On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History is a book by the Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle, published by James Fraser, London, in 1841.

The French Revolution: A History had brought Carlyle recognition, but little money, so friends organized courses of public lectures, drumming up an audience and selling one guinea tickets.

[1]"The Hero as Man of Letters" (1840): Carlyle was one of the few philosophers who lived through the British Industrial Revolution but maintained a non-materialistic view of historical development.

In his work, Carlyle outlined Muhammad as a Hegelian agent of reform, insisting on his sincerity and commenting "how one man single-handedly, could weld warring tribes and wandering Bedouins into a most powerful and civilized nation in less than two decades".

[3] Carlyle held that "Great Men should rule and that others should revere them,"[verify] a view that for him was supported by a complex faith in history and evolutionary progress.

Societies, like organisms, evolve throughout history, thrive for a time, but inevitably become weak and die out, giving place to a stronger, superior breed.

[4] For Carlyle's creed Bentley proposes the name "heroic vitalism", a term embracing both a political theory, aristocratic radicalism, and a metaphysic, supernatural naturalism.

In response, theologian Frederick Denison Maurice defended Carlyle's emphasis on truth over semblances, as well as his ability to challenge and test the sincerity of readers that disagree with him.

"[11] Henry David Thoreau compared it favourably with previous writings on heroism such as Parallel Lives, opining that Carlyle "even leaves Plutarch behind.