Screening of the film from 5-6 p.m., followed by a discussion and reception with Professor Emeritus James March of the Stanford School of Education and Graduate School of Business
The film "Heroes and History" examines Leo Tolstoy's great novel War and Peace as a source of ideas relevant to modern leaders. The film was written and narrated by James March and directed and produced by Steven Schecter, the same team that examined the leadership lessons of Don Quixote in the film, "Passion and Discipline." "Heroes and History" was filmed in Russia, Italy, Denmark, and the United States.
The film uses the portrayal of leaders in War and Peace as a basis for raising questions about standard heroic stories of leadership. It explores ways in which the ambiguities and complexities of history make standard narratives emphasizing the visionary role of leadership in history more mythic than real. History is not produced by the dramatic actions and postures of leaders, but by complex combinations of large numbers of small actions by unimportant people. War and Peace suggests that leadership may be better served by passivity and opportunism than by the pursuit of bold goals.