Issue48 第3篇让砖头来得更猛烈些吧！
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作者：寄托家园作文版普通用户 共用时间：44分37秒 516 words
从2008年1月14日16时27分到2008年1月14日17时44分
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The study of history places too much emphasis on individuals. The most significant events and trends in history were made possible not by the famous few, but by groups of people whose identities have long been forgotten.
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The speaker claims that significant events and trends in historu are made possible by a group of people or all the social beings, not by famous individuals; and that historians should place emphasis on the former instead of the latter. As far as I am concerned , both great individual and social beings are basic elements of history study, only have get a balance between the two, can we get a comprehensive understanding of history, as discussed below.
The implicit rationale of emphasis on individuals is reasonable, whether in documenting history by historians or studying history by today's students, because they are representative of a particular time period, a school of study and a great invention. Consider Julius Caesar or the shoot in Lexington which would easily bring you back to ancient Roman times or Independent War. Consider Voltaire or Leonardo De Vinci who would inspire the Enlightenment or Renaissance. Consider James Watt's stream engine and Von Neumann’s theory on computer which lead to the emergence of a new stage-- the Industrial Revolution or Information Era.
Admittedly, these prominent names are always connected with signifacant historical events and trend and symbols of a tarnishing time, however, we should not overstate their role in creating history such as inciting reforms, introducing great thoughts or enlightening scientific sparks. My first contention with the speaker involves the motivation of historians who doing so. Some people would like compare historians, who reconstruct our thoughts about the past and draw certain lessons from history without their experience or firsthand materials, to storytellers. Their main task is documenting history according to the will of kings, nobles and elicits who always want to be a thoughtful, ambitious and preponderate person in the follow's memories. Furthermore, to make his writings interesting and far-reaching, historians must involve something legend, inspirited and appealing .Compared with the normal person, these heroes and giants are best exemplified to attract follow's intention, foment their inspiration and stimulate to move further, these feathers performs more obviously in historical epic . Just take a look at , Helen and Troy is the most convincing one.
Though such heroes become the main role in history book, we must be thinking critically, no matter how convincing or factual its author asserts, to query to what extent do the prominent change the world by them. Take the minuteman who fight against the British army in frontiers into consideration, without such countless and brave fighters, can Jefferson sign the Declaration of Independence? Similarly, without other social reformers' support or public’s fight, can Martin Luther King’s dream of eliminating racial discrimination come to fruition? Only these who embody public’s will can become real heroes in history, and thanks to the public the blueprint of the prominent can come true.
To sum up, as Oscar Wilde says, “Anyone can make history; only great man can write it”, we should have a in-deep and figurative understanding in history. Historical heroes and the public are not two sides of a coin, but a unifying one. Only understanding this, can we really get a full and comprehensive understanding to history.