48 The study of history has put too much emphasis on individual. 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.
So used are we to paying attention to those famous who are thought to be de conductor of historical events and trend,
while the facts might be totally different: it's those groups of people who have been forgotten that determine.
Admittedly, individuals could change the society and states sharply. Some possess the authority or even privilege to achieve their goals which is much difficult for ordinary citizens, thus much emphasis would be placed on them. And some may regarded as the predecessors by whom the public are inspired and thus taking actions, also admiration is what they deserve. Great individuals such as Washington as for policy, Newton as for physics, and Shakespeare for literature, are all examples that there are reasons that the minority ought to respect those who had achieved a lot success.
However, with much emphasis paid to these famous, it is groups of people that decide the background and carry out the process of most development. Events, though call for some individual to provoke them, fail to influence the states unless there are people who are incline to cooperation or taking part in. For example, while we take it for granted that it's Martin Rooter King that promoted the movement for civil rights of Black, he could change nothing without his advocate devoted to the conflict with racial discrimination. Few do we known about the advocate who were also heroes in this movement, and even their name would be forgotten some day, we should not ignore their contribution and even sacrifice to the improvement of civil rights of non-white citizens in America.
What's more, there exists the possibility that the contemporaries fail to record the people that have made significant contributions to the evolving of the history or society, and mistake the contributions to works of certain individuals. It's a long time that Volt had been told as the inventor of steam-engine that inspired by the phenomena he has saw in his childhood, irony, his work was just enhancing the efficiency of the machine that had existed at that time whose inventor or inventors are hardly known by the later generations. Actually such phenomena also can be found in other fields such as basic science, literature, and art, where a collection of works achieved by a group of people are owed to one. Past facts is no access to us, nonetheless we should keep in mind that great individuals have been standing on the shoulders of gales.
In conclusion it's time for us to pay more attention to those groups of people even whose names are lost.
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