What drives a fifteenth-century French teenager to wage war against the English army? Why does a novice U.S. president take on the institution of slavery? And how does a Swiss Patent Office worker discover that e=mc2? Joan of Arc, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, and other extraordinary leaders and revolutionaries are generally revered for what they did while at the top of their game. In Before They Changed the World, historian and prolific author Edwin Kiester Jr. explores the lives of 22 of history's most authoritative figures and reveals key, and often unknown, events that affected their core beliefs, changed their lives, shaped their paths to greatness, and changed the world. Includes timelines highlighting key points in the lives of each figure.