Behind every historic figure is a man in the shadows or a woman of influence.

But these “influencers of history” prefer backstage to the scene.

Delphine Gaston’s book portrays 75 hidden characters who carried weight on the course of history in their own way: Julius Caesar’s advisor, Charlemagne’s architect, the surgeon of St. Louis, the barber of Louis XI, the chocolatier of Marie Antoinette, the dentists of Napoleon III and Clémenceau, the wigmaker of Louis XIV….