issue48 【7\8\9\10】第二次作业

zoubinUID: 2501151

TOPIC: ISSUE48 - "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."

Materialist claims that people are the creator of history and the real force to put history forward. Therefore, without doubt, common people determine the directions and ways of history in progress. While, at the same time, I consider that some giants also played a crucial part in the occurrence of vital historical events and trends. But with regard to speaker’s another assertion that we overemphasize the importance of great individuals in the study of history, I don’t agree. In my view, first, it’s impossible to study so many nameless common people in history and the experience of celebrities can mirror the most significant events and trends in history; secondly, it’s very necessary also a good way for us to learn history by the experience of those shining individuals.

Confessedly, those giants whose names would be perpetually recorded in history indeed accomplished many important achievements for human beings and society. In lots of cases, they promoted or restrained historical trends, which, although, were driven by people’s force. In the Second World War, the US II Corps encountered a complete defeat against German armies which were led by a famous General—Rommel in North African Battle. To reverse this situation, Eisenhower nominated George Smith Patton as the commander of the US II Corps. His tough training and strict management had a rapid effect, the US II Corps along with the British 1st Army pushed Germans and Italians out of North Africa, which largely caused the final defeat of Nazi. Everyone knows that the common soldiers fought in the front, but no one can trivialize the significance of commanders like Patton.

However, we have to realize that those eminent people just followed the historical trends and promoted the development or occurrence of historical events, only multitude can determine history. In the previous example of Patton, the brutality and hegemony of fascists make people in other countries burst into rage; they all stood up, took arms and fought with invaders from German, Italy and Japan. It’s undoubted that justice shall beat injustice. Patton occurred in the suitable position and in the proper time and accelerated this trend of eliminating fascism. If there was no George Patton, a new George Washington would come. On the contrary, although with a cruel policy, German General Rommel was also an excellent military commander, which no one can deny. But he was a complete loser, even ended his life with a suicide forced by his leader—Hitler. Why with the same military excellence like Patton, Rommel would never be memorized by later people like Patton? Because one helped people to create history while the other prohibited. So I can definitely conclude that the masses control the steering wheel when driving “history”.

Besides, the speaker claims that we pay more excessive attention to preeminent individuals, which, in my perspective, is too slapdash. Although I admit the speaker’s assertion that common people determine history, as you can see, if you want to study history through the experience of those common people, I really can’t image how you can do this. For example, as a military expert, in order to know more about World War II, would you collect detailed information about every soldier? Obviously, you must mainly focus on famous generals like Patton and Montgomery or famed battles like Normandy Battle and Pacific War. Moreover, just as you know, the youth also have idols who are always great persons. So if we let them know about details of giants, which are very beneficial to their grown, when they are adults, they may gain enough nutrition from these exciting details to achieve great breakthroughs like their idols. For instance, Patton’s father was an acquaintance of John Mosby, who was a cavalry hero of the Confederate Army in the US Civil War. The youth Patton grew up hearing Mosby’s military stories and made up his mind to become a general and hero on his own right, finally, as we all know, he did.

In final analysis, former history has shown that no singles, no matter how competent they are, can decide where the boat of history will sail for, because there is only one capital—common people. Certainly, just as discussed above, we can never ignore the gigantic contributions the great person made. But in the study of history, we should settle the experience of giants in the first place, from which we learn history and acquire knowledge, desire and determination to achieve our goals.


[ 本帖最后由 zoubin 于 2008-7-23 15:28 编辑 ]

general727UID: 2494818

好像北美的范文啊，笔者是学历史的吗？好厉害！