China for decades and brought a medieval empire into the modern age....

In this groundbreaking biography of the Japanese emperor Hirohito, Herbert P. Bix offers the first complete, unvarnished look at the enigmatic leader whose 63-year reign ushered Japan into the modern world....

Philip II is not only the most famous king in Spanish history, but one of the most famous monarchs in English history: the man who married Mary Tudor and later launched the Spanish Armada against her sister Elizabeth I....

The remarkable life of history’s first foreign-born samurai and his astonishing journey from Northeast Africa to the heights of Japanese society....

Harold Lamb brings the mighty Tatar leader Tamerlane to vivid life and shows how this ruthless commander used his superior intellect and magnetic leadership to overcome one obstacle after another....

As Queen, Elizabeth uses her superb political skills to balance off both competing court factions and potential suitors....

From acclaimed historian Chris Skidmore comes the authoritative biography of Richard III, England's most controversial king, a man alternately praised as a saint and cursed as a villain....

This audiobook provides a concise and proper portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte's character and career. Napoleon as he was - not saint, not sinner, but a man dedicated to and ultimately devoured by his vision of himself, his empire, and his world....

In 1474, a 23-year-old woman ascended the throne of Castile, the largest and strongest kingdom in Spain. Ahead of her lay the challenge of being a young female ruler....

Poisoner, despot, necromancer - the dark legend of Catherine de Medici is centuries old. In this critically hailed biography, Leonie Frieda reclaims the story of this unjustly maligned queen to reveal a skilled ruler battling extraordinary political and personal odds....

Examines the lives and contributions of seven men and women who changed the world: Abraham of Ur, Pericles, the Apostle Paul, Sir Isaac Newton, Marie Curie, Martin Luther King Jr....

Michael Korda's Hero is the story of an epic life on a grand scale: a revealing, in-depth, and gripping biography....

Seven Pillars of Wisdom is the autobiographical account of T. E. Lawrence's role in the Arab Revolt against the Turkish Empire....

This is the harrowing but triumphant story of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, leader of the Liberian women's movement, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize....

Her royal birth gave her claim to the thrones of two nations; her marriage to the young French dauphin promised to place a third glorious crown on her noble head. Instead, Mary Stuart became the victim of her own impulsive heart....

The life of Princess May of Teck is one of the great Cinderella stories in history....