Again I am not going to repost all the articles that were lost. However, the racism row between Niall Ferguson and Pankaj Mishra, is chronicled well in this Observer article provides a good summary. Two questions do seem apposite here;
1. Why do such gifted individuals end up in a slanging match (see the earlier posts on the legendary bad blood between AJP Taylor and Hugh Trevor Roper) ?
2. Why is another historian (see the earlier post on David Starkey and his comments on the riots) involved in accusations of racism ?
In part, both these issues are a reflection of the human condition at the start of the Twenty first century. But beyond this, how far are they a product of the nature of studying History ?
Mr Kydd.
