“It has always seemed odd to me that in recent decades many historians belittled the role of the individual and focused principally on the power of ‘anonymous masses.’ As if Lenin and Mussolini, Gandhi and Nehru, Kemal Ataturk and Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill hadn’t exemplified the enormous impact a single person could have on the world stage. And here were Gorbachev, the Pope (John Paul II), and Nelson Mandela! I may have erred on the other side. I may at times have neglected these ‘anonymous forces,’ but history is a drama of individuals, too, creatures of their times who shape those times.” Fritz Stern in “Five Germanys I Have Known”
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He could have added Thomas A. Edison, Albert Einstein, and Lech Walesa to that list. Edison’s imprint can be found in every country on this planet. That cannot be said of any of the others, though they had an an impact on several countries.