In "Famous Men of Modern Times," author John Haaren introduces the birth of the modern era. Readers will meet the men responsible for shaping our recent foundations-such as Lorenzo de Medici, Christopher Columbus, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Napoleon, Gladstone, and George Washington. Haaren, who also wrote Famous Men of Greece, Famous Men of Rome, and Famous Men of the Middle Ages, was an American educator and historian. Haaren's father was German and his mother Irish. He studied under Professor N. M. Butler at Columbia University before becoming a teacher in New York. In 1907 he became Associate Superintendent of Schools in New York, where he increased the number and efficiency of kindergartens and started classes to teach English to immigrants. He was president of the department of pedagogy in the Brooklyn Institute. Haaren High School which was located in Manhattan was named in his honor.