Thomas Carlyle (Often referred to as the Sage of Chelsea) was a Scottish historian and philosopher often credited as the creator of the Great Man Theory of history. Having emerged as the top expert on German Idealism, he would become highly critical of the more empirical approach to history often represented by Leopold Von Ranke (LSE) , and embody an alternative and much less approach to history. The first thing that stands out when reading any of Carlyle’s works is his fixation on the transcendent. On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History is the work often cited as the creation of the great man school of history. The book (originally a series of lectures) waxes lyrically (and often unintelligibly) about the impact of great men. The following quote from that book’s first paragraph should make it clear what the appeal of great men was to Carlyle: “For, as I take it, Universal History, the history of what man has accomplis...
An international resource on Socionics, a theory of personality type.