Some historians want a single hero. An Alexander the Great, Caesar or Napoleon. A single unifying force to tie the story together and keep it simple.
Others want a dry dissertation of forces where the actions of individuals don't matter. All that matters is the inevitable march of principles.
History is not so simple. It's a chaotic system. Individual actions count, so do situation and circumstance. Stuck in a hole, whether actual or metaphorical, if there's no way out, your genius or heroic visage isn't going to matter. Or it could be that helping an old lady across the street, or failing to do so, may change the world.
This is a story of people whose circumstances allowed their actions to matter a great deal.
—G. Huff