"In U.S. historiography, as in American popular culture, historians have tended to over-emphasize the role of the individual in history. Great men are identified as founders and leaders; they become the virtual representatives of the movement: William Lloyd Garrison for abolition, Eugene Debs for the socialist movement, Martin Luther King Jr. for the civil rights movement. In fact, no mass movement of any significance is carried forward by and dependent upon one leader, or one symbol. There are always leaders of subgroups, of local and regional organizations, competing leaders representing differing viewpoints, and, of course, the ground troops of anonymous activists. And, as can be shown in each of the above cases, emphasis on the "great man" omits women, minorities, many of the actual agents of social change. In so doing it gives a partial, an erroneous picture of how social change was actually achieved in the past and thereby fosters apathy and confusion about how social change can be made in the present."
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Activists from the United StatesLabor activistsSocialists from the United StatesDemocratic socialistsPoliticians from Indiana
Original Language: English
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Gerda Lerner Living With History / Making Social Change (2009)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eugene_V._Debs
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Eugene V. Debs
Eugene Victor Debs (5 November 1855 – 20 October 1926) was an American labor and political leader and five-time Socialist Party candidate for President of the United States.
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