Carlyle Reconsidered

In this post, Claire Berlinski considers the words of Thomas Carlyle - this sentence specifically: "The History of the world is but the Biography of great men." Here's my take: I find some truth in that statement. Presently, social history dominates much of the historical profession. Within social history's paradigm, the accomplishments of prominent men (and women) are cast aside in favor of perceived broad social trends; the paradigm is ultimately rooted in the belief that circumstances dictate outcomes, and that the influence of individuals is, at best, minimal. It is a proposition that implies inevitability.

And inevitability in history is a proposition with which I strongly disagree. Individuals matter. Individual decisions matter. Nothing is inevitable. And on many an occasion, the determination of a single person has changed the course of a war, a nation, and a people.

Consider the case of Oliver Hazard Perry and the Battle of Lake Erie, one of the key battles of the War of 1812. On September 10, 1813, Commodore Perry inspired his men to a decisive victory over the British Navy's Great Lakes fleet, flying a naval standard from his flagship, the USS Lawrence, which read "Don't Give Up the Ship." During the course of the battle, the Lawrence suffered severe damage and Perry was forced to transfer his command to the USS Niagara - carrying his naval standard with him. But despite this setback, which might have turned the tide against them, Perry and his men fought on and ultimately dealt the British war effort in North America a mortal blow, effectively ending the possibility of an invasion of the Ohio River Valley. Perry then related the news of his triumph to General William Henry Harrison with this terse message: "We have met the enemy, and they are ours."

Perry enjoyed his subsequent fame for only six years. In 1819, on an expedition up the Orinoco River in Venezuela, he contracted yellow fever and passed away. He was survived by his younger brother, Matthew Calbraith Perry, who in 1853-54 led a diplomatic naval expedition to Japan, successfully convincing that country's government to to begin engaging in open trade with the United States (and subsequently, the rest of the Western world). Since the early 1600s, Japan had maintained a policy of strict political and economic isolation - its only contact with the Western world being with a handful of Dutch traders allowed to visit Nagasaki (and re-supply a handful of Dutch merchants living at the nearby island of Deshima) once a year.

Returning to the subject of Oliver Perry and his naval standard, the phrase "Don't Give Up the Ship" had been coined just three months earlier by Perry's friend, Captain James Lawrence of the USS Chesapeake. On June 4, 1813, the Chesapeake engaged the British frigate HMS Shannon off of the Atlantic coast, and during the fight Captain Lawrence was mortally wounded. As he lay dying, Lawrence allegedly said "Don't give up the ship! Fight her till she sinks." Nonetheless, shortly thereafter the Chesapeake was stormed by a British boarding party and the vessel hauled off to Halifax, Nova Scotia. But Lawrence's brave words lived on, inspiring Perry to achieve the victory that had been denied to his friend.

Though it is not always so, in this case history was most definitely the biography of a great man. Just as Horace noted that even Homer sometimes nods, occasionally even an "insufferable windbag" like Carlyle can make a valid point.