I currently live in Somaliland, and want to be part of building my country. I want to know about books written about the history of great nations, and the leaders that built them. Books that will not only inspire but teach me a thing or two. Thanks in advance guys.
"The Invention of Tradition" by Eric Hobsbawm is exactly what you're looking for.
From Third World to First: The Singapore Story.
Lee Kuan-yew recounts how he took a malarial swamp with no natural resources, inhabited by illiterate fisherman and dockworkers, divided along ethnic and religious lines, & poor as most African nations, and turned it into a prosperous city-state with a GDP per capita higher than most Western nations in just one generation.
Why Nation Fail : by Daren Acemoglu. The book give a glimpse of history how a nation failed or success.
A few other possibilities:
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities - about ways in which the nation is created by people communicating and sharing ideas.
Liah Greenfeld, Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity - Five case studies of ways nationalism forms.
Ali Mazrui and Michael Tidy, Nationalism and New States in Africa - a history of nationalism in Africa with a point.
Also, you may be particularly interested in democratization, in which case I recommend: