In the history of civilization almost no one matters. The vast majority of people are forgotten after their relatives die, and few of those remembered longer get more than a sentence or two in our history books—but figures like Alexander, Caesar, and Jesus will be remembered for as long as a continuous human civilization exists. There are maybe a few hundred such historical figures.

These people can be split into three groups:

  1. Those who were truly significant. Without them the course of history would have gone an entirely different way. Muhammad or Gengis Khan are examples of this type.
  2. Those who achieved something singular, but were a product of their times. If they didn't accomplish what they did, someone else would have, sooner, rather than later. Charles Darwin is an example of this type.
  3. Those whose achievements were notable, but who were playing a role that many others could have played. Magellan is an example of this type.

I call these groups of people pivotal figures, exemplary figures, and notable figures respectably. Some of these latter lives could also be called unlucky lives. In different times or under different circumstances such people could have been pivotal figures. These cases, and the parallel cases of the potentially pivotal events that passed by without meeting the right man, are particularly interesting to me because of what they can tell us about what might have been in the past and what could be in the future.

Below I list the pivotal, exemplary, and unlucky figures that I'm familiar with. I have left out the notable figures, both because there are too many of them to make a list of reasonable size and also because the milieus in which they arise are better studied through social history than biography.

Pivotal Lives

Exemplarly Lives

Unlucky Lives