History news

TALKING POINTS Weaponising histor y

A recent opinion piece by Simon Schama on political and military misuses of history sparked a huge, and varied, Twitter response. ANNA WHITELOCK took stock of the debate

In May, Simon Schama (@simon_ schama) wrote an essay in the Financial Times, discussing how and when history is weaponised for war. The historian argued that “bad history can kill. Those who butcher the truth may end up butchering people. Every day, the news from Ukraine says as much.” He continued: “Openness to self-criticism, the mark of strong, honest history, is not – as is sometimes said by flag-waggers and drum-beaters – a sign of national self-hatred. On the contrary, it represents an optimistic patriotic faith that, in free societies, the cohesion of national community is better served by the examination of truth than by otiose flattery.”

As you would expect, Schama’s article prompted much discussion on Twitter. Tom Moore (@PaperMissiles) enthused that “Simon Schama has done us all immense service by taking the time to turn his authority and judgment, his clarity, against a world intentionally clouded by lies.” Andy Carter (@andykerrcarter) tweeted: “Excellent analysis as ever from [Schama], not only on Putin’s misuse of history but on that by the likes of [Hungary’s prime minister] Orbán and [Turkish president] Erdoğan. The nuances of a complex and conflicted past cannot be reduced to black and white tales of goodies and baddies, something which our own government doesn’t grasp.”

There was also some critique, however. Sam (@0151Sam64) pointed out that the piece included “not a word about British, US bad history in the pursuit of power… Just all those nasty nations and leaders.” Schama responded: “Believe me, I have plenty to say on those prize examples… space [was] limited and [I] was concentrating on bad history as driver of war… Stay tuned.”

Debate was also sparked by Schama’s concluding section on Ireland, in which he wrote: “Sinn Féin, once wedded to the perpetuation of historical grievance, may well have become the majority party in Northern Ireland’s assembly… with a promise that its responsibilities are first and foremost to the social well-being of all the people.” Brian Walker (@bwalker347) noted: “Schama’s terrific article on ‘bad history’ and ‘tedious victimhood’ slams Putin on Ukraine but praises Ireland – including potentially Sinn Féin, if they really are committed to a new vision of Ireland.” While praising Schama’s overview, David Rieff (@davidrieff ) thought that it featured a “far too optimistic conclusion”. Jonny (@gawanorniron) was more condemnatory: “[Schama] ruins a good article with a ludicrous example. Sinn Féin are the absolute masters of ‘bad history’ and ‘tedious victimhood’.” With Sinn Féin now confirmed as the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, only time will tell if and how far Schama is an optimist or a realist.

Join the debate at twitter.com/ historyextra Simon Schama, pictured in 2015. “Bad history can kill,” he wrote recently, sparking Twitter debate

Anna Whitelock is professor of the history of monarchy at City, University of London

The nuances of a complex past cannot be reduced to tales of goodies and baddies

A banquet shown in an 11th-century manuscript. Meat may not have been on the Anglo-Saxon menu as regularly as we’ve traditionally imagined

ARCHAEOLOGY

Anglo-Saxon kings were “mostly vegetarian”

The popular image of an Anglo-Saxon hall set for a great feast, its tables laden with meat and mead, is an evocative one. But a new study suggests that rulers in the period may instead have eaten a mainly vegetarian diet.

Experts from the University of Cambridge analysed the bones of more than 2,000 people buried in

England between the fifth and eleventh

centuries to discover chemical clues about what they had eaten during their lifetimes. They then researched the social status of those individuals, looking to factors such as the location of their burials and the objects included in their graves. The results indicated that the elite didn’t eat more meat on a daily basis than other social groups.

The results are surprising because accounts from the period refer to highranking individuals consuming a large amount of meat. Yet the authors of the study suggest that such accounts may describe provisions for occasional royal feasts, rather than the kinds of meals served on a regular basis – which, for all members of society, would have primarily been based on cereal crops rather than meat.

Writing in Anglo-Saxon England,

Sam Leggett and Tom Lambert also note that those feasts appear to have been incredibly lavish, suggesting they would have been attended by large numbers of people, including non-elite individuals. This suggests that the disparity between the diets of the elite and the rest of society was less marked than is often thought. Yet the authors also stress that more research needs to be carried out into the subject.

HISTORY IN THE NE WS

A selec tion of the stories hit ting the histor y headlines

Lockdown cataloguing leads to rediscovery of tiny Bible

The coronavirus lockdowns of the past two years were not, for many people, a time of great productivity – but, for the staff of some of Britain’s archives, they offered a rare chance to fully explore their collections. That’s the case at Leeds Central Library, where staff rediscovered almost 3,000 previously overlooked artefacts including the tiny bible pictured below. The book, which dates from 1911 and measures only about 50mm by 30mm, accurately reproduces both the Old and New Testament in miniature. It’s not known when it was first donated to the archive, but along with many of the other newly uncovered objects, it’s now on display to the public. Excavation work in the grounds of Leicester Cathedral, which has uncovered the graves of more than 100 people

Graves revealed during Leicester Cathedral restoration work

Work to build a new visitor centre at Leicester Cathedral has uncovered the burial sites of more than 100 people. The remains were discovered in the grounds not far from the cathedral’s altar. This would have made it a desirable location in which to be buried, and the project team believes that hundreds more graves might be found across the coming months.

Although the building wasn’t designated a cathedral until 1927, it has been one of the area’s most important churches since at least the 12th century. Experts suggest that the burials may span that period, and each will be carefully analysed before being reburied within the cathedral’s grounds.

As well as the site’s Christian past, archaeologists also hope to discover new clues about the Roman ruins on which the cathedral and its graveyard are known to have been built. The density of buildings constructed in Leicester’s city centre during later periods means that the current project, due to be completed by the autumn of 2023, offers a rare chance to explore the area’s earliest history.

New podcast to chart social

impact of Call the Midwife

Since it premiered in 2012, the BBC TV series Call the Midwife (pictured below) has dramatised the impact of social changes on postwar Britain through the lives of a group of midwives in London’s East End. Now new research by University of Oxford postgraduate Alice Watson will explore the real stories behind the drama, thanks to a grant from the Arts and Research Council awarded to mark the BBC’s centenary. The results will be shared in a podcast series, set to begin later this year.

A 2015 performance of Cymbeline. New questions have emerged about the play’s origins

Shakespeare may have cribbed plot of Cymbeline

Theories have abounded for centuries about the “true” authorship of plays attributed to Shakespeare, some more plausible than others. Now new evidence suggests that the playwright may have derived the plot of the historical play Cymbeline from the work of fellow writer Thomas North. That’s the claim of journalist Michael Blanding, who discovered notes written by North that seem to sketch a similar plot outline. North is believed to have died in the early 17th century, a few years before the play is thought to have been first performed.

Stolen Nostradamus text returned to Rome library

A 16th-century manuscript written by Nostradamus has been returned to a library in Rome after Italian police were alerted to its attempted sale at an auction in Germany. The document (pictured below) bears the title Nostradamus M Prophecies and a 1991 date stamp from the historical studies centre of the Barnabite Fathers of Rome, and is thought to have gone missing around 2007. The effort to return it to Italy began after a team from the nation’s cultural heritage protection taskforce spotted it on the auction house’s website, and then worked with German experts to identify it as a work by the French astrologer – famous for his supposed predictions of future events.