At 71, Paul von Hindenburg is a famous general, but he's on the losing side of World War I. In his eighties, he's elected President of Germany. It is in that role that he appoints Adolf Hitler chancellor. Marshal Petain, 63, is a war hero. When the next war erupts he will be cast as a villain, leading France's collaborationist Vichy government. Gandhi has been driving an ambulance on the Western Front and Lenin is fighting to establish his young revolution. Franklin D. Roosevelt is Secretary of the U.S Navy, but in 1921 a promising career seems wrecked by polio. Adolf Hitler, 29, ends the war in a military hospital. Lenin dies in 1924 and out of the (semi) shadows steps a real titan - Josef Stalin, already 46 years old. These years of feast in the United States but famine in much of Europe are the backdrop against which our titans move - Churchill struggles to resume a political career; Gandhi, in India, begins the fight that will bring him fame and his people their freedom; Major Eisenhower is General Douglas MacArthur's chief of staff; and Ho Chi Minh is a waiter in Paris. And, Mussolini grabs power.
