issue48

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issue 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."

Why, you may wonder, does the study of history place too much emphasis on individuals? Because some great individuals have advanced ideas and they make some significant events and trends in history. But we also should put more attention to groups of people who also make some significant events, in fact. So we call for a balance that we should place emphasis not only on individuals but also on groups of people just like there are two sides to every icon.

On one hand, no one can deny the significant roles that great figures played in the making of history. Though the few elites only take a small numbers in the historical events, they are the only people who have further understanding of the contemporary social condition and possess the capability to lead the large scale action. Some individuals receive good education and they can use newspaper and numerous ways of media to  awaken people. For example, in science history, Newton who was educated at Trinity College made a huge impact on theoretical astronomy. He defined the laws of motion and universal gravitation which he used to predict precisely the motions of stars, and the planets around the sun.

On the other hand, many significant events are made by groups of people. Jonathan Livingstone, president and CEO of MAT, a distinguished and well-known company in Massachusetts, illustrates this brilliantly in the following quotes (and I paragraph),"some leads only suggest some ideas and in fact, the things are achieved by groups of people so we should not places too much emphasis on individuals."  For example, most of revolutionary which aimed at overthrow the old governments or obsolescent institutions, though modern people always only remember the few leaders of it, are made by a large amount of common people who may have no definite inclination on crude behaviors.

Moreover, if we emphasis too much on individuals, our society will be developed more slowly. The Culture Revolution is just because we emphasis to much on individuals and so as to effect the society's development. We must have a clear idea that we should place emphasis not only on individuals but also on groups of people just like there are two sides to every icon. Only in this way, can we help our society develop more quickly.

To sum up, due to the aforementioned reasons, which sometimes intertwine to form an organic whole and thus become more persuasive than any single of them, we may safely arrive at the conclusion that we should place emphasis not only on individuals but also on groups of people.