Editing Great man theory (section)

{{redirect|Great Man}}
{{short description|Theory that history is shaped primarily by extraordinary individuals}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{use British English|date=August 2020}}

[[File:Jacques-Louis David - The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Napoleon]], a typical great man, said to have created the [[Napoleonic era|"Napoleonic" era]] through his military and political genius]]
The '''great man theory''' is an approach to the study of [[history]] popularised in the 19th century according to which history can be largely explained by the impact of ''great men'', or [[hero]]es: highly influential and unique individuals who, due to their natural attributes, such as superior intellect, heroic courage, extraordinary leadership abilities, or divine inspiration, have a decisive historical effect. The [[theory]] is primarily attributed to the Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher [[Thomas Carlyle]], who gave a series of lectures on [[heroism]] in 1840, later published as ''[[On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History]]'', in which he states:

{{Blockquote|text=Universal History, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here. They were the leaders of men, these great ones; the modellers, patterns, and in a wide sense creators, of whatsoever the general mass of men contrived to do or to attain; all things that we see standing accomplished in the world are properly the outer material result, the practical realisation and embodiment, of Thoughts that dwelt in the Great Men sent into the world: the soul of the whole world's history, it may justly be considered, were the history of these.<ref>{{cite book|last=Carlyle|first=Thomas|author-link=Thomas Carlyle|date=1841|title=On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History: Six Lectures|publisher=James Fraser|location=London|chapter=Lecture I: The Hero as Divinity. Odin. Paganism: Scandinavian Mythology.|pages=1–2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HJwQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1}}</ref>}}This theory is usually contrasted with "[[history from below]]", which emphasizes the life of the masses creating overwhelming waves of smaller events which carry leaders along with them. Another contrasting school is [[historical materialism]].