Hitler’s skull: did the Fuhrer really commit suicide and die in the bunker in Berlin?

by Kathryn Hadley

Hitler's skull is that of a woman. Maybe Hitler and his wife Eva Braun did not commit suicide. Maybe they did not die in the bunker in Berlin where they retreated to at the end of April 1945 as Soviet troops closed in on the German capital. Maybe they instead hid in Germany, or fled to South America alongside many other Nazi officials. These are just some of the questions that have recently resurfaced following the latest research by experts from the University of Connecticut.

As part of the filming of a new series on The History Channel, Nicholas Bellantoni, Linda Strausbaugh and Dawn Pettinelli from the University of Connecticut investigated what happened to Hitler’s remains in the aftermath of the Second World War. They concluded that the fragment of a skull with a bullet wound discovered by Russian scientists in 1946 and believed to have belonged to Hitler in reality belonged to an unknown woman. The skull has been on display in Moscow since 2000.

The general consensus is that Hitler shot himself after taking a cyanide pill on April 30th, 1945, to avoid capture. Witnesses in the bunker at the time claimed that his body was thereafter burnt and buried. In May 1945, after the Soviet army took control over Berlin, a Russian forensic team dug up what was presumed to be Hitler’s body and post-mortem examinations and dental records revealed that the body was that of the Fuhrer.

However, part of the skull was missing, allegedly as a result of the gun shot, and Stalin sent out a second team of scientists to investigate further. It was during this second mission that the skull fragment was discovered. Stalin thereafter imposed a secrecy order on all matters relating to Hitler’s death and the body was secretly buried in Magdeburg in East Germany. It was not until 1970 that the body was dug up and cremated. All that remained was the jawbone, the skull fragment and bloodstained remnants from the sofa where Hitler and Eva Braun were believed to have died, which were preserved in the archives of the Soviet intelligence.

Nicholas Bellantoni recently inspected the remains at the Russian State Archive. He collected DNA samples which were thereafter examined by geneticist Linda Strausbaugh. The results revealed that the skull fragment belonged to a woman under the age of 40; Hitler had just turned 56 at the time of his death. Bellantoni explained in an article published on the webiste of the Daily Express:

‘The bone seemed very thin and male bone tends to be more robust. And the
sutures where the skull plates come together seem to correspond to someone under
40.’

Could the skull instead belong to Eva Braun who was 33 when she died? Bellantoni claimed in an article published on MailOnline that it was unlikely:

'There is no report of Eva Braun having shot herself or having been shot
afterwards. Many people died near the bunker.'

Since the end of the Second World War there have been several claims that Hitler did not die. Stalin was convinced that Hitler did not die and instead escaped to Spain or Argentina. In 1947, Eisenhower was also allegedly handed a secret dossier compiled by CIA agents, which claimed that Hitler was in hiding Heidelberg. Soldiers thereafter raided the area; however, nothing was found.

The recent research has paved the way for similar theories to be suggested once again.

A video of Nicolas Bellantoni and Linda Strausbaugh explaining their research is available on the website of the University of Connecticut.

Saving Sir John Narbrough’s Diary

by Kathryn Hadley

The English naval commander Sir John Narbrough’s diary was discovered alongside a series of illustrated maps and drawings earlier this year with the family papers of the Earls of Romney at the Centre for Kentish Studies. The hand-written journal, which had been lost for the past 300 years, is now the subject of a desperate battle between a private collector and the British Library in their respective attempts to it for their own collections.

The document is currently owned by a foreign private collector who bought the journal and maps for £310,000. However, English law stipulates that any original manuscript must be granted a special export licence before it can be sent abroad and a temporary export bar has been imposed by culture minister Barbara Follett until November 7th. In the meantime, the British Library is pursuing its efforts to collect the necessary funds to equal the buying price and purchase the diary. The British Library has so far raised £90,000 and has also secured a £200,000 grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund. It still, however, has a further £30,000 to collect.

Why is Narbrough’s diary such a prized document? Who was the naval commander? While the names Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh and Captain James Cook are well-known, Sir John Narbrough remains relatively unheard of. But maybe the explorer has been unfairly forgotten precisely because his journal was never published and was lost for more than three centuries.

The diary records in great detail Narbrough’s two-year journey to Patagonia and the Caribbean in an attempt to establish trading links with South America and the Pacific. He was the first British sailor to navigate around the Straits of Magellan, opening the way for British trade in the Pacific.

John Narbrough was born in approximately 1640 into a large family in Norfolk. He began his career as a cabin boy serving in merchant ships in the 1650s and early 1660s. In October 1664, he was commissioned as lieutenant of Admiral Sir Christopher Myng's ship Portland. On May 15, 1669, he was commissioned captain of The Sweepstakes and embarked on his voyage to South America. He set sail from Deptford on November 26th, 1669, and entered the Straits of Magellan in October of the following year. Narbrough was thereafter second captain of the Lord High Admiral’s ship the Prince during the Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672-74) and was commended for his conduct during the Battle of Solebay off the Suffolk coast in May 1672. Shortly afterwards he was made Rear Admiral and knighted. He also participated in various expeditions against the Tripoline and Algerine piracies and, in 1680, he was appointed commissioner of the Navy. Narbrough died of a fever in the West Indies in April 1688.

Peter Barber, the head of map collections at the British Library, described the importance of Sir John Narbrough’s voyage to the Straits of Magellan in an article published today on MailOnline:

'His journey proved it was possible for Britain to get involved in the Pacific
trade, which set the direction of our foreign policy for the next 50 years […]
The repercussions are extraordinary - if Sir John hadn't made his trip,
Britain probably would not have gone into the War of the Spanish Succession and
there would never have been the South Sea Bubble of 1720-21 - the biggest
financial crisis of the 18th century.'

For further information on the history of the Falkland Islands, read our article Sovereignty and Heraldry: The Case of the Falklands
For further information on Sir Francis Drake, read 'That Golden Knight': Drake and His Reputation and The Mystery of Francis Drake's Californian Voyage

Send us your review for your chance to win one of the latest history books

Last week, we published our first reader review by Matthew Parker of Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean on our Books Blog. Our second reader review of The English Book of Magic is now live on the Books Blog.

Two books from this month's selection of books, The War Puzzle Revisited and The Humans Who Went Extinct, are also still available for review. To submit a review, please send an email to Kathryn Hadley (k.hadley[at]historytoday.com) specifying your choice of book.

First Impressions: Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler

by Kathryn Hadley

Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler opens today at the British Museum. Organised in anticipation of the anniversaries in 2010 of the independence of Mexico (1810) and the Mexican Revolution (1910), the exhibition is the last in the museum’s series of exhibitions exploring power and empire. Moctezuma II (1467-1520) was the ninth and the last ruler of the Mexica people. His father Axayacatl, the sixth ruler, was succeeded by his two brothers and Moctezuma was elected in 1502. The exhibition explores the foundation of the Aztec empire and its capital Tenochtitlan, Moctezuma’s coronation, the religion and Gods of the Mexica people, Moctezuma’s role as a warrior and military leader and the Spanish conquest.

Paul Lay wrote yesterday that Moctezuma emerged in the exhibition as an ‘insubstantial’ figure. In my view, such a representation is, however, inevitable primarily due to the nature of the historic sources used to document the period. Mexican sources of the time were largely destroyed following the Spanish conquest and the main surviving sources are Spanish accounts. Some were written posthumously, but there also exist contemporary eyewitness accounts written by Hernan Cortes (1485-1547) himself and by those who accompanied him.

Cortes’ Letters from Mexico consist of a series of five letters written by Cortes to Charles V of Spain and document the conquest of Mexico from Cortes’ arrival at Veracruz to his journey to Honduras in 1525. A second key source is The Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz del Castillo who accompanied Cortes on his voyage to Mexico. Nevertheless, both sources should be read with a pinch of salt. Cortes was in dispute with the crown and would inevitably have sought to highlight his achievements in an attempt to justify his voyage.

The nature of the sources for the period is just one grey and shadowy area in the representation of Moctezuma. How accurate are Spanish accounts of the period? How did the Mexica view their leader? One of the Spanish documents on display in the exhibition is a Spanish map of Tenochtitlan. The map was drawn in 1514, three years after the conquest, but the artist appears to have had first hand knowledge of the city and his representation was on the whole accurate. Nevertheless, his addition of spires and pitched roofs to some of the buildings illustrates perfectly how Spanish authors and artists may have twisted what they saw and experienced in Mexico in accordance with their own visions of the world and the expectations of their Spanish audiences at home.

Moctezuma’s achievements and success as a leader are also shrouded in controversy. Moctezuma was in many ways a great ruler: he expanded the empire to the south of Tenochtitlan; successfully formed a Triple Alliance between the major cities of Tenochtitlan, Tetzcoco and Tlacopan; developed trading links across Mexico and commissioned a program of lavish public building in Tenochtitlan. But despite these achievements he is remembered and blamed in Mexico for the demise of the Aztec empire.

Furthermore, the circumstances and causes of Moctezuma’s death remain a mystery: was he murdered by the Spanish or stoned to death by his own angry people, who felt that he had betrayed them? Again, the sources offer different interpretations. Whilst many views suggest that the Mexica turned against their ruler, according to The Florentine Codex, Moctezuma’s followers sought to retrieve his body in order for it to be cremated. The Florentine Codex is a series of twelve books written under the supervision of the Spanish Franciscan missionary Bernardino de Sahagun between approximately 1540 and 1585. It is a copy of the records of interviews with indigenous sources and remains the main source of Mexica life in the years preceding the Spanish conquest.

Numerous other questions also remain unanswered. Was the Aztec civilization really as violent and brutal as it is often portrayed - notably in Hollywood films such as Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto? Has it been unfairly portrayed? Moreover, why did Moctezuma become such a mythical figure in Europe notably in the centuries following the Spanish conquest? In 16th-century Europe there was a growing appetite for accounts of indigenous kings and on display in the exhibition is the earliest European portrait of Moctezuma by the French artist Andre Thevet dated to 1584. Why did he become more familiar in Europe than in Mexico?

The figure of Moctezuma is surrounded by unanswered questions and issues for debate. Yet, the British Museum’s exhibition largely avoids confronting these questions. These uncertainties and the insubstantiality of Moctezuma’s person are, however, the most fascinating and focal point in the study of the Aztec empire and the Spanish conquest. They would have been the perfect starting point for the exhibition and the perfect theme around which to base it. Has the British Museum missed the point?

For further information on the Aztec Empire and the Spanish conquest of Mexico, visit our History of Mexico focus page.

Images:

- Turquoise mosaic mask, c. 1500-1521, Mexica/Mixtec (The Trustees of the British Museum)

- Portrait of Moctezuma by Antonio Rodriguez, 1680-1697 on loan from the Museo degli Argenti, Florence (su concesione del Ministero per I Beni e le Attivita Culturali)

Our first reader book review

I published our first reader book review, today, on our Books Blog.
A second selection of books will be published on the books blog tomorrow.

The Archimedes Codex: Neumann Prize Winner and the story of Archimedes’ lost manuscripts

by Kathryn Hadley

Last Saturday, September 19th, at the autumn meeting of the British Society for the History of Mathematics (BSHM), The Archimedes Codex by Reviel Netz and William Noel was awarded the Neumann Prize for the best book in the history of mathematics aimed a broad audience. Reviel Netz is Professor of Classics at Stanford University, California, and Dr William Noel is the curator of manuscripts and rare books at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.

The prize was awarded for the first time this year and will henceforth be bestowed every two years. The prize is named after Dr Peter Neumann, Emeritus Fellow of The Queen’s College, Oxford, and a former president of the BSHM. He was awarded the OBE in 2008 for his services to education.

The Archimedes Codex is a biography of one of the ancient world’s greatest mathematicians Archimedes of Syracuse (c.287 BC – c.212 BC) and tells the story of the rediscovery of a 10th-century copy of some of his writings and drawings, which were found hidden beneath a 13th-century prayer book.

The only historic sources about Archimedes are three manuscripts, two of which have disappeared. The third is the Archimedes Palimpsest. The word palimpsest comes from the Greek palimpsestos meaning ‘scraped again’ and is a manuscript from which the text has been erased and the parchment re-used. In the case of the Archimedes Palimpsest, the manuscript containing the mathematician’s work was erased and re-used as a Byzantine prayer book written in Greek and completed in 1229. It contains seven treatises by Archimedes, including The Method of Mechanical Theorems and the Stomachion, which allegedly exist nowhere else in the world.

In October 1998, the manuscript was sold at auction to a private collector who deposited it at The Walters Art Museum. The Archimedes Codex chronicles the project led by William Noel to recover and decipher the erased text and investigates why the text is so important. The Walters Art Museum also created a digital version of the text, which is available on the Archimedes Palimpsest project website.

Professor Martin Campbell-Kelly from the University of Warwick was the chair of the judging panel. He said that:

‘although the panel was faced with a strong shortlist of books The Archimedes
Codex, with its readable combination of history and modern scientific sleuthing,
emerged as a clear winner’.

The British Society for the History of Mathematics was founded in 1971 to promote and encourage research in the history of mathematics and its use at all levels of mathematics education. The annual joint BSHM / Gresham College lecture will be held at Gresham College on November 2nd. Professor Jeremy Gray from the University of Warwick will give a talk entitled ‘Mathematics, motion and truth: the Earth goes round the Sun’ in which he will address the debates surrounding the reality of the Earth’s motion around the Sun from the early 17th century to the time of Poincare.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/
www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/bshm

For further information on the making and the history of the palimpsest and on the project itself visit the Archimedes palimpsest website
http://www.archimedespalimpsest.org/

Archimedes was one of the first mathematicians to approximate the value of π (pi). The mathematics teacher William Jones was the first, however, to use a symbol to represent the concept of pi. In William Jones and his Circle: The Man who invented Pi Patricia Rothman discusses Jones’s significance among his contemporaries and the unique archive that forms his legacy.

For further information on the history of science, visit our History of Science focus page. For further information on ancient Greece, visit our Ancient History focus page.

Germans Want the Berlin Wall Back?

by Kathryn Hadley

A survey published last week by the German magazine Stern revealed that one in seven Germans wanted the Berlin Wall back. Of the country’s 82 million inhabitants, 15% were in favour of the wall because they believed that they were better off during the 28 years that Germany was divided by the Berlin Wall.

The survey was carried out by the Forsa institute, two months ahead of the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9th, 1989. Between September 9th and 10th, 1,002 Germans living in both former eastern and western Germany were questioned. 16% of those living in former West Germany, ‘Wessies’, wanted the wall back, against 11% of ‘Ossies’.

For the most part, those living in western Germany resented paying higher taxes to pay for the rebuilding of the formerly communist east. Over the past twenty years, approximately 1.2 trillion Euros worth of state funds have been transferred to eastern Germany.

Eastern Germans complained, above all, of unequal income levels between western and eastern Germany. In the former GDR income levels are on average only 80% of Western levels. Higher unemployment in former East Germany has also caused depopulation in certain areas of the east. It is estimated that the population has declined by approximately two million since 1990.

55% of Germans believe that unification could be helped if the ‘solidarity tax’ to help fund the costs of rebuilding former East Germany was abolished; 50% argued that higher pensions for easterners would also ease tensions between eastern and western Germany.

In 1985, the American sociologist Richard L. Merritt considered the possible effects of future reunification on the divided city of Berlin. In the light of the results of this recent survey, his words appear somewhat prophetic.

‘If the city is politically amalgamated on the basis of new international
agreements, it will be fairly easy to rebuild a unified municipal government,
and with time it will be possible to construct the links to tie together divided
water and sewage systems, streets and subway lines, and the like. More difficult
to reconstruct will be the sentimental ties of community […] Rebuilding a common
set of expectations, demands and identities among Berliners will doubtless be a
very slow process, quite possibly slower than that which had forced them apart
in the first place’.

In After the Cold War: The Private Side of German Reunification published in our latest, and newly designed, October issue, Paul Betts explains how what Merritt predicted for Berlin has been equally true for the nation as a whole.

For further information on the impact on history and memory of the collapse of Communism, read articles in our special After the Cold War series.

The Vikings: barbarian raiders?

by Kathryn Hadley

The Vale of York Viking Hoard, the most significant Viking treasure found in the UK in 150 years, went on display today, September 18th, at the Yorkshire Museum.

The hoard was discovered in North Yorkshire near Harrogate in January 2007 by two metal-detectorists, David and Andrew Whelan. The last time that a similar hoard was discovered was in 1840 in Cuerdale in Lancashire. The Vale of York Hoard was jointly acquired by the York Museums Trust and the British Museum last month. It will remain on display at the Yorkshire Museum until November 1st and will thereafter be transferred to the British Museum whilst the Yorkshire Museum is closed for a major refurbishment project.

The hoard has been valued at £1,082,000 by the independent Treasure Valuation Committee. It contains 67 precious metal objects, including a gold arm-ring, ingots and chopped-up fragments known as hack-silver, as well as 617 coins. The highlight of the display is a gilt silver vessel, which is believed to have been made in what is now France or western Germany around the middle of the ninth century. Most of the smaller objects were hidden inside the vessel, which was protected in another lead container.

The origins of the hoard are unclear, but it is believed that the silver vessel was used in church services. It may have been looted by the Vikings or given to them as a tribute. Were the Vikings really merely barbarian looters and raiders? Were the treasures all stolen trophies from aggressive raids in Anglo-Saxon kingdoms? Were some of the treasures, instead, of Viking origin and the product of a distinct skilled Viking craftsmanship? Some of the objects do have a distinct style which suggests that they may have been crafted by the Vikings themselves.

The hoard is certainly testimony to the widespread influence and impact of Viking campaigns and to the extensive trade links of the time. The objects originate from all over the medieval world, from Afghanistan and Uzbekistan to Ireland, as well as Russia, Scandinavia and continental Europe. The 617 coins include coins minted in York and coins relating to Islam, the pre-Christian religion of the Vikings and to Christianity.

In AD 927, the Anglo-Saxon king Athelstan (924-39) reconquered the Viking kingdom of Northumbria, which had been under Viking control since AD 869. Athelstan’s campaign was followed by a period of unrest and the hoard may have been buried for safety by a wealthy Viking leader in the mid-tenth century.

For further information on Anglo-Saxon and Viking Britain, visit our new Anglo-Saxon Britain focus page.

For further information on Anglo-Saxon art, read Mildred Budny’s article Striking Gold: The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art, 966-1066 published in History Today in January 1985.

Yorkshire Museum & Gardens
Museum Gardens
York YO1 7FR
Telephone: 01904 687687
http://www.yorkshiremuseum.org.uk/

Pictures:

- objects from the Vale of York Hoard

- gold arm ring

- silver gilt vessel

(Copyright the Trustees of the British Museum)

Mary Queen of Scots’ last letter on display

by Kathryn Hadley

Mary Queen of Scots’ last letter, dated 1587, went on display in the George Bridge Building at the National Library of Scotland on Tuesday, September 15th, to mark the official launch of the library’s new visitor centre. The 422-year-old manuscript is the farewell letter which Mary wrote to Henri III, King of France, just six hours before she was executed. The letter will remain on show until Monday 21st September. It will thereafter be replaced by a facsimile.

Eleven other treasures are also on display in the new visitor centre, including a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, one of the first books ever printed with moveable type, the manuscript autobiography of David Hume and the Forman Armorial, a reference book depicting coats of arms compiled around 1562. These exhibits will remain on display until November 8th.

For further information visit, http://www.nls.uk/

George IV Bridge Building

National Library of Scotland
George IV Bridge

Edinburgh EH1 1EW

Picture: Mary Queen of Scots' execution warrant

New competition

We have just launched a new competition!
Do you know who played Joseph Goebbels in the 2004 film The Downfall?

To enter and win a copy of Toby Thacker's latest book Joseph Goebbels: Life and Death, visit our competitions page www.historytoday.com/competitions

25 Years Since The Discovery of DNA Fingerprinting

by Kathryn Hadley

The technique of genetic fingerprinting was discovered 25 years ago today, on September 10th 1984, by Alec Jeffreys’ from the Department of Genetics at the University of Leicester. To mark the anniversary, the University of Leicester have created an anniversary website featuring interviews and information about Sir Alec’s life and work.

Sir Alec described the discovery in an interview published on the new website:

‘My life changed on Monday morning at 9.05 am, 10 September 1984. What emerged was the world's first genetic fingerprint. In science it is unusual to have such a 'eureka' moment. We were getting extraordinarily variable patterns of DNA,
including from our technician and her mother and father, as well as from non
human samples. My first reaction to the results was 'this is too complicated',
and then the penny dropped and I realised we had genetic fingerprinting.’

Genetic fingerprinting has since been applied to crime, paternity and immigration disputes. In the UK there now exists a national database of over 5 million genetic profiles and the number of recorded profiles has risen by 40% over the past two years. According to an article published on the website of the BBC, over 17,600 offences were solved last year using a DNA match, including 83 killings and 184 rapes.

The University of Leicester website has reprinted a lecture delivered by Sir Alec Jeffreys at the Leicester Medical Society Bicentenary during which he outlined the history of human genetics. Genetics is defined as the study of heredity and the variation of inherited characteristics. He cited two key individuals. In 1900, the Austrian physician Karl Landsteiner discovered the ABO blood group system. This was the first example of a variable human characteristic to be discovered that was inherited according to the simple rules of Mendel. Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884) was an Austrian priest and scientist who discovered the basic principles of heredity based on his work with pea plants. Two years later, the English physician Sir Archibald Garrod, who was working at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London on the inherited disorder Alkaptonuria, discovered the first example of a human inherited disease.

The 1950s saw the rise of genomics, the study of the organisation of genes and chromosomes and structure of DNA. The first human gene was isolated in 1977 and today we now have the final draft of the entire human genome sequence.

On the anniversary of the discovery of DNA fingerprinting, Sir Alec Jeffreys called for changes to the laws governing DNA databases. In England and Wales the DNA profiles of people who have never been convicted are kept alongside those of convicted criminals. In the article published on the BBC website, Jeffreys argued:

‘Innocent people do not belong on that database. Branding them as future
criminals is not proportionate response in the fight against crime. And I've met
a fair number of these people and some of these people are very, very upset and
are distressed by the fact that their DNA is on that database. They cannot get
it off and they feel as if they're branded as criminals.’

For further information, visit www2.le.ac.uk
For further information on the 20th-century scientific-technical revolution and how it produced a new world culture and global organisation, read our article The 20th-Century Scientific-Technical Revolution

Gladiators Were Vegetarians

by Kathryn Hadley

Gladiators were mostly vegetarians and their diets consisted, above all, of barley and vegetables. They were neither too poor to buy meat nor staunch defenders of animal rights; instead, their carbohydrate-rich diets made them put on weight, which both protected them during fights and made them appear more spectacular, which pleased the crowds.

A 200-square-foot plot of land in the city of Ephesus (now in western Turkey), alongside the road that originally led from the city centre to the Temple of Artemis, is the world’s only known gladiator graveyard. The plot contains the bodies of just over 60 gladiators. Karl Grossschmidt, a paleo-pathologist from the Medical University of Vienna, recently led a research project about gladiator life, the diets of gladiators and the causes of their deaths. Scientists carried out isotopic analyses of bone fragments from the graveyard, measuring trace chemical elements such as calcium, strontium and zinc. The results of the study were reported in an article by Andrew Curry published in the November/December issue of Archaeology magazine (a publication of the Archaeological Institute of America).

In contemporary accounts of gladiator life gladiators were often referred to as hordearii, which literally means ‘barley men’. The results of the bone analyses revealed that gladiators ate considerably more plants and very little animal protein compared to the average inhabitant of Ephesus. Their diets were extremely high in carbohydrates such as barley and legumes, which made gladiators put on weight. The extra layers of subcutaneous fat helped to protect them from surface wounds during fights. However, their diets lacked in calcium and gladiators allegedly drank brews of charred wood or bone ash, which contained particularly high levels of calcium, to keep their bones strong.

What was the purpose and significance of gladiatorial shows in Ancient Rome? For further information, read our article Murderous Games: Gladiatorial Contests in Ancient Rome
For further reading, visit our Ancient Rome focus page.

A New World

by Andy Patterson

A New World - A Life of Thomas Paine opened at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre last week. 'Go to the Globe if you can'. Here is Andy Patterson's view of the world premiere of this dramatisation of Paine's life.

London’s Globe Theatre is a lovely venue. All swirling draughts, hard wooden benches, and cushions for hire like a 1960s’ cricket ground.

And who greater than Tom Paine, master of polemic and pamphlet, free thinker, philosophical founder of liberalism and American democracy, to be the riveting hero of its latest production, A New World?

But you may find here less a play, more an overlong history lesson; a sprawling presentation lasting three nearly hours which follows Paine’s increasingly influential contribution to the American Revolution via his first famous pamphlet ‘Common Sense’, to his later years in Old Europe where he tried to introduce the principles outlined for the New World into the chaotic and bloody confusion that was the French Revolution.

Trevor Griffiths originally wrote a five-hour script for Richard Attenborough who planned a film of Paine’s life. Unsurprisingly, the film has never been made and, cut and reconstituted, the play now lacks dramatic tempo. Energy and fervour, often absent in the first act, arrive latterly, injected by the lively James Garnon as Danton while John Light’s Paine is never less than earnest. Odd, uncomfortable stabs at contemporary humour jar with the earthy realism of the piece and some of the faux French accents descend directly from ‘Allo ‘Allo. The use of Benjamin Franklin’s character as the narrator who stitches the gappy tale together is peculiar but the large cast dance and sing born of an enthusiastic sympathy with the subject matter.

Paine is honoured and remembered here and worthily so. A wonderful film remains to be made and a better play to be written. But go to the Globe if you can. Remember the words that Tom Paine set down and principles of liberty he so brilliantly espoused. Sometimes it seems we need them more and more.

A New World - A Life of Thomas Paine

Until October 9th

Shakespeare's Globe

21 New Globe Walk, Bankside

London SE1 9DT

Telephone: 020 7902 1400

http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/

For further information on Thomas Paine's enduring impact, read our free feature article by David Nash published in our June issue The Gain from Thomas Paine

For an insight into how Paine forms a link between the two great revolutions of the 18th century, read Tom Paine in France

For further information about the impact of Paine’s American pamphlets published between December 1776 and December 1783 under the general title of The American Crisis, read Paine's American Pamphlets

Churchill: a liability to the free world

by Kathryn Hadley

‘Churchill was more a liability than an asset to the free world’. That was the motion defended, on September 3rd, by Patrick Buchanan, Norman Stone and Nigel Knight at the Methodist Central Hall Westminster.

Buchanan, Stone and Knight failed to convince the 1,700-strong audience. However, they had to a large degree already failed before the debate began. Prior to the debate, a mere 118 voted in favour of the motion; 1167 voted against; and 422 ‘did not know’. Their arguments convinced just 63 people, with 181 votes against the motion in the aftermath of the debate, and the majority of those who did not know were swayed by the opposition. At the end of the evening, 1194 voted against the motion and just 34 still ‘did not know’.

Buchanan, Stone and Knight condemned Churchill’s economic policies as Chancellor of the Exchequer (from November 1924 to June 1929), his military strategy during the Second World War and the British bombing of German cities in 1945 and blamed him for the loss of the British Empire. According to Nigel Knight, Churchill’s decision to reintroduce the Gold Standard in 1925 severely weakened the British economy, which was consequently hit even harder by the Great Depression. The effects of the Great Depression, in turn, hampered British rearmament and meant that Britain was inadequately armed at the time of the outbreak of the Second World War. Knight also criticised Churchill’s military tactics of delay and dispersion, partly blaming him for the 10 million losses in the last year of the war. When the British army was victorious, at El Alamein for example, he attributed the victory to Montgomery rather than to Churchill, explaining that the British only won because Montgomery refused to follow Churchill’s proposed strategy. Norman Stone accused Churchill of losing the British Empire. Buchanan went so far as to blame Churchill for the outbreak of the Second World War, arguing that he should have instead sought to compromise with Hitler by dividing Europe into spheres of influence. Finally, Buchanan claimed that, at the Yalta conference in 1945, Churchill had given his ‘benediction’ to the Stalinist regime and had supported over 40 years of repressive rule in Eastern Europe.

However, their arguments lacked coherence and consisted above all of a list of individual mistakes which Churchill had allegedly made throughout his 64-year-long political career. Buchanan, Stone and Knight's only consistent argument was that Churchill’s achievements were a myth.

Churchill is indeed, on the whole, viewed as a hero in popular imagination. His statue on Parliament Square alone, just a few metres outside the Methodist Central Hall, is testimony to his heroic legacy. In the shadow of his statue and mythical place in popular imagination, Buchanan, Knight and Stone’s task to persuade the audience that Churchill was, above all, a liability to the free world was almost impossible.

Nevertheless, it seems highly unlikely that this myth was built on thin air alone and just a few of the opposition’s arguments were enough to reassure me that Churchill’s reputation was indeed built on solid foundations. Andrew Roberts, Anthony Beevor and Richard Overy all acknowledged that Churchill made mistakes over the course of his 64-year-long career. However, in Roberts’ words, placed in the wider context of his career and of the time, these mistakes were mere ‘pimples’. Although Churchill’s military tactics of dispersion may not have been entirely effective, they were in keeping with a strong British military tradition and, until the United States entered the war, Britain did not have the necessary forces for a more ‘full-on’ attack.

Above all, one of Churchill’s main strengths was his ability to take advice. His plans for El Alamein may not have been realistic; however, he was able to take advice from Montgomery and the battle was ultimately won. Britain was not a dictatorship and Churchill was not the sole decision maker. In this respect the debate seemed almost pointless: Churchill was not, and could not be, the only person to blame or to praise. Richard Overy described him as ‘largely a spectator’. Roberts, Beevor and Overy all agreed that Churchill was a ‘champion to the free world’ (Roberts) and issues of liberty and freedom formed the core of his set of values and beliefs. Churchill was, and remained throughout his career, a defender of the rule of law and of parliamentary government.

He reaffirmed the necessity to fight for justice and freedom at the end of his last major speech in the House of Commons in March 1955:

‘The day may dawn when fair play, love for one's fellow men, respect for justice
and freedom, will enable tormented generations to march forth triumphant from
the hideous epoch in which we have to dwell. Meanwhile, never flinch, never
weary, never despair.’

For Paul Addison’s view on the ‘Churchill Question’ read, Makers of the Twentieth Century: Churchill
For an insight into how Churchill dealt with his political rivals, read our article Churchill and his War Rivals
For information about his attitude to black peoples, read our article Churchill and Black Africa
In Churchill as Chronicler: The Narvik Episode 1940, Piers Mackesy suggests that Churchill was particularly skilled at writing his own version of history. He explains how Churchill made his father, General Mackesy, the scapegoat for the allied failure to recapture Norway in 1940.

For further information on the Second World War, visit our Second World War focus page.

A Short History of Milk Drinking

by Kathryn Hadley

It was previously believed that milk drinking began in dairy farming communities in northern Europe. Through a process of natural selection to compensate for vitamin D deficiencies due to a lack of daylight, communities in northern Europe were believed to have undergone a genetic mutation which enabled them produce the enzyme lactase necessary to digest the milk sugar lactose. The production of lactase is a characteristic known as lactase persistence. Although the majority of Europeans produce lactase throughout their life, most adults worldwide do not produce the enzyme lactase. However, the latest research by scientists from University College London has revealed that this genetic mutation first occurred, instead, in dairy farming communities in central Europe 7,500 years ago, in the region between the central Balkans and central Europe.

According to previous studies, dairying developed in south-eastern Europe soon after the arrival of farming. Milk proteins have been discovered, for example, in present-day Romania and Hungary in ceramic vessels which date back between 7,900 and 7,450 years. Traces of fats have also suggested that dairying began in England some 6,100 years ago. It is believed that Germanic and Celtic people practiced cattle dairying and drank significant amounts of fresh milk, however, it is most likely that milk was first used to make cheese, butter and yoghurt rather than drunk fresh.

Professor Mark Thomas, UCL Genetics, Evolution and Environment, explained:

‘Most Europeans continue to produce lactase throughout their life, a
characteristic known as lactase persistence. In Europe, a single genetic change
(13,910*T) is strongly associated with lactase persistence and appears to have
given people with it a big survival advantage. Since adult consumption of fresh
milk was only possible after the domestication of animals, it is likely that
lactase persistence co-evolved with the cultural practice of dairying, although
it was not known when it first arose in Europe or what factors drove its rapid
spread. Our study simulated the spread of lactase persistence and farming in
Europe, and found that lactase persistence appears to have begun around 7,500
years ago between the central Balkans and central Europe, probably among people
of the Linearbandkeramik culture. But contrary to popular belief, we also found
that a need for dietary vitamin D was not necessary to explain why lactase
persistence is common in northern Europe today.’

The results of the study were published last week in the journal PLoS Computational Biology in ‘The Origins of Lactose Persistence in Europe’ by Yuval Itan, Adam Powell, Mark Beaumont, Joachim Burger and Mark Thomas. The article is available on the website of PLoS Computational Biology. http://www.ploscompbiol.org/

Picture:

Map showing origin of milk drinking in Europe (UCL)

Memories of the Second World War

by Kathryn Hadley

Over the past few days, headlines have been filled with news of events and ceremonies to remember the outbreak of the Second World War. Seventy years on, from those who saw action in Europe and the Pacific, to those who stayed behind and fought to preserve a semblance of normality in their lives shattered by war, and to the children who were sent away from their families, memories of the Second World War are extremely diverse. To mark the anniversary, many newspapers have published memories of the Second World War on their websites. Here is a small selection…

In the international online edition of Der Spiegel, former German President Richard von Weizsäcker discusses his memories of the Second World War and the role of his father, Ernst, as a senior official in the Foreign Ministry.

In an article published on the website of The Telegraph, six women who lived through the conflict remember how it affected and changed their lives forever.

In ‘Watching the start of World War II’ published on the website of the BBC, Ignacy Skowron recalls his experience of the German attack on Danzig on September 1st 1939, as a 24 year-old soldier defending the military transit depot on the Westerplatte peninsula.

In 'Child evacuees relive their WW2', three former child evacuees describe their memories of the evacuation.

The BBC has also published some of the quotes of world leaders, including Angela Merkel, Vladimir Putin, David Miliband, Donald Tusk and Barack Obama, during the ceremonies on Tuesday in Poland to remember the German invasion.

‘First to Fight’ Book Launch

by Kathryn Hadley

First to Fight was launched yesterday, September 1st 2009, 70 years after the German invasion of Poland. The new book is part of a project to promote the recognition of the role of the Polish armed forces in Britain’s war effort. Contributors to the book and supporters of the campaign include leading British statesmen and military leaders such as Baroness Thatcher, General The Lord Guthrie, former chief of the Defence Staff, HRH The Duke of Kent, Winston S. Churchill MP, grandson of the wartime Prime Minister, and Sir Martin Gilbert, Churchill’s official biographer.

Based on the personal stories of Poles who fought on various fronts, in the air, on the land and at sea, First to Fight recalls Poland’s six-year struggle against the Nazi forces. It also features a number of texts which are published for the first time, including the English translation of Stalin’s signed order to execute 14,736 of the Polish Officer Corps at Katyn Forest in 1940.

Approximately 500,000 Poles fought under British command during the Second World War. More Poles died as a percentage of Poland’s population than any other country and in the aftermath of the war, as Poland was incorporated into the Soviet Union, over 120,000 veterans settled in Britain. However, at present there is no memorial dedicated to the Polish Forces who lost their lives during the Second World War.

As the second part of the memorial project, a new memorial to these Polish Forces will be inaugurated at the National Memorial Arboretum near Litchfield, Staffordshire, on September 19th. The Polish Forces Memorial will be officially unveiled by HRH The Duke of Kent. The National Memorial Arboretum comprises 150 acres of woodland and memorials dedicated to the fallen servicemen and women from both World Wars and other conflicts of the 20th century.

Yesterday, to mark the launch of First to Fight, Baroness Thatcher recalled the contribution of the Polish Forces during the Second World War:

‘Today, as we mark the 70th anniversary of the invasion of Poland and the
subsequent outbreak of World War II, we remember the unique contribution of the
Polish armed forces towards the freedom of Britain, of Europe and indeed of the
world. Poland fought alongside us from the first day of the war to the
last. Her people showed extraordinary bravery: many giving their lives as
the ultimate sacrifice. But the freedoms for which they fought were to be
cruelly denied them in the post-war world. Those who remained in exile could
only look on as a new wave of oppression engulfed their country. Some would
never achieve their heart-felt goal of returning to their homeland. But,
finally, after more than four decades under communist tyranny, the people of
Poland were able to set their own destiny.
In Britain, we remember the
steadfastness of the Polish people; we treasure the bond of history which ties
our peoples together; and we look forward to a flourishing friendship which will
serve our nations well into the future.’

For further information on the new Polish Forces Memorial, visit The Polish Armed Forces Memorial website http://www.polishforcesmemorial.com/

For further information on the training, discipline and Blitzkrieg tactics of the German army and the invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939, read our latest article by Andrew Roberts published in the September issue of our magazine Second World War: The Storm of War

Lincoln Tweets

by Kathryn Hadley

Twitter is decidedly becoming increasingly fashionable!
John Quincy Adams began to tweet just a couple of weeks ago; now, to mark the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has begun to provide daily updates on the major events of the American Civil War via the same social networking site. For updates on the actions of Abraham Lincoln and other major figures of the American Civil War throughout the era and to read some of their comments from the time, visit the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Twitter page www.twitter.com/GLIAmericanHist