One of history's most improbable and inspiring stories began with heavenly voices and visions. They were heard and seen by a young, illiterate French shepherdess. What they repeatedly and ever more insistently told her was mind-boggling: She must raise an army, liberate the city of Orléans, install a rightful French king, and drive the English from France.

She heeded what she believed to be divine orders, and during a single year—1429—she

Few people know that Mark Twain wrote a major work on Joan of Arc. Still fewer know that he considered it not only his most important but also his best work. Twain spent twelve years in research and many months in France doing archival work and then made several attempts until he felt he finally had the story he wanted to tell. He reached his conclusion about Joan's unique place in history only after studying in detail accounts written by both

We love to root for the underdog, and when it comes to underdogs, few are more impressive than the world's great revolutionaries.After all, it's pretty hard to find a more powerful opponent than the world's biggest empires and emperors. And that's part of why we're drawn to the stories of revolutionaries. Many of these men and women were born into virtual dystopias, and they fought throughout their lives, against all odds, to forge a path to a