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chillybright
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发表于 2009-3-30 11:41:33 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

本帖最后由 chillybright 于 2009-3-31 13:00 编辑

48"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."

The speaker asserts that the study of history places too much emphasis on individuals, and 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. Although the claim makes sense to some extent, the issue is so controversial that only through close scrutiny can we reveal its essence.

First of all, every tremendous change in mankind history has witnessed the rise of prominent individuals. Two appropriate illustrations will be ingenious scientists who represent the milestones in specific fields and the ambitious politicians who conducted social, political, or economical reform. The long standing figures in the history of physics are Aristotle, who initiated the concept of physics, Newton, who quantified the numerous variables and explained the mechanism of our world for nearly five centuries in his profound work "The Mathematical Principle of Natural Philosophy" until Albert Einstein developed the "Relative Theory" using "thought experiments". Hardly can a college student major in economics avoid the names of Adam Smith, who established the "Wealth of nation" and was recognized as the "father of modern economics", Keynes, whose theory rescued the United State from "the Big Depression" seven decades ago, and John Nash, the Nobel laureate who bring game theory into modern economics. Our perspective to the world would not have been open and wide if there were no these geniuses.

Aggressive politicians, good or evil, played vital roles in the revolution of human society. One can hardly imagine the Liberal War with the absence of George Washington and the Civil War without Lincoln. But we hope if there were no Adolf Hitler and the sequence of World War II, the holocaust of Jewish people, and the lasting sorrowful memories. Mao conducted the Giant Leap Forward and Culture Revolution in the 1970s in China, which led staggering change in the belief and behavior of Chinese people. But two decades later, Deng directed the Reform and Open Policy, which largely contributed to the "China Miracle" in the following thirty years. The stroke left by the prominent individuals marked the process of history.

Secondly, common people as group may be as influential as the giant figures. "The War and Peace" has demonstrated that the French Revolution, and probably any revolution in the past, was determined by millions of citizens instead of the commanders or generals. An ancient Chinese emperor in Tang period had a thought-provoking saying, "People is like river and emperor boat. The river can carry the boat or capsized it". The implication of the quotation is that people are the mainstream of the history and officials, although more powerful than them, are also regulated and restricted by them. Without the fresh and blood of brave-hearted soldiers, Washington and Lincoln can hardly achieve victory. Without the supports of peasants and workers, neither Mao nor Deng could fulfill his ambition. Newton once said he succeed for standing on the giant’s shoulders. The giants are no one else but those scientists who devoted their lives to the scientific research. Many of them may end up with no achievements, but they provided meaningful lessons for the followers.

To sum up, every people in the history is an indispensible ceramic tile that constitutes the glorious mosaic of history. And the historical study should focus on both of them in order to develop macro and micro scope of human society.