On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History

Based on a series of lectures delivered in 1840, Thomas Carlyle's "On Heroes, Hero Worship, and the Heroic in History" considers how heroes are created and conveys his ideas on the importance of heroic leadership. Carlyle explored a wide range of heroes: from the political (Napoleon), to the literary (Shakespeare, Dante, Burns), to the religious (Martin Luther, the prophet Muhammad). While hugely influential in the nineteenth century, Carlyle's ideas were erroneously identified with totalitarianism in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in the twentieth. By situating the text in the context of six reevaluative essays, David Sorenson and Brett Kinser argue that Carlyle's concept of heroism actually repudiates its own authoritarian roots and stresses the hero's spiritual dimension. In Carlyle's engagement with various heroic personalities, he dislodges religiosity from religion and looks at how these figures were able to unlock the heroic potential of ordinary human beings.