Heroes of History: A Brief History of Civilization from Ancient Times to the Dawn of the Modern Age is a book by Will Durant, published in 2001 and was written as a summary of Will and Ariel Durant's The Story of Civilization. It describes important personalities and events in History. These 'Heroes' include Laozi, Muhammad, Kung fu Tze, The Buddha, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Akhenaton, Jewish prophets, Solon, Pericles, Euripides, Socrates, Julius Caesar, Augustus, The Five Good Emperors, Jesus Christ, Lorenzo de Medici, Leonardo da Vinci, Martin Luther, William Shakespeare and Sir Francis Bacon, among others. Originally planned as a series of audio lectures, Heroes of History was supposed to have twenty-three chapters, but Durant completed only twenty one before his death in 1981.