The Great Men™ of Language

Many people still adopt a Great Men™ approach to language even if they reject it for history in general.

In the 1800s and early 1900s, historians often adopted a Great Men™ approach to history, in which history was thought to be largely driven by the actions of a few Great Men™. These titans of history were thought to have such intellect, such heroism, such indomitable will, that the annals of history bent to their whims.

Today most historians reject this approach to history. Much more in vogue is history from below or people’s history, which analyzes history from the perspective of everyday people, with special emphasis on marginalized groups. A few notable entries in this canon include:

• A people’s history of the United States (Amazon | Bookshop)
• A people’s history of the world (Amazon | Bookshop)
• An indigenous people’s history of the United States (Amazon | Bookshop)
• SPQR: A history of ancient Rome (Amazon | Bookshop)

Public school history textbooks have yet to catch up with this trend, focusing instead on the Big Names™ at the expense of broader, bottom-up social changes. This isn’t particularly surprising given that the Great Men™ approach to history tends to aggrandize politicians, who in turn exert outsized influence on what goes into those textbooks in the first place.

Yet many people still adopt a Great Men™ approach to language, even if they reject it for history in general. They believe that the shape of language is propelled by the literary greats, who then inspire the masses to adroit linguistic performance.