101 world heroes : great men and women for an unheroic age / Simon Sebag Montefiore with Dan Jones and Claudia Renton

Royal marriage in the ancient Egypt -- The ark of the covenant -- Lyrics from the ashes -- Persian empires up to the ayatollahs -- Enlightment and rebirth; or; whatever next -- Sun Tzu and the art of war -- The school for wariors -- The father of biography -- Plutarch -- The greek trireme --
Plato -- Cleopatra, last of the Ptolemies -- Elephants at war -- The jewish temple -- Julius Caesar, or, how to make it in ancient Rome -- Prophets and messiahs in the age of Jesus -- The emperor's wisdom -- Constantinople, city of the world's desire -- Arab, conquests, east and west -- Write quickly -- The death of Bede -- Imperial coronation -- The court of the caliphs -- The troubadours -- Richard the Lionheart -- Falconry -- A 15th-century knight -- The gates of paradise -- Henry V and English archery -- Mapping the world -- Taj Mahal and the glory of the Mughals -- Clash of the empires -- Power and powder --
The Samurai tradition -- Colonizing Virginia -- The history of the telescope -- Who was the real Shakespeare? -- The execution of Charles I -- The great fire of London -- Theories of the universe -- Prince Eugene of Savoy -- Torture and the Calas case -- Johnson's dictionary --
The regiment of giants -- Dangerous liaisons -- The endeavour -- Prince Potemkin -- The men who would be king -- from White Rajahs to King Zog -- America's first middle East War -- Bolivar and the liberators -- Famous corpses, lost and found -- Morning rituals of the old aristocracy -- Who was the greatest composer? -- Powder monkeys and naval guns -- Redcoats, Tommys and Victoria crosses -- The empress Josephine -- Deafness and genius -- Debutantes and dowries;or; how to marry an English Gentleman -- The life of the Bedouin -- The romantics: Keats and Shelley --Victor Hugo and Emile Zola -- Pistol duelling -- From the 'Black Marquis' to the Dame aux camelias -- Democratic dynasties -- Fathers of nations -- Assassinated presidents and prime ministers -- Soapy Sam versus Darwin's bulldog -- The real Fagin and the victorian underworld -- The adventures of the Jane Digby- Dosert to Damascus -- The charge of the light brigade -- Jenner and smallpox -- The battle of Borodino -- The Russian dancer -- The actor-managers -- Isaac Babel -- The Ballad of reading gaol -- Tiger Clemenceau -- The grandes horizontales -- Midnight's children and Nehru's democracy -- The great modernist dinner party -- Antarctic rivals: Scott versus Amundsen -- The last charge at Omdurman : Gordon and Kitchener -- The theory of relativity -- Powerful corpses, embalmed leaders -- Guernica -- American heroes: GIs and medals of honour -- Middle Eastern peacemakers -- Doctors-writers-from chekhov to Conan Doyle -- The machine that won the Second World War -- The dance of death -- The old school tie -- Righteous gentiles and resistance fighters -- Violette and Hannah: female spies and the SOE -- The cuban missile crisis -- Sotho, Xhosa and Zulu -- Polish heroes: Sobieski to the warsaw uprising -- Courageous Soviet bloc dissidents -- Great women leaders -- A lot and refound masterpiece -- Immortal heroism: Elvis to Anastasia -- Mohammed Ali has a dream -- People power -- Tank man; or; the unknown rebel