Attention megalomaniacs! What theory popularized in the 1840s by Thomas Carlyle states that history can be explained by the impact of just a few?
Great man theory Great man theory The great man theory is a 19th-century idea according to which history can be largely explained by the impact of great men, or heroes; highly influential individuals who, due to either their personal charisma, intelligence, wisdom, or political skill used their power in a way that had a decisive historical impact. The theory was popularized in the 1840s by Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle, but in 1860 Herbert Spencer formulated a counter-argument that has remained influential throughout the 20th century to the present: Spencer said that such great men are the products of their societies, and that their
Thomas Carlyle and His Works Thomas Carlyle and His Works Thomas Carlyle and His Works is an essay written by Henry David Thoreau that praises the writings of Thomas Carlyle. The essay demonstrates a few themes that show up elsewhere in Thoreau's writings. First of these is Thoreau's eagerness to find a hero. Carlyle wrote the book "On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History", which Thoreau considered his crowning achievement. While Thoreau as a young man was still looking for a hero to model himself after, he knew that ultimately he would have to cast models aside. He felt that the problem with religion