首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
"Universal history, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have w
"Universal history, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have w
admin
2012-09-11
164
问题
"Universal history, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here," wrote the Victorian sage Thomas Carlyle. Well, not any more it is not.
Suddenly, Britain looks to have fallen out with its favourite historical form. This could be no more than a passing literary craze, but it also points to a broader truth about how we now approach the past: less concerned with learning from our forefathers and more interested in feeling their pain. Today, we want empathy, not inspiration.
From the earliest days of the Renaissance, the writing of history meant recounting the exemplary lives of great men. In 1337, Petrarch began work on his rambling writing De Viris Illustribus--On Famous Men, highlighting the virtus (or virtue) of classical heroes. Petrarch celebrated their greatness in conquering fortune and rising to the top. This was the biographical tradition which Niccolo Machiavelli turned on its head. In The Prince, he championed cunning, ruthlessness, and boldness, rather than virtue, mercy and justice, as the skills of successful leaders.
Over time, the attributes of greatness shifted. The Romantics commemorated the leading painters and authors of their day, stressing the uniqueness of the artist’ s personal experience rather than public glory. By contrast, the Victorian author Samuel Smiles wrote Self-Help as a catalogue of the worthy lives of engineers, industrialists and explorers. "The valuable examples which they furnish of the power of self-help, of patient purpose, resolute working, and steadfast integrity, issuing in the formation of truly noble and manly character, exhibit," wrote Smiles," what it is in the power of each to accomplish for himself. "His biographies of James Watt, Richard Arkwright and Josiah Wedgwood were held up as beacons to guide the working man through his difficult life.
This was all a hit bourgeois for Thomas Carlyle, who focused his biographies on the truly heroic lives of Martin Luther, Oliver Cromwell and Napoleon Bonaparte. These epochal figures represented lives hard to imitate, but to be acknowledged as possessing higher authority than mere mortals.
Not everyone was convinced by such bombast. "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles," wrote Marx and Engels in The Communist Manifesto. For them, history did nothing, it possessed no immense wealth nor waged battles:" It is man, real, living man who does all that. "And history should he the story of the masses and their record of struggle. As such, it needed to appreciate the economic realities, the social contexts and power relations in which each epoch stood. For: "Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly found, given and transmitted from the past. "
This was the tradition which revolutionised our appreciation of the past. In place of Thomas Carlyle, Britain nurtured Christopher Hill, EP Thompson and Eric Hobsbawm. History from below stood alongside biographies of great men. Whole new realms of understanding--from gender to race to cultural studies -- were opened up as scholars unpicked the multiplicity of lost societies. And it transformed public history too: downstairs became just as fascinating as upstairs.
[A] emphasized the virtue of classical heroes.
[B] highlighted the public glory of the leading artists.
[C] focused on epochal figures whose lives were hard to imitate.
[D] opened up new realms of understanding the great men in history.
[E] held that history should be the story of the masses and their record of struggle.
[F] dismissed virtue as unnecessary for successful leaders.
[G] depicted the worthy lives of engineers, industrialists and explorers.
Samuel Smiles
选项
答案
G
解析
根据信号词Samuel Smiles定位到第四段。根据第三句the Victorian author Samuel Smiles wrote Self-Help as a catalogue of the worthy lives of engineers,industrialists and explorers可知,G项为正确答案。wrote对应depicted。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/zVe4777K
0
考研英语二
相关试题推荐
Thingswentwellforhimduringhisearlylifebutinmiddleagehis______seemedtochange.
Theauthorbelievesinthepassagethat______.Theword"rejuvenated"(Paragraph5)mostprobablymeans______.
Thelongestbullruninacenturyofart-markethistoryendedonadramaticnotewithasaleof56worksbyDamienHirst,Beauti
Pricesarcsky-high,withprofitstomatch.Butlookingfurtherahead,theindustryfaceswrenchingchange,saysanexpertofen
Wearelivinginoneofthoseperiodsinhumanhistorywhicharemarkedbyrevolutionarychangesinallofman’sideasandvalue
Wearelivinginoneofthoseperiodsinhumanhistorywhicharemarkedbyrevolutionarychangesinallofman’sideasandvalue
"Universalhistory,thehistoryofwhatmanhasaccomplishedinthisworld,isatbottomtheHistoryoftheGreatMenwhohavew
"Universalhistory,thehistoryofwhatmanhasaccomplishedinthisworld,isatbottomtheHistoryoftheGreatMenwhohavew
Isitpossiblethattheideaswehavetodayaboutownershipandpropertyrightshavebeensouniversalinthehumanmindthatit
随机试题
关于子宫内膜异位症,下列哪一项不正确
根管治疗开髓窝洞预备的要求之一是
男,16岁,发热4天伴食欲不振2天急诊。检查:血压114/70mmHg,左拇趾甲沟部红肿破溃,血白细胞计数为20×109/L,中性粒细胞为89%。左拇趾经切开引流处理后应给予
溶胶剂中药物微粒粒径范围是()。
若名义年利率为8%,按季度计算复利,则有效年利率为()。
小学低年级学生在教师指导进行识字学习时,有的按字音归类识字,有的按偏旁结构归类识字,这种知识学习的策略是()。
蝴蝶效应的表面意思是一只南美洲热带雨林中的蝴蝶,扇动几下翅膀,就可以在两周以后引起美国德克萨斯州的一场龙卷风,用于表示微小的变化能带来巨大的连锁反应。根据上述定义,下列不属于蝴蝶效应的是:
我国刑法规定:中华人民共和国国家工作人员和军人在中华人民共和国领域外犯本法规定之罪的,适用本法。这一规定是我国刑法在空间适用效力问题上采取的()。
NASA
如下几种Bootloader中,用于Linux操作系统引导程序加载时所支持不同体系结构处理器种类最多的是()。
最新回复
(
0
)