Thomas Carlyle

On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History (Illustrated) Thomas Carlyle

Carlyle, the romantic writer of the 19th century believed that heroes are the saviors of the great historical crises, who are spawned to fix such debacles. That's why they're revolutionary because they come to destroy the false, the chimeric, and rebuild nations. He sees that the great redeeming virtue of the mass man is that he knows how to answer the hero's call. This was the case with Odin and his Scandinavians; thus with Muhammad and the Arabs; so with Cromwell and his Englishmen. So with Napoleon and his Gauls. In our 21st century, his daring style amuses as well as disturbs; yet, it is mandatory reading if one is to understand the authoritarian leaders and governments that still plague humankind.