This innovative text explores the extraordinary personal and political lives of ten leaders who profoundly changed twentieth-century Asian history. China, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia are interpreted through the lives of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Mohandas Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Ho Chi Minh, Ngo Dinh Diem, Norodom Sihanouk, Pol Pot, Sukarno, and Suharto. Using a biographical approach, this book will stimulate students to think about the relationship between political leadership and nationalism.