Heroic Reputations and Exemplary Lives

Book excerpt: Covering periods ranging from the later Middle Ages to the end of the 20th century, these essays combine to offer a wide-ranging examination of the place of hero-worship and of exemplary biography in modern history and culture. The book seeks to contribute to a growing historical literature on the cults and reputations of heroes and other exemplary figures such as Plato, Isaac Newton, David Livingstone, Captain Scott, Florence Nightingale and Nelson Mandela. The essays explore and illustrate the diverse ways in which the lives and characters of specific individuals have been used as devices for talking about moral and cultural values and political and social identities.