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47-604: D. Michael Quinn dates new Mormon history as beginning in 1950 with Juanita Brooks' publication of "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" by Stanford University Press . He notes, however, that it had been gaining momentum even before that, citing that B. H. Roberts —church historian from 1901 until his death in 1933—"exemplified much of the philosophy later identified with the New Mormon History." Clyde R. Forsberg Jr. credits Leonard J. Arrington , beginning in

94-477: A Special Committee in 1927 comprising the editor, the press manager, the sales manager, and the comptroller in service of the press, whose "principal object is to serve in the publication of University publications of all sorts and to promote human welfare generally." The first press director, Donald P. Bean, was appointed in 1945. By the 1950s, the printing plant ranked seventh nationally among university presses with respect to title output. The head book designer in

141-552: A role or show exceptional qualities, he saw Great Men as inevitable products of productive cultures. He noted for example that if Isaac Newton had not lived, calculus would have still been discovered by Gottfried Leibniz , and suspected that if neither man had lived, it would have been discovered by someone else. Among modern critics of the theory, Sidney Hook is supportive of the idea; he gives credit to those who shape events through their actions, and his book The Hero in History

188-607: A similar detached tone. New Mormon historians often published with the University of Illinois Press in order to publish for an academic audience independent of the church. Charles S. Peterson argued in The Great Basin Kingdom Revisited that Arrington took an exceptionalist view of Mormon history, which he then taught to other New Mormon historians. This exceptionalist view was that they could believe in both secular history and orthodox Mormon views of

235-425: Is an approach to the study of history popularised in the 19th century according to which history can be largely explained by the impact of great men , or heroes : highly influential and unique individuals who, due to their natural attributes, such as superior intellect, heroic courage, extraordinary leadership abilities, or divine inspiration, have a decisive historical effect. The theory is primarily attributed to

282-477: Is devoted to the role of the hero and in history and influence of the outstanding persons . In the introduction to a new edition of Heroes and Hero-Worship , David R. Sorensen notes the modern decline in support for Carlyle's theory in particular but also for "heroic distinction" in general. He cites Robert K. Faulkner as an exception, a proponent of Aristotelian magnanimity who in his book The Case for Greatness: Honorable Ambition and Its Critics , criticizes

329-456: Is home to academic trade books, professional titles, texts for course use, and monographs that explore the social science side of business. SUP's digital projects initiative, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, advances a formal channel for peer review and publication of born-digital scholarly works in the fields of digital humanities and computational social sciences. Major award won by

376-655: Is one of the oldest academic presses in the United States and the first university press to be established on the West Coast. It is currently a member of the Association of University Presses . The press publishes 130 books per year across the humanities, social sciences, and business, and has more than 3,500 titles in print. David Starr Jordan , the first president of Stanford University, posited four propositions to Leland and Jane Stanford when accepting

423-562: Is usually contrasted with " history from below ", which emphasizes the life of the masses creating overwhelming waves of smaller events which carry leaders along with them. Another contrasting school is historical materialism . Carlyle stated that "The History of the world is but the Biography of great men", reflecting his belief that heroes shape history through both their personal attributes and divine inspiration. In his book Heroes and Hero-Worship , Carlyle saw history as having turned on

470-626: The John Whitmer Historical Association in 1972. In 1974, Claudia Bushman and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich founded the magazine Exponent II . The first issue of BYU Studies was published in 1959. Also in 1972, the LDS Church hired Leonard Arrington as their historian. During Arrington's time as historian, Mormon and non-Mormon historians were allowed to access the LDS Church Archives . Much of

517-494: The "conditions of the crater of Vesuvius has to do with the flickering of this gas by which I write". James argues that genetic anomalies in the brains of these great men are the decisive factor by introducing an original influence into their environment. They might therefore offer original ideas, discoveries, inventions and perspectives which "would not, in the mind of another individual, have engendered just that conclusion ... It flashes out of one brain, and no other, because

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564-640: The 12th century until the French Revolution in the late 18th century and their influence on the course of historical events. The Great Man approach to history was most fashionable with professional historians in the 19th century; a popular work of this school is the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1911) which contains lengthy and detailed biographies about the great men of history, but very few general or social histories. For example, all information on

611-586: The 1950s, with having "led the charge" of new Mormon history, with non-Mormon scholars Thomas O'Dea and Whitney O. Cross responding in kind with "less prejudiced and more informed monographs on Mormonism". In the 1960s, a new generation of Mormon scholars emerged. The publication of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought , the newly-established Mormon History Association, and the professionalization of LDS and RLDS history departments provided spaces for historians to do new research in Mormon topics. RLDS scholars founded

658-481: The Briefs imprint in 2012, featuring short-form publications across its entire list. With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, SUP debuted a publishing program for born-digital interactive scholarly works in 2015. That same year, it launched its trade imprint, Redwood Press, with a novel by Bahiyyah Nakhjavani . In April 2019, the provost of Stanford University announced plans to cease providing funds for

705-571: The Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher Thomas Carlyle , who gave a series of lectures on heroism in 1840, later published as On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History , in which he states: Universal History, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here. They were the leaders of men, these great ones;

752-412: The crimes of the 'great men.' These optimists forget that the common people too are greedy and envious and when resisted tend to turn to collective violence." Burckhardt predicted that the belittling of great men would lead to a lowering of standards and rise in mediocrity generally. Mark Twain suggests in his essay " The United States of Lyncherdom " that "moral cowardice" is "the commanding feature of

799-422: The crucible for the selection process of future geniuses. In the words of William James, "If we were to remove these geniuses or alter their idiosyncrasies, what increasing uniformities would the environment exhibit?" James challenges Mr. Spencer or anyone else to provide a reply. According to James, there are two distinct factors driving social evolution: personal agents and the impact of their unique qualities on

846-458: The decisions, works, ideas, and characters of "heroes", giving detailed analysis of six types: The hero as divinity (such as Odin ), prophet (such as Muhammad ), poet (such as Shakespeare ), priest (such as Martin Luther ), man of letters (such as Rousseau ), and king (such as Napoleon ). Carlyle also argued that the study of great men was "profitable" to one's own heroic side; that by examining

893-727: The designation "No. 1" in the "Leland Stanford Junior University Monographs Series." That same year, student Julius Andrew Quelle established a printing company on campus, publishing the student-run newspaper, the Daily Palo Alto (now the Stanford Daily ) and Stanford faculty articles and books. The first use of the imprint "Stanford University Press" was in 1895, with The Story of the Innumerable Company , by President Jordan. In 1915, Quelle hired bookbinder John Borsdamm, who would later draw fellow craftspeople to

940-660: The genesis of a great man depends on the long series of complex influences which has produced the race in which he appears, and the social state into which that race has slowly grown. ... Before he can remake his society, his society must make him. William James , in his 1880 lecture "Great Men, Great Thoughts, and the Environment", published in the Atlantic Monthly , forcefully defended Carlyle and refuted Spencer, condemning what James viewed as an "impudent", "vague", and "dogmatic" argument. James ' defence of

987-441: The great man is preserved then the environment is changed by his influence in "an entirely original and peculiar way. He acts as a ferment, and changes its constitution, just as the advent of a new zoological species changes the faunal and floral equilibrium of the region in which it appears." Each ferment, each great man, exerts a new influence on their environment which is either embraced or rejected and if embraced will in turn shape

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1034-608: The great man theory can be summarized as follows: The unique physiological nature of the individual is the deciding factor in making the great man, who, in turn, is the deciding factor in changing his environment in a unique way, without which the new environment would not have come to be, wherein the extent and nature of this change is also dependent on the reception of the environment to this new stimulus. To begin his argument, he first sardonically claims that these inherent physiological qualities have as much to do with "social, political, geographical [and] anthropological conditions" as

1081-1020: The increased interest in Mormon women led to more publications focused on them. Scholars published biographies of Emma Smith, Eliza Snow, Emmeline B. Wells, and Amy Brown Lyman. Some writers looked at Mormon women's history with the goal of restructuring historical narratives. Mormon feminist articles on Mormon history started with the special Summer 1971 issue of Dialogue on women's issues and continued in publications like Exponent II (starting in 1974), and Mormon Sisters: Women in Early Utah (1976), edited by Claudia Bushman . Beecher and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich edited another volume about Mormon women's history in Sisters in Sprit: Mormon Women in Historical and Cultural Perspective (1987). Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism (1992)

1128-407: The instability of that brain is such as to tip and upset itself in just that particular direction." James then argues that these spontaneous variations of genius, i.e. the great men , which are causally independent of their social environment, subsequently influence that environment which in turn will either preserve or destroy the newly encountered variations in a form of evolutionary selection. If

1175-464: The label total history . The movement was contrasted with the traditional ways of writing history which particularly characterized the 19th century, resisting their focus on politics and " great men "; their insistence on composing historical narrative ; their emphasis on administrative documents as key source materials; their concern with individuals' motivations and intentions as explanatory factors for historical events; and their willingness to accept

1222-659: The late 1950s and 1960s was printer and typographer Jack Stauffacher , later an AIGA medalist. In 1999, the press became a division of the Stanford University Libraries . It moved from its previous location adjacent to the Stanford campus to its current location, in Redwood City, in 2012–13. Stanford Business Books, an imprint for professional titles in business, launched in 2000, with two publications about Silicon Valley . The press launched

1269-407: The lives led by such heroes, one could not help but uncover something about one's own true nature. As Sidney Hook notes, a common misinterpretation of the theory is that "all factors in history, save great men, were inconsequential", whereas Carlyle is instead claiming that great men are the decisive factor, owing to their unique genius. Hook then goes on to emphasize this uniqueness to illustrate

1316-535: The make-up of 9,999 men in the 10,000" and that "from the beginning of the world no revolt against a public infamy or oppression has ever been begun but by the one daring man in the 10,000, the rest timidly waiting, and slowly and reluctantly joining, under the influence of that man and his fellows from the other ten thousands." In 1926, William Fielding Ogburn noted that Great Men history was being challenged by newer interpretations that focused on wider social forces. While not seeking to deny that individuals could have

1363-432: The modellers, patterns, and in a wide sense creators, of whatsoever the general mass of men contrived to do or to attain; all things that we see standing accomplished in the world are properly the outer material result, the practical realisation and embodiment, of Thoughts that dwelt in the Great Men sent into the world: the soul of the whole world's history, it may justly be considered, were the history of these. This theory

1410-666: The non-Mormons Thomas F. O'Dea, P. A. M. Taylor, Mario De Pillis , Lawrence Foster, the Community of Christ member Robert Flanders, and the Mormon scholar Kalus Hansen. Maureen Ursenbach Beecher was a leading researcher in women's studies . In the 1970s women's biographies were published, but not integrated into larger narratives. Other women hired by the Church Historical Department included Jill Mulvay Derr, Carol Cornwall Madsen, and Edyth Romney. Journals dedicated special issues to Mormon women, and

1457-431: The odds to defeat rivals while inspiring followers along the way. Theorists say that these leaders were then born with a specific set of traits and attributes that make them ideal candidates for leadership and roles of authority and power. This theory relies then heavily on born rather than made, nature rather than nurture and cultivates the idea that those in power deserve to lead and shouldn't be questioned because they have

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1504-592: The overall course of events. He thus concludes: "Both factors are essential to change. The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community." Before the 19th century, Blaise Pascal begins his Three Discourses on the Condition of the Great (written it seems for a young duke) by telling the story of a castaway on an island whose inhabitants take him for their missing king. He defends in his parable of

1551-504: The point: " Genius is not the result of compounding talent. How many battalions are the equivalent of a Napoleon? How many minor poets will give us a Shakespeare? How many run of the mine scientists will do the work of an Einstein ?" American scholar Frederick Adams Woods supported the great man theory in his work The Influence of Monarchs: Steps in a New Science of History . Woods investigated 386 rulers in Western Europe from

1598-424: The political bias in discussions on greatness and heroism, stating: "the new liberalism’s antipathy to superior statesmen and to human excellence is peculiarly zealous, parochial, and antiphilosophic." Ian Kershaw wrote in 1998 that "The figure of Hitler , whose personal attributes – distinguished from his political aura and impact – were scarcely noble, elevating or enriching, posed self-evident problems for such

1645-487: The possibility of historians' objectivity . Quinn, referring to Brooks' history of the Mountain Meadows massacre , states that new Mormon history began with her in that she "avoided seven deadly sins of traditional Mormon history." Quinn identifies these "sins" as: Stanford University Press Stanford Briefs Stanford University Press ( SUP ) is the publishing house of Stanford University . It

1692-604: The post, the last of which stipulated, "That provision be made for the publication of the results of any important research on the part of professors, or advanced students. Such papers may be issued from time to time as 'Memoirs of the Leland Stanford Junior University.'" In 1892, the first work of scholarship to be published under the Stanford name, The Tariff Controversy in the United States, 1789-1833 , by Orrin Leslie Elliott, appeared with

1739-600: The post-Roman " Migrations Period " of European History is compiled under the biography of Attila the Hun . This heroic view of history was also strongly endorsed by some philosophers, such as Léon Bloy , Søren Kierkegaard , Oswald Spengler and Max Weber . Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel , proceeding from providentialist theory, argued that "what is real is reasonable" and World-Historical individuals are World-Spirit's agents. Hegel wrote: "Such are great historical men—whose own particular aims involve those large issues which are

1786-460: The press and its publications are as follows: In 1933, David Lamson, a sales manager at SUP, was accused of murdering his wife, Allene, at their home on the Stanford campus. Janet Lewis , wife of Stanford poet Yvor Winters , campaigning for Lamson's acquittal, wrote a pamphlet emphasizing the dangers of using circumstantial evidence. Lamson was ultimately released after being tried four times. Theory of great men The great man theory

1833-560: The press, drawing widespread criticism. Following protests from Stanford faculty and students, as well as the wider academic and publishing community, the subsidy for the 2019–20 academic year was reinstated, with additional options for future fundraising on the press's part to be discussed. Redwood Press publishes books written for a trade audience, spanning a variety of topics, by both academics and non-academic writers. Stanford Briefs are essay-length works published across SUP's various disciplines. The Stanford Business Books imprint

1880-417: The press, including master printer and eventual manager Will A. Friend. In 1917, the university bought the printing works, making it a division of Stanford. In 1925, SUP hired William Hawley Davis, Professor of English, to be the inaugural general editor at the press. In the following year, SUP issued its first catalog, listing seventy-five published books. University President Ray Lyman Wilbur established

1927-410: The research in the 1970s used these newly-available sources to examine church history, sometimes in great detail. Leonard Arrington influenced important scholars of Mormon history, including Richard Jensen , William Hartley , and Ronald Walker . In 1969, Jewish historian Moses Rischin named the increasing amount of Mormon scholarship "the New Mormon History". The "New Mormon History" movement included

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1974-507: The restoration. New Mormon history is but a reflection of the change in writing history overall that took root in the 20th century. Quinn states that "the New Mormon History includes all of the ingredients of 'new history' in America at large but has one crucial addition: the effort to avoid using history as a religious battering ram." The new historical movement's inclusive definition of the proper matter of historical study has also given it

2021-445: The shipwrecked king, that the legitimacy of the greatness of great men is fundamentally custom and chance. A coincidence that gives birth to him in the right place with noble parents and arbitrary custom deciding, for example, on an unequal distribution of wealth in favor of the nobles. Leo Tolstoy 's War and Peace features criticism of great-man theories as a recurring theme in the philosophical digressions. According to Tolstoy,

2068-454: The significance of great individuals is imaginary; as a matter of fact they are only "history's slaves," realizing the decree of Providence. Jacob Burckhardt affirmed the historical existence of great men in politics, even excusing the rarity among them to possess "greatness of soul", or magnanimity : "Contemporaries believe that if people will only mind their own business political morality will improve of itself and history will be purged of

2115-402: The unique traits that make them suited for the position. One of the most forceful critics of Carlyle's formulation of the great man theory was Herbert Spencer , who believed that attributing historical events to the decisions of individuals was an unscientific position. He believed that the men Carlyle supposed "great men" are merely products of their social environment: You must admit that

2162-728: The will of the World-Spirit." Thus, according to Hegel, a great man does not create historical reality himself but only uncovers the inevitable future. In Untimely Meditations , Friedrich Nietzsche writes that "the goal of humanity lies in its highest specimens". Although Nietzsche's body of work shows some overlap with Carlyle's line of thought, Nietzsche expressly rejected Carlyle's hero cult in Ecce Homo . This theory rests on two main assumptions, as pointed out by Villanova University : This theory, and history, claims these great leaders as heroes that were able to rise against

2209-531: Was another milestone in feminist publications, and it encouraged Mormon women to be empowered by their history and "reclaim lost opportunities." Most new Mormon historians were LDS. Their audience was Mormon intellectuals and non-Mormons. They maintained their respect for the Mormon faith, admitted to flaws in people and policies, and avoided taking a defensive stance, a tone which non-Mormon historian Jan Shipps wrote "made them seem more secular than they actually were." Mormon history by non-Mormons at this time had

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