=七月流火=小组第2次小组作业 issue 48 by sasakikojiro

SasakiKojiroUID: 2678315

This statement astually consists of two claims: (1) the study of history places too much emphasisi on individuals. (2) 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 forgotte. I concede that this claim extends to an extreme in some respects. After all, I strongly oppose with the first assertion and concede the second assertion in few inspects.

Granted, a remarkble writer once said, ’history is a wise ’. His words subtly illustrate that it is the history that causes our scial equality and contemporary technological approaches. It is possible that there is someone who usually told to be famous and unmatched when we are enchanted with a history. Therefore, we human beings, the most intelligent creatures in the world, makes a threshold point that the study of history only belongs to those individuals who are magnificant seems logical.

However, today the great man theory is out of favor as a singualr explanation for why things happen. Historians focus more emphasis on other factors such as technology, environment, and economy which would not only bring a significant change to a history but also make it a limpid way. Therefore, for instance, the editors of the influential 18th century French Encycylopedia were ideologically opposed to biographics because they believed too much ink had already been spilled on hagiographies of church fathers and deeds of kings, and not enough about the average person or life in general. To this end, Encycylopedia had almost no biography articles. However, this policy was contentious among the encyclopedists and so some biographies were ‘hidden’ indide articles; for example, the article on Wolstrope, England is almost entirely about the life of Newton.

Actually, it is possible that the most significant events in history were made by groups of people. Therefore, for instance, it was the philosophers and painters that caused the renaissance. Several renaissance painters like Michaelangelo, Rembrandt, Rafel, Donatello and Leonardo Da Vinci depicted the hardships of common people through their paintings. Yet, as of today, only Da Vinci and Michaelangelo are world renowned. However, it is the development of the law that we have no ways but to forgot these vulgar ones, and we seem have found no approaches to remember everyone in a history but to take a example.

Most of the individuals are still mentioned in history. However, when we talked about a long history, it is impossible for us to account everyone’s effort during that time but only to pick out the most famous one.