Carlyle's “Great Man” theory and Tolstoy's “Zeitgeist” theory provide two alternative explanations of historical events. Yet a quantitative study of the military career of Napoleon and his contemporaries demonstrates that both views account for a significant percentage of the variance in military success during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
CarlyleT.On heroes, hero-worship, and the heroic. London: Fraser, 1941.
2.
CattellJ. M.A statistical study of eminent men. Popular Science Monthly, 1903, 62, 359–377.
3.
DupuyR. N.DupuyT. N.The encyclopedia of military history. New York: Harper & Row, 1970.
4.
TolstoyL.War and peace. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1952. (Originally published 1865–1869).
