The Magnificent Losers
History's Greatest Unsuccessful Reformers, Revolutionaries and Fighters for Freedom and Justice
The Magnificent Losers is the story of history's greatest unsuccessful reformers, revolutionaries and fighters for freedom and justice. The twenty plus heroes and heroines of the book range in time from the Roman Republic to the Twentieth century. The book sweeps from the steppes of Russia to the streets of Boston, from Paris to the Philippines for the battles for freedom and justice were not limited to one era or country. While these leaders did not achieve their goals in their lifetimes, perhaps they did not lose after all. For the ideas they fought for survived them and often became reality later. The land reform of Tiberius Gracchus has been copied in countries across the world for the next 2000 years. The English hedge priest John Ball argued for the essential equality of man, a heretical position in 1381 that has been an accepted idea today. The Persian reformer Mazdak formulated communism over a thousand years before Karl Marx. Elizabeth Cady Stanton argued for women's equality in the 19th century, but it would take years after her death before her beliefs began to be practically implemented. Other leaders fought for independence for their nations without success, but today their countries stand free. The Magnificent Losers tells the too little retold stories of great leaders, well known and obscure, who helped left behind not immediate victory, but immortal legend.
