Biography

Tom Paine

The Life of a Revolutionary
by Harry Harmer

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) thrust himself into world history on the eve of his 39th birthday in January 1776, rousing the North American Colonies to break with Britain. His hope was an independent republic that would act as a democratic beacon to old Europe. Born in Thetford, England, Tom Paine was an author, political theorist, and humanitarian. He will be best remembered for being influental in to revolutions, the American and the French.

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Trotsky

Life&Times
by Dave Renton

Leon Trotsky became the leading spokesman of Russian Revolution, and was the founder of the victorious Red Army of 1918-1921, and did more than anyone to create the early soviet state.Yet Trotsky was out-manoeuvred by Stalin in the struggle to succeed Lenin. In the years followed, he developed the firts systematic critique of Stalin's dictatorship. In 1929, he and his wife were forced out of Russia, moving from Turkey to France, and finally to Mexico, where he was brutally assassinated by a Spanish communist in 1940.

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CHE GUEVARA

Life&Times
by Frank Niess

Had he lived Che Guevara would have turned 80 on 14 June 2008. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHE! He embodied the dream of a social utopia for a whole generation and became a political icon for many born after his death in 1967. This biography explores the myth and the reality of this enduringly fascinating revolutionary. His daughter Aleida recently denounced the commercialisation of her father's image. 'Something that bothers me now is the appropriation of the figure of Che that has been used to make enemies from different classes. It's embarrassing,' said the eldest daughter from Guevara's second marriage during an internet forum sponsored by Cuba's government ahead of her father's 80th birthday.

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TITO

Life&Times
by Neil Barnett

During his life Tito could manage the internal tensions of his multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-lingual country. But after his death in 1980 Yugoslavia’s institutions were revealed as rudderless and Lilliputian. The break-up of Yugoslavia, the country Tito, the Croat turned Yugoslav had created was inevitable. The demon that he had spent his life containing, ethnic rivalry, was released after his death. The five wars that followed - some of them yet to be fully resolved - were Tito's nightmare, but they were in many ways the result of his own myopic egomania.

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NASSER

Life&Times
by Anne Alexander

Gamal Abd-al-Nasser was 36 years old when he became the undisputed leader of Egypt. When, in 1956, he nationalised the Suez Canal and took on the might of Britain, France and Israel, he became one of the Arab world’s towering figures.

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