Heroic Reputations and Exemplary Lives - Softcover

Every age and society has its heroes--saints, martyrs, geniuses, cultural icons, or role models--whose lives are taken to be "exemplary." Such heroes serve not just to inspire others, but to instruct them: they are acclaimed not just for their achievements, but for the "exemplary" quality which allows their lives to serve as bearers of ideological and cultural meaning. These essays discuss the histories of individual reputations, their cultural meanings, and the cultural, political, social, economic, and intellectual processes by which such reputations are generated, sustained, interpreted, and exploited. A comprehensive examination of the place of hero-worship and of exemplary biography in modern history and culture, the book surveys Plato, Isaac Newton, David Livingstone, Captain Scott, Florence Nightingale, and Nelson Mandela.