A couple of weeks ago an essay that Hallie Rubenhold had presented for the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2020 as part of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction Lecture came to my attention, and I slid it into the TBR. The Problem with Great Men hits on so many of the things that are bothering me professionally these days and reminds me why I got into the work of public history in the first place.
Rubenhold lays out how nearly 200 years ago (1840 to be exact) essayist Thomas Carlyle gave his lecture series “On Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in Human History” and how that then turned into a published work, and became the root of the Great Man theory that has dominated the way we perceive history ever since. We are overly focused on the single “hero” of invention, of the elite, on anniversaries and other marks of importance. She also then, in a way I recognize from reading The Five, pulls apart how that doesn’t serve the actual work of history – how it removes the human from the equation and how putting people back into the narrative, of focusing on what can be learned in the gaps about regular people leading regular lives is crucial to making history real and relevant to people who are convinced that it is a static thing (and would have others believe the same).
The Great Man type of history drives me batty and I’ve been pushing back a long time. It’s nice to revisit another history professional doing the same as I am currently in a yearlong battle around how we are integrating the U.S. 250 into our programming at work. My director is less than pleased with me about it. My colleague and friend who is our curator has done a great job at reframing – our current exhibit is about folk traditions creating a cultural identity (or various identities) and for next year we’re focusing on cultural celebrations and incorporating the centennial in as one of several examples. I’m begrudgingly working on a historical marker project with the topic decided before it got to me, but working on formulating text that is more encompassing of the regular people involved than the Great Men who my executive director and board would prefer me to focus on. I’m fighting back in my way, because social history is so crucial always, but even more so right now.
Bingo Square: Culture. Culture is informed by history, and history is formed by culture.