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Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette

1793 · Conciergerie, Paris

Waiting for the blade in the Conciergerie, a queen dismantles the lie that she was ever in control.

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Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong

1959 · the Beijing study at Zhongnanhai (the desk where the provincial production returns are read), in the months following the Lushan Conference

A chairman in his Beijing study reads the inflated production figures the provinces have learned to send up, treating reports manufactured to survive the recent purge of Peng Dehuai as administrative confirmation that...

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Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft

1797 · London

Weak from childbirth and aware the fever is winning, the author of the first argument for women's rights writes her last account.

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Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius

180 · Vindobona

On the Danube frontier, a philosopher-emperor writes the private thoughts his public philosophy never permitted.

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Mary Queen of Scots

Mary Queen of Scots

1587 · Fotheringhay Castle

Confined at Fotheringhay, a queen who was never allowed to rule writes her account before her cousin's axe falls.

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Maria Theresa

Maria Theresa

1780 · Vienna

In Vienna, with her body failing, an empress who held together an empire through sixteen pregnancies reflects on the cost.

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Marie Curie

Marie Curie

1934 · Passy, France

In Passy, while her blood fails her, the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two sciences reflects on what discovery actually costs.

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Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday

1862 · Hampton Court

With his memory fraying while institutions claim his work, the man who discovered electromagnetism sets down what the science actually felt like.

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Marco Polo

Marco Polo

1323 · Venice

In Venice, as his body thins, the traveller who connected East and West sets down what he saw that no one in Europe was prepared to believe.

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Michelangelo

Michelangelo

1564 · Rome

I am still at the marble.

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Time travel

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Through the Ancient World

13 private lives from the Ancient World, in the order they were lived.

  1. 1. 1458 BCE

    Hatshepsut

  2. 2. 1336 BCE

    Nefertiti

  3. 3. 1213 BCE

    Ramses II

  4. 4. 496 BCE

    Sun Tzu

  5. 5. 429 BCE

    Pericles

  6. 6. 323 BCE

    Alexander the Great

Through the Medieval

10 private lives from the Medieval, in the order they were lived.

  1. 1. 813 CE

    Charlemagne

  2. 2. 1087 CE

    William the Conqueror

  3. 3. 1193 CE

    Saladin

  4. 4. 1199 CE

    Eleanor of Aquitaine

  5. 5. 1199 CE

    Richard I (Lionheart)

  6. 6. 1307 CE

    Edward I of England

Through the Early Modern

25 private lives from the Early Modern, in the order they were lived.

  1. 1. 1519 CE

    Leonardo da Vinci

  2. 2. 1520 CE

    Raphael

  3. 3. 1521 CE

    Ferdinand Magellan

  4. 4. 1524 CE

    Vasco da Gama

  5. 5. 1526 CE

    Niccolò Machiavelli

  6. 6. 1528 CE

    Albrecht Dürer

Through the Revolutionary Age

16 private lives from the Revolutionary Age, in the order they were lived.

  1. 1. 1790 CE

    Benjamin Franklin

  2. 2. 1793 CE

    Marie Antoinette

  3. 3. 1794 CE

    Antoine Lavoisier

  4. 4. 1796 CE

    Catherine the Great

  5. 5. 1797 CE

    Mary Wollstonecraft

  6. 6. 1799 CE

    George Washington

Through the Industrial Age

26 private lives from the Industrial Age, in the order they were lived.

  1. 1. 1849 CE

    José de San Martín

  2. 2. 1852 CE

    Ada Lovelace

  3. 3. 1859 CE

    Isambard Kingdom Brunel

  4. 4. 1862 CE

    Michael Faraday

  5. 5. 1865 CE

    Abraham Lincoln

  6. 6. 1872 CE

    Napoleon III

Through the World Wars

22 private lives from the World Wars, in the order they were lived.

  1. 1. 1914 CE

    Booker T. Washington

  2. 2. 1917 CE

    Edgar Degas

  3. 3. 1919 CE

    Theodore Roosevelt

  4. 4. 1921 CE

    Alexander Graham Bell

  5. 5. 1921 CE

    Ernest Shackleton

  6. 6. 1922 CE

    Gustave Eiffel

Through the Postwar Modern

12 private lives from the Postwar Modern, in the order they were lived.

  1. 1. 1947 CE

    Orville Wright

  2. 2. 1953 CE

    Joseph Stalin

  3. 3. 1955 CE

    Winston Churchill

  4. 4. 1959 CE

    Mao Zedong

  5. 5. 1961 CE

    W.E.B. Du Bois

  6. 6. 1963 CE

    John F. Kennedy

State Power

47 lives shaped by state power, followed across the centuries.

  1. 1. 1458 BCE

    Hatshepsut

  2. 2. 1213 BCE

    Ramses II

  3. 3. 429 BCE

    Pericles

  4. 4. 323 BCE

    Alexander the Great

  5. 5. 44 BCE

    Julius Caesar

  6. 6. 43 BCE

    Cicero

War and Command

36 lives shaped by war and command, followed across the centuries.

  1. 1. 496 BCE

    Sun Tzu

  2. 2. 429 BCE

    Pericles

  3. 3. 323 BCE

    Alexander the Great

  4. 4. 184 BCE

    Scipio Africanus

  5. 5. 183 BCE

    Hannibal

  6. 6. 44 BCE

    Julius Caesar

Science and Discovery

30 lives shaped by science and discovery, followed across the centuries.

  1. 1. 1323 CE

    Marco Polo

  2. 2. 1355 CE

    Ibn Battuta

  3. 3. 1465 CE

    Johann Gutenberg

  4. 4. 1519 CE

    Leonardo da Vinci

  5. 5. 1528 CE

    Albrecht Dürer

  6. 6. 1630 CE

    Johannes Kepler

Exile and Decline

28 lives shaped by exile and decline, followed across the centuries.

  1. 1. 184 BCE

    Scipio Africanus

  2. 2. 1524 CE

    Vasco da Gama

  3. 3. 1526 CE

    Niccolò Machiavelli

  4. 4. 1669 CE

    Rembrandt

  5. 5. 1675 CE

    Johannes Vermeer

  6. 6. 1793 CE

    Marie Antoinette

Empire

25 lives shaped by empire, followed across the centuries.

  1. 1. 1458 BCE

    Hatshepsut

  2. 2. 1213 BCE

    Ramses II

  3. 3. 323 BCE

    Alexander the Great

  4. 4. 183 BCE

    Hannibal

  5. 5. 44 BCE

    Julius Caesar

  6. 6. 30 BCE

    Cleopatra

Monarchy and Court

20 lives shaped by monarchy and court, followed across the centuries.

  1. 1. 1458 BCE

    Hatshepsut

  2. 2. 1336 BCE

    Nefertiti

  3. 3. 1213 BCE

    Ramses II

  4. 4. 30 BCE

    Cleopatra

  5. 5. 1199 CE

    Eleanor of Aquitaine

  6. 6. 1536 CE

    Anne Boleyn