War & Peace Podnotes, A Study Guide

Tolstoy presents his view on how academics view history. He argues that the efforts of historians have limited reliability. Tolstoy embarks on the path of grappling with the nature of power. He urges avoiding the trap of thinking Great Men move people. Instead, it is actually people (like you) who combine when they are willing to move. It is people like You who do all the heavy lifting and rarely get any of the credit.Tolstoy initially describes biographers of famous personages as well as authors of histories related to specific people of a country (say the French or Danish). He sees these authors as attributing power to rulers or heroes in a superficial manner. This is the way he sees the way Julius Caesar or Napoleon are analyzed - as super-humans with incredible logistical knowledge who moved the course of humanity.  He feels such works are limited by subjective views filled with bias. Some works try to deify so-called Great Men but others are overly critical of them. Tolstoy believes accuracy is undermine