A time for heroes

Great Man Theory, 'pre-coronavirus,' and people who clean stuff for a living. Also: 7 other things worth your time.

Minor technical difficulties this morning. If you normally read this with your morning coffee, sorry for the delay. Maybe have another cup?

There’s a historical theory called the Great Man Theory. It suggests history is best explained via the biographies of men (and women, but it’s a 19th century theory so it mostly concerned men) who had outsized or even heroic influence on events.

Alexander the Great, Jesus Christ, Napoleon, George Washington, Winston Churchill, maybe Albert Einstein, etc.

The countertheory is what you might think of as a “people’s history” or a “social history” of the planet.

This is the idea that economic forces, along with biology, ecology, and other macro trends are the real story, and that the “great men” and “great women” arise largely as products of their times.

It’s more the study of regular people. For example, Churchill rose to his place in the world under this theory because of the seismic shifting of eras that occurred during his lifetime.

However, if Church…