Some Details Of History Or Archimedes And Others

A French Nationalist dismissed the Holocaust as a "detail of history" so I want to reclaim that phrase for a positive use. This blog is dedicated to otherwise overlooked details in the works of Poul Anderson and those works include a short story called "Details." Individuals are the details of history. History is not just the doings of the great but nevertheless sometimes an individual has a long lever and a fulcrum or functions like a cog. An individual leads a party that leads a movement that changes a country, thus affecting the rest of the world and its future.

Poul Anderson's The Shield Of Time shows us a strong Emperor and a strong Pope in conflict and also shows us what happens when either of those two pivotal individuals is removed from history.

"...[Nazism] would not, could not have come to power in the country of Bach and Goethe, except through the unique genius of Adolph Hitler."
-Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 333-465 AT p. 424.


"...The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 came near failing. Only the energy and genius of Lenin pulled it through."
-Poul Anderson, "The Year Of The Ransom" IN Time Patrol, pp. 641-735 AT p. 672.

"The train hooted, clicking eastward with Ulyanov aboard.
"His party name was Lenin."
-Poul Anderson, "Details" IN Anderson, Conflicts (New York, 1983), pp. 240-266 AT p. 254.

"'If Guthrie can't outwangle, out-connive, and outroar the combined governments of Earth, we may as well go back there and the North Americans among us embrace the Renewal."
-Poul Anderson, The Stars Are Also Fire (New York, 1995), 8, p. 110.