This book demonstrates that reading, through its influence on the lives of individuals, has the power to shape human history. The nine readers profiled here-- Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Booker T. Washington, Pearl S. Buck, Louis L'Amour, and Nelson Mandela --are presented in chronological order according to birth. Respective chapters contain brief biographies and discuss the ways in which each person used books as a principal aid in the development of his or her exceptional talents.