Madame De Stael
I just finished reading a book about this woman. She lived in and near Paris during the period around the French Revolution. More on this later, but the salient point for me is that I finally become aware of the exact circumstances of Napolean's coming to power, his impact on the world, and his demise. Spurred n large part because of economic reasons, France had a revolution overthrowing their monarch, installing a republic, there was much confusion and lawlessness for a period right after, Napoleon promised order and peace and was able to progressively take more power for himself and his family, and eventually overreached and in the end the monarchy was invited back.

I wish we had been taught history this way the first time. When I was in school the Vietnam War was the war of the day. Had it been explained that one could learn from the experience of Napolean to see how the Vietnam war proceeded in part because of a thirst for power by Lyndon Johnson, it would have made the study of history more relevant to a young rebel like myself. The big word was relevance, and in the end it was a correct idea and has become mainstream, but in those days someone like me was told that your poor grades were a result of not paying attention. It's college I'm talking about - there was too much competition for my time to spend hours on rote schoolwork. Relevance causes motivation - that's how to reform schools. Give kids a reason to learn and they will. And then maybe they'll think twice before supporting someone's ruthless grab for power just because they promise things.