Review: History's People - The Jewish Chronicle

By Margaret MacMillan
Profile, £14.99

How much do individuals shape the course of events? Or is history the product of much wider forces, such as economic and social change, or technological and scientific advances?

The Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan, an expert on the causes and consequences of the First World War and now warden of St Anthony's College, Oxford, thinks it is a combination of the two but is still fascinated by the role individuals play at key moments in history. If Napoleon or Hitler had not seized their moment, would the world have taken a very different course?

In this frequently thought-provoking book, Professor MacMillan examines a variety of individuals who either seized their moment, were destroyed by hubris, showed great daring to achieve their goals, or simply observed what was going on around them, to the benefit of subsequent generations. The last two categories contain some of her most interesting reflections because the people she writes about are less well known, if they are known at all.

Particularly revealing are mini-portraits of British women who explored far-flung corners of the globe, recording in priceless detail the people and civilisations they encountered.

These include Elizabeth Simcoe in late 18th-century Canada, Fanny Parkes in 19th-century India and Edith Durham in the 20th-century Balkans.

In the category of historical witness, she rightly includes Victor Klemperer, the assimilated Jewish academic who recorded in his daily diary the growing horrors of living through the Nazi era in Germany, which came to light after his death in 1960 and were published in two riveting volumes (a third described his life in post-war East Germany).

MacMillan's book consists of last year's Massey lectures, an annual series of talks on Canadian radio, resulting in a distinctly Canadian bias that can lead to some odd conclusions.

In the great-leader category we have Bismarck, Franklin Roosevelt - and William Lyon Mackenzie King, three times prime minister of Canada between 1921 and 1948, notably during the Second World War, when he led his country into the conflict despite strong opposition at home. Still, even his most ardent supporters would hardly rate him alongside Bismarck and Roosevelt.

Rather mischievously, MacMillan includes Margaret Thatcher in her chapter on politicians who self-destructed - along with Hitler, Stalin (who, she later admits, doesn't belong there at all) and Woodrow Wilson. She does emphasise that she does not mean to compare two democratic politicians with the 20th century's worst dictators, only that their lives or careers ended through hubris.

Mrs Thatcher may have been the author of her own downfall but MacMillan's potted history of her political career is a travesty. You will find no mention of her huge achievements, apart from the Falklands victory. Of her transformation of the UK economy, union reforms and pivotal role in helping to end the Cold War there is nothing. By any standard, she was a far more influential, global figure than Mackenzie King, but you would never guess it from this book.