issue10[Jet小组]第十次作业

ellefrancaiUID: 2449693

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: 516          TIME: 00:45:00          DATE: 2008-3-7 17:32:23

The assertion presented above tend to think that historians have place too much emphasis on individuals while 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 and whom we usually call as the mass. I am partly agree with the point of the assertion since no historical events could be done by ''the famous few'' but by joint-efforts of the mass, however, the initial spark or first push for these trends was always made by key individuals.

Looking back to history as well as concerning political movements, we can see the role of those key individuals plays during the whole movement clearly. For example, the French Revolution, the significant revolution which changed the direction of development of France as well as influenced other countries by all means, is widely considered to be made by French people, especially Parisians. However, tracing the cause of the revolution, ''the famous few'' cannot be eliminated who are the representatives of the Enlightenment, such as Rousseau, who wrote the masterpiece called ''The Social Contract'' revealing the relationship of the society and claiming the rights of civilians; Montesquieu, who created a kind of new pattern of rights schism. Just as the name of Enlightenment, they became the key individuals who lightened people's mind and made the significant event possible.

Moreover, it is not isolated phenomenon in the field of politics but also appears in science. To take the distinct experiences of two famous scientist: Marconi and Popov as examples, they discovered the wireless communication almost at the same time although they lived in different nations which are Italy and Russia. However, Marconi organized a team of himself which aimed to commercialize his invention and finally founded his own company in U.S.A while Popov made no further utilize of his. As a result, Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to human society while Popov was not. In this case, it is no doubt that Marconi had much better development in his career as well as better enhanced the convenience of people's life because of his team whose identities had long been forgotten.

Furthermore, not only the Great Wall of China but also the Taj Mahal of India were able to exist because of the sudden ideas occurred to the emperors at the time. It is greatly possible that such magnificent creations would not be on the earth if only these emperors were not existed. Admittedly, it is the mass who brought the ideas into fruition, but it is also because of ''the famous few'' rallied the mass to do so.

To sum up, those things would never happen if only exist the mass but key individuals sparked those social movements as well as scientific development or ''the famous few'' was once hit by the ideas of building some grant creations. Thus, the study of history should still place much emphasis on those key individuals for they have much more value for study while the efforts made by the mass also are concerned.