Have you ever wondered, as you listen to the vice-chancellor's graduation Address, what makes a great leader? Have your thoughts ever turned to what makes successful government as you sit in a departmental meeting? Or perhaps you've speculated on why revolutions happen?

You are not the only one. Throughout history, people have been wondering much the same things, and sometimes they have found answers.

Or at least they thought they had. More often than not someone has come along later with a totally different answer - one that draws parallels between the leadership qualities of Tony Blair and Bismarck, say, or that predicts the fall of the American Empire, or that suggests that wars are won by having more people willing to risk death.

These approaches are offered by some of the 20 leading thinkers from the UK and US who have contributed essays to Big Questions in History .

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Among the contributors are Ian Kershaw, the best-selling biographer of Hitler, who explores how personality may affect politics; Lisa Jardine, biographer of Robert Hooke, Erasmus and Christopher Wren, who talks about the relationship between technology and social change; and Lord Renfrew, the eminent archaeologist, who discusses how civilisations develop.

They have not been given a platform all to themselves. Journalists have written accompanying articles detailing how others have answered these questions.

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The aim is to show the continuities and myriad ways in which we view the past and to raise questions about the nature of history itself.

Big Questions in History , edited by Harriet Swain, is published on June 23 by The Times Higher and Jonathan Cape, ?15.99. It is available from