ABSTRACT
Mass innovation, large patrimonies, and incremental advance are obvious in virtually every part of the social sciences. As the example of Isaac Newton suggests, major innovations rely on their patrimony. Most technological innovations are also incremental; they streamline the production process, make the device more efficient, more user-friendly, or they save on maintenance costs. A study of historical geography suggests that methodological innovations are absorbed rapidly indeed into the patrimony, being either rejected or quickly absorbed into nonmethodological writings through which the methods are passed on. The prevalence of simultaneous innovation shows very clearly the extent to which stressing a few stars is misleading. Yet the unsung researchers and their smaller advances nonetheless play a part, and focusing only on the contributions of the “stars” is unfair for the hundreds of scholars thus overlooked. The star system greatly understates the role of thousands of scholars.
