![]() As a result, authors are often tempted to fall into extremes in their portrayals of historical figures: they can give a scissors-and-paste treatment of the past which makes the temporal background of their subjects wooden, or they can so water down the background as to make the heroes of the books seem like people who exist in a timeless realm in which, but for the lack of electric lights and television sets, people seem very much as they are today.Īnother problem is created by the fact that the lives of great men are often inner and, as such, are not filled with the physical adventures which make for the exciting, fast-paced narrative enjoyed by children. Such an approach creates many problems, for the great man exists very much as a part of his own times and most young children have not developed the historical consciousness necessary to understand fully this relationship. ![]() Thomas Carlyle's statement that "the history of the world is but the biography of great men" established a point of view that strongly influenced the writing of biography throughout the 19th Century and which, in large measure, still influences the writing of biography for children. ![]()
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