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853 s4s4s4s4s4 c h a p t e r 2 0a Of Some Tendencies Particular to Historians in Democratic Centuriesb Historians who write in aristocratic centuries ordinarily make all events depend on the particularwilland themoodof certainmen,andtheyreadily link the most important revolutions to the slightest accidents. They wisely make the smallest causes stand out, and often they do not see the greatest ones. Historians who live in democratic centuries show completely opposite tendencies. Most of them attribute to the individual almost no influence on the destiny of the species, or to citizens on the fate of the people.But,inreturn, they give great general causes to all the small particular facts. [In their eyes, a. 1. Aristocratic historians attribute all events to a few men. Democratic historians are led to deny the particular influence of men on the destiny of the species and of the people and to search only for general causes. There is exaggeration on both sides. In all events, one part must be attributed to general facts and another to particular influences. But the relationship varies depending on the times. General facts explain more things in democratic centuries and particular influences fewer. 2. Democratic historians are led not only to attribute each fact to a great cause, but also to link facts together and to produce historical systems. 3. Not only are they inclined to contest the power of individuals to lead peoples, but they are easily led to contest the ability of peoples to modify their destinies by themselves and they subject them to a sort of blind fatality (YTC, CVf, p. 21). One of the titles of the chapter in the rubish is: influence of equality of conditions on the manner of envisaging and writing history. b. On the jacket of the manuscript, in pencil: “Historians of antiquity did not treat history like Mignet and company.” 854 historians in democratic centuries all events are linked together by a tight and necessary chain, and therefore they sometimes end up by denying nations control over themselves and by contesting the liberty of having been able to do what they did.]c These contrasting tendencies can be explained. When historians in aristocratic centuries cast their eyes on the world theater, they notice first of all a very small number of principal actors who lead thewholeplay.Thesegreatcharacters,whokeepthemselvesatthefront of the stage, stop their view and hold it; while they apply themselves to uncovering the secret motives that make the latter actand speak,theyforget the rest. The importance of the things that they see a few men do gives them an exaggerated idea of the influence that one man is able to exercise, and naturally disposes them to believe that you must always go back to the particular action of an individual to explain the movements of the crowd. When, on the contrary, all citizens are independent of each other, and when each one of them is weak, you do not discover any one of them who exercises a very great or, above all, a very enduring power over the mass. At first view, individuals seem absolutely powerless over the mass, and you would say that society moves all by itself by the free and spontaneous participation of all the men who compose it.d That naturally leads the human mind to search for the general reason c. In the margin: “” Cf. p. 858. A note in the Rubish explains: “This chapter is very closely linked to that on general ideas. It must be combined there or be kept very separate from it” (Rubish, 1). d. “Be careful while treating this subject about wanting to portray history and not historians, what is happening in the world and not the manner in which historians explain it” (Rubish, 1). In the article “Movement of the French Press in 1836,” Revue des deux mondes, 4th series, X, 1837, pp. 453–98, which Tocqueville utilized for the draft of chapter 2, you find similar affirmations. “It is no longer only a matter,” you read on p. 464, “as in the past, of putting in the forefront the figures of great men and of moving into the background the vague and unappreciated action of the masses. Our century, which wants to know everything and which doubts everything, seems to prefer facts and proofs to thesestriking tableaux in which the art of composition and the wisdom of judgments testify to the power of the writer better than the clutter of citations.” [3.144.84.155] Project...

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