heathenhistory.co.uk

A nice article here from the BBC about the hunt for the final resting place of Giuseppe Garibaldi. It is generated from a BBC Radio 4 From Our Own Correspondent programme, which is has a link from the webpage.

As the article suggests, “he had made very clear that he wanted to be cremated…and…he had written that it should be done on a spot near his house, overlooking the sea – and had even specified which type of Sardinian wood should be used. He had said that his coffin should be open, so he would have his face to the sun as his pyre was set ablaze. He hoped ordinary Italians would take away his ashes and mix them with the earth of the motherland, and that from them gardens might grow that would symbolise a new and better Italy. But all these last wishes were ignored. It seems to have been decided that the national hero’s body could not just be burned. Instead, he was buried in a tomb in the grounds of his home.”

However this is not the end of the story. Have a read and see what you think…

Finally, all of this is typical of Garibaldi. Beyond the unification course he is perhaps most noteworthy to us because he is one of the best examples of a historical figure distorted by a romantic haze. We should, as historians, always be wary of this. Today we are more interested broader forces of change like nationalism and economics. To switch from Italian unification to events in north of the Alps in Germany for example, few today would disagree that it was “coal and iron” rather than “blood and iron” that led the Kliendeutch unification.

But then again, it was Bismarck that said that…

Mr Kydd.

In many respects this post follows on directly from the last one – which asked what is the purpose of history was within society. Here the Benjamin Zephaniah complains about the diet of black history presented in many schools. I have to say I have always considered Zephaniah to be an original and deep thinker, and as such, much of what he writes here is rather uncomfortable for me.

He argues “most of the history teachers that I come across cannot name any early African philosopher” (I can’t) and he continues that there is a “greater focus on the the work of Florence Nightingale”…than…”the Jamaican nurse Mary Seacole“. I am embarrassed to say that I actually forgot Seacole’s name when the topic came up recently.

Personally, I have always worried about black history being bolted on tokenism,. This is why I have sometimes felt a bit mixed about black history month. On one hand it raises the profile of the topic, but on another I sometimes feel it can be a barrier to the topic being an interwoven part of the history curriculum in its own right.

All of this is a very long way away from  the curriculum review that has been leaked here to the Daily Mail. One thing is clear however, the question of what history is taught in schools is a very controvertial issue.

Mr Kydd.

It is an excellent question.

This article from the magazine section of the BBC website discusses it with energy and style. It is really a version of the old “what is the point of a history degree ?” enquiry that those of us who teach A Level have to deal with every year.

Sarah Dunant’s reply is excellent. It starts thus…

“As far as one can tell the thinking goes like this: the study of history, English, philosophy or art doesn’t really help anyone get a job and does not contribute to the economy to the same degree that science or engineering or business studies obviously do.

Well, let’s run a truck though that fast shall we?…”

Have a read and see what you think.

Oh and just so it doesn’t get lost, she concludes, “History. Any society that doesn’t pay proper attention to it not only has dangerously shallow roots, but also risks starving its own imagination.” That’s not a million miles away from what Eric Hobsbawm said in the previous post.

Mr Kydd.

I saw this article about the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam from the American NRP site. It states that “on this morning (17th September) 150 years ago, Union and Confederate troops clashed at the crossroads town of Sharpsburg, Md. The Battle of Antietam remains the bloodiest single day in American history. The battle left 23,000 men killed or wounded in the fields, woods and dirt roads, and it changed the course of the Civil War” before explaining how.

What struck me however it the somewhat embarrassing truth that I know almost nothing meaningful about the American Civil War.  I had not even heard of the Battle of Antietam. We in Europe are always so quick to be critical of perceived US parochialism. Perhaps we should look at ourselves a bit first…

Mr Kydd.

A few weeks ago I posted a story about archaeologists searching for the grave of Richard III. Yesterday they held  this news conference about remains they had found under a council car park in Leicester. As the report states, “the remains had spinal abnormalities and a “cleaved-in skull” that suggest it could be Richard III.”

It will be very interesting to see how the find changes our understanding of a man who has been unquestionably attacked by 109 years of Tudor propaganda.

Mr Kydd.

Everything about Richard III is just interesting. He is famed as the last English king of England (remember the Tudors were Welsh and the Stuarts were Scottish) and the last King to die in battle (at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485). He is also said to be the target of very unfair propaganda attacking his physical appearance (hump and all) and his actions (many now question if it was he who ordered the murder of the princes in the Tower).

Whilst there is doubt over whether his body was stripped naked (see Harry other Royals have got there before you) and thrown in the river, it does seem that Richard met an undignified end.

Now there is an excellent piece of archaeology from the University of Leicester seeking to identify his final resting place. This work (the Greyfriars project) stems in part from the recent work that relocated the site of the Battle of Bosworth (you may like to refer to the earlier post discussing this revision of the location of the battle site). This article from the Daily Telegraph discusses what the project is trying to achieve.

Mr  Kydd.