issue48 超越自我小组作业

hermituforestUID: 2354296

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: 700          TIME: 01:59:30          DATE: 2008-8-24 15:07:15

In our history books, the most shining men are always those famous few such as George Washington, Leonardo da Vinci or Isaac Newton. When people thought about the typical historical movement, their names are floated before their eyes. Whether the history is made by them? Not actually. If there are no support by armies and masses, Washington can do nothing; if only Da Vinci himself drawing in Renaissance, he would be punished by rulers rather than respected by people; if there are no exploration by Newton's elder generation, his three laws cannot be detected. As I said above, does that mean the history treat unequally to the people whose identities have long been forgotten? Dose that means the study of history places too much emphasis on individuals? I suppose not.

Let us see this through a tiny example happened just now. Fernando Alonso, Formula One two times world champion with a lot fans around him, leaves his team Renault after his success. One year later, he came back but the success did not come back with him although his driving ability did not lose but rather improved. The reason is workers who worked with Alonso a year before leaved Renault with Alonso and did not come back with him. Without people whose identities have long been forgotten, Alonso cannot even gain a top three once in a year with his strong driving ability. It seams the masses instead of the famous few who made the significant events and the success who should listed on the history books and respected by people rather than the famous few.

However, is it possible to remember all the names of people should not be forgotten? No. Even Alonso cannot remember all his engineers’ names because the whole team is too large. How fans could? It is impossible that the study of history places all their emphasis on the masses instead of famous few because three reasons. First, the number of the masses is too large to study; second, their identities are nearly lost in the history; third, if their stories are detected by historians with great efforts, how many people would be interested in them and have lessons and experiences through them as they are only the same common stories? If the study of the masses is hard and useless, why should historians do that?

Moreover, we just saw the famous few needs the masses above but ignored the whether the masses need the famous few. Also take the Renault engineers for example, who made the champion car for Alonso. Whether they made a champion car for another driver and help him to win the world championship when they leave Renault? Of course not. They left Renault, changing a team, retired, or doing another job because they have no confidence with the team without Alonso. They are impossible to make another champion history together as they are individuals instead of a group without the famous few to lead them.

Further, if Alonso keeps continuous working in Renault for some years, whether he could regain his championship? I can give you a pretty sure answer, yes. Let us see the statistics, in the beginning of the year, Alonso can only gain the eighth or less; in the middle of the year, he could gain top six and at the end of the year, he was fighting for the top three. Although he is still impossible to gain this goal, but he is progressing with his team every step of the way. What is that mean? All famous few are the leaders or the most eminent one. They can succeed with a lot of people to help him if they made enough efforts. Their work cannot be replaced because of their talents which were gained by exceptional efforts in their youth. On the contrary, the masses, although important works they did, their works are so common that there are many people can replace them. So, without masses, famous few are just helpless in a few time; without famous, masses are powerless forever.

Through what I said above, we may find although famous few could not make history alone, study should places most of emphasis on them.