A "psychohistory" that aims to bring famous figures to life. It presents America's struggles with foreign foes and contains portraits of such remarkable figures as Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who six years after his victory at Alamo conducted a huge funeral in Mexico City to honour his amputated leg. Another figure is Kaiser Wilhelm II , who never danced with women but would waltz with his officers at formal dinners - and Fidel Castro, who as a young guerilla leader, impressed American visitors with his knowledge of baseball trivia. Other characters are George III, Yusuf Karamanli of the "Barbary pirates", Emilio Aguinaldo of the Philippines, Lenin, Hitler, Tojo, Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung, Ho Chi Minh and Saddam Hussein. This book attempts to shed new light on the events that led these men to take up arms against the United States and their sometimes bizarre personalities. It also describes how the American character has been formed and deformed by its confrontations with enemies abroad.