Book description
Considered by some the most controversial American philosopher of contemporary times, SIDNEY HOOK (1902-1989) was infamous for the wild swing in his political thought over the course of his career, starting out as a young Marxist before the Great Depression and ending up a vehement anti-Communist in his later years.…
Why read it?
1 author picked The Hero in History as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Hook draws an interesting distinction in his book on heroes. He discusses two types of heroes: the eventful man and the event-making man. “The eventful man in history is any man whose actions influenced subsequent developments along a quite different course than would have been followed if those actions had not been taken. The event-making man is an eventful man whose actions are the consequence of outstanding capacities of intellect, will, and character rather than of accidents of position. This distinction tries to do justice to the general belief that a hero is great not merely in virtue of what…
From Andrew's list on celebrating heroes and heroism.
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