Do we make history or does history make us? Great individuals have a profound effect on our lives, but these great leaders do not emerge spontaneously. They arise because they are particularly adapted to a particular constellation of ideas and material reality prevailing at a time. This course will weave together insights from economics, politics, psychology, and the humanities concerning the great influences that have shaped us – ideas such as nation, market, race and rights; people as diverse as Goethe, Gandhi and Churchill; movements both ideological and artistic; and technologies spanning from the assembly line to artificial intelligence. These forces of nature and mankind come together to define epochs, an understanding of which illuminates present-day transformations and allows for more effective leadership. In order to be considered for this course, students must submit an application.