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Historical figure

A historical figure is a significant person in history.

Jesus Christ
Adolf Hitler
Michael Jackson
Albert Einstein
Matatma Gandhi
William Shakespeare
Isaac Newton
Leonardo Da Vinci
Various notable Historical Figures

The significance of such figures in human progress has been debated. Some think they play a crucial role, while others say they have little impact on the broad currents of thought and social change. The concept is generally used in the sense that the person really existed in the past, as opposed to being legendary. However, the legends that can grow up around historical figures may be hard to distinguish from fact. Sources are often incomplete and may be inaccurate, particularly those from early periods of history. Without a body of personal documents, the more subtle aspects of personality of a historical figure can only be deduced. With historical figures who were also religious figures attempts to separate fact from belief may be controversial.

In education, presenting information as if it were being told by a historical figure may give it greater impact. Since classical times, students have been asked to put themselves in the place of a historical figure as a way of bringing history to life. Historical figures are often represented in fiction, where fact and fancy are combined. In earlier traditions, before the rise of a critical historical tradition, authors took less care to be as accurate when describing what they knew of historical figures and their actions, interpolating imaginary elements intended to serve a moral purpose to events. More recently there has been a tendency once again for authors to freely depart from the "facts" when they conflict with their creative goals.

Significance edit

The significance of historical figures has long been the subject of debate by philosophers. Hegel (1770–1831) considered that "world-historical figures" played a pivotal role in human progress, but felt that they were bound to emerge when change was needed. Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) saw the study of figures such as Muhammad, William Shakespeare and Oliver Cromwell as key to understanding history. Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), an early believer in evolution and in the universality of natural law, felt that historical individuals were of little importance.

Hegel's world-historical figure edit

 
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel introduced the concept of the "world-historical figure".

The German philosopher Hegel defined the concept of the world-historical figure, who embodied the ruthless advance of Immanuel Kant's World Spirit, often overthrowing outdated structures and ideas. To him, Napoleon was such a figure.[1] Hegel proposed that a world-historical figure essentially posed a challenge, or thesis, and this would generate an antithesis, or opposing force. Eventually a synthesis would resolve the conflict.[2] Hegel viewed Julius Caesar as a world historical figure, who appeared at a stage when Rome had grown to the point it could no longer continue as a republican city state but had to become an empire. Caesar failed in his bid to make himself an emperor, and was assassinated, but the empire came into existence soon afterward, and Caesar's name has become synonymous with "emperor" in forms such as "kaiser" or "czar".[3]

Søren Kierkegaard, in his early essay The Concept of Irony, generally agrees with Hegel's views, such as his characterization of Socrates as a world-historical figure who acted as a destructive force on Greek received views of morality.[4] In Hegel's view, Socrates broke down social harmony by questioning the meaning of concepts like "justice" and "virtue". Eventually, the Athenians condemned Socrates to death. But they could not stop the evolution of thought that Socrates had begun, which would lead to the concept of individual conscience.[5] Hegel said of world-historical figures,

It was theirs to know this nascent principle; the necessary, directly sequent step in progress, which their world was to take; to make this their aim, and to expend their energy in promoting it ... They die early like Alexander; they are murdered, like Caesar; transported to St. Helena, like Napoleon ... They are great men, because they willed and accomplished something great; not a mere fancy, a mere intention, but that which met the case and fell in with the needs of the age.[6]

However, Hegel, Thomas Carlyle and others noted that the great historical figures were just representative men, expressions of the material forces of history. Essentially they have little choice about what they do. This is in conflict with the views of George Bancroft or Ralph Waldo Emerson, who praised self-reliance and individualism, and in conflict with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who also felt that individuals can determine their destiny.[7] Engels found that Hegel's system contained an "internal and incurable contradiction", resting as it does on both dialectical relativism and idealistic absolutism.[8]

Spencerian view edit

 
Herbert Spencer, who considered events in the lives of kings "historic trivalities"

The Scottish philosopher and evolutionist Herbert Spencer, who was highly influential in the latter half of the nineteenth century, felt that historical figures were relatively unimportant. He wrote to a friend, "I ignore utterly the personal element in history, and, indeed, show little respect for history altogether as it is ordinarily conceived." He wrote, "The births, deaths, and marriages of kings, and other like historic trivialities, are committed to memory, not because of any direct benefits that can possibly result from knowing them: but because society considers them parts of a good education."[9] In his essay What Knowledge Is of Most Worth? he wrote:

That which constitutes History, properly so called, is in great part omitted from works on the subject. Only of late years have historians commenced giving us, in any considerable quantity, the truly valuable information. As in past ages the king was everything and the people nothing; So, in past histories, the doings of the king fill the entire picture, to which the national life forms but an obscure background. While only now, when the welfare of nations rather than of rulers is becoming the dominant idea, are historians beginning to occupy themselves with the phenomena of social progress. The thing it really concerns us to know is the natural history of society.[10]

Inevitability or determinism edit

Taken to an extreme, one may consider that what Hegel calls the "world spirit" and T. S. Eliot calls "those vast impersonal forces" hold us in their grip. What happens is predetermined.[11] Both Hegel and Marx advocated historical inevitability in contrast to the doctrine of contingency, allowing for alternative outcomes, that was advocated by Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault and others.[12] However, Marx argued against the use of the "historical inevitability" argument when used to explain the destruction of early communes in Russia.[13] As an orthodox Marxist, Vladimir Lenin believed in the ideas of history that Marx had developed, including the historical inevitability of capitalism followed by a transition to socialism. Despite this, Lenin also believed the transition could be effected faster by voluntary action.[14]

In 1936 Karl Popper published an influential paper on The Poverty of Historicism, published as a book in 1957, that attacked the doctrine of historical inevitability.[15] The historian Isaiah Berlin, author of Historical Inevitability, also argued forcibly against this view, going as far as to say that some choices are entirely free and cannot be predicted scientifically.[11] Berlin presented his views in a 1953 lecture at the London School of Economics, published soon afterwards. When speaking he referred to Ludwig Wittgenstein's views, but the published version speaks approvingly of Karl Popper, which caused a stir among academics.[16]

Heroic view edit

 
Thomas Carlyle, champion of study of great men

Thomas Carlyle has espoused the "heroic view" of history, famously saying in his essay on the Norse god Odin in his book On heroes, hero-worship, & the heroic in history that "No great man lives in vain. The History of the world is but the Biography of great men ... We do not now call our great men Gods, nor admire without limit; ah no, with limit enough! But if we have no great men, or do not admire at all,— that were a still worse case."[17] Carlyle's historical philosophy was based on the "Great Man theory", saying, "Universal History, the history of what man has accomplished in the world ... [is] at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here." An extreme believer in individuality, he also believed that the masses of people should let themselves be guided by the great leaders of men.[18] Talking of poets he said,

That ideal outline of himself, which a man unconsciously shadows forth in his writings, and which, if rightly deciphered, will be truer than any other representation of him, it is the task of the Biographer to fill-up into an actual coherent figure, and to bring him to our experience, or at least our clear undoubted admiration, thereby to instruct and edify us in many ways. Conducted on such principles, the Biography of great men, especially of great Poets, that is, of men in the highest degree noble-minded and wise, might become one of the most dignified and valuable species of composition.[19]

More recently, in his 1943 book The Hero in History, the pragmatist scholar Sidney Hook asserts:

That history is made by men and women is no longer denied except by some theologians and mystical metaphysicians. And even they are compelled indirectly to acknowledge this commonplace truth, for they speak of historical personages as 'instruments' of Providence, Justice, Reason, Dialectic, the Zeitgeist, or Spirit of the Times. Men agree more readily about the consequences of the use of 'instruments' in history than they do about the ultimate ends 'instruments' allegedly serve, or the first causes by which they are allegedly determined.[20]

Hook recognizes the relevance of the environment within which the "great man" or "hero" acted, but asserts that this can provide the backdrop but never the plot of the "dramas of human history". and distinguish life and species[21]

Ranking edit

 
The crucifixion of Jesus, the founder of Christianity, painted by Jacob Jordaens in the 17th century.

There have been rankings of the significance of major historical figures. For example, Cesar A. Hidalgo and colleagues at the MIT Media Lab has calculated the memorability of historical figures using data such as the number of language editions for which there are articles for each person, the pageviews received, and other factors. These lists are available at MIT's project.

Historical truth edit

It is sometimes hard to discern whether apparently historical figures from the earliest periods did in fact exist, due to the lack of records. Even with more recent personages, stories or anecdotes about the person often accumulate that have no basis in fact. Although the external aspects of a historical figure may be well documented, their inner nature can only be a subject of speculation. It can also not be only a subject of speculation as many historical figures such as Hitler explicitly articulated their thoughts and intentions. With religious figures, often the subjects of voluminous literature, separating "fact" from "belief" can be difficult if not impossible.

Ancient figures edit

With older texts it can be difficult to be sure whether a person in the text is, in fact, a historical figure. "Wisdom literature" from early middle-eastern cultures (such as the Book of Job), mainly consist of verbal expositions or discussions that must be considered the work of the author, rather than the character supposedly speaking. It may still be possible to identify a figure in such texts with a historical figure known from some other context, and the text may be taken as informative about this figure, even if not verified by an independent source.[22] On the other hand, a text may include realistic settings and references to historical people, while the central character may or may not be a historical figure.[23]

Fables edit

 
Lady Godiva was a historical figure, but there is no evidence that the legend of her riding naked through the streets is true (Lady Godiva painting, 1897 by John Collier)

Napoleon spoke of history as being a fable which had been agreed upon:– "la fable convenue qu'on appellera l'histoire".[24] Great figures of the past have stories told about them which grow in the telling, and so become myths and legends which may dominate or displace the more prosaic historical facts about them. For example, some ancient chroniclers said that the Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned, but Tacitus disputed this by saying the stories were just malicious rumours. Similarly, there is no good evidence that Marie Antoinette ever said "let them eat cake", or that Lady Godiva rode naked through the streets of Coventry.[25]

Personality edit

Thomas Carlyle pointed out that even to the person living it, every life "remains in so many points unintelligible". The historian must struggle when writing biographies, "the very facts of which, to say nothing of the purport of them, we know not, and cannot know!"[26] Some psychologists have sought to understand the personalities of historical figures through clues about the way in which they were raised. However, this theoretical psychoanalytic approach is not supported empirically. An alternative approach, favored by psychobiographers such as William Runyan, is to explain the personality of the historical figure in terms of their life history. This approach has the advantage of recognizing that personality may evolve over time in response to events.[27]

Religious figures edit

 
Three great historical figures — Confucius presenting the Buddha to Lao Tsu. They are all of such antiquity that the historical facts about them are now overlaid with centuries of myth and legend.

With historical religious figures, fact and belief may be difficult to disentangle. There are cultural differences in the treatment of historical figures. Thus the Chinese can recognise that Mencius or Confucius were historical individuals, while also endowing them with sanctity. In Hinduism, on the other hand, figures such as Krishna or Rama are seen by the followers as embodiments of gods. The Nirvana Sutra states: "Do not rely on the man but on the Dharma." A teacher such as Gautama Buddha is thus treated almost exclusively as a lesser god rather than a historical figure.[28]

E. P. Sanders, author of The Historical Figure of Jesus, called Jesus of Nazareth "one of the most important figures in human history".[29] Various writers have struggled to present "historical" views of Jesus, as opposed to views distorted by belief.[30] When writing about this subject, a historian who relies only on sources other than the New Testament may be criticized for implying that it is not a sufficient source of information about the subject.[31]

The theologian Martin Kähler is known for his work Der sogenannte historische Jesus und der geschichtliche, biblische Christus (The so-called historical Jesus, and the historic, biblical Christ). He clearly distinguished between "the Jesus of history" and "the Christ of faith".[32] Some historians openly admit bias, which may anyway be unavoidable. Paul Hollenback says he writes about the historical Jesus, "...in order to overthrow, not simply correct, the mistake called Christianity." Another historian who has written about Jesus, Frederick Gaiser, says, "historical investigation is part and parcel of biblical faith."[30]

Political appropriation edit

 
An 1843 view of a heroic Joan of Arc at the stake.

A historical figure may be interpreted to support political aims. In France in the first half of the seventeenth century, there was an outpouring of writing about Joan of Arc, including seven biographies, three plays and an epic poem. Joan had become a symbol of national pride and the Catholic faith, helping unite a country that had been divided by the recent wars of religion. The reality of the historical Joan was subordinated to the need for a symbol of feminine strength, Christian virtue and resistance to the English.[33] George Bernard Shaw, introducing his 1923 play Saint Joan, discussed representations of Joan by other authors. He felt that William Shakespeare's depiction in Henry VI, Part 1 was constrained from making her a "beautiful and romantic figure" by political considerations. Voltaire's version in his poem La Pucelle d'Orléans was also flawed by Voltaire's biases and Friedrich Schiller's play Die Jungfrau von Orleans "is not about Joan at all, and can hardly be said to pretend to be."[34]

A historical figure may be used to validate a politician's claim to authority, where the modern leader shapes and exploits the ideas associated with the historical figure, which they are presumed to have inherited.[35] Thus, Jesse Jackson has frequently evoked the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.[36] Fidel Castro often presented himself as following the path defined by José Martí.[37] Hugo Chávez of Venezuela frequently identified himself with the historical figure Simón Bolívar, the liberator of South America from Spanish rule.[38]

Georg Hegel believed in the role of the state in guaranteeing individual liberties, and his views were therefore rejected by the German Nazi Party, who considered him dangerously liberal and perhaps a proto-Marxist. On the other hand, Adolf Hitler identified himself as a Hegelian world historical figure, and justified his actions on this basis.[39]

In education edit

Plato used historical figures in his writing, but only to illustrate his points. Xenophon used Cyrus the Great in the same way. When Plato apparently quotes Socrates in The Republic, it is only to add dramatic effect to the presentation of his own thought.[40] For this reason, Plato's writings on Socrates tell us little, at least directly, about Socrates. The historical figure is used only as a device for communicating Plato's ideas.[40] In classical Rome, students of rhetoric had to master the suasoria — a form of declamation in which they wrote the soliloquy of a historical figure who was debating a critical course of action. For example, the poet Juvenal wrote a speech for the dictator Sulla, in which he was counselled to retire. The poet Ovid enjoyed this exercise more than the other final challenge — the controversia.[41]

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote an influential essay "On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life". He said "the unhistorical and historical are necessary in equal measure for the health of an individual, of a people and of a culture."[42] Nietzsche identifies three approaches to history, each with dangers. The monumental approach describes the glories of the past, often focusing on heroic figures like Elizabeth I of England, King Robert the Bruce or Louis Pasteur. By treating these figures as models, the student is tempted to consider that there can be nobody of such stature today. The antiquarian view examines the past in minute and reverent detail, turning its back on the present. The critical approach challenges traditional views, even though they may be valid.[43]

Historical figures may today be simulated as animated pedagogical agents to teach history and foreign culture. An example is Freudbot, which acted the part of Sigmund Freud for psychology students. When a variety of simulated character types were tried as educational agents, students rated historical figures as the most engaging.[44] There are gender differences in the perception of historical figures. When modern US schoolchildren were asked to roleplay or illustrate historical stereotypes, boys tended to focus upon male figures exclusively while girls showed more varied family groupings.[45]

In branding edit

Using historical figures in marketing communications and in branding is a new area of marketing research but historical figures’ names were used to promote products as early as in the Middle Ages.[46]

Historical figure brand is using famous historical person in branding, for instance Mozartkugel, Chopin (vodka) or Café Einstein.

Historical figure is a person who lived in the past and whose deeds exerted a significant impact on other people’s lives and consciousness. These figures are attributed with certain features that are a compilation of the actual values they proclaimed and the manner they were perceived by others. This perception evolves and subsequent generations read the biography of a given historical figure in their own way through their own knowledge and experience. In order to determine the popularity of the commercialisation of historical figures, a study was conducted at the beginning of 2014 on the number of trademark protection applications filed with the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland as a measure of entrepreneurs’ interest in this activity. The names of 300 most prominent Polish historical figures [47] were considered. The study showed that over 21% of the names analysed were recorded in the trademark register. 1,033 trademark protection applications were filed for 64 names out of the 300 historical figures investigated [Aldona Lipka, 2015,[48]]. The greatest number of trademark protection applications were recorded for Mieszko (295), followed by Nicolaus Copernicus (250), John III Sobieski (94) and Chopin (81).

In art and literature edit

 
William Shakespeare wrote a number of plays that dramatized the lives of historical figures, but introduced fictional characters such as Sir John Falstaff.

Realist historical fiction edit

There is a huge body of historical fiction, where the text includes both imaginary and factual elements. In early English literature, Robin Hood was a fictional character, but the historical King Richard I of England also appears.[49] William Shakespeare[a] wrote plays about people who were historical figures in his day, such as Julius Caesar. He did not present these people as pure history, but dramatised their lives as a commentary about the people and politics of his own time.[51] Napoleon figured in Victor Hugo's 1862 classic Les Misérables.[52] There are many more examples.

The compiler of a survey of historical novels in the 1920s claimed that the "appearance of reality ... is the great charm of the historical novel." He went on to assert, regarding novels about periods of which little is known, that "the danger is that the very elements which add to our interest in the tale as such will go far to mislead us in our conception of the period dealt with".[53] Traditionally the treatment of historical figures in fiction was realistic in style and respectful of fact. A historical novel would be true to the facts known about the period in which the novel is set, a biographical novel would follow the facts that are known about the protagonist's life, and a "roman à clef" would try to give an accurate interpretation of what is known about a public figure's private life. In each genre, the novelist would avoid introducing any elements that were clearly in conflict with the facts.[54]

A writer may be handicapped by his readers' preconceptions about a historical person, which may or may not be accurate, and the facts about the historical person may also conflict with the novelist's plot requirements.[55] According to the Marxist philosopher György Lukács in his 1937 book on The Historical Novel, "The 'world-historical individual' can only figure as a minor character in the [historical] novel because of the complexity and intricacy of the whole social-historical process."[56] As Jacobs observes, the "realist aesthetic" of the historical novel "assumes that a recognizable historical figure in fiction must not 'do things' its model did not do in real life; it follows that historical figures can be used only in very limited ways."[57] The author of a traditional historical novel should therefore focus more on the people who have been lost to history.[58] A novelist such as Sir Walter Scott or Leo Tolstoy (War and Peace) would describe historical events accurately. They would give rein to their imagination only in scenes that were not significant historically, when interactions with fictional characters could safely be introduced.[59]

Modern fiction edit

More recently, however, starting with works such as The Confessions of Nat Turner, and Sophie's Choice by William Styron, the novelist has felt more free to introduce much larger amounts of purely imaginary detail about historical people.[54] E. L. Doctorow illustrates this different attitude when discussing his book Ragtime: "Certain details were so delicious that I was scrupulous about getting them right. Others ... demanded to be mythologized." This reflects a changing attitude about the distinction between "fact" and "truth", expressed by Ursule Molinaro when he makes his Cassandra say, "I've come as close to the truth as facts would let me ... facts oppress the truth, which can breathe freely only in poetry & art."[60]

Other media edit

Many films have depicted historical figures. Often the way in which the films interpret these figures and their times reflects the social and cultural values of the period in which the film was made.[61] Historical figures are familiar to the general reader and so may be used in speculative fiction so that readers marvel at their appearance in novel settings or with a fresh perspective.[62] For example, the time traveler The Doctor has encountered numerous historical figures such as Marco Polo and Queen Elizabeth I in his adventures.[63] They appeared most frequently when the television series first started, as it was directed at children and the use of historical figures in historical settings was intended to be educational.[64]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ William Shakespeare was a historical figure, but as a biographer said, "Such materials as there are for Shakespeare's personal history, or for the history of anyone connected with him, have been gathered with the most loving and persevering industry. Unhappily, they amount to very little. Entries in municipal records, names in a will, a lease, or an inventory, tell hardly anything of the life or character of the man. That orange has now been squeezed dry."[50]

References edit

  1. ^ Hagen 2012, p. 125.
  2. ^ Van Doren 2008, p. 277.
  3. ^ Karatani 2011, p. 20.
  4. ^ Stewart 2007, p. 179.
  5. ^ Magee 2001, p. 192.
  6. ^ Cramer 2007, p. 272.
  7. ^ Moses 2004, p. 5.
  8. ^ Moses 2004, p. xv.
  9. ^ Carneiro 1981, p. 188.
  10. ^ Carneiro 1981, p. 188-189.
  11. ^ a b White 2004, p. 52.
  12. ^ Ben-Menahem 2011, p. chapter 9.
  13. ^ Chakrabarti 2009, p. 158.
  14. ^ Chen 2007, p. 37.
  15. ^ Agassi 2008, p. 218.
  16. ^ Agassi 2008, p. 152.
  17. ^ Carlyle 1841, p. 47.
  18. ^ Carlyle 2007, p. 9.
  19. ^ Kerry & Hill 2010, p. 138.
  20. ^ Hook 1943, p. xi.
  21. ^ Hook 1943, p. xiii.
  22. ^ Longman & Enns 2008, p. 335.
  23. ^ Longman & Enns 2008, p. 336.
  24. ^ Napoleon & Auguste-Dieudonné 1823, p. 242.
  25. ^ Andrews 2012.
  26. ^ Kerry & Hill 2010, p. 133-134.
  27. ^ Roberts 1996, p. 208.
  28. ^ Yuasa & Kasulis 1987, p. 128.
  29. ^ Powell 1998, p. 1.
  30. ^ a b Powell 1998, p. 3.
  31. ^ Habermas 1996, p. 11.
  32. ^ Powell 1998, p. 4.
  33. ^ Powers & Gale 1981, p. 1.
  34. ^ Innes 1998, p. 208.
  35. ^ Mixon 2009, p. 60.
  36. ^ Mixon 2009, p. 51.
  37. ^ Mixon 2009, p. 64.
  38. ^ Mixon 2009, p. 125.
  39. ^ Cobley 2002, p. 278.
  40. ^ a b Anton & Preus 1971, p. 162.
  41. ^ Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, p. 212.
  42. ^ Landy 2001, p. 2.
  43. ^ Landy 2001, p. 3.
  44. ^ Veletsianos 2010, p. 16.
  45. ^ Fournier & Wineburg 1997, p. 160-185.
  46. ^ Madow M., Private Ownership of Public Image: Popular Culture and Publicity Rights, vol. 81, California Law Review 125, 1993, p. 152.
  47. ^ Grygiel A.(ed.), Encyklopedia sławnych Polaków, Publicat S.A., Poznań 2007.
  48. ^ Lipka Aldona, Ograniczona racjonalność i heurystyki w zachowaniach nabywców [w:] G. Wolska (red.), Współczesne problemy ekonomiczne, Zeszyty Naukowe nr 858, Wyd. Uniwersytet Szczeciński, Szczecin 2015. p. 265.(https://scholar.google.pl/citations?user=8g7DDDkAAAAJ&hl=pl&oi=ao)
  49. ^ Nield 1929, p. xviii.
  50. ^ Smith 1899, p. 7.
  51. ^ Hattaway 2002, p. 16.
  52. ^ Powers & Gale 1981, p. 65.
  53. ^ Nield 1929, p. xix.
  54. ^ a b Jacobs 1990, p. xv.
  55. ^ Lukacs 1937, p. 168.
  56. ^ Waters 2009, p. 113.
  57. ^ Wyile 2002, p. 16.
  58. ^ Waters 2009, p. 112.
  59. ^ Wachtel 1995, p. 114.
  60. ^ Jacobs 1990, p. xvii.
  61. ^ Landy 2001, p. 1.
  62. ^ Jacobs 1990, p. 111ff.
  63. ^ Lawrence & Gee 2012.
  64. ^ Chapman 2006, p. 19.

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  • Mixon, Laura (2009). Use of the Authorizing Figure, Authoritarian Charisma, and National Myth in the Discourse of Hugo Chávez: Toward a Critical Model of Rhetorical Analysis for Political Discourse. ISBN 978-1-109-12733-1. Retrieved 20 October 2012.
  • Moses, Wilson Jeremiah (10 May 2004). Creative Conflict in African American Thought. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-53537-3. Retrieved 20 October 2012.
  • Napoleon in conversation with Emmanuel Auguste-Dieudonné, comte de Las Cases (1823), Mémorial de Sainte Hélène, vol. 7, H. Colburn
  • Nield, Jonathan (1929). A Guide to the Best Historical Novels and Tales. Ayer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8337-2509-7. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  • Powell, Mark Allan (1998). Jesus As a Figure in History: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-664-25703-3. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  • Powers, Ann Bleigh; Gale, John (1981). Historical Figures in French Literature. Rodopi. ISBN 978-90-5183-471-0. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
  • Roberts, Clayton (1996). The Logic of Historical Explanation. Penn State University Press. ISBN 978-0-271-01443-2. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  • Stewart, Jon (16 August 2007). Kierkegaard's Relations to Hegel Reconsidered. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-03951-2. Retrieved 20 October 2012.
  • Veletsianos, George (2010), "Historical Figure Applications", Emerging Technologies in Distance Education, Athabasca University Press, ISBN 9781897425763
  • Waters, Sandra A. (2009). Narrating the Italian Historical Novel. ISBN 978-1-109-07291-4. Retrieved 20 October 2012.
  • White, Morton (6 December 2004). From a Philosophical Point of View: Selected Studies. Princeton University Press. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-691-11959-5. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  • Smith, Goldwin (1899). Shakespeare: The Man. Ardent Media. p. 7. GGKEY:YLJPC0Q8L47. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
  • Van Doren, Charles (1 April 2008). The Joy of Reading: A Passionate Guide to 189 of the World's Best Authors and Their Works. Sourcebooks, Inc. p. 277. ISBN 978-1-4022-1160-7. Retrieved 20 October 2012.
  • Wachtel, Andrew (1 January 1995). An Obsession with History: Russian Writers Confront the Past. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2594-1. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  • Wyile, Herb (18 February 2002). Speculative Fictions: Contemporary Canadian Novelists and the Writing of History. McGill-Queens. ISBN 978-0-7735-2315-9. Retrieved 20 October 2012.
  • Yuasa, Yasuo; Kasulis, Thomas P. (1987). The Body: Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-88706-469-2. Retrieved 18 October 2012.

External links edit

  •   Media related to Historical persons at Wikimedia Commons

historical, figure, historical, figure, significant, person, history, jesus, christadolf, hitlermichael, jacksonalbert, einsteinmatatma, gandhiwilliam, shakespeareisaac, newtonleonardo, vincivarious, notable, historical, figures, significance, such, figures, h. A historical figure is a significant person in history Jesus ChristAdolf HitlerMichael JacksonAlbert EinsteinMatatma GandhiWilliam ShakespeareIsaac NewtonLeonardo Da VinciVarious notable Historical Figures The significance of such figures in human progress has been debated Some think they play a crucial role while others say they have little impact on the broad currents of thought and social change The concept is generally used in the sense that the person really existed in the past as opposed to being legendary However the legends that can grow up around historical figures may be hard to distinguish from fact Sources are often incomplete and may be inaccurate particularly those from early periods of history Without a body of personal documents the more subtle aspects of personality of a historical figure can only be deduced With historical figures who were also religious figures attempts to separate fact from belief may be controversial In education presenting information as if it were being told by a historical figure may give it greater impact Since classical times students have been asked to put themselves in the place of a historical figure as a way of bringing history to life Historical figures are often represented in fiction where fact and fancy are combined In earlier traditions before the rise of a critical historical tradition authors took less care to be as accurate when describing what they knew of historical figures and their actions interpolating imaginary elements intended to serve a moral purpose to events More recently there has been a tendency once again for authors to freely depart from the facts when they conflict with their creative goals Contents 1 Significance 1 1 Hegel s world historical figure 1 2 Spencerian view 1 3 Inevitability or determinism 1 4 Heroic view 1 5 Ranking 2 Historical truth 2 1 Ancient figures 2 2 Fables 2 3 Personality 2 4 Religious figures 3 Political appropriation 4 In education 5 In branding 6 In art and literature 6 1 Realist historical fiction 6 2 Modern fiction 6 3 Other media 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 9 1 Sources 10 External linksSignificance editThe significance of historical figures has long been the subject of debate by philosophers Hegel 1770 1831 considered that world historical figures played a pivotal role in human progress but felt that they were bound to emerge when change was needed Thomas Carlyle 1795 1881 saw the study of figures such as Muhammad William Shakespeare and Oliver Cromwell as key to understanding history Herbert Spencer 1820 1903 an early believer in evolution and in the universality of natural law felt that historical individuals were of little importance Hegel s world historical figure edit nbsp Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel introduced the concept of the world historical figure The German philosopher Hegel defined the concept of the world historical figure who embodied the ruthless advance of Immanuel Kant s World Spirit often overthrowing outdated structures and ideas To him Napoleon was such a figure 1 Hegel proposed that a world historical figure essentially posed a challenge or thesis and this would generate an antithesis or opposing force Eventually a synthesis would resolve the conflict 2 Hegel viewed Julius Caesar as a world historical figure who appeared at a stage when Rome had grown to the point it could no longer continue as a republican city state but had to become an empire Caesar failed in his bid to make himself an emperor and was assassinated but the empire came into existence soon afterward and Caesar s name has become synonymous with emperor in forms such as kaiser or czar 3 Soren Kierkegaard in his early essay The Concept of Irony generally agrees with Hegel s views such as his characterization of Socrates as a world historical figure who acted as a destructive force on Greek received views of morality 4 In Hegel s view Socrates broke down social harmony by questioning the meaning of concepts like justice and virtue Eventually the Athenians condemned Socrates to death But they could not stop the evolution of thought that Socrates had begun which would lead to the concept of individual conscience 5 Hegel said of world historical figures It was theirs to know this nascent principle the necessary directly sequent step in progress which their world was to take to make this their aim and to expend their energy in promoting it They die early like Alexander they are murdered like Caesar transported to St Helena like Napoleon They are great men because they willed and accomplished something great not a mere fancy a mere intention but that which met the case and fell in with the needs of the age 6 However Hegel Thomas Carlyle and others noted that the great historical figures were just representative men expressions of the material forces of history Essentially they have little choice about what they do This is in conflict with the views of George Bancroft or Ralph Waldo Emerson who praised self reliance and individualism and in conflict with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels who also felt that individuals can determine their destiny 7 Engels found that Hegel s system contained an internal and incurable contradiction resting as it does on both dialectical relativism and idealistic absolutism 8 Spencerian view edit nbsp Herbert Spencer who considered events in the lives of kings historic trivalities The Scottish philosopher and evolutionist Herbert Spencer who was highly influential in the latter half of the nineteenth century felt that historical figures were relatively unimportant He wrote to a friend I ignore utterly the personal element in history and indeed show little respect for history altogether as it is ordinarily conceived He wrote The births deaths and marriages of kings and other like historic trivialities are committed to memory not because of any direct benefits that can possibly result from knowing them but because society considers them parts of a good education 9 In his essay What Knowledge Is of Most Worth he wrote That which constitutes History properly so called is in great part omitted from works on the subject Only of late years have historians commenced giving us in any considerable quantity the truly valuable information As in past ages the king was everything and the people nothing So in past histories the doings of the king fill the entire picture to which the national life forms but an obscure background While only now when the welfare of nations rather than of rulers is becoming the dominant idea are historians beginning to occupy themselves with the phenomena of social progress The thing it really concerns us to know is the natural history of society 10 Inevitability or determinism edit Taken to an extreme one may consider that what Hegel calls the world spirit and T S Eliot calls those vast impersonal forces hold us in their grip What happens is predetermined 11 Both Hegel and Marx advocated historical inevitability in contrast to the doctrine of contingency allowing for alternative outcomes that was advocated by Friedrich Nietzsche Michel Foucault and others 12 However Marx argued against the use of the historical inevitability argument when used to explain the destruction of early communes in Russia 13 As an orthodox Marxist Vladimir Lenin believed in the ideas of history that Marx had developed including the historical inevitability of capitalism followed by a transition to socialism Despite this Lenin also believed the transition could be effected faster by voluntary action 14 In 1936 Karl Popper published an influential paper on The Poverty of Historicism published as a book in 1957 that attacked the doctrine of historical inevitability 15 The historian Isaiah Berlin author of Historical Inevitability also argued forcibly against this view going as far as to say that some choices are entirely free and cannot be predicted scientifically 11 Berlin presented his views in a 1953 lecture at the London School of Economics published soon afterwards When speaking he referred to Ludwig Wittgenstein s views but the published version speaks approvingly of Karl Popper which caused a stir among academics 16 Heroic view edit nbsp Thomas Carlyle champion of study of great men Thomas Carlyle has espoused the heroic view of history famously saying in his essay on the Norse god Odin in his book On heroes hero worship amp the heroic in history that No great man lives in vain The History of the world is but the Biography of great men We do not now call our great men Gods nor admire without limit ah no with limit enough But if we have no great men or do not admire at all that were a still worse case 17 Carlyle s historical philosophy was based on the Great Man theory saying Universal History the history of what man has accomplished in the world is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here An extreme believer in individuality he also believed that the masses of people should let themselves be guided by the great leaders of men 18 Talking of poets he said That ideal outline of himself which a man unconsciously shadows forth in his writings and which if rightly deciphered will be truer than any other representation of him it is the task of the Biographer to fill up into an actual coherent figure and to bring him to our experience or at least our clear undoubted admiration thereby to instruct and edify us in many ways Conducted on such principles the Biography of great men especially of great Poets that is of men in the highest degree noble minded and wise might become one of the most dignified and valuable species of composition 19 More recently in his 1943 book The Hero in History the pragmatist scholar Sidney Hook asserts That history is made by men and women is no longer denied except by some theologians and mystical metaphysicians And even they are compelled indirectly to acknowledge this commonplace truth for they speak of historical personages as instruments of Providence Justice Reason Dialectic the Zeitgeist or Spirit of the Times Men agree more readily about the consequences of the use of instruments in history than they do about the ultimate ends instruments allegedly serve or the first causes by which they are allegedly determined 20 Hook recognizes the relevance of the environment within which the great man or hero acted but asserts that this can provide the backdrop but never the plot of the dramas of human history and distinguish life and species 21 Ranking edit nbsp The crucifixion of Jesus the founder of Christianity painted by Jacob Jordaens in the 17th century There have been rankings of the significance of major historical figures For example Cesar A Hidalgo and colleagues at the MIT Media Lab has calculated the memorability of historical figures using data such as the number of language editions for which there are articles for each person the pageviews received and other factors These lists are available at MIT s Pantheon project Historical truth editIt is sometimes hard to discern whether apparently historical figures from the earliest periods did in fact exist due to the lack of records Even with more recent personages stories or anecdotes about the person often accumulate that have no basis in fact Although the external aspects of a historical figure may be well documented their inner nature can only be a subject of speculation It can also not be only a subject of speculation as many historical figures such as Hitler explicitly articulated their thoughts and intentions With religious figures often the subjects of voluminous literature separating fact from belief can be difficult if not impossible Ancient figures edit With older texts it can be difficult to be sure whether a person in the text is in fact a historical figure Wisdom literature from early middle eastern cultures such as the Book of Job mainly consist of verbal expositions or discussions that must be considered the work of the author rather than the character supposedly speaking It may still be possible to identify a figure in such texts with a historical figure known from some other context and the text may be taken as informative about this figure even if not verified by an independent source 22 On the other hand a text may include realistic settings and references to historical people while the central character may or may not be a historical figure 23 Fables edit nbsp Lady Godiva was a historical figure but there is no evidence that the legend of her riding naked through the streets is true Lady Godiva painting 1897 by John Collier Napoleon spoke of history as being a fable which had been agreed upon la fable convenue qu on appellera l histoire 24 Great figures of the past have stories told about them which grow in the telling and so become myths and legends which may dominate or displace the more prosaic historical facts about them For example some ancient chroniclers said that the Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned but Tacitus disputed this by saying the stories were just malicious rumours Similarly there is no good evidence that Marie Antoinette ever said let them eat cake or that Lady Godiva rode naked through the streets of Coventry 25 Personality edit Thomas Carlyle pointed out that even to the person living it every life remains in so many points unintelligible The historian must struggle when writing biographies the very facts of which to say nothing of the purport of them we know not and cannot know 26 Some psychologists have sought to understand the personalities of historical figures through clues about the way in which they were raised However this theoretical psychoanalytic approach is not supported empirically An alternative approach favored by psychobiographers such as William Runyan is to explain the personality of the historical figure in terms of their life history This approach has the advantage of recognizing that personality may evolve over time in response to events 27 Religious figures edit nbsp Three great historical figures Confucius presenting the Buddha to Lao Tsu They are all of such antiquity that the historical facts about them are now overlaid with centuries of myth and legend With historical religious figures fact and belief may be difficult to disentangle There are cultural differences in the treatment of historical figures Thus the Chinese can recognise that Mencius or Confucius were historical individuals while also endowing them with sanctity In Hinduism on the other hand figures such as Krishna or Rama are seen by the followers as embodiments of gods The Nirvana Sutra states Do not rely on the man but on the Dharma A teacher such as Gautama Buddha is thus treated almost exclusively as a lesser god rather than a historical figure 28 E P Sanders author of The Historical Figure of Jesus called Jesus of Nazareth one of the most important figures in human history 29 Various writers have struggled to present historical views of Jesus as opposed to views distorted by belief 30 When writing about this subject a historian who relies only on sources other than the New Testament may be criticized for implying that it is not a sufficient source of information about the subject 31 The theologian Martin Kahler is known for his work Der sogenannte historische Jesus und der geschichtliche biblische Christus The so called historical Jesus and the historic biblical Christ He clearly distinguished between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith 32 Some historians openly admit bias which may anyway be unavoidable Paul Hollenback says he writes about the historical Jesus in order to overthrow not simply correct the mistake called Christianity Another historian who has written about Jesus Frederick Gaiser says historical investigation is part and parcel of biblical faith 30 Political appropriation edit nbsp An 1843 view of a heroic Joan of Arc at the stake A historical figure may be interpreted to support political aims In France in the first half of the seventeenth century there was an outpouring of writing about Joan of Arc including seven biographies three plays and an epic poem Joan had become a symbol of national pride and the Catholic faith helping unite a country that had been divided by the recent wars of religion The reality of the historical Joan was subordinated to the need for a symbol of feminine strength Christian virtue and resistance to the English 33 George Bernard Shaw introducing his 1923 play Saint Joan discussed representations of Joan by other authors He felt that William Shakespeare s depiction in Henry VI Part 1 was constrained from making her a beautiful and romantic figure by political considerations Voltaire s version in his poem La Pucelle d Orleans was also flawed by Voltaire s biases and Friedrich Schiller s play Die Jungfrau von Orleans is not about Joan at all and can hardly be said to pretend to be 34 A historical figure may be used to validate a politician s claim to authority where the modern leader shapes and exploits the ideas associated with the historical figure which they are presumed to have inherited 35 Thus Jesse Jackson has frequently evoked the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr 36 Fidel Castro often presented himself as following the path defined by Jose Marti 37 Hugo Chavez of Venezuela frequently identified himself with the historical figure Simon Bolivar the liberator of South America from Spanish rule 38 Georg Hegel believed in the role of the state in guaranteeing individual liberties and his views were therefore rejected by the German Nazi Party who considered him dangerously liberal and perhaps a proto Marxist On the other hand Adolf Hitler identified himself as a Hegelian world historical figure and justified his actions on this basis 39 In education editPlato used historical figures in his writing but only to illustrate his points Xenophon used Cyrus the Great in the same way When Plato apparently quotes Socrates in The Republic it is only to add dramatic effect to the presentation of his own thought 40 For this reason Plato s writings on Socrates tell us little at least directly about Socrates The historical figure is used only as a device for communicating Plato s ideas 40 In classical Rome students of rhetoric had to master the suasoria a form of declamation in which they wrote the soliloquy of a historical figure who was debating a critical course of action For example the poet Juvenal wrote a speech for the dictator Sulla in which he was counselled to retire The poet Ovid enjoyed this exercise more than the other final challenge the controversia 41 The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote an influential essay On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life He said the unhistorical and historical are necessary in equal measure for the health of an individual of a people and of a culture 42 Nietzsche identifies three approaches to history each with dangers The monumental approach describes the glories of the past often focusing on heroic figures like Elizabeth I of England King Robert the Bruce or Louis Pasteur By treating these figures as models the student is tempted to consider that there can be nobody of such stature today The antiquarian view examines the past in minute and reverent detail turning its back on the present The critical approach challenges traditional views even though they may be valid 43 Historical figures may today be simulated as animated pedagogical agents to teach history and foreign culture An example is Freudbot which acted the part of Sigmund Freud for psychology students When a variety of simulated character types were tried as educational agents students rated historical figures as the most engaging 44 There are gender differences in the perception of historical figures When modern US schoolchildren were asked to roleplay or illustrate historical stereotypes boys tended to focus upon male figures exclusively while girls showed more varied family groupings 45 In branding editUsing historical figures in marketing communications and in branding is a new area of marketing research but historical figures names were used to promote products as early as in the Middle Ages 46 Historical figure brand is using famous historical person in branding for instance Mozartkugel Chopin vodka or Cafe Einstein Historical figure is a person who lived in the past and whose deeds exerted a significant impact on other people s lives and consciousness These figures are attributed with certain features that are a compilation of the actual values they proclaimed and the manner they were perceived by others This perception evolves and subsequent generations read the biography of a given historical figure in their own way through their own knowledge and experience In order to determine the popularity of the commercialisation of historical figures a study was conducted at the beginning of 2014 on the number of trademark protection applications filed with the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland as a measure of entrepreneurs interest in this activity The names of 300 most prominent Polish historical figures 47 were considered The study showed that over 21 of the names analysed were recorded in the trademark register 1 033 trademark protection applications were filed for 64 names out of the 300 historical figures investigated Aldona Lipka 2015 48 The greatest number of trademark protection applications were recorded for Mieszko 295 followed by Nicolaus Copernicus 250 John III Sobieski 94 and Chopin 81 In art and literature edit nbsp William Shakespeare wrote a number of plays that dramatized the lives of historical figures but introduced fictional characters such as Sir John Falstaff Realist historical fiction edit There is a huge body of historical fiction where the text includes both imaginary and factual elements In early English literature Robin Hood was a fictional character but the historical King Richard I of England also appears 49 William Shakespeare a wrote plays about people who were historical figures in his day such as Julius Caesar He did not present these people as pure history but dramatised their lives as a commentary about the people and politics of his own time 51 Napoleon figured in Victor Hugo s 1862 classic Les Miserables 52 There are many more examples The compiler of a survey of historical novels in the 1920s claimed that the appearance of reality is the great charm of the historical novel He went on to assert regarding novels about periods of which little is known that the danger is that the very elements which add to our interest in the tale as such will go far to mislead us in our conception of the period dealt with 53 Traditionally the treatment of historical figures in fiction was realistic in style and respectful of fact A historical novel would be true to the facts known about the period in which the novel is set a biographical novel would follow the facts that are known about the protagonist s life and a roman a clef would try to give an accurate interpretation of what is known about a public figure s private life In each genre the novelist would avoid introducing any elements that were clearly in conflict with the facts 54 A writer may be handicapped by his readers preconceptions about a historical person which may or may not be accurate and the facts about the historical person may also conflict with the novelist s plot requirements 55 According to the Marxist philosopher Gyorgy Lukacs in his 1937 book on The Historical Novel The world historical individual can only figure as a minor character in the historical novel because of the complexity and intricacy of the whole social historical process 56 As Jacobs observes the realist aesthetic of the historical novel assumes that a recognizable historical figure in fiction must not do things its model did not do in real life it follows that historical figures can be used only in very limited ways 57 The author of a traditional historical novel should therefore focus more on the people who have been lost to history 58 A novelist such as Sir Walter Scott or Leo Tolstoy War and Peace would describe historical events accurately They would give rein to their imagination only in scenes that were not significant historically when interactions with fictional characters could safely be introduced 59 Modern fiction edit More recently however starting with works such as The Confessions of Nat Turner and Sophie s Choice by William Styron the novelist has felt more free to introduce much larger amounts of purely imaginary detail about historical people 54 E L Doctorow illustrates this different attitude when discussing his book Ragtime Certain details were so delicious that I was scrupulous about getting them right Others demanded to be mythologized This reflects a changing attitude about the distinction between fact and truth expressed by Ursule Molinaro when he makes his Cassandra say I ve come as close to the truth as facts would let me facts oppress the truth which can breathe freely only in poetry amp art 60 Other media edit Many films have depicted historical figures Often the way in which the films interpret these figures and their times reflects the social and cultural values of the period in which the film was made 61 Historical figures are familiar to the general reader and so may be used in speculative fiction so that readers marvel at their appearance in novel settings or with a fresh perspective 62 For example the time traveler The Doctor has encountered numerous historical figures such as Marco Polo and Queen Elizabeth I in his adventures 63 They appeared most frequently when the television series first started as it was directed at children and the use of historical figures in historical settings was intended to be educational 64 See also edit nbsp History portal Celebrity the modern day equivalent Historical figures sometimes considered autistic List of biographical films List of historical films set in Near Eastern and Western civilization List of historical opera characters List of oldest documents Persons of National Historic Significance Canada Notes edit William Shakespeare was a historical figure but as a biographer said Such materials as there are for Shakespeare s personal history or for the history of anyone connected with him have been gathered with the most loving and persevering industry Unhappily they amount to very little Entries in municipal records names in a will a lease or an inventory tell hardly anything of the life or character of the man That orange has now been squeezed dry 50 References edit Hagen 2012 p 125 Van Doren 2008 p 277 Karatani 2011 p 20 Stewart 2007 p 179 Magee 2001 p 192 Cramer 2007 p 272 Moses 2004 p 5 Moses 2004 p xv Carneiro 1981 p 188 Carneiro 1981 p 188 189 a b White 2004 p 52 Ben Menahem 2011 p chapter 9 Chakrabarti 2009 p 158 Chen 2007 p 37 Agassi 2008 p 218 Agassi 2008 p 152 Carlyle 1841 p 47 Carlyle 2007 p 9 Kerry amp Hill 2010 p 138 Hook 1943 p xi Hook 1943 p xiii Longman amp Enns 2008 p 335 Longman amp Enns 2008 p 336 Napoleon amp Auguste Dieudonne 1823 p 242 Andrews 2012 Kerry amp Hill 2010 p 133 134 Roberts 1996 p 208 Yuasa amp Kasulis 1987 p 128 Powell 1998 p 1 a b Powell 1998 p 3 Habermas 1996 p 11 Powell 1998 p 4 Powers amp Gale 1981 p 1 Innes 1998 p 208 Mixon 2009 p 60 Mixon 2009 p 51 Mixon 2009 p 64 Mixon 2009 p 125 Cobley 2002 p 278 a b Anton amp Preus 1971 p 162 Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics p 212 Landy 2001 p 2 Landy 2001 p 3 Veletsianos 2010 p 16 Fournier amp Wineburg 1997 p 160 185 Madow M Private Ownership of Public Image Popular Culture and Publicity Rights vol 81 California Law Review 125 1993 p 152 Grygiel A ed Encyklopedia slawnych Polakow Publicat S A Poznan 2007 Lipka Aldona Ograniczona racjonalnosc i heurystyki w zachowaniach nabywcow w G Wolska red Wspolczesne problemy ekonomiczne Zeszyty Naukowe nr 858 Wyd Uniwersytet Szczecinski Szczecin 2015 p 265 https scholar google pl citations user 8g7DDDkAAAAJ amp hl pl amp oi ao Nield 1929 p xviii Smith 1899 p 7 Hattaway 2002 p 16 Powers amp Gale 1981 p 65 Nield 1929 p xix a b Jacobs 1990 p xv Lukacs 1937 p 168 Waters 2009 p 113 Wyile 2002 p 16 Waters 2009 p 112 Wachtel 1995 p 114 Jacobs 1990 p xvii Landy 2001 p 1 Jacobs 1990 p 111ff Lawrence amp Gee 2012 Chapman 2006 p 19 Sources edit Agassi Joseph 2008 A Philosopher s Apprentice In Karl Popper s Workshop Rodopi p 152 ISBN 978 90 420 2434 2 Retrieved 22 October 2012 Andrews Evan 2 October 2012 7 Historical Figures Famous for Something They Never Did History Channel Anton John Peter Preus Anthony 1971 Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy SUNY Press p 162 ISBN 978 0 87395 623 9 Retrieved 18 October 2012 Ben Menahem Yemima 28 June 2011 Historical Necessity and Contingency A Companion to the Philosophy of History and Historiography John Wiley amp Sons p 84 ISBN 978 1 4443 5152 1 Retrieved 22 October 2012 Carlyle Thomas 1841 On heroes hero worship amp the heroic in history six lectures reported with emendations and additions James Fraser p 47 Retrieved 22 October 2012 Carlyle Thomas 1 August 2007 Sartor Resartus and On Heroes Hero Worship and the Heroic in History Echo Library ISBN 978 1 4068 4388 0 Retrieved 22 October 2012 Carneiro Robert L Spring 1981 Herbert Spencer as an Anthropologist PDF The Journal of Libertarian Studies V 2 Retrieved 22 October 2012 Chakrabarti Anjan Kumar 11 August 2009 Rethinking Dislocation and Resettlement in Development Taylor amp Francis ISBN 978 0 415 49453 3 Retrieved 22 October 2012 Chapman James 2006 Inside the Tardis ISBN 9781845111632 Chen Cheng 1 December 2007 The Prospects for Liberal Nationalism in Post Leninist States Penn State Press ISBN 978 0 271 03259 7 Retrieved 22 October 2012 Cobley Evelyn 2002 Temptations of Faust The Logic of Fascism and Postmodern Archaeologies of Modernity University of Toronto Press ISBN 978 0 8020 3657 5 Retrieved 20 October 2012 Cramer Kevin 1 July 2007 The Thirty Years War and German Memory in the Nineteenth Century U of Nebraska Press ISBN 978 0 8032 1562 7 Retrieved 20 October 2012 Education Roman Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics Vol 9 Charles Scribner s Sons 1912 Fournier Janice E Wineburg Samuel S 1997 Picturing the Past Gender Differences in the Depiction of Historical Figures American Journal of Education 105 2 160 185 doi 10 1086 444151 JSTOR 1085617 S2CID 144523948 Habermas Gary R 1 June 1996 The Historical Jesus Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ College Press ISBN 978 0 89900 732 8 Retrieved 18 October 2012 Hagen William W 13 February 2012 German History in Modern Times Four Lives of the Nation Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 19190 6 Retrieved 20 October 2012 Hattaway Michael 2002 Historiography The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare s History Plays Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521775397 Hidalgo Cesar 1 November 2012 Wikipedia s top 20 Wired Historical Figures BBC retrieved 18 October 2012 Hook Sidney 1943 The Hero in History Cosimo Inc ISBN 978 1 60520 374 4 Retrieved 22 October 2012 Innes Christopher 24 September 1998 The Cambridge Companion to George Bernard Shaw Cambridge University Press p 208 ISBN 978 0 521 56633 9 Retrieved 19 October 2012 Jacobs Naomi 1990 The Character of Truth Historical Figures in Contemporary Fiction SIU Press ISBN 9780809316076 Karatani Kōjin 21 October 2011 History and Repetition Columbia University Press ISBN 978 0 231 15729 2 Retrieved 20 October 2012 Kaunisto Mark 2007 Variation and Change in the Lexicon A Corpus based Analysis of Adjectives in English Ending in ic and ical Rodopi p 205 ISBN 978 90 420 2233 1 Retrieved 20 October 2012 Kerry Paul E Hill Marylu 31 August 2010 Thomas Carlyle Resartus Reappraising Carlyle s Contribution to the Philosophy of History Political Theory and Cultural Criticism Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press ISBN 978 0 8386 4223 8 Retrieved 22 October 2012 Landy Marcia 2001 The Historical Film History and Memory in Media Continuum International Publishing Group ISBN 978 0 485 30096 3 Retrieved 19 October 2012 Lawrence Ben Gee Catherine 7 September 2012 Doctor Who s best historical figures The Daily Telegraph Longman Tremper III Enns Peter 6 June 2008 Dictionary of the Old Testament Wisdom Poetry amp Writings A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship InterVarsity Press p 335 ISBN 978 0 8308 1783 2 Retrieved 18 October 2012 Lukacs Georg 1937 The Historical Novel U of Nebraska Press ISBN 978 0 8032 7910 0 Retrieved 20 October 2012 Magee Bryan 18 January 2001 The Great Philosophers An Introduction to Western Philosophy Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 289322 2 Retrieved 20 October 2012 Mixon Laura 2009 Use of the Authorizing Figure Authoritarian Charisma and National Myth in the Discourse of Hugo Chavez Toward a Critical Model of Rhetorical Analysis for Political Discourse ISBN 978 1 109 12733 1 Retrieved 20 October 2012 Moses Wilson Jeremiah 10 May 2004 Creative Conflict in African American Thought Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 53537 3 Retrieved 20 October 2012 Napoleon in conversation with Emmanuel Auguste Dieudonne comte de Las Cases 1823 Memorial de Sainte Helene vol 7 H Colburn Nield Jonathan 1929 A Guide to the Best Historical Novels and Tales Ayer Publishing ISBN 978 0 8337 2509 7 Retrieved 18 October 2012 Powell Mark Allan 1998 Jesus As a Figure in History How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee Westminster John Knox Press p 1 ISBN 978 0 664 25703 3 Retrieved 18 October 2012 Powers Ann Bleigh Gale John 1981 Historical Figures in French Literature Rodopi ISBN 978 90 5183 471 0 Retrieved 19 October 2012 Roberts Clayton 1996 The Logic of Historical Explanation Penn State University Press ISBN 978 0 271 01443 2 Retrieved 18 October 2012 Stewart Jon 16 August 2007 Kierkegaard s Relations to Hegel Reconsidered Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 03951 2 Retrieved 20 October 2012 Veletsianos George 2010 Historical Figure Applications Emerging Technologies in Distance Education Athabasca University Press ISBN 9781897425763 Waters Sandra A 2009 Narrating the Italian Historical Novel ISBN 978 1 109 07291 4 Retrieved 20 October 2012 White Morton 6 December 2004 From a Philosophical Point of View Selected Studies Princeton University Press p 52 ISBN 978 0 691 11959 5 Retrieved 22 October 2012 Smith Goldwin 1899 Shakespeare The Man Ardent Media p 7 GGKEY YLJPC0Q8L47 Retrieved 19 October 2012 Van Doren Charles 1 April 2008 The Joy of Reading A Passionate Guide to 189 of the World s Best Authors and Their Works Sourcebooks Inc p 277 ISBN 978 1 4022 1160 7 Retrieved 20 October 2012 Wachtel Andrew 1 January 1995 An Obsession with History Russian Writers Confront the Past Stanford University Press ISBN 978 0 8047 2594 1 Retrieved 18 October 2012 Wyile Herb 18 February 2002 Speculative Fictions Contemporary Canadian Novelists and the Writing of History McGill Queens ISBN 978 0 7735 2315 9 Retrieved 20 October 2012 Yuasa Yasuo Kasulis Thomas P 1987 The Body Toward an Eastern Mind Body Theory SUNY Press ISBN 978 0 88706 469 2 Retrieved 18 October 2012 External links edit nbsp Media related to Historical persons at Wikimedia Commons Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Historical figure amp oldid 1220604695, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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