On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History
Also known as On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, On Heroes
Thomas Carlyle's 1841 lectures on great men as the movers of history: an early statement of the Great Man theory.
At a glance
Key ideas
History as biography, Great men should rule, Flawed heroes …
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William Thomson, Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi
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Thomas Carlyle and Friedrich Nietzsche
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Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- The book collects six lectures Carlyle gave in London in May 1840.
- Each takes a kind of hero, from the hero as divinity (Odin) and prophet (Muhammad) to the poet, priest, man of letters and king.
- Carlyle argues that great men should rule and others should revere them, and that history is the biography of great men.
- Heroes are flawed; their heroism lies in creative energy, not moral perfection.
- Nineteenth-century liberals objected that it ignored the masses, and later democrats that it was too tyrannical.
Why it matters
- It is regarded as an early and powerful formulation of the Great Man theory of history, and it was widely read for decades after it came out.
Key facts
- Author
- Thomas Carlyle1
- Published
- 1841, by James Fraser, London1
- Lectures
- Six, given in May 1840, from 5 to 22 May; the last of four lecture courses he gave from 1837 to 18401
- Heroes covered
- Odin; Muhammad; Dante and Shakespeare; Luther and Knox; Johnson, Rousseau and Burns; Cromwell and Napoleon1
- Collected works
- Volume V of the Centenary Edition of his works2
Key ideas
-
History as biography1
History moves forward through great men, who serve as patterns to imitate and as creators.
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Great men should rule1
Others should revere them; Carlyle feared democracy would hand power to the ill-bred and uneducated.
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Flawed heroes1
Heroes are noblemen, not saints; sneering at their failings is what he called "valetism".
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The hero as prophet1
He presented Muhammad as a sincere reformer, a reading widely cited by Muslim scholars.
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Books as the past's voice1
"The greatest university of all is a collection of books."
Reception
Connections
Links
Sources
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