Ling Ma

Fernão Mendes Pinto

Fernão Mendes Pinto

(c. 1510 - 1583)

Frank Norris

(1870 - 1902)

Northcote W. Thomas

(1868 - 1936)

Luca Pacioli

(1447 - 1517)

Colorized engraving of Voltaire wearing a wig.

Voltaire

(1694 - 1778)

Dudley North

(1641 - 1691)

French poet and author Christine de Pisan.

Christine de Pisan

(1364 - c. 1430)

John Masefield

(1878 - 1967)

Maria Edgeworth

(1767 - 1849)

Jorge Amado (AF archive/Alamy Stock Photo)

Jorge Amado

(1912 - 2001)

Iris Origo

(1902 - 1988)

Photo of stone Aristotle statue face

Aristotle

(384 BC - 322 BC)

Qianlong

(1711 - 1799)

Curly Chief

(c. 1827 - c. 1897)

Mary Prince

(1788 - c. 1833)

Krishnadevaraya

Scott Rettberg

Spanish soldier and author Bernal Díaz del Castillo.

Bernal Díaz del Castillo

(c. 1495 - 1584)

Amitav Ghosh

Engraving of Pliny the Elder.

Pliny the Elder

(23 - 79)

Robert F. Kennedy

(1925 - 1968)

Rebecca West

(1892 - 1983)

Adam Fortunate Eagle

Paul Le Jeune

(1591 - 1664)

German socialist philosopher Friedrich Engels.

Friedrich Engels

(1820 - 1895)

Suzy Hansen. Photograph by Kathy Ryan

Suzy Hansen

Abdulrazak Gurnah

Fernand Braudel

(1902 - 1985)

Color painting early Chinese philosopher Mengzi.

Mencius

(c. 371 BC - c. 289 BC)

Ma Duanlin

(c. 1254 - c. 1323)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

(1882 - 1945)

Juvenal

(c. 60 - c. 130)

Laleh Khalili

Laleh Khalili

American historian Francis Parkman.

Francis Parkman

(1823 - 1893)

Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, and writer Marcus Tullius Cicero.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

(106 BC - 43 BC)

Portrait of third president of the United States Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson

(1743 - 1826)

Joshuah Bearman

William Elford

(1749 - 1837)

Beatrice Webb

(1858 - 1943)

Nachman of Bratslav

(1772 - 1810)

Ferdinand de Lesseps

(1805 - 1894)

David Ricardo

(1772 - 1823)

Engraving of William Shakespeare from the first folio edition.

William Shakespeare

(1564 - 1616)

Black and white photograph of English writer and traveler Gertrude Bell.

Gertrude Bell

(1868 - 1926)

David Mitchell

Hilary Mantel

(1952 - 2022)

Marcel Mauss

(1872 - 1950)

Abu al-Fadl Jafar ibn Ali al-Dimashqi

Black and white photograph of Polish-born English writer Joseph Conrad.

Joseph Conrad

(1857 - 1924)

Ayn Rand (Everett Collection Inc./Alamy Stock Photo)

Ayn Rand

(1905 - 1982)

Antoniotto Usodimare

(1416 - 1461)

Painting of François Rabelais.

François Rabelais

(1494 - 1553)

Fukuzawa Yukichi

(1835 - 1901)

Joseph Penso de la Vega

(c. 1650 - 1692)

Eduardo Galeano

(1940 - 2015)

Herbert Asbury

(1889 - 1963)

Salman Rushdie

Engraving of Scottish economist Adam Smith.

Adam Smith

(1723 - 1790)

Elizabeth Warren

Photograph of German literary critic Walter Benjamin.

Walter Benjamin

(1892 - 1940)

Amin Maalouf. © Claude Truong-Ngoc / Wikimedia Commons

Amin Maalouf

Color photograph of author David Graeber wearing a t-shirt.

David Graeber

(1961 - 2020)

Paul Strohm. Photograph © Nigel Whitmey

Paul Strohm

French author Émile Zola.

Émile Zola

(1840 - 1902)

Lucy Sante

Photograph of German sociologist and political economist Max Weber.

Max Weber

(1864 - 1920)

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

(1860 - 1935)

English essayist, poet, and dramatist Joseph Addison.

Joseph Addison

(1672 - 1719)

Lewis Lapham at his desk

Lewis H. Lapham

Glückel of Hameln

(c. 1646 - 1724)

Alexander Hamilton

(1755 - 1804)

Richard A. Radford

(1919 - 2006)

Jane Jacobs

(1916 - 2006)

June Nash

Ukrainian-born Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol.

Nikolai Gogol

(1809 - 1852)