Profiles of twenty-five world leaders whose actions shaped the course of world history include Mahatma Gandhi, Kemal Atatu+a5rk, Fidel Castro, Napole+a7on Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, and Simo+a7n Boli+a7var.

Grade 7-12-- A volume that offers 26 biographies, ranging from 9-14 pages in length, of leaders in the 19th and 20th centuries. Included are biographies of people who have shaped world events such as Napoleon, Lenin, Hitler, Churchill, Gandhi, Mao Tse-tung, de Gaulle, Meir, Khomeini, and Gorbachev, among others. The entries, each accompanied by two or more black-and-white photographs, describe the subjects' early lives and the events that propelled them to fame. Written in an easy, narrative style, the selections often include intimate details, such as Lenin's brooding seriousness or Mussolini's vanity. Diary entries, quotations, and excerpts from these men and women's own writings personalize the lively accounts. Jacobs writes in an objective manner, providing readers with a better understanding of these figures. Even libraries owning The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Biography (1975), which compares with Jacobs's work for readability, will want to acquire this volume for the amount of information on each person provided, the comfortable format and print size, and the thematic focus. --Dana McDougald, Cedar Shoals High School, Athens, GA
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.