Jacob Abbott was a prominent American writer in the nineteenth century. Abbott was a very prolific author of books for children as well as detailed histories and biographies on some of the world's most famous figures and events. Abbott's best known biographies are on Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Cleopatra, and Julius Caesar. Abbott's book on Alexander the Great, published in 1848, is part of his Makers of History series. The book provides great insight into his life as it presents little known facts of one of history's most famous people.

There are certain names which are familiar, as names, to all mankind; and every person who seeks for any degree of mental cultivation, feels desirous of informing himself of the leading outlines of their history, that he may know, in brief, what it was in their characters or their doings which has given them so widely-extended a fame. Consequently, great historical names alone are selected; and it has been the writer's aim to present the prominent and leading traits in their characters, and all the important events in their lives, in a bold and free manner, and yet in the plain and simple...