Scottish writer THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881) is perhaps best remembered today for dubbing economics "the dismal science," but in his day he was widely known-and often controversial-for his criticism of the "progress" of the Industrial Revolution, for his satires in the vein of Jonathan Swift, and for his championing of German Romantic poetry to English readers.This 1841 volume collects six of Carlyle's lectures on heroes, which offered a damning critique of the rising faceless corporatism and the denigration of the individual that the Industrial Revolution was promoting. Honoring the power of great men to change history, Carlyle discusses: The hero as divinity: Odin, Paganism, and Scandinavian mythology The hero as prophet: Mahomet and Islam The hero as poet: Dante and Shakespeare The hero as priest: Luther, Reformation by Knox, and Puritanism The hero as man of letters: Johnson, Rousseau, and Burns The hero as king: Cromwell, Napoleon, and modern revolutionism

DIVBased on a series of lectures delivered in 1840, Thomas Carlyle’s On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History considers the creation of heroes and the ways they exert heroic leadership. From the divine and prophetic (Odin and Muhammad) to the poetic (Dante and Shakespeare) to the religious (Luther and Knox) to the political (Cromwell and Napoleon), Carlyle investigates the mysterious qualities that elevate humans to cultural significance. By situating the text in the context of six essays by distinguished scholars that reevaluate both Carlyle’s work and his ideas, David Sorensen and Brent Kinser argue that Carlyle's concept of heroism stresses the hero’s spiritual dimension. In Carlyle’s engagement with various heroic personalities, he dislodges religiosity from religion, myth from history, and truth from “quackery” as he describes the wondrous ways in which these “flowing light-fountains” unlock the heroic potential of ordinary human beings. /div

Carlyle’s classic exploration of heroes and heroic leadership is accompanied by essays that reevaluate the spiritual, rather than the authoritarian, roots of his thought.

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Sartor Resartus, and On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History is a book by Thomas Carlyle. Carlyle was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. Excerpt: " We come now to the last form of Heroism; that which we call Kingship. The Commander over men; he to whose will our wills are to be subordinated, and loyally surrender themselves, and find their welfare in doing so, may be reckoned the most important of Great Men. He is practically the summary for us of all the various figures of Heroism; Priest, Teacher, whatsoever of earthly or of spiritual dignity we can fancy to reside in a man, embodies itself here, to command over us, to furnish us with constant practical teaching, to tell us for the day and hour what we are to do. He is called Rex, Regulator, Roi: our own name is still better; King, Könning, which means Can-ning, Ableman."