Great man theory

The Great man theory is a held by some that aims to  by the impact of "Great men", or es: highly influential individuals, either from personal,  intellects, or great political impact.

For example, a scholarly follower of the Great Man theory would be likely to study the by focusing on the big personalities of the conflict &mdash;, , , , , , etc. &mdash; and view all of the historical events as being tied directly to their own individual decisions and orders.

Proponents of the theory
It is often linked to 19th century commentator and historian, who commented that "The history of the world is but the biography of great men." This theory is usually contrasted with a theory that talks about events occurring in the fullness of time, or when an overwhelming wave of smaller events cause certain developments to occur. The Great Man approach to history was most popular with professional historians in the 19th century; a popular work of this school is the  (1911) which contains lengthy and detailed biographies about the great men of history, but very few general or social histories. For example, to read about the "", one would consult the biography of. This heroic view of history was also strongly endorsed by some philosophical figures such as, , and , but it fell out of favor after.

Criticisms of the theory
The editors of the influential 18th century French encyclopedia  were ideologically opposed to biographies because they believed too much ink had already been spilled on  of church fathers and deeds of kings, and not enough about the average person or life in general. To this end Encyclopedie had almost no biography articles. However, this policy was contentious among the and so some biographies were "hidden" inside articles; for example, the article on, England is almost entirely about the life of.

An opponent of the great man theory in its own time was, who devoted the entire non-fictional beginning of the third volume of  to critiquing it, using the as an example.

Today the great man theory is out of favor as a singular explanation for why things happen. Historians look at other factors such as, , , and which are just as or more significant to historical change. Many historians believe that a history which only follows around single persons, especially when their significance is determined primarily by political status, is a shallow view of the past, and that sometimes such a view excludes entire groups of people from being parts of the study of history. A broader view is provided by a approach.

This critique has spread to other fields such as, in which  argues that societies play roles in creating works of art, not just authors.

' and ' offer critiques of the great man theory.