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The study of history opens access into the past that provides understanding of the present day. It also allows us to analyze how individuals, nations, and communities might develop in the future. With regard to the role of the individual in history, under critical circumstances, Marxism thinks the individuals’ role can be decisive, the last decisive link in the chain of causality. What social forces or class interests lie behind the individual, and how well does he or she represent these forces? These give us the reasons why we should focus on “the famous few” while studying history; in addition, it is the famous few along with groups of surrounding people that made the significant historic events and trends possible in the given social condition.
Napoleon Bonaparte was one of the most brilliant militarists in history and an excellent civil administrator. He participated in over sixty battles and scored major victories with a modernized French army. His campaigns established a new epoch in military history and are still studied at military academies all over the world. Napoleon’s most enduring achievement as an emperor of France was codifying French laws. The Code Napoleon embodied many of the principles of the Revolution and made them permanent; it recognized equality before the law, the right to choose a profession, religious toleration, and the end of serfdom and feudalism. The Code Napoleon still forms the basis of French civil law today. Furthermore, Napoleon also provided France with a strong centralized government. He appointed prefects to administer regions as such the entire nation was linked together under rational administration. As H.A.L. Fisher said "it was Napoleon's function in history to fuse the old France with the new.” Indeed, it was this man who combined a passion for power with his genius for leadership facilitated the course of the French Revolution. On the other hand, the Revolution created Napoleon. Therefore, it is...