[球拍】 issue 48 历史过于强调个人而忽略了集体

jiananduan

●ISSUE48.The study of history places too much emphasis on individuals. The mostsignificant events and trends in history were made possible not by the famous few,but by groups of people whose identities have long been forgotten.

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When talking about whether the study of history focuses moreon individuals than groups of people, the author holds that the influence onhistory putted by groups of people cannot be neglected by the study of history, which now places too much emphasis onindividuals. To some extent, I agree with the author’s general assertion sinceno single person could promote the pace of history by himself or herself.However, the author fails to take other factors into account and extend theassertion to an irreversible extreme. On balance, my points of agreement andcontention with the author involve the fundamental and deep analysis asdiscussed below.

Admittedly, historycan not be pushed forward by an individual alone; the strength of a singleperson is not enough to bring tremendouschanges to a society. Usually, the individual represent the majority interestwill win over the minority. Thus, the power behind the individual cannot beconcealed from the society. For example, the political regime in most democraticcountries often consists of parliament or congress; in this situation, thedecision can only get passed by most senators’ approval. Therefore, the powerof the group cannot be disparaged in terms of influencing the history and theauthor’s second half assertion isobjective and profound.

However, theauthor’s assertion that the emphasis that historians put on the individuals istoo much cannot be related to the forgotten of the groups’ identities. Firstly,the study of history should focus on those historical events that have explicitdocuments and would bring them research value. In this aspect, the material historiansselected endorsed identities that would represent most attributes of thatperiod. For example, the leader in one battle was documented and studied inthat the documentation of a single person is much easier than document thewhole group; besides, researches on the leader can obtain more information thanthe group. The leader may reflect the hard decision making in that situationand the outside environment in the confronted side. Therefore, study of historyemphasis more on the individuals doesn’t mean the neglect of identities of thewhole group.

Last but not theleast, the individual did play important role in the history. From the feministactivity to the abrogation of slavery, the idea were first conceived byindividuals and then spread to the whole society. Thus the push forward of thehistory that the individuals have on ought to be studied and the study itselfcan reflect the background of the society and the factors that catalyst thecertain event. Therefore, the study of history should focus on the individualsmore and this doesn’t indicate a forgotten that groups’ identities.

In conclusion,issue of whether the history put too much emphasis on the individuals andforgot the identities of the groups needs further studies and there are no easyor certain answers. Even though the groups’ effort on the history event andactivities cannot be disparaged, the study on individuals’ influences on historycannot be diminished since the effort to study an individual is much moreeasier than to study a group. Therefore, I hold the point that the identitiesof group cannot be forgotten and the study of history doesn’t put too muchemphasis on individuals.

普渡哥

第一句：When talking about whether the study of history focuses moreon individuals than groups of people,

more 跟too much 表达的意思完全不一样。

jiananduan

哦哦~懂啦~还真没注意这个~