No person can deny that Alexander the Great accomplished many things for the Greek Hellenistic period. The controversy comes to play when deciphering just how great of an impact he had. One historian, William W. Tarn, holds Alexander the Great to be a man who changed the course of history. In one document that Tarn wrote he claimed, "He (Alexander) lifted the civilized world out of one groove and set it in another; he started …showed first 75 words of 1057 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1057 total…He expanded the trade that had already started on the Mediterranean, he accelerated the unification process by creating a common language and empire and he gave the people more then just a city state to relate to. Alexander can not be credited with creating a new Greek culture, known as a 'new groove' by Tarn, but he can be applauded at his expertise in pushing people further into the direction that they were already headed.