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125 lives ready to enter

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Now exploring: Founders & Nation Builders (16 lives)× Clear

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Lives to enter

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16 lives in view

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Time

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Place

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Ways of life

Follow power, reform, witness, command, or court.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

1865 · White House, Washington

In the final winter of the Civil War, a president confronts the distance between saving the Union and saving himself.

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George Washington

George Washington

1799 · Mount Vernon

In his last year at Mount Vernon, the father of a nation admits what the republic asked of him — and what it took.

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Charlemagne

Charlemagne

813 · Aachen

In Aachen, an emperor who built Europe from conquest confronts the bishops already softening his legacy into legend.

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Augustus

Augustus

13 AD · Rome

At Rome, with his body failing faster than his patience, the first emperor sets down the cost of manufacturing peace.

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Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

1825 · Monticello

At Monticello, an architect of liberty confronts the contradictions he built into the foundations of a nation.

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Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin

1790 · Philadelphia

In Philadelphia, the most practical man of the Revolution reflects on what independence actually required — and what it didn't.

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Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

1919 · Oyster Bay, New York

In Oyster Bay, a former president burns with unfinished energy and the knowledge that the country moved on without him.

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Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle

1969 · Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises

At Colombey, having walked away from power a second time, a general asks whether France understood what he tried to build.

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Otto von Bismarck

Otto von Bismarck

1897 · Friedrichsruh

Dismissed, ageing, and deliberately sidelined, the architect of German unification watches his successors dismantle his work.

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Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu

1616 · Sunpu

In the winter of his final year at Sunpu, the shogun who unified Japan considers what peace actually costs to maintain.

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Pericles

Pericles

429 BCE · Athens

While the light still holds in plague-stricken Athens, the man who built the Parthenon reflects on what democracy actually cost.

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Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton

1804 · New York

In the summer before the duel, the architect of American finance sets down what the republic he built will never credit him for.

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Simón Bolívar

Simón Bolívar

1830 · Santa Marta

With the sea air of Santa Marta failing to do what battle and revolution could not, the liberator of five nations confronts the continent he freed and the chaos it became.

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José de San Martín

José de San Martín

1849 · Boulogne-sur-Mer, France

In Boulogne-sur-Mer, with the sea air in his lungs and the continent he liberated behind him, a general who chose exile over power reflects on what independence actually meant.

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Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi

1881 · Caprera

On Caprera, trapped between the sea and his own body, the man who unified Italy reflects on what the politicians did with what the sword made possible.

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Toussaint Louverture

Toussaint Louverture

1802 · Fort de Joux

Under guard in the cold stone of Fort de Joux, the man who led the only successful slave revolution in history writes what Napoleon's prison was designed to erase.

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Time travel

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The whole archive

Follow a period or preoccupation

Move through lives that belong to the same era, tension, or historical thread.

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