Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Quotes
To say that there is a case for heroes is not to say that there is a case for hero worship. The surrender of decision, the unquestioning submission to leadership, the prostration of the average man before the Great Man -- these are the diseases of heroism, and they are fatal to human dignity. History amply shows that it is possible to have heroes without turning them into gods. And history shows, too, that when a society, in flight from hero worship, decides to do without great men at all, it gets into troubles of its own.
Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr. The Politics of Hope. Houghton Mifflin, 1962, p. 27.
1st Baron Tweedsmuir
This was written under the name of Ragnar Redbeard. There are a few scholars who believe that it was written by Jack London, but most credit Desmond.
Bart was unfamiliar with Court and his language lacked the refinement of the French Nobility. However he was the best naval officer in France and most French Nobles at the time could speak eloquently but could not do much else well.
Thomson had thousands of pages of notes, minutes and other documents as a result of his role as Secretary of the Continental Congress. There was much in the documents to embarrass many of the patriots who after the Revolution were the “great men of the nation.” Although he was expected to write a history, he translated the Bible and studied bee keeping instead and reputations of some of the Founding Fathers were not tarnished.
This quotation about George Washington is one of the best complements ever paid to any political leader.
Smyth was one of the leading historians in England in the first half of the 19th century. His title was Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University. One of his areas was the American Revolutionary War where he was very critical of the English policies and implementation of the war which he thought was needlessly provoked by the Parliamentary majority at the time. He was a great admirer of George Washington and considered him one of the great men of all time.’
Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. was an American historian, social critic, and public intellectual. The son of the influential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. and a specialist in American history, much of Schlesinger's work explored the history of 20th-century American liberalism. In particular, his work focused on leaders such as Harry S. Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy. In the 1952 and 1956 presidential campaigns, he was a primary speechwriter and adviser to the Democratic presidential nominee, Adlai Stevenson II. Schlesinger served as special assistant and "court historian" to President Kennedy from 1961 to 1963. He wrote a detailed account of the Kennedy administration, from the 1960 presidential campaign to the president's state funeral, titled A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House, which won the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.
