A couple of excellent articles from the BBC to mark the centenary celebrations of the ANC. This video contrasts its early roots as a party of liberation with its post-Mandela disappointments. This Today interview from Radio Four looks at the problems of “a one party democracy”.
Do all revolutions disappoint in the end ?
Mr Kydd.
Another excellent audioslide here from the BBC. This one looks at the Gutenberg Bible and the student notes of Sir Isaac Newton (and how writing helped make the scientific revolution of the Enlightenment possible).
As a school boy I can remember my history teacher setting up a class debate “what was the most important invention in History ?” In the end the printing Press used for teh Gutenberg Bible beat penicillin and the Atom bomb. This was because, and the audio slideshow states, “it was the first real book to be mass-produced using movable type printing techniques – and so could be made in a fraction of the time it had previously taken scribes to write by hand.” Soon knowledge would not be just for the rich…
Mr Kydd.
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.
You will probably remember from an earlier post that Eric Hobsbawn is a British Marxist historian, most famous for his trilogy of books on the nineteenth century – The Age of Revolution, The Age of Capital and The Age of Empire.
You will certainly remember from your studies of Italian Unification, that 1848 was the year that revolutions swept Europe. Now in his 90s, here Hobsbawm reflects upon 2011 in an interview with Radio 4. He states “It was an enormous joy to discover once again that it’s possible for people to get down in the streets, to demonstrate, to overthrow governments,” and even compares the Arab Spring to the events of 1848.
See how far you agree with him…
I don’t propose to rewrite all this post. However, there were a number of links which really are worth a look, and it would be a great shame if they were lost forever from the site. All are from the BBC.
1. This link is an audioslide show. It describes how the house from where Wifred Owen wrote his last letter home in 1918 has been turned into a place of reflection and a celebration of his work.
2. This article reflects upon the incredible work of Brian Stevens. He visited the Cenotaph earlier this century, and asked some of the surviving veterans if he could take their photograph. The results support the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. Obviously, these people fought in the Second World War. However, in the 1990s, Steve Pyke did something very similar for First World War veterans.
3. This link shows a map and explains where the 3,740 British troops who have died since the end of the Second World War in 1945 died.
4. Finally, this magazine post really is worth a look. It inverts how we look at the losses of the two world wars. Incredible though it might seem, there are only fourteen settlements of village size or larger that did not lose someone in either war. Arthur Mee called them “the thankful villages”.
Mr Kydd.
You may have noticed that the site was down for fours days last week, and that the November posts (including the excellent Remembrance stuff) has now gone.
No real harm done – I will repost these in the holidays.
Mr Kydd.
The Origins of The Second World War is of course one of the great historical debates of modern times. To be honest it is not really a topic that sets me on fire. I have however included this link from the Wall Street Journal as it contrasts five very different books from five very different historians. They all approach the topic from different directions. For us, it is a good reminder, that the conclusions that a historian draws will often depend upon their starting point.
Perhaps most noteworthy here is the reference to “The Origins of The Second War” by A.J.P. Taylor. This is a massively controversial revisionist text in which Taylor presents Hitler in 1939 not as the bringer of the Holocaust, but as another German stateman with a vague idea to rip up the Treaty of Versailles. For Taylor, the origins of the Second World War should not be seen as a moral question. Hitler was as an opportunist who blundered into war without a master plan. It is perhaps the most controversial history book of the Twentieth Century, but as Taylor’s pupil, Kathleen Burke states, “it broke the log jam of history”.
You might like to wtach the youtube clip below of Taylor discussing the book with his great rival, Hugh Trevor Roper.
You may remember from an earlier post Calleva Atrebatum – City of the Dead how recent work on the Silchester site is changing our understanding of the Roman and Iron Age period. In particular, some archaeologists now believe that there was Iron Age / Celtic town on the site. This would be very significant, and it is thought to have developed in the period between Caesar’s invasions of Britain and the full conquest.
This theory is excellently explained in third episode of A History of Ancient Britain with Neil Oliver. The link takes you to the iplayer page. Really interesting stuff happening on our doorstep.
In recent years there has been considerable historical discussion about the exact location of Bosworth field. It now seems that there is similar uncertainty about the location of the Battle of Hastings. This report from the BBC explains the uncertainty, and asks if it matters.
There is a link here to the earlier report on the Black Death. It is tempting to see the History of the Middle Ages as done (and dull ?). Nothing could be further from the truth. For me the very term is unhelpful. It is a huge 400 year period, which should not be generalised. Moreover, our understanding of it is still evolving.
An excellent BBC news report here on the he UK mainland’s first fully intact Viking boat burial site. It has been uncovered at Ardnamurchan, is thought to be more than 1,000 years old. Artefacts buried alongside the Viking in his boat suggest he was a high-ranking warrior. Archaeologist Dr Hannah Cobb said the “artefacts and preservation make this one of the most important Norse graves ever excavated in Britain”.
There are some excellent close up images of the finds in the Daily Mail report here .
