Leo Tolstoy, in an essay about War and Peace, debates whether history is shaped by Historical Forces or by Great Men. Indeed, War and Peace itself is Tolstoy’s way of exploring this dichotomy. He comes down on the side of Historical Forces. He downplays the importance of Great Men. Great Men, he says, are thrown up when needed by powerful Historical Forces that are beyond anyone’s control. If one historical Great Man didn’t exist, then Historical Forces would toss up another to take his place.
Powerful Historical Forces do exist, and we are caught up in them. The rest of Tolstoy’s thesis is problematic. There is something much deeper going on that I believe Tolstoy missed. He failed to ask what causes Historical Forces. He did not recognize that occasionally a single individual can be a pivot around which history itself revolves to proceed in an entirely new direction.
This pivotal individual might be the creator of an idea, or he might be a leader at a critical time.
Consider ideas. The insights of the great spiritual leaders engendered the great religions which have shaped human history. Much more recently the world has suffered from Karl Marx. His seductive ideas have spawned several competing secular cults: Communism, Socialism, National Socialism, Fascism, Maoism. Marx even deeply influenced Progressivism. Progressivism was an American creation, but, under the influence of Marx, it became equally pernicious. All these children of Marx promise the delusional perfectibility of mankind. All these Marxian cults are collectivist in nature. There is no room for the individual in the world of Marx or the progressives. Marx does not fit within Tolstoy’s thesis.
A distinctly different type of historical pivot is the truly great man. If that specific individual, not some generalized “Great Man,” had not stepped onto to the stage history would have been very different. The classic example where a unique individual changed the course of history is Winston Churchill. When Churchill was named prime minister, England was already defeated and its government accepted defeat. Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax had already started to negotiate surrender terms. Churchill said no! Churchill recognized, and drew upon, something deep in British culture. Through the force of his will Churchill amplified that unique spirit until it became the immovable object which stopped and ultimately defeated Germany. Thus, Churchill deflected the historical direction of increasing world totalitarianism by calling up a counterforce which lay latent in the British people. Churchill was a pivot of history. Churchill does not fit within Tolstoy’s thesis.
For a century America has been wrestling with its own fight against totalitarianism. This is the contest between Constitutionalism and...
