The Role of Great Men in History [1956]

LUSTGARTEN: In this edition of London Forum Lord Hailsham and 30 Bertrand Russell are joined by Isaiah Berlin, who is a Fellow of All Souls College at Oxford, a distinction once shared by Lord Hailsham. Mr. Berlin has been University Lecturer in Philosophy, and during the war he worked at the British Embassy in Washington, and later in Moscow. We are going to discuss today the role of great men in history, and I would like to put before you as a text a sentence from A History of the English Speaking Peoples by Sir Winston Churchill, himself perhaps the greatest man of our age. Sir Winston talks of the way the Saxons nearly succumbed completely to the Danish attacks, and says: “That they did not was due, as almost every critical turn of historic fortune has been due, 40 to the sudden apparition in an era of confusion and decay of one of the great figures of history.” I am no professional historian, but it seems to me that in that sentence Churchill is stating clearly what his philosophy of history is. Do you agree with Sir Winston?