【Flyer杀G作文组】2月10-11日作业Issue48-yuqivickey

yuqivickeyUID: 2962925

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."
WORDS: 452

TIME: 00:45:00
DATE: 2011-2-11 10:29:08

The history, as we study from elementary school, is made up of series of events and the famous person. Yet, it can hardly draw the conclusion that it is the study of history that places too much emphasis on individual and neglect the public as a whole, but, as I believe, in terms of the historical materials that record mostly famous person, the study on individual is a proper way to delve into history and finally the whole human beings.

At the beginning, it is not hard to understand that millions of the people is ordinary without outstanding achievements through their busy life, yet they are the main body of society and history. There is an old Chinese saying and I translate it as “history is the river and people is the water inside, so they can carry the boats on it forwards, and also they can drown the boats to capsize." It was the ordinary people in Paris who fired up the Franc Revolution against the tyranny; it was also the ordinary people in England who successfully defended their country during the World War Two against the German Nazi. Fighting against thousands of people, any powerful weapon finally became useless; without the people, any famous general or leader wouldn't win any battle and gain reputation.

However, above what I discuss is the history fact, and in order to know clearly about these fact including ordinary people and personages, the study of history need to start from the famous person. Sadly but realistically, most history materials tend to record the events of the famous person and oversee the importance of people as a whole. For example, the Pyramids in ancient Egypt are for Pharaohs to show their power and gloriousness, the epic poem "Beowulf" is about the hero of English ancestors fighting against the monster, and so forth. It is the emphasis on illustrative person through human society that leads the study of history have to focus on these people. Unless the habit of admiration on outstanding people and ignorance on ordinary public exists, the way to study history or even history itself will hardly really turn to our human beings as a whole.

Furthermore, as every one knows that history is not made by a single person, though ordinary people is not what history stresses, the study of history through famous people at last get down the big picture of the public in history, including the society, culture, custom, economy and so forth. An old Chinese saying goes (and I paraphrase) “Behind a great person, there are thousands of people contribute to him". For example, the study of Pyramids making by many labor workers is to inspect the architecture technique, the civilized level, the mechanism of working and social system. Through the study of Beowulf keeping down by Teuton, historians can know the religious circumstance, the origin of ancient English people, the characteristic of them and a lot. Though what is left to us is limited, historians still try to make up a full image of the past including the those people whose identities have been forgotten.

In sum, though the study of history should place some emphasis on individual because of the limitation of the research condition, the fact is undeniable that the groups of people is the impetus to put history and society forwards, thus making the history full of famous person.