Based on the current book PERSONALITY AND POWER by noted historian Ian Kershaw, we will examine 12 national leaders and their personal effect on their own countries and on the entire European continent. While all of these individuals are well-known, we will discover new ideas about their rise to and use of power. Our constant measure will be the effect of a single human being in changing the history of modern Europe. We question: Do great individuals make history, or does history make possible great individuals? We also refer to Henry Kissinger's new work: SIX STUDIES IN WORLD STRATEGY.
1. Vladimir Lenin: Revolutionary leader; 2. Benito Mussolin: Icon of Fascism; 3. Adolf Hitler: Instigator of War and Genocide; 4. Joseph Stalin: Terrorizer of His Own People; 5: Winston Churchill: Britain's War Hero; 6: Charles DeGaulle: Restoring French Grandeur; 7. Konrad Adenauer: Rebuilding West Germany; 8. Francisco Franco: Nationalist Crusader; 9. Josef Broz Tito; Uncrowned King of Yugoslavia; 10: Margaret Thatcher: National Regeneration of the UK; 11. Mikhail Gorbachev: Breaker of the Soviet Union' 12. Helmut Kohl: Driver of European Integration. 13. Analysis of History Makers in Their Own Time
Kershaw, Ian: PERSONALITY AND POWER: Builders and Destroyers of Modern Europe, Penguin Press, New York, 2022
Kissinger, Henry, SIX STUDIES IN WORLD STRATEGY, 2022