Anti-apartheid writer, Es’kia Mphahlele, dies

by Kathryn Hadley

The prominent South African academic and writer, Es'kia Mphahlele, died on October 27th, aged 88. He was particularly famous for his autobiography Down Second Avenue (1959) about his life as a herdsman, teacher and journalist for the magazine Drum.

He became a teacher, but was banned from teaching in the early 1950s as a result of his opposition to the 1953 Bantu Education Act, which notably enforced the separation of races in all educational institutions.

In 1957, Mphahlele went into exile from apartheid South Africa. During his twenty years of exile he spent time in France, Nigeria, Zambia and Kenya. In 1968 he gained a doctoral degree in the United States from the University of Denver in 1968 and became a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1969 he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Upon his return to South Africa in 1977, he became the first black professor at the University of Witwatersrand and founded the school’s African Literature Department. In 2002, he founded the Es’kia Institute for the development of the arts and the preservation of African heritage.

In 1994, after the end of apartheid, President Nelson Mandela awarded Mphahlele the Order of the Southern Cross, one of the highest recognitions granted by the South African government.

“African literature is an awakening. It represents moments of consciousness when
we have been jolted into awareness of what Europe did to us and what we have
been doing about this disinherited personality we now possess”.

Mphahlele, in 1983.

For more on Britian and apartheid see the article in the History Today archive
When the Boycott Began to Bite

New memorial to members of the Armed Forces killed since WW2

by Kathryn Hadley

At noon today, the Princess Royal, accompanied by her husband Vice Admiral Timothy Lawrence, attended a ceremony in Westminster Abbey to unveil a new memorial in remembrance of the 16,000 servicemen and women from the regular and auxiliary forces who have died in conflict since the Second World War. The memorial is situated in the Abbey’s south cloister and consists of a metal plaque inscribed with the words:

Remember the men and women of the Armed and Auxiliary Forces who have lost their
lives in times and places of conflict since the Second World War.

Surrounding the plaque is inscribed the phrase “Remember them Today-Tomorrow-Forever”.
The plaque was dedicated by the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall.

‘To the greater glory of God, in gratitude for the men and women who showed
courage in the air, fortitude on the ground, and heroism on the seas, and that
their sacrifice in the safeguarding of freedom may always be remembered, we
dedicate this Memorial in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.’

The memorial is part of the National Armed Forces Memorial in the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire dedicated to those who have been killed since the Second World War in battle or through terrorist action. It was inaugurated by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen in October 2007.
The final element of the Memorial is the Rolls of Honour for members of the Armed Forces who have died in service since the Second World War. The Rolls for the Royal Navy will be placed in the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields; those for the Army will be in the Chapel of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

JFK's drug addictions almost caused nuclear war

If the Cuban Missile Crisis had happened in the summer of 1961, rather than 1962, the outcome would have been a nuclear exchange

These were the words last night of British politician Lord Owen, formerly Foreign Secretary David Llewellyn Owen of the Labour and Social Democratic parties. At a talk based on his new book, In Sickness & In Power: illness in heads of government during the last 100 years, Owen went on to explain:

Kennedy had been receiving daily injections of amphetamines for a month before a key meeting with Khrushchev [in Vienna in 1961]... He received an intravenous injection only 45 minutes before the meeting itself which, the President himself admitted, was a disaster

Doctors gradually gained control over Kennedy's level of drug-taking. He went on to handle the Cuban Missile Crisis with competence and firmness. Owen's point, however, is the then president's debilitated physical and mental condition could easily have led to nuclear devastation. Indeed, had records been made public, he may never have been elected.

From an early age Kennedy had suffered from Addison's Disease, a condition affecting his adrenal glands. He developed osteoporosis as a recult of steroid use during his time in the navy and also had back problems resulting in regular injections of procaine, a cocaine deriviative. Despite all this, Kennedy managed to deny or deflect allegations of major health problems and pursue a dynamic political career, until his assassination in 1963.

He was not alone in this regard. Here are just a few other examples of political leaders from the last 100 years who, according to Lord Owen, have hidden their bodily defects from the public:

• Anthony Eden, former British Prime Minister, experienced complications with a routine gall bladder operation and had a resulting serious liver infection during the Suez crisis in 1956. He had a fever of 106* centigrade at the time and was allegedly on a course of amphetamines and barbituates.
• Richard Nixon's alcoholism reached a peak during the Arab-Israeli war of 1973 when he was "not capable of making decisions". Secretary of State Kissinger and Chief of Staff Haig put the military on full-scale alert while Nixon was asleep upstairs drunk, later commending the president for his handling of the crisis.
  
• Francois Mitterand had a variety of health problems including deep vein thrombosis. He was secretly receiving radiotherapy and oestrogen treatment for 11 years out of the 14 he led France as president.
• Woodrow Wilson had a severe stroke during the US Congress debate on the Paris Treaty in 1919. According to Owen, his wife and doctor were effectively governing at this time, while keeping knowledge of the president's true condition from the cabinet.
  
• Tony Blair and George W. Bush are among a number of politicians listed by Owen as having suffered from an as yet undefined condition he calls 'hubristic syndrome'.
  
• Both John McCain, a cancer survivor, and Barack Obama, a lifetime smoker, have so far failed to produce complete medical records.

So what's the solution to all this? Lord Owen suggests more transparency at party level, and legislation where possible which will guarantee the mental and physical health of elected leaders. His ingredients for a healthy leader include:

Humour, a dose of cynicism, a firm and clear-headed spouse, a balancing political force, and a serious and critical press

Vikings Reassessed

by Kathryn Hadley

As part of the Festival of Ideas organised by Cambridge University from October 22nd to November 2nd, the department for Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic studies held an open afternoon on Saturday 25th October for primary school children, partly designed to reassess many children’s and popular perceptions of the Vikings as a destructive, warring and barbarous race. The department also published a leaflet explaining this common misinterpretation of much of the Vikings’ history. Academics warn against the dangers of such negative mass perceptions of the Norse invaders, arguing that children and teenagers in particular should be more informed of the positive aspects of their cultural and social impact on Britain. According to Dr Elizabeth Rowe, a Viking expert and lecturer in Scandinavian medieval history at the university:

It's damaging to think that they were simply a violent society, and easy to undermine them as a people who have no redeeming qualities.

Recent research has revealed that the Vikings were not merely a violent and drinking people; they were primarily peaceful, clean, hygienic and artistic. They did not wear horned or winged helmets and were not as hairy or dirty as was commonly imagined. They were fashion conscious and attached considerable importance to their appearance.

Evidence is notably based on the medieval chronicle of John Wallingford, who wrote about the eleventh century and went so far as to complain that the Vikings were too clean. They combed their hair every day, washed every Saturday and regularly changed their clothes. Entries in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle also warn against overemphasising the violence and destructiveness of the Norse warriors. Although it records some battles, it does not do so for every year. Moreover, archeological evidence has challenged the common perception of the Vikings as a warring race. The first burial ground of Viking origin in Britain was discovered just four years ago in Cumbria. The remains of Viking men and women were buried notably with brooches and jewellery as well as with weapons.

Dr Francis Pryor, an archaeologist and regular on the Channel Four series Time Team has thus claimed that:

Far from the illiterate warring thugs in horned helmets who brought us to new depths of barbarism after landing by boat to sack monasteries and molest women, they were a settled and remarkably civilised people who integrated into community life and joined the property-owning classes.

'Work of the Gods' on display in Wiltshire

by Derry Nairn

A collection of gold artefacts excavated from a Bronze Age grave near Stonehenge is to go on show in the Wiltshire Heritage Museum for the first time in over 25 years.

One of the pieces, a decoration for the handle of a dagger, was put aside in the desk drawer of an archaeological professor in the 1960s, only to be 'unearthed' again recently. As well as this collection of gold pins, there are decorative items such as a gold lozenge and a gold belt-hook, as well as a bronze axe head and two daggers.

The artefacts come from the 'Bush Barrow' grave of a warrior chief. It is thought to be almost 4,000 years old. They were originally excavated in 1808 and are said to have been manufactured in Ireland.

David Dawson, the Museum director, said:

It's an unbelievable find. The gold studs are remarkable evidence of the skill and craftsmanship of Bronze Age goldsmiths - quite rightly described as 'the work of the gods'

Browse our prehistoric page for more stories about Stonehenge and the Salisbury Plain

Or visit the Wilthshire Heritage Museum's homepage.

A Woman in Berlin: the fate of German victims of rape by Red Army soldiers in cinemas

by Kathryn Hadley

A Woman in Berlin, a new German film which tells the story of the fate of German women who were raped by Red Army soldiers during the occupation of German towns, was released in cinemas in Germany today, October 23rd. The woman played by Nina Hoss is raped several times by Soviet soldiers before forming a liaison with a Red Army officer in order to protect herself from further attacks.

The film is based on the diary of the German journalist Marta Hillers who was raped several times by Soviet soldiers during the days of the occupation. She began to record her experiences on April 20th 1945, the date of Hitler’s birthday, and his last before he committed suicide ten days later. She wrote her book anonymously and it was first published in the 1950s in Germany, Britain and the United States. It was, however, ignored in Germany. In 2003, it was reissued in Germany and became a bestseller, but was viewed primarily as a novel rather than a historical testimony to the horrors of the fate of some German women. Hillers died in 2001, aged 90.

The Red Army arrived in Berlin in April 1945 and, on hearing rumours of the brutality of the Soviet soldiers, many civilians sought to flee the city. It is estimated that almost two million German girls and women were raped during the closing months of the war, and many repeatedly so. Many gave birth to Russenbabies, many were infected with sexually transmitted diseases, many resorted to illegal abortions and some took their own lives. Between 1945 and 1948 approximately two million German women a year had illegal abortions. The spread of sexually disease was such that, in 1947, the Soviet authorities were forced to impose penalties on their forces in eastern Germany for fraternising with the enemy.

The release of the film coincides with the official launch of a research project headed by Dr Phillipp Kuwert at the University of Greifswald in eastern Germany about the trauma of women who were raped during the period. More than sixty years later, researchers hope to unveil more victims and to consider the extent and impact of their trauma on their lives in the aftermath of the war. Despite the focus of the film on eastern Germany, stories of rape also spread to the West where French and American soldiers in particular were tried for rapes committed in the first months of 1945. Red Army soldiers were also punished and sometimes executed, but on the whole many were able to get away with their crimes.

The film’s aim is allegedly not to depict Germans as mere victims, nevertheless, it will address stories that have remained buried and silenced beneath the humiliation and trauma of its victims. In the post-war period, Soviet propaganda in communist eastern Germany portrayed the Soviet Union as a protector; in western Germany, women were reluctant to speak of their humiliating experiences and the returning men did not want to know about the suffering of their wives, sisters, daughters and mothers. The film will raise issues of conduct and morality in war and is expected to fuel reaction and possible resentment in Russia.

For more information on the Red Army and the Soviet Liberation see the History Today articles: Liberation, Soviet Style, 1944-45 and The Price of Victory, the Cost of Aggression

New insight into Hampton Court Palace’s medieval past

by Kathryn Hadley

At the end of last week, excavations at Hampton Court Palace carried out by Historic Royal Palaces, as part of a project to represent one of Henry VIII’s Tudor courtyards for the 500th anniversary of his accession to the throne in 2009, unearthed the earliest surviving building ever discovered at the palace. The thirteenth and fourteenth century remains predate previous finds by almost 200 years and include the stone foundations and walls of the largest medieval building constructed at the site (other than the Great Hall itself).

The building was approximately 10m wide and 25m long and originally dates from the mid fourteenth century. It was rebuilt during the fifteenth century and forms part of a complex including two other buildings. It is believed that this larger and earlier structure may have been a barn, a hall or a residential building that was part of the large manor of Hampton Court when it belonged to the Knights Hospitallers, an order of military monks.

The theory that it was a residential building is in line with a story of the visit of Edward III to Hampton Court in 1353 when he was allegedly responsible for a fire which broke out in the building. He subsequently financed the reconstruction of the building. Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of a fire which may indeed have been the fire caused by Edward III in the fourteenth century.

The excavations also revealed a later group of buildings which are believed to have been part of the estate of Giles Daubeney, Lord Chamberlain and a favorite of Henry VII and veteran of the Battle of Bosworth Field, who acquired the manor in the 1490s. The buildings appear to have been once lavishly decorated thus suggesting that they may have formed the residential wing of Daubeney’s house where guests would have stayed and been entertained.

Lastly, the excavations uncovered a third mystery: a medieval water fountain complete with 500 year old lead plumbing which remains in situ.

The Diaries of Britain's Last Hangman

Harry Allen, the last executioner in Britain, supervised many executions between 1941 and 1964, and maintained a precise record of the deaths of each of his prisoners.

His diary recorded the age, weight, height and the calculations of how long the rope needed to be to generate the speed required to ensure a swift death.

Harry Allen was Assistant Executioner to Albert Pierrepoint, the figure documented in the feature film starring Timothy Spall.

His diary and tools of the trade, including two black bow ties and his tape measure, will be auctioned by Marshall's in Knutsford, Cheshire, on November 11. They are expected to fetch around £5,000.

Darwin shouted at and played piano to worms

by Derry Nairn

A lesser well-known book of Darwin's (his last, in fact) is ‘The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms: with observations on their habits’, wherein the famous Victorian scientist concluded that worms had no sense of hearing. This was the result of the creatures making no response to

“shrill notes from a metal whistle, which was repeatedly sounded near them; nor did they hear the deepest and loudest tones of a bassoon. They were indifferent to shouts, if care was taken that the breath did not strike them. When placed on a table close to the keys of a piano, which was played as loudly as possible, they remained perfectly quiet.”

A new exhibition opens next week in the main library at University College London, where Darwin lived for a period. Included is a first edition of the Origin of Species and personal correspondence with the polymath Galton. There is also a talk on the opening night: UCL Professor Steve Jones will expand on the topic of what Darwinism tells us – and does not tell us – about our own place in nature.

More information can be found on this website.

Its all part of Darwin200: a national programme of events celebrating Charles Darwin’s scientific ideas and their impact, leading up to his two hundredth birthday on 12 February 2009. More information about the event programme can be discovered by clicking here.

Return from the land of de Gaulle

by Kathryn Hadley

After his death on November 9th 1970 in his family home, La Boisserie, in Colombey-les-deux-Eglises in the Champagne-Ardenne region, Charles de Gaulle did not, allegedly, want anything to be built in his memory. Nevertheless, less than two years later, on June 18th 1972, the massive 44-metre-high Croix de Lorraine, at the summit of the highest hill in the village, was inaugurated by President Georges Pompidou and de Gaulle’s wife and family in commemoration of his “Appel du 18 juin”.

Arguably, the cross represents a tribute to the Free French movement and to the heroism of French resistance, rather than to de Gaulle himself. On Saturday October 10th 2008, however, the Mémorial Charles de Gaulle, built at the foot of the Croix de Lorraine, was officially opened by President Sarkozy and Angela Merkel. Despite de Gaulle’s wishes, it is dedicated to the leader of the Free French movement himself, to his life, achievements and impact on French twentieth-century history.

Its inauguration coincides with the anniversary of de Gaulle and Adenauer’s meeting at La Boisserie on September 14th, 1958. The focus of the first temporary exhibition is thus on the history of Franco-German relations over the past fifty years. De Gaulle desired their meeting to represent a “marque exceptionnelle” towards a Franco-German rapprochement and he consequently invited the German chancellor to his family home in the belief that:

“le cadre d’une maison familiale a plus de signification que n’en aurait le décors d’un palais” (“the surroundings of a family home is far more symbolic than the décor of a palace”).

According to the museum’s curators and designers, the memorial is not intended as a glorification of de Gaulle; its aim is to provide an insight into his personality. He is portrayed neither as a politician nor as a military figure, but instead as a man, a family man and a man attached to the land of Colombey-les-deux-Eglises. In the words of Christian Le Conte, the exhibition designer, the aim was to depict

“l’homme d’abord, l’homme privé” (the man, above all, the private man”).

An outstanding feature of the exhibition is de Gaulle’s love of nature and of Colombey-les-deux-Eglises in particular, where he used to take long walks in the surrounding countryside. The opening room of the display is thus hung with large screens upon which are projected images of trees throughout the seasons. If de Gaulle is not glorified, he is, however, portrayed as a great figure of French history and there appears a slight gulf between the discourse and the actual display. On the one hand, it is very difficult to dissociate the man from the political figure; the exhibition is not solely about de Gaulle’s private life, but rather seeks to put forward his personality as well as his political and military achievements. Secondly, this gulf is also a reflection of the designers’ and curators’ pride that de Gaulle was so attached to their homeland.

De Gaulle was “l’homme attaché au people, à la terre de France”. He is the “man of Colombey” and Colombey is a “terre gaullienne” (Christian Le Conte).

He left such an imprint that the exhibition presents French twentieth century through the figure of de Gaulle. It addresses some of the difficulties of de Gaulle’s career and the times when he was not a French hero, in particular at the beginning of the Second World War under the Vichy government when he was sentenced to death for treason in August 1940 and threatened to be stripped of his French identity.

However, de Gaulle was ultimately able to overcome these difficulties and was consequently all the greater. He became the leader of the Free French and, in 1959, he was elected the leader of France. My interest in the memory of the harkis, who fought on the French side during the Algerian War of Independence, but were then left, after the ceasefire, to be massacred by the Algerian independence forces, made me curious to see how the designers had presented de Gaulle’s role in the Algerian War. The leaders of the Fifth Republic ordered the French army not to intervene over the massacres and forbade the repatriation of the majority of the harkis. Following the ceasefire their memory was erased from French national history.

To my disappointment, the section on the Algerian War was the only part of the exhibition that had not been completed! Merely a coincidence perhaps, but my conversation with Christian Le Conte did reveal the extent to which the memory of de Gaulle remains influenced by some of the shortcomings of his leadership which are, still today, difficult to come to terms with. Memory also remains a political issue: the construction of the Mémorial was initiated by the Fondation de Gaulle; nevertheless, when the local regional council took over the project became tainted by politics.

The President of the General Council of the Haute-Marne, which funded its construction, is from the centre-right UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire) party, notably inspired by Gaullist ideals, which suggests a possible reluctance to condemn the darker sides of de Gaulle’s’ leadership. Le Conte thus feared that some of the more controversial aspects of de Gaulle’s career may be tainted by the “ambiguous” position of local political leaders.

Underground London WW2 Tunnels for Sale

by Kathryn Hadley

The Kingsway tunnels, a network of underground tunnels 100 feet (30m) beneath High Holborn, went on sale today, October 17th. The tunnels were built in 1940 as deep air raid shelters designed to hold up to 8,000 people. They were then used by MI6 during the last two years of the Second World War.

In the aftermath of the war, the tunnels were taken over by the Post Office and were converted into a “reserve war room”, a depository for 400 tons of secret documents by the Public Records Office and then into a centre for telephone exchanges between the presidents of the US and the USSR during the Cold War. During the Cold War, 80 workers were employed in the tunnels’ telephone exchange, which was equipped with a canteen and recreation room with a snooker table. The 77,000 square feet area is provided with electricity, a ventilation system and water supply.

It was bought by BT in 1986 and was put up for sale in 1996. BT failed, however, to find a buyer. The site is now expected to be sold for £5 million.

Spanish neutrality during WW2 a result of British bribes to Franco’s generals?

by Kathryn Hadley

A new book entitled Juan March: The Most Mysterious Man in the World by the historian Pere Ferrer has recently suggested that Churchill authorised millions of dollars in bribes to prevent Franco from entering the Second World War on Germany’s side. Based on his study of US and British archives, the author claims that Churchill accepted a plan suggested by the British officer Alan Hillgarth to bribe Franco’s generals, who would then persuade him not to enter the war.

Following reports that Franco and the Germans were planning an invasion of Gibraltar, Churchill was allegedly convinced, in the summer of 1940, that Spain was about to enter the war on the side of Hitler. Hillgarth argued, however, that Franco’s high command was corrupt and that the generals were not paid much and would consequently be open to bribery.

The Spanish banker, Juan March, was chosen for the job and made responsible for the organisation of payments to the generals. March had dealt in contraband tobacco during the First World War and made a fortune. He had also sided with Franco during the Spanish Civil War. It thus remains unclear as to whether or not he was a double agent. He may have stayed in pay with the Germans whilst working for the British.

The 10 million dollars bribe money was deposited in a bank in New York, but the US Treasury froze the account in the belief that the money was being used to help Hitler and the plan nearly collapsed. When the money was eventually released, however, the Spanish generals received between 3 and 5 million dollars in 1942 alone. In 1943 Spain declared complete neutrality; nevertheless, Franco did allow Hitler to use Spanish naval bases during the war and Italian planes refueled at Spanish airbases. Spain also helped the Germans to build observations posts around Gibraltar for German spies.

Cambridge University's New Virtual Classroom

by Derry Nairn

Cambridge University's History Department have funked up their website with some nice new graphics and lots of clever interactive features.

The main feature is the Virtual Classroom. This is aimed at secondary teachers and students, who can explore the study of history at university level.

There are sections dealing with primary and secondary sources, and accompanying exercises for students to tackle. There are also areas dealing with suggested reading and online resources. Largely text-based, the information is is wide-ranging and detailed.

The website also includes profiles of some of the students currently studying history at Cambridge, their backgrounds,and why they made their decision. There are examples of how people have used their history degrees to pursue careers in the fields of journalism, law and teaching.

Another novel feature is the addition of sample video lectures by Cambridge dons. For a site whose goal is to interest students in history, however, the chosen lectures are not exactly thrilling. Its not the subject matter that is the problem. Rather, a single camera angle produces dull lighting and no view of the digital blackboard which the lecturers refer to.

More sophisticated software does exist for this type of thing. At London City University, for example, selected sessions are broadcast live. The viewers can comment and ask questions in real time. The lecturer's monitor can be seen as an extra panel on the screen and, later, the recorded video and compiled comments can be searched by students who missed the lecture.

The content seems to have been conceived primarily with teachers in mind, looking for reliable and accessible course material for their students. In this, it succeeds. The exercises are solid in standard and exacting in detail. However, Cambridge History Facility might like to consider enlivening some of the promotional material aimed at students in their next site iteration.

Plea for remains of Mary Queen of Scots to be moved to Scotland

by Kathryn Hadley

The Nationalist South of Scotland MSP, Christine Grahame, has recently issued an appeal for the remains of Mary Queen of Scots to be removed from her tomb in Westminster Abbey and returned to Scotland. She will present a motion to the Scottish parliament later this week demanding the repatriation of the body.

Following her flight to England in May 1568, Mary I was imprisoned for almost twenty years by her cousin Elizabeth I. She was tried, found guilty of treason and executed at Fortheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire on 8th February 1587. She was initially buried in Peterborough Cathedral in 1588, but following her son, James I’s, accession to the throne of England, in 1612 her body was moved to Westminster Abbey.

As a “victim of English plotting”, Christine Grahame has proposed that Mary Queen of Scots’ remains should be relocated to Falkland Palace in Fife, one of the Stuart’s main retreats. It is believed that her appeal will find sympathy among Catholics in Scotland, for whom Mary I is an icon of religious devotion and fidelity.

A Revised History of Youth Culture

by Kathryn Hadley

A new study entitled Youth Culture in Modern Britain, c.1920-c.1970, by University of Cambridge historian, David Fowler, published on Monday has challenged previous studies of the origins of youth culture in Britain. Fowler argues that a novel youth culture did not develop in the 1960s and 1970s inspired by rock bands such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, but instead originated forty years earlier with a number of long-forgotten youth communities founded by middle-class students in the 1920s.

He claims that the chanters of phrases such as “we all want to change the world” were, in reality, not interested in being a mouthpiece for young people; instead, they were primarily motivated by commercial development and exploited youth culture in order to sell their music. He explains this common misconception of the origins of youth culture by arguing that it has been mistakenly identified with the Beatles merely because of the mass popularity of such bands.
According to Fowler’s study, in the 1960s and 1970s, the mods inspired a greater cultural movement than rock bands. They originated in the northern suburbs of London and in three years, from 1964 to 1967, spread across Britain empowering both young men and women.

He ultimately traces the origins of youth culture in Britain further back, however, to the 1920s, which saw the rise of various international movements spreading beyond class and gender boundaries. These movements were subsequently destroyed with the outbreak of the Second World War.
He singles out Rolf Gardiner as the leader of one these forgotten youth communities. Rolf Gardiner, the father of the conductor Sir Eliot Gardiner, was a youth pioneer. He was a language student at St. John’s College, Cambridge, from 1921 to 1924 and formulated ideas of a “cult of youth” in which young people should have greater freedom of expression and to challenge their elders. He was inspired by the Jugendkultur, which was developing in Weimar Germany at the time, and organised a visit to Germany for the members of his organization. He also sought to cross the boundaries of high and peasant culture by taking his fellow students to the mining communities of northern England.

Fowler argues that the development of a youth culture was hindered in the 1960s by the lack of networks to support such a culture. The only possible network was that provided by universities; nevertheless, less than 6% attended university at the time. In Fowler’s words: “there’s no doubt that [Rolf Gardiner] is just as important as Mick Jagger”.

Moves towards official recognition of victims of Spanish Civil War and Franco dictatorship

by Kathryn Hadley

More than seventy years after the outbreak of the conflict, the cabinet of Zapatero announced last week plans for new legislation designed to offer official recognition and compensation to the victims of the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. The measures follow the promulgation eight months ago of the Ley de Memoria, the Law of Historical Memory.

The new laws will recognise those who were imprisoned, persecuted or executed as “victims” and grant their relatives the right to apply for a certificate of recognition. They may also grant up to 135,000 Euros (£100,000) compensation for those who were condemned by military courts between 1968 until Franco’s death in November 1975, as a result of alleged opposition to the dictatorship.

Moreover, the measures are said to include formal recognition of the role of foreign volunteers during the Civil War and will make it easier for the surviving members of the International Brigades to obtain Spanish nationality. (Less than 200, however, of the estimated 32,000 foreign volunteers who fought alongside the republicans are believed to still be alive).

The announcement represents a considerable step for the victims of the Civil War and the dictatorship, in the sense that it is the first document produced by the Spanish state to recognise the injustices suffered by those condemned under Franco and to argue for their necessary compensation.

Nevertheless, problems remain and further steps are yet to be taken. Most significantly, those unjustly condemned under Franco’s dictatorship demand the reversal of their convictions. This particular grievance is largely a result of a specificity of the Franco dictatorship: when Franco came to power, there was no official break with the previous regime. Consequently, any rulings passed under the dictatorship did not automatically become invalid following Franco’s death.

Moreover, the government has promised a map identifying the sites of the mass graves used during the dictatorship and little has been done to ensure the enforcement of article 15 of the Ley de Memoria, which stipulates that all symbols of the regime should be removed from town halls and churches.

The issue of compensation and recognition appears to remain caught in the web of local political convictions. In A Coruña, for example, the newly elected socialist government has rapidly begun to change churches and hospitals dedicated to members of the Falange; in Santander, however, where the centre-right Partido Popular is in power, statues of Franco still stand.

Gurkhas veterans gain ground

by Kathryn Hadley

Last week, Gurkha veterans won an initial battle in their fight for the right for UK residence when the London High Court ruled in favour of five Gurkha veterans and a Gurkha widow, who had condemned the immigration law, which prohibited UK residence to Gurkhas who had retired before July 1997, when the Brigade of Gurkhas base was moved from Hong Kong to the UK.

The majority of foreign soldiers in the British Army are granted the right to settle in the UK following four years service anywhere in the world. Gurkhas who had retired before 1997 were, however, forced to apply for individual visas in order to be permitted to stay in the UK. The judge Mr Blake set the Home Office a deadline of three months to review the specific immigration restrictions which apply to Gurkhas.

The Nepalese Gurkha soldiers form an integral part of the British Army and have fought for Britain for almost 200 years. More than 200,000 Gurkhas notably fought for Britain during the two world wars and have since notably been involved in the Falklands, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Following its invasion of Nepal, the British East India Company signed a peace treaty in 1815 which notably allowed it to recruit from the ranks of the former enemy. More than 130 years later, following the partition of Nepal in 1947, an agreement was signed between Britain, India and Nepal which provided for the transfer of four Gurkha regiments from the Indian Army into the British Army.

Their recent legal victory is, however, part of a wider campaign for equal rights to British soldiers, which is not over yet. It is hoped that the court ruling will be a first step towards granting UK residence to the 2,000 other veterans who were refused residence as a result of their retirement prior to 1997. The battle continues and will now focus on legislation to ensure that all Gurkha veterans have the same settlement rights as any soldiers in the British Army.

Mapping History

by Derry Nairn

Tools such as Google's My Maps and Yahoo's Pipes allow users to a take information from one source (a normal website, for example) and then apply it onto a map so it is represented visually. It can be done either manually, or, for larger amounts of information, by using code to automatically update the map. Both are relatively simple, and fun.

How about this Spot Crime map as an interesting and practical example? The creator has taken official Police crime figures, wizarded an icon to represent each type of crime, and then mapped the data onto a Google Map so that the best and worst locations for crime can be visualised, according to date.

On the face of it, history would appear to be a discipline extremely conducive to these trends in online mapping. After all, many historical events are defined and later referred to by their location: the Normandy landings; Pearl Harbour; Gallipoli; the Marco Polo bridge incident; and so on. However, the distinct lack of interactive maps which use history as a theme is somewhat odd. So it was interesting this week, to unearth some historical types making the most of these tools.

The first was a new project called Forth's Timeline (www.forthstimeline.net). A quirkily attractive map allows the visitor to zoom up and down the many and various historical sites of the Forth region in Scotland. This was the result of a collaboration between the sites featured on the map itself, and a grant from Museum Galleries Scotland.

While sorting out links at History Today this week, I also came across two interesting historical maps. The first was a Cambridge University project of several years ago, aiming to portray Ferrol, an old naval port in Spain (find the site here). The site is unconventional in that it doesn't use maps, but isometric-style aerial period paintings of the port. Although the iconography and information portrayed is basic, the idea of using this type of layout is intriguing - and due an update!

Another good link is to History World, an American online education portal who are very up to speed on utilising interactivity to enliven what would otherwise be static (and boring) textual data. Their maps page takes several regions and maps History World timelines onto them, displaying the major dates and battles.

Which brings me neatly onto History Today. We have been ferreting away on a few mapping projects of our own of late. The most complete can be found in our new and improved military history section where we have mapped over fifty of history's most famous battlefields onto a world map. Each one is linked back to a HT article, and to make things more interesting, there are several free articles hidden on each continent!

This is only the first such History Today map - there are big plans afoot. Soon we'll have dedicated maps for each sub-section of our site. In the longer term, we plan to geo-tag each of our archived articles (thats over 10,000 in total!) and map them dynamically. So watch this space!

Anniversary of Britain's first Jewish MP is marked at Waddeson

by Charlotte Crow

The 150^th anniversary of the first Jewish MP’s entrance into the House of Commons is being marked at Waddesdon Manor in Aylesbury by the loan of a painting marking the historic moment. Henry Barraud’s large oil canvas of 1872, on show until the end of the month, depicts the introduction of Lionel Nathan de Rothschild (1808-79) to the House of Commons on July 26^th
1858 by his supporters, the Liberal leader Lord John Russell and Mr Abel Smith.

Lionel had first stood as a Liberal candidate for the City of London in 1847. Refusing to swear the requisite oath on the Bible, he spent the next eleven years winning six by-elections but unable to represent his electorate.

The Rothschild family had played a leading role in the campaign to secure equal political rights for Jews in Great Britain. Lionel de Rothschild, was the son of the Frankfurt founder of the London bank N.M. Rothschild and Sons Ltd. It is they who have loaned the painting to Waddesdon Manor, itself styled after a 16^th-century French chateau and built by Lionel’s cousin Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild of the Viennese branch of the family in 1874.

The house is today managed by the National Trust and the Rothschild family. It is a glorious trove of 18^th-century art and furniture, Sèvres porcelain and other treasures reflecting the taste of its first owner.

Waddesdon Manor is located near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. The postcode is HP18 0JH and the telephone number is 01296 653226. Please visit www.waddesdon.org.uk for more details.

History in the News: 17th century whaling station unearthed in Iceland

by Derry Nairn

The bloggers at Archaeology Magazine alerted us to the unearthing of an old Basque whaling station in Iceland last week.

The English language online newspaper Iceland Review quotes head archaeologist Ragnar Edvardsson as saying the find is of international significance. Up until now there had been no record of such an old whaling site in Iceland.

Edvardsson goes on to say the find represents

"the only remnants of foreign residency in Iceland in the 17th century."

During the period, Iceland's Danish rulers had a monopoly on Icelandic trade and forbade any contact between the island's residents and foreigners.

This discovery comes in the wake of a Greenpeace report that alleges Iceland and Norway have resumed commerical whaling over the summer, in defiance of an International Whaling Committee ban.

Read more about the history of whaling in History Today's extensive archive.

Click here to read the post on the Archaeology Magazine Blog.

Click here to read the original report in the Iceland Review.

Click here for the Greenpeace report.

History in the News: Poverty, Diet & History

by Derry Nairn

Felicity Lawrence had a fascinating piece in the Guardian yesterday about the historical links between diet and poverty. She linked Jamie Oliver's new TV series (about poor eating among working-class people in northern England) to George Orwell's observations of the same topic, in his classically grim book The Road to Wigan Pier:

"A man dies and is buried and all his actions forgotten but the food he has eaten lives after him in the sound or rotten bones of his children." Orwell wrote down detailed accounts of how unemployed working-class people on welfare spent their money. He doubted it was even theoretically possible to live on their allowance. "The basis of their diet is white bread and margarine, corned beef, sugared tea and potatoes. Would it not be better if they spent more money of wholesome things like oranges and wholemeal bread?" Yes it would he answered, but "no ordinary human being is ever going to do such a thing. The ordinary human being would sooner starve than live on brown bread and raw carrots ... A millionaire may enjoy breakfasting off orange juice and Ryvita, an unemployed man doesn't ... When you are underfed, harassed, bored and miserable, you don't want to eat dull, wholesome food. You want something a little bit tasty. Let's have three pennorth of chips! Put the kettle on and we'll all have a nice cup of tea!"

It so happens that I am currently reading a related book, Taste: the Story of Britain through its Cooking by Kate Colquhoun. Its an exploration of culinary habits in this country since the Stone Age. In modern times, the auther focuses on the habits of housewives and families, on celebrity chefs of yore and in the manner in which certain customs filtered down through social strata from royalty and the nobilty. Rather surprisingly, another theme to emerge is the abnormally major influence which France has held over British eating habits.

Its a great read. But the section most relevant to both Orwell and Oliver is the section on the tastes of the Victorian working classes in London slums of the 19th century. Here's an extract, inspired by the writings of Dicken's friend HenryMayhew:

Crammed into rotting tenements, men, women, and children purchased their meals on the street, spending their pennies on ancient staples like oysters, sheep's trotters, pickled herrings, hot eels, pea soup, meat puddings, muffins, baked apples or kidney puddings, or on tea, coffee, and hot potatoes.

Muffins and coffee - doesn't sound so bad does it? But there were multiple health hazards associated with eating street food in urban Britain in the 19th century:

Reeling from the problems caused by rapid urbanisation, adulteration of goods was reaching a fraudulent and dangerous peak... Coffee was commonly bulked up with chicory or mangle-worzel and acorn, milk was watered, and tea had up to half its weight made up of iron filings

This part brought to mind the recent melamine-tainted milk scandal in China. Are food purity issues a problem common to all rapidly industrialising countries?

Back to the issues at hand, History Today has followed this topic closely over the years. Most recently, we had an article by John Burnett in our March 2006 edition, Eat Your Greens, about the politics behind 100 years of school dinners. Again, the article is linked to Jamie Oliver, but this time to his previous campaigning series, Jamie's School Dinners. Here's an extract discussing the situation in Bradford in the late 1940s:

Children could have porridge, bread and treacle and milk for breakfast and a variety of cooked dishes for dinner, including onion soup, hashed beef, shepherd's pie, fish and potato pie, baked jam roll and rice pudding - delights so unfamiliar to some that they were at first rejected until new tastes were formed. Substantial gains in height, weight and general health were reported, while teachers found improvements in concentration, table manners and hygiene.

The full article is available to read for free on the History Today homepage. You can reach it by clicking here.

Click here to read reviews on the Amazon page for Taste, by Kate Coloquhoun.

Click here to read Felicity Lawrence's original Guardian piece.

History Today: polemical debate on the Facebook group

‘Iceman’ rests in peace

30th September 2008

by Kathryn Hadley

The legal battle over the payment of a finders’ fee to the couple who discovered the Stone Age hunter Oetzi was finally resolved yesterday, when Erika Simon was awarded 150,000 Euros (£119,770) by the provincial government of Bolzano in Northern Italy.

The dispute lasted 14 years following Erika and Helmut Simon’s initial decline of a payment of 10 million lire (£4,122), which fell short of the legal finders’ fee of 25% of the discovery’s value. Helmut Simon died in a hiking accident in 2004, but his widow will benefit from the reward, thirty times the sum originally offered as a reward in 1994.

The couple discovered the remains of the 5,300 year old ‘Iceman’ in 1991 with his clothing and weapons still intact. He was approximately 159cm tall and believed to be 46 years old. He was named Oetzi after the name of the border region between Italy and Austria where he was found.

It was originally believed that he died from cold and hunger in the mountains; however, further research has revealed that he may instead have been wounded following an ambush with a rival tribe.