The Stories in this volume - all true - spotlight historical events and characterize the men and women who have made outstanding contributions to history, science, invention, literature, religion, or humanity itself. Most are Americans, but other nations are represented too. The editors have aimed at making young Americans prouder of their country for knowing more about it, but aware, too, that other nations are equally proud of their heroes and that the greatest of all heroes and that the greatest of all heroes have risen above nationalism for the benefit of people everywhere. The book begins with some of our earliest "Explorers and Pathfinders" daring adventurers from the old world who suffered incredible hardships to discover a new one: the Vikings, Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, and many others. Next are the men and women who settled the continent we now call North America and those who helped to make it a "Sweet Land of Liberty." This section takes our readers from the landing of the Pilgrims on American soil all the way up to the present era. Lives of Kindness and Courage, is devoted to humanitarians who have benefited all mankind. They range from that early brother to all the world, St. Francis of Assisi, to the man of peace, medicine, and music, deemed by many also to be a saint, Albert Schweitzer. Great Names from Foreign Lands, includes a sampling of heroes and heroines from Europe, Asia, and South America: Joan of Arc, Simon Bolivar, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Sun Yat-Sen, Mohandas Gandhi, Winston Churchill. Under "Dreamers and Doers in Science and Invention, we find a variety of scientists who have made our lives richer and happier. These come up through the ages from Gutenberg, the inventor of printing, to Einstein who ushered in the Atomic Age. Finally we tell the stories of a few whose lives we believe would interest children: Charles Dickens, Hans Christian Anderson, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson. There are many more. Shipped the next day 10/29/24