Reformists and Radicals in Hungary 5. [antikvár]

On Historical Biographies Introductory Remarks 1. The masses and the creative individual Modem historiography discovered the role of the masses in history at the beginning of the 20th century. The historians, the children of the age themselves, felt mass phenomena in their everyday life, in the streets, at the universities or just reading the newspapers. They saw mass parties appear on the scene, mass products pouring out of factories owing to the industrial - technical revolution, and felt their impact on the environment.They could also see how the „lower classes" of society entered culture and politics throng the extension of public education. A new discipline was bom to examine mass phenomena in society called sociology. Human connections and institutions seemed to determine and set limits to all deeds of an individual, so historians tended to concentrate on the motives behind and effects of mass phenomena m the whole of human history. This was a great revelation to our profession in the early 20th century. Historiography developed branches like economic history,social history and the history of mass culture. Tuming away fwm the role of the individuals in setting the course of history, historiography rejected also the genre of biography. Historians concentrated their attention on social types, economic trends and rules, and neglected the activities and passions of the individuals. This was the main trend of historiography in the first part of our century and was thought to be the only p-ogressive way of approaching history. But is it really inevitable to give up the research of how certain individuals determined the course of events in history? Is it really superfluous to know how far iruiividuals influenced what we think of as conforming to that laws of society, such as the fall of empires or wars of liberty, or the emergence of social classes? A person cunning enough and able to recognize situations who can wait for the most appropriate time of action, and organize the most suitable activities can have great influence on the political and economic processes in a whole region A man like this can keep them under control, but a different character can have quite the opposite effect on his country and community. 2. Biography and the new genres of historiography Historiography should make use of the new mass media in the service of spreading culture and information. Such are for example the radio, the film, and the television. While in the 19th century historiography exploited all available means for this purpose, namely the books and the lectures, the historians of today do not keep pace with the ever wider possibilities. In these days, the public acquires information mostly through films, television programmes, video films and radio programmes. Historiography has turned to be conservative in relying