Issue 8 - Manchester Historian

Features Michael Gove’s History Curriculum British history for British pupils?

Mappae Mundi Maps not for navigation Our Histories competition winner Pippa Stannard Francis Walsingham The Eyes and Ears of Elizabeth I Game of Thrones Medieval parallels

The origins of Ordnance Survey Painting the world pink In conversation with Dr. Georg Christ Back-Pocket Politics: The Act of Union and Independence Referendum Chavez in the national memory War on History Women’s in the post-Sati era Living in North Korea Revolution and War: How Mexico learnt to protest Radical Diasporas

Editors Ata Rahman Charlie Bush Head of Layout Head of Copy-Editing Head of Marketing Head of Advertising Web Editor

Becky Stevens Aditya Iyer Sinead Doherty Gemma Newton Jennifer Ho

Cover Design Tom Eccles Layout Team Charlotte Johnson Copy-Editing Team Jessie Brener Amy Garnett Sigourney Fox Eve Commander Feargal Logue Marketing Team Rebecca Hennell-Smith Kate Blaxill Leah Crowther Advertising Team Bethany Gent Michael Cass Catherine Macleod-Adams Page 2

Market Bubbles: A market phenomenon The Disputed Toll: The Elephant that Walked from Edinburgh to Manchester Alumni Profile: Sir Arthur Whitten Brown History of Space Travel Comets and Omens Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not Imperial War Museum North: Sean Smith’s Photographs from Iraq Exhibit Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum at the British Museum A Doll’s House review What are the old team up to now?

The History Awards evening Recent Staff Publications www.manchesterhistorian.com

Issue 8, May 2013

Letters from the Editors First, I’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone on the Manchester Historian team, all our writers and all other students who have contributed to the magazine. You’ve been a fantastic, hard-working bunch and we couldn’t have put out these issues without you. Secondly, I’d like to thank all the staff in the History department who have helped us and made this magazine possible. In particular, I’d like to especially thank Dr. Sasha Handley who has been an absolute pleasure to work with. I’m delighted to know she’ll be continuing in her current capacity next year. Lastly, I’d like to give a special thanks to Charlie who has been a brilliant person to help endure all the panicky moments we’ve had throughout the year and has become a great friend!

Charlie and Ata at the History Student Awards

It is amazing how quickly this year has gone and I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve all been able to accomplish this year. I wish next year’s team the best of luck and I hope to see the Manchester Historian continue to flourish within the department, the University and the city. It’s been an absolute pleasure being editor!

Ata Rahman This last issue of the year is a bumper edition. We were determined that we would publish issue 8 between dissertation deadlines and the start of exams and here it is. We hope that it will be an enjoyable light relief during the dark days of revision, a welcome distraction to the long slog of research or, if you are very fortunate, maybe a convivial companion to a glass of something refreshing out in the sunshine.

For most of us on the team, this Manchester Historian is among the very last things that we do at university. I can only echo Ata’s gratitude to our great team and the staff who have supported us. I am also really thankful to everyone who has written for us over the course of the year; without them this magazine really would not amount to very much at all.

Ata and I had not met before we were both appointed as the editors last summer, in fact both of us had been abroad. I am delighted that we have got on so well and that we have been able to share the editorial burden. We are determined to appoint two students as joint editors next year on the basis of our shared relief about not editing the magazine alone. I am sure that they will do a great job.

Good luck to you all in your exams! I hope you will all enjoy a tremendous summer.

Charlie Bush Some of the Manchester Historian team at the History Student Awards @TheMcrHistorian

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Michael Gove’s British history for In February, the Department of Education pro-

duced a proposal for a new history curriculum.

Michael Gove brushed aside the advice he had received from professional historians and teachers, and wrote a controversial curriculum which is a chronicle of the British Isles. It has been attacked for being ‘pub quiz’ history, myopically Anglocentric, politically-motivated citizenship teaching, which shows little regard for children’s interests or whether the material is age-appropriate. The debate is raging, so we asked two of our writers to make the arguments for and against Gove’s new curriculum.

Opposing Gove’s policy There has never been such a consensus in the history community as was provoked by Michael Gove’s educational reform proposals for the subject. Almost without exception, the historical community was condemnatory: The Royal Historical Society, History UK and the Historical AssoWikimedia Commons ciation bemoaned the lack of consultation. Even conservative historians who created the proposals were dismayed, claiming that the document they had agreed to had been dramatically altered. doctrination, which aims to subsume the evils of British racist colonial ventures under a patriotic sheen.

The most worrying aspects of the proposals involve a nonsensical jingoism that would be comfortable in a BNP pamphlet. The focus is almost entirely on British history and its ‘positive’ impact on the world. The Cambridge historian Sir Richard Evans fairly described the curriculum as ‘a little England version of our national past’.

Moreover, the proposals offer an outdated, insular view of Britain totally incongruous with modernity. They claim that the causes of the Second World War were ‘appeasement, the Failure of the League of Nations and the rise of dictators’; but how can anyone understand the War without knowing Germany’s position after the First World War? Or the The initial aim is to teach pupils ‘how the British depression caused by the Wall Street Crash in the people shaped this nation and how Britain influ- USA? Or the spread of Communism in Russia? enced the World’; in other words why Britain is ‘Great’. By any measure, that is propagandistic. The History does not exist in neat little boxes called naevils of Empire and colonialism are forgotten un- tions. Nor is its role to cement national identities der the subtitle ‘Britain’s global impact in the nine- and indoctrinate a generation in British ‘greatness’. teenth century’. Figures like Gordon of Khartoum As a History and Spanish student I must say I am and Clive of India are lauded as British heroes when concerned; if Michael Gove succeeds, I fear my in reality they were involved in the worst atrocities Spanish classes will soon be taught in English too. of the Empire. It is a profound concern that children Alex Underwood as young as seven will be subject to such state in Page 4

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Issue 8, May 2013

British students: for and against Supporting Gove’s policy Last summer, a poll conducted by Lord Ashcroft found that, rather worryingly, British children have a distinct lack of knowledge regarding British history. His findings for example, showed that only 34% of children aged 11 to 18 knew that the Battle of Britain was fought in the 1940s, whilst 43% knew that it was fought in the air.

more coherent and manageable historical timeline.

Secondly, it will help children to develop a real sense of national identity. David Priestland has recently argued that the document is ‘depressingly narrow… [and] resolutely insular’, and that in today’s multicultural society, children need a greater knowledge of global history. Surely then, this is exactly what children will learn if they are being taught British history; arguably no other country can claim to have had as much of a global impact as Britain.

Michael Gove’s new national curriculum, which is endorsed by 15 of the country’s leading historians, will seek to provide children with a far wider knowledge of Britain’s rich and diverse history.

This will serve to achieve several goals. By placing the emphasis on British topics, children are far more likely to become interested in their history lessons.

Priestland, and others, seem to assume that history lessons will now consist of nothing more than patriotic teachers harking on about topics that only concern Britain. This is not the case.

Clearly, there are serious problems with the way history is taught in our schools, and, whether we like it or not, urgent reforms are needed If a pupil is taught about a topic to which he or she if we are to renew interest in our discipline. Mican relate, then it can be expected that that pupil chael Gove’s controversial plans are by no means will be far more engaged, and hopefully more in- perfect, but they are a step in the right direction. quisitive. Furthermore, by charting history chronFrancis Keepfer ologically, children will be able to develop a far

Extracts from the proposed new History Curriculum, from the Department for Education: “Pupils should be taught about the lives of significant individuals in Britain’s past who have contributed to our nation’s achievements – scientists such as Isaac Newton or Michael Faraday, reformers such as Elizabeth Fry or William Wilberforce, medical pioneers such as William Harvey or Florence Nightingale, or creative geniuses such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel or Christina Rossetti.

Britain and her Empire, including: •Wolfe and the conquest of Canada •Clive of India •Competition with France and the Jacobite rebellion •the American Revolution The Second World War, including: •causes such as appeasement, the failure of the League of Nations and the rise of the Dictators •the global reach of the war – from Arctic Convoys to the Pacific Campaign •the roles of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin •Nazi atrocities in occupied Europe and the unique evil of the Holocaust.” @TheMcrHistorian

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Mappae Mundi: maps not for navigation Consider a map of the University of Manchester campus: it includes the main campus on Oxford Road, the collection of buildings and residences that make up North Campus and often halls of residence in Rusholme and Fallowfield.

There are, however, large portions of the city missing, which can be explained by the n av i g at i on a l purposes of the map, all one requires from it is to know where certain buildings in the University are located.

But it could also suggest that the University wishes to be perceived in a certain way. If we now take ourselves back to the Middle Ages in Europe, we come to a time when maps were largely produced as representations of religious and political powers and navigation was a secondary or absent purpose. A map of this type is referred to as a Mappa Mundi.

Elizabeth Gerschkill argues that Mappae Mundi were not designed as navigational aids but rather as representations of God’s creations and the systematic order in which he created the world. Arguably the most famous of these maps, the Hereford Map, housed in Hereford Cathedral perhaps best exemplifies this as it effectively tells the story of the history of the world from a religious viewpoint. Religion was a key element of many of Mappae Mundi, in the form of mythical figures or as canonical text. The theme of religion is present in earlier Mappae Mundi as well, with the Erbstorf Page 6

Map providing biblical and pagan commentary on the history of the world. The use of perfect circles to signify continents or climactic zones connote the importance of God to the construction of these maps.

Political statements, though perhaps less common than religious, can also be seen in Mappae Mundi, such as the Albi Map, which enlarges the size of Europe which the Frankish Empire occupied and reduces Asia to a mere fragment.

There are, however, a significant number of exemptions to Gerschkill’s Wikimedia Commons position, if one assumes she is limiting herself to Christianity.

Many maps produced from the Majorcan Cartographic School which was run by Jews, were free of Christian rhetoric. The Fra Mauro map, though arguably produced in the earliest decades of the Renaissance, was strongly influenced by Islamic mapping techniques from the Arabs. The one clear anomaly among Mappae Mundi, however, is the Gough Map, which is considered the oldest surviving route map of Great Britain and was made seemingly under entirely navigational purposes.

Therefore, although Mappae Mundi provides a fascinating insight into religious and political struggles during the European Middle Ages, it would be incorrect to deem cartography at this time to be completely free of navigational purposes.

Ata Rahman www.manchesterhistorian.com

Issue 8, May 2013

The Origins of Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey is a well-known British institution providing comprehensive geographical data for a multitude of purposes. Utilised during Duke of Edinburgh expeditions and a vital organ of the National Curriculum, Ordnance Survey maps will be familiar to most students through the education system. Weekend exploration in the Lake District, Peak District and other areas of attraction is greatly improved by the crystal clear and detailed landscape mapping provided by OS survey maps. The history of the Ordnance Survey finds its routes, as many things do, in the Jacobite Rebellion. The Jacobites rebelled in the 17th and 18th centuries hoping to restore the House of Stuart to the English throne. Many Scottish people joined the Jacobite cause because of King James’ over throwers, Mary and William of Orange. The pair had been persecuting Catholics in Scotland and it was in the face of Scottish turbulence that Lieutenant Colonel Watson thought to create a detailed map of Scotland for military purposes.

The word ‘ordnance’ itself refers to military equipment, particularly ammunition and guns, and so it was the Board of Ordnance back in 1745 that were first allocated the task of mapping the Scottish landscape. French political turbulence and the presence of Napoleon during the early 19th century provided the encouragement needed for

the Ordnance Survey to continue mapping Britain, this time focusing on the south coast of England. 1801 saw the mapping scale change to 1inch: 1mile and during the next 20 years around a third of England and Wales were mapped to this scale.

1841 saw the Ordnance Survey Act which granted the right to enter property for the purposes of Ordnance surveying. By 1846 a county by county survey of Ireland was finished, but the suspicions aroused amongst rural Ireland were considerable.

Brian Friel’s play Translations is actually based on the reactions of Irish to their land being mapped.

It was the forward-thinking Major General Sir Henry James (the then Director General) which brought Ordnance mapping the practicalities of landscape photography. Using photography, maps were created far more efficiently and altering scales became cheaper and easier. The needs of war meant that from between the late 1800s until the end of World War II, a series of restricted maps were created for the War Office, mapping the locations of places with military significance, i.e. military camps, dockyards and naval installations. It was also through war that the Ordnance Survey began mapping foreign lands, such as South Africa, Italy, the Netherlands, France and Belgium. Information provided by the Ordnance Survey provided critical intelligence in the war effort and today Ordnance Survey provides data which can be utilised for a multitude of purposes. In 1995, 230,000 maps were digitised, and today these digital maps are used to provide businesses with highly valuable geographical data, as well as enabling the spring rambler to adventure into the unknown.

Megan Dina Garlick

This building was the old Ordnance Survey offices in London Road, Southampton. In 1940 it was destroyed by enemy bombing. Wikimedia Commons. @TheMcrHistorian

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Painting the World Pink

Wikimedia Commons

Cartography in the iconography of British imperialism portrayed the visual culture of the British Empire. The Empire came to cover huge swathes of territory and from the nineteenth century onwards, Commonwealth countries were coloured pink on maps. Pink was a printer’s compromise for letters overprinted to be clearly read, as the colour that was traditionally associated with the British Empire is red.

clearly depict one thing: the imperial fantasy perceiving Britannia rightfully ruling its subjects from the top of the world. This subsequently led to jingoism, disguised behind the excuse of civilizing missionizing. The British tried to pursue the cleansing of the savage colonial residences, producing ‘racial progress’, but achieved a division and gap with ‘otherness’ by vast exploitation.

Commonwealth historian Linda Colley, commenting on an Imperial Federation map depicting the extent of the British Empire in 1886, noted that the globe is depicted using the Mercator projection, centered on the Greenwich meridian. The effect of the image, she argued, is to conceal the territorial fragility of British imperialism by underlining its global reach. Thus, the viewer neglects the small territory of islands that the world-dominating United Kingdom consists of.

Subsequently, the vast stretches of pink are presented as connected and homogeneous, though several parts of the empire were dealt separately and were held with different levels of power.

For many Britons who were not members of the upper and higher middle classes, there was, however, a surprising ignorance about the Imperial world. Geography was hardly taught at all in state schools attended by working class children during Victoria’s reign. The idea of every classroom having a huge map covered in pink in every classroom is erroneous. The Empire was an elite concern and the upper classes, in practice, did not want to broaden the lower orders’ horizons in anyway that might have prejudiced their privileged position in society.

So while a map painted pink was an expression of British power in the world, access to those maps and wider education about the Empire was about power and control between the classes within Britain itself.

Maps, being part of the British ‘mental furniture’

Kyriaki Protopapa

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Issue 8, May 2013

Our Histories Competition Winner

We are delighted to announce the winner of the inaugural Our Histories competition. There were some strong entries but Pippa Stannard’s account of her grandmother’s experience of the Second World War in Indonesia topped the field. Congratulations Pippa!

bombed in August 1945. However, this did not mean liberation for the Dutch, as the Indonesian natives, now trained and armed by the war, took this opportunity to declare their independence.

The British sent Ghurkha troops to accompany the Dutch to boats where they could choose to I am slightly ashamed to admit that before embark- be transported either to Australia or to Holland. ing on this project my knowledge of the Second At this point, Oma was 18 and, reunited with World War and its effects was almost completely the men, the family decided to move to Hollimited to the Western world. land, expecting to be emWhile, of course, I still remain braced by their compatriots. largely ignorant about the impact of the war outside of Europe, However, this was not the case. speaking to my Dutch grandThe Dutch living in Holland had mother about her experiences their own trauma of occupation in the Dutch colony of Indoneto cope with and were still suffersia has begun to remedy this. ing from extreme food shortages.

Those who had lived in IndoneThe Dutch colonised Indonesia sia were considered the fortunate in the seventeenth century, after by-passing Aus- ones, living in luxury in a tropical climate, and so tralia to find more fertile and rich lands. Oma was their experiences during the war were seen as some born and brought up in Bandung in West Java, and sort of come-uppance. As a result of the Japanese lived what she described as an extremely comfort- occupation, the Dutch youth of Indonesia had able life with five Indonesian servants and var- missed three and a half years of school, and so the ious other luxuries. She identified most strongly government in Holland created the ‘London Diwith Dutch culture, which had had a heavy im- ploma’, which acted as an intensive one year course pact in Indonesia, and considered Holland her for those who should have finished high school. homeland, even though she had only visited once.

When Japan entered the war and invaded Indone- After completing this, Oma took a teaching qualsia, the Dutch civilians were declared POWs and ification and eventually moved to England. Alfamilies were split apart as the men were sent to though she moved to England primarily because live in old army barracks, while the women and she had met my grandfather, Oma commented boys under 12 were moved into fenced off sub- that she was not sad to leave Holland, as she had urbs. Oma and her mother and siblings spent never really felt welcome there. She now lives in two years in one of these suburbs, where the con- Australia and still stays in touch with friends from ditions worsened as time went on, and houses Indonesia. When I asked if she would like some became increasingly overcrowded, with families kind of apology from the Japanese government, sharing rooms and corridors. At the same time, Oma said no, because she understands that “war the Indonesian natives were recruited into the Jap- brings out the best and the worst in people”, and anese army, and this divide meant that escape was because her reversal of fortune has shaped her impossible for Dutch civilians as they were easily attitudes and the person she became. It would spotted by their skin tone, and any communication perhaps be more important for voices like my with Indonesian guards was severely punished. grandmother’s to be listened to and commemorated, so that their stories and other less-studied asAfter two years, the women and children living pects of the Second World War are not forgotten. in the suburb were put on trains to what some recognised as Jakarta, where they were imprisPippa Stannard oned and effectively starved until Hiroshima was @TheMcrHistorian

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In conversation with Dr. Georg Christ

far less choice on the Continent and the techniques are far more innovative in the UK – I never witnessed team teaching in Germany for example. As the career of professors go, the UK is certainly kinder to younger academics as in Germany they are not easily able to obtain permanent work contracts!

What is your current research on?

Currently I am looking at trade embargoes in the fourteenth century in the Eastern Mediterranean and Northern Europe. In particular, I am comparing and contrasting these embargoes so for example how the Northern European embargoes tended to be more pragmatic and secular. Additionally, within this, I am examining embargoes as a political tool of war and the often unsuccessful nature of embargoes, particularly during times of famine.

The Eastern Mediterranean presents a particularly interesting region to examine due to the entanglement of two religions and the concepts of legal history that were exchanged between them. Perhaps of more interest to students would be a current Georg Christ at work journal I am working on, which is why the English began drinking port instead of Greek wines, What brought you to Manchester and what were which has a fascinating trading background to it! you doing just prior?

Before Manchester, I was in a trans-cultural studies research group at the University of Heidelberg.

Our focus was on trading diasporas in the Eastern Mediterranean and Northern Europe, which has informed some of my current research. I was drawn to Manchester because of a greater flexibility regarding teaching periods – the medieval and early modern are often not connected in Germany. Manchester is also a very large University and my colleagues specialise in a wide range of research, which drew me here. There are also many opportunities to collaborate with those in different departments, such as Religion and Theology, Languages and Middle Eastern Studies.

Additionally, the UK has a high profile in academic circles and this was naturally a positive.

You worked for the UN in military intelligence; can you tell us a bit more about that?

I grew up in Basel, Switzerland and there it is compulsory to complete military service, which is where I first became interested in this field.

Eventually I became a military observer for the UN and after my PhD, I went to the Middle East and worked for the UN Truce Supervision Organization at the Golan Heights border. I also spent some times in the UN HQ in Jerusalem where I was the Deputy Commander of the Military Information Office. Here my background as a Historian proved to be incredibly useful.

You said in an interview on the History department’s blog that one should never underestimate the importance of languages when studying History. What adWhat would you say, based on your experiences, are the biggest differences between the UK Universi- vice can you give to undergraduates to aid this process?

The first piece of advice would be the obvious, ty system and that in Germany?

One of the biggest differences regarding teaching is which is not to start too late. As for learning while there tends to be more flexibility on the Continent. you are an undergraduate, many students seem There is a greater focus on administration in the UK concerned that it will cause their marks to drop, and reaching a higher standard. However, there is but the benefits of knowing a language and getting a 2.1 instead of a 1st is often worth the risk. LanPage 10

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Issue 8, May 2013 guages will open up much wider possibilities for research should the student want to go into postgraduate study or even for a dissertation, such as the undeniable importance of Latin when studying the early modern period and the Middle Ages in Europe. The merging of two schools to form the SALC shows the co-existence of History and lan-

guages and provides a wonderful opportunity for students to get involved. I’d encourage everyone to talk to staff to explore their options from an early stage. I didn’t stop bad marks in French at school from preventing me from studying it further!

Ata Rahman

Back-Pocket Politics: The Act of Union and Independence Referendum The referendum on Scottish into their interests to be derived from dependence slated for 2014 is so Scotland becoming part of England’s far generating little interest. The trade area and they pressed hard for broadsheet media occasionally the union. A perfunctory glance at the summons up the resolve to report Act itself shows that the majority of findings of an august think-tank the articles in the bill were to do with or the veiled threats of potential economic matters. The union was not apocalypse befalling all of us from really about softening of national anpoliticians on both sides. The levtagonisms, cultural assimilation or el of coverage will no doubt inpolitical intent: the Act was signed becrease dramatically the closer eleccause of the pressure of elites who had a tion day comes but journalistic weather eye on their business interests. fads are as nothing at the ManSodacan So if England and Scotland came tochester Historian and we are algether in national union for economways ready to consider the historical context. ic reasons, what can this tell us about the probability of a break-up of the Union 307 years later?

Scotland joined the Union in 1707, largely be- All voters (Scots only, of course) will be aware cause of the economic and trade benefits on of- of the potential magnitude of this referendum. fer, with the latter being especially important. The Act of Union granted Scotland access to one of A clear affirmation for independence from the the more prosperous trade areas of the time. The electorate will leave HM Government little room mercantile world at the start of the eighteenth cen- to snuff out their demands. Even this awareness, tury was one governed by protectionist economic however, will rarely lead to terribly carefully-conpractices. Governments attempted to control the sidered vote choices. Voters overwhelmingly cast balance of exports and imports in their country’s their ballot based on whether they feel content favour; free trade was an anathema. This market with the real economy or not. When voting in this structure limited the opportunities for Scottish referendum, Scots will think about whether the merchants, although the illegal trade, dodging economic deal they get from being part of Unitcustoms and tariff lines, was rife. England’s access ed Kingdom is satisfactory: if they are reasonto American colonies and other exotic trade net- ably happy, then the Union will hold and if they works was ruthless protected by a series of Navi- aren’t the SNP will win. So, for the United Kinggation Acts which were enforced by the equal- dom to carry on, the Better Together campaign ly vicious Royal Navy and Customs and Excise. must hope that Scots make the back-pocket calculation that they are better off in rather than out.

The influential Scottish merchant class, especially in Glasgow, were well aware of the advantages Charlie Bush @TheMcrHistorian

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Chávez in the national memory

ness into the public health and education systems.

Hugo Chavez, Wikimedia Commons

The death of Venezuela’s longstanding and oft outspoken Hugo Chávez has led academics and analysts including historians, to attempt to come to terms with how far the polarising president fulfilled the manifesto of his Bolívarian Revolution.

The populist agenda of his administration amassed widespread support amongst the working classes. Vehement and widely publicised condemnations of the United States made Chávez an icon in Venezuela and other nations with the shared experience of American-backed coups. He received particular support and admiration from certain other Latin American politicians. Memory studies remains a popular field of history and Chávez’s death raises some interesting questions. Will the popular support which has frequently been mobilised in the name of Chávez this past decade spin his legacy in an undeservedly positive light when compared to the relative lack of success of Venezuelan socialism in terms of alleviating educational concerns, poverty and class inequities.

After orchestrating an unsuccessful 1992 coup and concluding democracy was the path to realising Venezuelan socialism, Chávez achieved election amidst a failure of representation for mainstream parties, a flurry of political scandals as well as a significant economic downturn and drop in national living standards. The agenda of Chávez’s administration prioritised the welfare of the Venezuelan poor pledging the provision of food subsidies, redistribution of land and a redirection of profits from the lucrative nationalised oil busiPage 12

Detractors have been keen to point out the common lack of statistics provided since these campaign promises and continually claim the revolutionary rhetoric of Chávez’s government has not been evidenced in tangible and measurable results.

Domestic figures have been levied against foreign critics, the halving of national percentages of persons living in poverty between 2003 and 2007 has been proudly espoused, yet critics have countered that improving Venezuelan living standards have resulted from a rising GDP tied to escalating global oil prices over this period which Chávez himself could not have claimed responsibility for. The issue remains that the success or failure of Leftist policies and the self-proclaimed victories of the thirteen year old Chávez administration have been frustratingly difficult to gauge from domestic and foreign perspectives, in turn these statistical blind-spots have both empowered supporters and sceptics.

The most divisive of debates have regarded legislation extending presidential terms amongst other amendments suggesting that Venezuelan democracy has decomposed to an illusion, a form of ‘competitive authoritarianism’. This position was strengthened in the eyes of many by Chavez’s renowned ‘paternal’ friendship with former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Surprisingly the Election Monitoring Centre have praised Venezuela for possessing one of the fairer democratic systems.

Despite difficulties in determining the fulfilment of the Bolívarian Revolution, rightly or wrongly, Chávez will almost inevitably be remembered as a great icon in Venezuela. Whilst domestic support was less than unanimous, Chávez entrenched his revered position amongst poor and working classes through rhetoric which marked changes from previous norms of elitist-neoliberal Venezuelan politics.

Francisco Rodríguez, a former analyst of the Venezuelan National assembly surmised that ‘Venezuelans tend to vote their pocket books’, an indication that Chávez’s multiple elections merely coincided with periods of economic hardship when socialist policies offered the most hope to the impoverished. www.manchesterhistorian.com

Issue 8, May 2013 Whether Rodriguez’s assessment of Chávez’s electoral success is correct it is unlikely to be reflected in the national memory, his dying in office from a long drawn-out struggle with cancer following a successful re-election campaign will likely anoint him as a political martyr amongst his lower class followers. The regime’s recuperation of power following a 2002 coup and seemingly successful public reforms made the administration appear to be an anomalous success of South American socialism. Current shortfalls including inflation and resource shortages facing may be laid upon successor and new president Nicholás Maduro.

Regardless of political accomplishments, in the national memory the circumstances of Chavez’s death and the constant invocations of his fellow Venezuelan who liberated most of South America

A crowd at Chavez’ funeral, NCN Guyana

from the Spanish, Simon Bolivar, he may have just immortalised himself as a revolutionary of the same creed.

Robbie Wilson

Site, this April the mosque was caught in the crossfire of Syria’s Civil War. The fighting has left the holy site riddled with bullet holes. Its famous minaret, a The Riv- landmark since 1090, has been toppled by shells. er Tigris was said to have UNESCO’s Director-General Irina Bokova has ‘exturned black pressed her deep distress’ regarding these events. from the ink She was similarly forced to reiterate Syria’s oblispilled when gation to protect the mosque in October 2012, the Mongols when it was also damaged, albeit to a superficial d e m o l i s h e d extent, by warfare. But does Syria ignoring this dethe Great Li- mand mean that UNESCO campaigns don’t work? brary of Baghdad. Dresden’s A UNESCO World Heritage Site is recognised as Frauenkirche, culturally or naturally important to humanity by an 18th-cen- 190 member states. To assist in the protection and tury church conservation of these sites, countries contribute famed for its about four million US dollars a year to an internaoutstanding ar- tional fund. In recent years, this has led to many architecture, was chaeologically important sites being removed from The Great Mosque of Aleppo, Michel ruined by Brit- the List of World Heritage in Danger. Examples inSalaban ish bombs dur- clude Anghor Archaeological Park in Cambodia ing World War Two. The Great Sphinx’s nose was and the sixteenth century Old Walled City of Shiknocked off by a misfired cannonball from one of bam in Yemen, which have been saved from falling Napoleon’s soldiers. That last one’s a myth, but over into rubble by extensive restoration projects. Sadly, the centuries war has been responsible for the de- Aleppo’s minaret could not be protected but UNESstruction of countless historically important sites. CO’s World Heritage Convention is working effecThe latest victim is the Great Mosque of Aleppo, tively to safeguard other significant historical places. rumoured resting place of John the Baptist’s father.

Christie Fraser Despite its status as a UNESCO World Heritage

The war on history

@TheMcrHistorian

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Women in the post-Sati era

Women’s rights have shot to the top of the political agenda in India since the gang rape of a twenty-three year old student, which led to her death, in Delhi in December of last year. Rape is not uncommon in India, or in any country, but this incident in particular, has galvanised the nation in such passionate force because of its brutality, and because of what it represents about the attitude towards women in India.

Protests have occurred daily in Delhi, and nationally, by both men and women calling for changes to the laws on violence against women, and expressing anger over attitudes towards women in India as a whole. BBC figures quote that in Delhi a woman is raped every fourteen hours, and yet other official figures for Delhi show that only one conviction for rape was made throughout the whole of 2012. Why is such an attitude prevalent in Delhi, and throughout India, that allows so little to do be done about so many violent attacks against women?

women. Laws passed in the nineteenth century that enabled widowed women to remarry didn’t change the attitudes of the patriarchal society, and many women who did remarry were harshly abused by men for doing so. There was also a proposed Act to raise the age of consent from ten to twelve for Indian girls, yet the 1891 Act degenerated into a battle for control of Indian women’s sexuality by male legislators and politicians, again further indication that this ‘modernization’ movement was not inclusive of the wider transformation of Indian society.

Today, as a result of publicised intolerance of women in India towards violent behaviour, we are starting to see a more powerful movement for a change in attitudes towards women, a movement that has been stagnant since the initial colonial ‘modernization’, which was generally ineffectual across the nation of India in terms of changing widespread attitude. The The attitudes towards women in Gulabi Gang is just one examthe nineteenth century are echple of this change; they are a oed in the rhetoric of the Delhi feminist group which was set rapes. During nineteenth-cenup in 2006, and now numbers tury colonial British rule in In- The Gulabi Gang India, Wikimedia Commons tens of thousands of female dia there were a number of reform movements ini- members, fighting against the patriarchal system, tiated by the British to modernize the way in which with the intent to punish fathers, husbands and women were seen in society. This ‘woman question’ brothers who are oppressive. There are still exwas a large aspect of British focus on India, and amples however that there is a much longer road influential British writers, in accordance with this ahead for those seeking gender equality in India. mission and focus, condemned Indian religious Statements made by relatively high profile figures culture, and society for their rules and customs re- such as the Indian spiritual leader, Asaram Bapu, garding women, which were similar to those today: who is sadly not alone with his controversial compatriarchal and oppressive. Many areas of women’s ments, claiming that the young woman who suflife began to change with a redefinition of their po- fered at the hands of the brutal rapists in December sition in society, and a number of women who by last year was partly responsible for what happened. the end of the nineteenth century were articulate, educated, and more involved with public activities Campaigners against female violence and inequaloutside of the home that weren’t a part of any fa- ity have voiced their fears that this is representamilial obligation. These were supposed to be the tive of the same kind of ideals that men have in the ‘new women’. As we see by the gender inequalities very heartland of India, which is the reason betoday in India, that manifest themselves in bru- hind attacks such as these, and is an attitude that tal violence towards women and young girls, this is going to be incredibly difficult to exterminate. ‘modernization’ movement didn’t manage to affect change in widespread societal attitudes towards Bethany Gent Page 14

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Issue 8, May 2013

Living in North Korea In April 2013, BBC journalists came under intense fire from the London School of Economics for joining students on a trip to North Korea. The students claimed they had no idea that journalists were accompanying them until they landed in the far Eastern nation, and given the tight regulations in the country as well as laws banning foreign journalists, the students felt they were placed in grave danger. The BBC claimed that it had received consent from the LSE students and that they were consistently informed in pre-trip briefings of journalistic presence. Upon their return, some of the students denied these claims and instead said they were only made aware of this once in Pyongyang, where leaving the country meant a minimum of a two-day wait to catch a flight to Beijing. If foreigners, who are only allowed to see certain elements of the country, which are not thought to portray the reality of the nation, feel their security is so threatened, what is the situation like for locals?

Barbara Demick, the Beijing bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times, has published a book entitled Nothing to Envy which attempted to give us an insight into the realities of people’s lives in North Korea. Focusing on Chongjin instead of Pyongyang to gain a more realistic insider’s perspective, Demick spent six years interviewing various North Koreans. The book chronicles the lives of six citizens ranging from @TheMcrHistorian

a model factory worker who’s devotion to KimJong-il is greater than her devotion to her family to a young couple who met secretly at night for romantic walks, but come from very different class backgrounds and therefore could never form an acceptable union. Demick interviewed over 100 defectors, basing herself in Seoul, however her book allows us to truly engage with the lives of these six citizens and appreciate changes in North Korea, particularly a rise in defectors.

While some stories of witnessing young children learning poems about dropping bombs Detail from Nothing To Envy on America may not surprise us, the real shock comes from Demick’s conclusions about North Korean defectors. She claims that many of them are overwhelmed by the myriad of options in places like South Korea, China or Japan and simply cannot handle being in a society where there are so many options and individual decisions to make. She says that many, if not most, want to return to North Korea. Naturally, this phenomenon is underst and able, but it is only from reading about these people’s lives that the true extent of their conditioning can be understood and that we may begin to understand a small part of the happenings in the world’s most Wikimedia Commons secretive nation.

Ata Rahman Page 15

Revolution and War: How Mexico Learnt to Protest In the Mexican state of Guerrero, teachers rampaged last week in protest of educational reforms, lighting fires, shouting anti-government slogans and attacking buildings with pickaxes. They fear that the proposed reforms will produce widespread dismissals and the privatisation of education. The London riots appear small-fry in comparison but protest and dissent are entrenched in the culture of expressing dissent in Mexico.

Ten years later, Mexico conceded half its territory to the US, including California, New Mexico and Texas, after the Mexican-American War. Then France re-occupied under Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand Maximillian. Mexico was thus constantly threatened. Yet protest culture remained ill-defined until the Revolution that ousted dictator Porfirio Diaz. During Diaz’s reign, the economy boomed, prompting massive investment in culture. When Diaz resigned in 1911, disparate revolutionary groups, led by caudillos Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, battled for control for over twenty years.

Like much of Latin America, modern Mexico was forged in the fight against Spanish colonialism. Mexican separatists under Miguel Hidalgo declared independence as early as 1810; yet eleven Thereafter, Mexico defined its years of spirit independentiidentity through indigenous sta fighting during the War and mestizo culture. Many difof Independence were referent ethnicities formed the quired to force Spain’s signaMexican population. Authors ture of the Treaty of Cordoba and artists promoted Mexithat established independco as a ‘melting pot’ society; ent Mexico. The transition in 1925, revolutionary writer from oppression to democJose Vasconcelos published racy across Latin AmeriLa Raza Cosmica – The Cosca was turbulent. Building mic Race – to endorse Mexan economy from nothing ico’s new multi-ethnic posiwhile the poor lamented tion. The mural art movement Head Pierced with Arrows by José Clemente formed to reunify the countheir non-improving conOrozco, Wikimedia Commons ditions proved difficult. Loottry under the post-Revolution ing and banditry were common. government. Socialist messages were plastered onto colonial buildings as substantial investment in edMeanwhile, Liberals battled with Conservatives ucating an illiterate population began. The nationfor political control. Moreover Mexico was a alistic expressions of murals were met with adoratarget for territory-grabbing imperialists. Eco- tion and the ‘Big Three’ artists, Diego Rivero, Jose nomic problems and French imperial ambitions Clemente Orozco and David Siquieros were cenprecipitated the delightfully-named 1836 Pas- tral to interpreting the new revolutionary culture. try War, when a French pastry-cook complained to King Louis Philippe when his shop in Mexico Mexico has subsequently been core to protestCity was destroyed by looters. The King demand- ing peoples. It seems to even subconsciously iged compensation and repayment of substan- nite dissent; during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico tial debts by Mexico. The Pastry War followed. City, Tommie Smith and John Carlos delivered their infamous Black Power salute, protesting for Page 16

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Issue 8, May 2013 the Civil Rights movement in America. Since those heady days of the Revolution, the Mexican people’s understanding of protest has developed further. Now, the Indignados movement, created in 2011, organises large-scale demonstrations against the government’s handling of the Drug War, corruption and inequality. Yo Soy 132 has become the Mexican ‘Occupy Movement’, protesting media bias in the 2012 General Election. In 2006 the teachers’ union in Oaxaca demonstrated for several months in similar circumstances.

Thus the strikes in Guerrero are nothing new in Mexico’s history or present, but they do reflect a Pan-American, even global, trend. In Venezuela, people are marching, banging pots and pans to protest against President Nicolas Maduro replacing Hugo Chavez. In Argentina, more than 1 million people recently invaded Buenos Aires to condemn the country’s economic problems and President Cristina de Kirchner. Meanwhile, unrest over the ailing European economy continues and the Middle East revolutionary movements fight for freedom in the Arab Spring.

Perhaps, then, the Guerrero strikes reveal a country that has learnt how to protest through historic instability and conflict, but they also reflect a global protest movement that continues to strengthen.

Alex Underwood

@TheMcrHistorian

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Radical Diasporas Popular images of the first transatlantic migrants depict fierce conquistadors in the South and pious pilgrims in the North, motivated by greed in the former case and obscure Puritanism in the latter. However, what really caused people to make such a radical journey in the centuries following the encounter with the Americas?

What factors could have led them to leave their homes and start a new life in an unfamiliar land?

Church of England was taking from the 1620s onwards. This trend was exacerbated by Archbishop Laud’s suppression of the Puritanical upheaval in the 1630s, which led many to seek refuge overseas; somewhere they could live in a Godly manner, free from the corruption of the established ecclesiastical powers. It is improbable that they would have seen much economic potential in the harsh landscape of the North East Coast, and records show that many of those who made their way there were, if not exactly the nobility, from at least reasonably elevated ranks of society, so the wish to escape abject poverty seems an unlikely explanation for their actions.

Motives for migration varied greatly according to Members of other nonconboth origin and destination. formist denominations also The very first settlers, primade the radical step of marily from Southern Eumigrating to far-off lands rope, sought the ‘great unwith a view to being able known’ and the presumed to exercise a greater degree riches thereof, largely so of religious freedom. Large that they might pass them numbers of Quakers from on to their patrons. LatScotland and Wales seter migrants to the fertile tled in Pennsylvania, again lands of South America, showing little evidence of the Caribbean, and arehaving had a particularly as of the modern-day U.S. economic motivation for such as Virginia, sought doing so. Likewise the Roto obtain for themselves man Catholics who settled the economic benefits that in Maryland sought safe asythese ‘promised lands’ are lum away from the Church now known to possess. As of England’s watchful eye. well as these economic ‘pull’ factors, there were many Archbishop Laud, Wikimedia Commons Of course these migrants instances in which adverse may well have hoped for an all-round improveeconomic circumstances at home caused people to emigrate. Overpopulation in the cities, contrast- ment in their living conditions that will have ined with famine and hardship in the countryside, cluded economic considerations. However, it led many to seek a better life elsewhere. In Sev- seems that, in most cases at least, emigration to enteenth Century England, the periods of acute New England was motivated primarily by religrain shortages and the economic crisis caused gious discontent. This was quite different from the by the decline of the cloth trade were both events more scattered diaspora to the rest of the Amerithat were followed by massive waves of emigration. cas, which was doubtless largely motivated by the promise of financial profit from its fertile climes.

In many cases, however, the motivation seems to What these adventurous souls would find upon have been more one of principle than pragma- reaching their destination was often not quite the tism. Most of the Protestants who made their way paradise they wished for, but it was certainly vastto New England from Britain in the Seventeenth ly different from what they were leaving behind.

Century did so out of dismay at the direction the Susanna Larminie Page 18

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Issue 8, May 2013

Bubbles

A Market Phenomenon Market bubbles have existed for as long as there have been markets. Examples of major bubbles can be seen throughout history. Holland in the 1630s experienced a bubble centred on the tulip market. Following their adoption by the European ruling classes as objects of desirability and good taste, tulips began to be seen as targets for speculation and profit. At the tulip market’s height, there were accounts of investors parting with significant portions of their personal fortunes for tulip bulbs and roots; with one tulip bulb being sold over 5000 gilders (about £40,000 today).

be seen when examining the relationship between gold prices and the rate of inflation in the late 70s, where investors wrongly assumed that inflation was long-term. Other examples of rational bubbles can occur with the mispricing of fundamentals (such as equities) and adverse effects caused by exogenous variables in times of uncertainty.

Some take the position that bubbles are the result of irrational behaviour, driven by flawed or misinformed investors. Here, a market participant’s moves are unconnected to the fundamentals and may follow market trends, the mass following has been variously termed ‘herd behaviour’ or ‘mimet-

Various commentators have sought to place a definition over this market phenomenon. Charles Kindleberger, in his book Manias, Crashes and Panics defines a bubble as ‘an upward price movement over an extended range that then explodes’; Brunnermeister follows a similar tone in describing bubbles as being ‘typically associated with dramatic asset price increases, followed by a collapse.’ What both these definitions have in The Tulip Folly, Jean-Léon Gérôme common is an affirmation of the characteristics of one of the most recognisable metaphoric terms in economics; namely the upward surge ic contagion’. Rational investors may understand in asset prices causing a collapse at its zenith. that a market, driven by irrational investing, will eventually collapse but choose to play the market Economists have historically had difficulty in pro- whilst it is rising to generate potentially high reviding a satisfactory explanation for market bub- turns. The Dutch case of ‘Tulipomania’ is a good bles. Standard neoclassical economics and the ef- example of a mainly irrational market, where ficient market hypothesis both struggle to explain the price of tulips vastly exceeded that of a neuthe existence of markets based on the assumption tral market due to the superficiality of trends and that efficient market participants are perfectly ra- desirability that attribute value in a market place. tional. However, it has been acknowledged that bubbles can exist in rational markets, as rationality does not rule out mistakes in market readings or the practice of momentum trading, where investors chase high returns as market bubbles grow. These human behaviours were famously termed ‘animal spirits’ by J. M. Keynes. Investors, faced with a multitude of different factors that influence price fluctuation can be rational, yet the fact of divergences of opinion in a vast network of traders and investors remains. An example of a rational bubble can @TheMcrHistorian

In this case, the difference between value and market price become clear cut. Whilst willingness to pay and willingness to sell would be rationally dictated by market price and the potential rate of returns to the rational investor; the irrational investor may pay half of his fortune for the root of a tulip with the intent of showing it off, rather than planting it and growing more or selling it on as the bubble grew.

Michael Cass Page 19

The Eyes and Ears of Elizabeth I Francis Walsingham: A Life in Espionage Considered the first British spymaster, Francis Wa lsing ham held the position of the modern day Foreign Secretary and head of MI5 and MI6. A sixteenth-century ‘M’, he commanded a network Francis Walsingham, National Portrait of over fifty Gallery agents all over the country and throughout Europe as far east as Turkey, and usually supported this elaborate espionage network from his own pocket. Speculation has even placed the playwright, Christopher Marlowe in Walsingham’s web of spies.

During his ambassadorship in Paris he witnessed the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, in which targeted Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) were brutally assassinated. This event reinforced his hatred of Catholic regimes, providing the self-justification for torturing suspects and condemning the guilty to a traitor’s death. A fierce Protestant, he would have been riled by the fact that an overtly Roman Catholic image of the holy Virgin and Child has been discovered by X-ray, painted beneath his portrait now hanging in the National Gallery.

Walsingham counteracted a number of conspiracies against Elizabeth I: the most prominent being the Babington plot of 1585. A trainee priest named Gilbert Gifford was intercepted coming to England from France, employed to act as a messenger between Mary, Queen of Scots, and her supporters on the Continent. Walsingham convinced Gifford to become a double agent and helped construct a route for Mary’s correspondence that would pass through his own hands. These intercepted Page 20

letters exposed a planned invasion of England by the Spanish and a plot to murder the Queen, directly implicating Mary in the plot against her cousin. Seven conspirators, plus Mary were tried, condemned and executed, all thanks to the king of Tudor espionage, Francis Walsingham.

Given his religious intolerance and love for intrigue, contemporary sources often portray Walsingham as a ruthless, sinister and devious man, similarly portrayed in fiction. Film after film (Elizabeth, Elizabeth R, Elizabeth I, Elizabeth: the Golden Age), portrays Walsingham as a dour, puritanical official, a skull-capped sycophant in Elizabeth’s court. Historians are beginning to sympathise with this shadowy character, appreciating that he was an educated, cosmopolitan figure, who supported exploration and colonisation. Enormously loyal and leaving an impressive legacy, Walsingham was admirably driven by his monarch and his faith.

Charlotte Johnson

Queen Elizabeth I, William Cecil and Sir Francis Walsingham, National Portrait Gallery, www.manchesterhistorian.com

Issue 8, May 2013

Game of Thrones and Medieval Parallels The success of the epic medieval fantasy television show, Game of Thrones, has spurred huge media attention. Viewers regularly attempt to find historical parallels between the medieval ages and the television show and several notable comparisons between the show’s characters and plot have already been drawn to real world historical figures and events.

Perhaps the most obvious parallel is between the war in Game of Thrones and the fifteenth century Wars of the Roses.

military tactician in a series of crushing victories against the Lannister forces in season two. However, he shows some political naivety in an ill-advised marriage. Edward IV shared Rob Stark’s military cunning, showcased in his succession against the Lancastrians in a series of battles at only 19 years of age. He too possessed some political naivety when he secretly married Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of a Lancaster sympathiser, which alienated his allies in Warwick.

The Wars of the Roses were fought between the House of Lancaster and the House of York over the throne of England. In Game of Thrones, House Lannister and House Stark are in conflict with one another over the succession of the Iron Throne.

The character Cersei Lannister, husband to King Robert Baratheon, has been compared to Margaret of Anjou, the husband of King Henry VI of England, who was a prominent figure in the War of the Roses.

Stannis Baratheon’s claim to the Iron Throne and his naval attack against King’s Landing is similar to William the Conqueror. The Norman Duke claimed the King of England for himself and led a huge naval invasion of England. Stannis and William were powerful military commanders.

Parallels also exist between Petyr Baelish ‘Littlefinger’ the Master of Coin, the kingdom’s treasurer on the King’s small council, and Thomas Cromwell an English lawyer and statesmen Edward IV, Wikimedia Commons who served as chief minister to King Henry VIII of England from 1532 to 1540.

In Game of Thrones, following the death of Rob Stark, HBO Promotional Images King Robert Baratheon Cersei Lannister fights for her son Joffrey’s right to the throne against Ned Stark. Similarly, Margaret of Anjou, of House of Lancaster, fought against the House of York for her son, Edward of Westminster. Historians have seen Margaret as a prime driver of the War of the Roses; in the same way that Cersei’s attempt to solidify Joffrey as King resulted in the War of the Five Kings. The characters differ in that whilst Margaret was skilled in court politics, Cersei is somewhat incompetent.

On the Stark side of the conflict, Rob Stark bares some comparison to the Yorkish King Edward IV. The young Rob Stark illustrates his brilliance as a @TheMcrHistorian

Both rose from minor social positions to be prominent players in court politics; Baelish was born a lord of a minor holding, whilst Cromwell was born the son of a blacksmith. Baelish also possesses Cromwell’s skill at manipulating court politics; like his historical counterpart he assumes an unthreatening demeanour, while scheming against his political opponents and utilising bribes to achieve his goals.

Jay Jenkinson Page 21

The Disputed Toll:

The Elephant that Walked from Edinburgh to Manchester

This painting by Heywood Hardy is based on a rather charming story about an elephant that walked from Edinburgh to Manchester. Maharajah was an elephant in a menagerie that eventually went out of business in Edinburgh. On 9th April 1872, an auction was held in Waverley Market where all the animals were sold off.

was clearly not to Maharajah’s liking. There was a hullabaloo and Maharajah smashed his head out of the front of the wagon and trumpeted his pachyderm contempt for rail travel. Not satisfied with this destruction, he barged backwards into the other end of the wagon and crashed through it utterly. His keeper Lorenzo ‘the Lion Tamer’ Lawrence managed to calm him down and announced Attending this auction was one of the own- that he would walk Maharajah to Manchester. ers of Belle Vue Zoological Gardens in Gorton, James Jennison, looking to expand the num- Their march took ten days and gave Mr Jennison ber of species on display at his park. Belle Vue ample time to alert the media and stir up popuwas a successful leisure attraction and was pop- lar excitement about Maharajah’s arrival in Manular with working and middle classes alike. chester. The elephant and his keeper walked Maharajah was booked onto an express train from about 20 miles a day and this painting represents Waverly Station in Edinburgh to Piccadilly in an incident that allegedly happened somewhere Manchester, with an antelope, a lioness, a baboon along the route. Lorenzo got into an argument and various other animals providing the elephant with a cantankerous tollgate keeper about what company during his sojourn. He was installed in the charge for an elephant should be. The argua large horse-box; however, such accommodation ment became rather heated and the gate remained

WIkimedia Commons. We are not permitted to reproduce an image of the Disputed Toll but it can be seen at http://bbc.in/W0IO8p Page 22

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Issue 8, May 2013 closed. Maharajah once again became impatient, erwise humdrum journey to ensure that he kept abruptly lifted the gate off its hinges and plod- his job. Either way, both were good publicity for ded on leaving both astonished men in his wake. Belle Vue Zoological Gardens and the Manchester Guardian happily swallowed them whole.

How much of this is fact and fiction has become rather muddled. One rather cynical research- Maharajah’s skeleton is on diser has suggested that Lorenzo engineered the play in the Manchester Museum. normally docile Maharajah’s tantrum at Waverly Station to provide a juicy story about an othCharlie Bush

Sir Arthur Whitten Brown Students often complain about the Manchester weather, but in June 1919 one of our alumni, Sir Arthur Whitten Brown, braved freezing temperatures and lashing sleet, hail and rain to do what was necessary. If this sounds like your morning commute to lectures, bear in mind that Brown was somewhere over the Atlantic, clinging unprotected to the wing of a converted Vimy bomber aeroplane. This was the lowest point on a flight that experienced more catastrophes than the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons.

Brown had been convinced to attempt the dangerous journey when, unlike other Manchester graduates, he found himself unemployed and needing money. After serving as an observer with the Royal Flying Corps and being captured by the Germans during the First World War, Brown decided he had had enough excitement and approached Vickers engineering company to ask for a nice, steady job. Instead, they offered him the chance to risk life and limb for eternal glory and a £10,000 reward. The Daily Mail promised this prize to the first people to fly across @TheMcrHistorian

the Atlantic without stopping.

Weeks later, Brown found himself squeezed into the cockpit of the Vickers Vimy next to fellow Mancunion John William Alcock, in a space more cramped than the 147 bus in Welcome Week.

During the flight the plane not only lost bits including the exhaust pipe, but Brown was forced to crawl onto the wing to Wikimedia Commons clear snow which was blocking an essential dial. If that wasn’t impressive enough, the failure of his wireless transmitter and airspeed indicator, as well as dense cloud and fog, meant he had to navigate almost entirely by intuition and educated guesswork. After sixteenand-a-half hours the pair somehow landed in Ireland.

Brown’s quick thinking and skill had secured them a hero’s welcome. His former University can be justifiably proud.

Christie Fraser

Wikimedia Commons Page 23

History of Space Travel The recent sending of a monkey into space by Iran might sound like figment of the delusional mind of Karl Pilkington at first glance, but it did actually occur. In doing so, Iran joined a significant list of nations who have gleefully sent our simian chums into space over the years, although the 2013 launch was notable in the initial scepticism surrounding the health of the monkey astronaut.

The phenomenon of sending a monkey into space, however eye-raising, is hardly anything new. Animals were utilised at the start of the Space Race during the early years of the Cold War (a period affectionately referred to as the Lukewarm War by some) in lieu of humans to ensure such an outlandish idea was safe, with Laika the dog perhaps being the most well known animal in space. The Iranian monkey, named ‘Pishgam’ (the Farsi word for ‘pioneer’) wasn’t even the first monkey in space, with Albert being the first very astronaut chimp in space thanks to the United States’ fondness of blasting unsuspecting animals into space for science.

All of this might seem to be slightly ludicrous, but it is true: in order to fully test out the capabilities of spacecraft in the dawn of humanity’s efforts to reach the stars, numerous animals were fired off. Sadly, most did not survive their journey; the unnamed 2011 predecessor of Pishgam joined the ranks of Albert and fallen simian spacemen when his rocket landed intact. In achieving such a launch, Iran has neither facilitated a remarkable change or advancement in how spaceflights are conducted; instead, it now has demonstrated an ability to successfully and safely sustain rocket flights into space, a fact that is sure to make its neighbours uneasy, particularly if they are of the monkey persuasion.

Aditya Iyer

Ham the Chimp, Wikimedia Commons

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Issue 8, May 2013

Comets and Omens The meteorite crash in Russia last month served as a reminder to us that there is an entire universe of activity out there. Fortunately, we have the technology and knowledge to understand these things. With the exception of Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the Russian Liberal Democratic party, who insisted that the meteorite was detritus from America testing new weapons, it is generally understand that they were meteoric materials falling from space.

into immediate prayer when a comet appeared in 1456. He claimed it was an instrument of the devil and excommunicated it. Halley’s Comet was eventually blamed for the fall of Constantinople to the Turks.

Even as late as 1908, astronomers at the Chicago Yerkes Observatory claimed that the gas in a comet’s tail could obliterate all living things. Many people expected the end of the world and chaos broke out. They sealed their In the past these falling stars were seen as a sign windows and stocked up on gas masks, Anof hope, but more commonly as a warning of ti-Comet pills and Comet Protection umbrellas. danger. In particular, the famous Halley’s Comet has been seen as a portent of disaster where Modern science assures us that these suspicions ever it appeared. In the Middle Ages comets were were false. However, these beliefs were strongblamed for wars and the death of kings. In 1066 ly held as a way of explaining cataclysmic events.

A huge meteor flew over the Urals early in the morning of 15 February 2013. The fireball exploded above Chelyabinsk city that caused damages of buildings and hundreds of people were injured.

This photo was taken at about 200km distance a minute after the blast, Wikimedia Commons

William the Conqueror led the Norman Conquest of England and the passing of Halley’s Comet was thought to presage the end of King Harold’s reign, cursing him and causing his death at Hastings.

During Christian Europe’s struggle with the Ottoman Empire, Pope Callixtus III ordered everyone @TheMcrHistorian

We should not completely disregard them because of our privileged position; examining the historical response to extra-terrestrial objects gives us greater insight into how people in the past thought about their place in the universe.

Catherine Macleod-Adams Page 25

On Wed 17th April, Manchester University was giv-

en the pleasure of listening to Boston College’s Dr. Prasannan Parthasarathi give a talk about his new publication, entitled Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not. In his lecture, Dr. Parthasarathi explains that a lot of the economic divergence literature between these two sections of the Eurasian landmass has been dominated by China, but with the rise of the Indian economy in the twenty-first century, an interest in South Asia has risen in scholarship. Mughal India was one of the world’s great civilisations, on par with Ming China, and Dr. Parthasarathi provided a wealth of evidence for proto-industrial culture in fifteenth and sixteenth century India. He largely attributes the rise of Britain to improvements within mechanisation and industry, particularly in speeding up the process of cotton spinning, while attributing the fall of India to their economic exploitation under Britain’s East India Company. Though perhaps not convincing our staff with all his points, his book provides a valuable and interesting contribution to this ever important field of explaining the wealth reversal of Eurasia.

Ata Rahman

Iraq Photographs by Sean Smith Guardian News and Media, Sean Smith

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Issue 8, May 2013

Guardian News and Media, Sean Smith

Although only a small corridor in Manchester’s epic Imperial War Museum, the photo exhibition of civilians in Iraq manages to impress.

Sean Smith is a war photographer who worked extensively in Iraq for the Guardian. The exhibition marks the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, a conflict that has constantly been in the media, but as the photos reveal, often not portraying the true story of the local people.

his bravery must nevertheless be commended.

The fourth period contains perhaps the most important lesson of all for historians and it is from 2007 to the present, demonstrating that civilian life is still being affected by the war and the military presence today, despite Western media bolstering notions of troop withdrawal. Ultimately, this exhibition reminds us that the consequences of war after the official cessation of hostilities are often no differThe exhibition is roughly broken up into four ent for some civilians than the period of war itself. time periods. The first is the pre-war phase when the Iraqi government is shown to have put on ex- Iraq: Photographs by Sean Smith is at the Imperial tra parades and weddings in this period to convey War Museum North until 2nd February 2014. to the world that Iraqis’ lives would continue as normal despite the impending war. The followAta Rahman ing two periods chronicle the conflict with Saddam’s regime and the consequent insurgency, respectively.

The photos here perhaps do not show a wide spectrum of civilian life, as Smith seems to mostly be following American military personnel, however considering the state of affairs in Iraq, @TheMcrHistorian

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A Review of the British Museum’s Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum The British Musuem

The British Museum’s Pompeii and Herof everyday objects: including lamps, culaneum exhibition opened to considerawind-chimes, bells and door-knockers, ble fanfare at the end of March. A number instead restricting ourselves to school of prime-time TV documentaries heralded textbooks and public toilets. Graffiti is, as its coming and the Mayor of London, no is well-known, an area where we can only doubt enchanted with the subject he studtake inspiration from Romans’ obscenity. ied at university, waxed lyrical at the press Whether the abundant phallic imagery opening. Neil MacGregor, Pontifex Maxis simply evidence of an overtly erotiimus of the cultural establishment, had cised society, or whether it is a proxy for mounted a highly successful campaign to good luck or fertility, this exhibition hints promote the exhibition as the must-see of that the people of 79AD were more difthe season, challenging the Royal Acadeferent to us than curators have attemptmy’s exhibition of Manets. In this regard, ed to present them in this exhibition. it is already a huge success: it was packed out during my viewing on the second day. At the end of the exhibition, a number of body casts are on display and they are a reminder of the Does it match up to the hype? Life and Death in extraordinary manner in which death came upon Pompeii and Herculaneum is a fantastic collection these two towns. Arms thrown up in the pugilisof every day household items from the First Centu- tic stance as the inhabitants were buried in boilry AD, some of which have never been out of Italy ing ash and asphyxiated. The same ash that buried and certainly have never been so well presented. them, solidified, and preserved the empty space Reflecting the domestic nature of the artefacts, the where their bodies rotted. These cavities were filled exhibition is arranged like a Roman atrium house. with plaster in the early twentieth century and The child’s carbonised cot sits the bedroom; the the spaces left behind by these ordinary people astonishingly well-preserved frescos of the atrium were turned into casts, as they are now displayed. and the pots, pans and paraphernalia of the kitch- The serenity of the clean white plaster is betrayed en are all in the correct rooms. The curators’ aim by their agony-wracked postures, showing the was to ‘provide the most moving and immediate price to be paid for such well-preserved artefacts. reminder that these were living breathing people.’

The banality of many of the items does ‘bring these This is a fascinating exhibition, although the Britpeople closer’ but I am not sure ish Museum has fallen prey to that comments like ‘that colana perception amongst curators der looks just like ours’ should that many visitors are scared off be considered worthy objectives. by too many blocks of words.

Keeping the text small and laThe Romans were different to bels minimal means that when us in so many ways and this the exhibition is busy, which is demonstrated by their poris a given, visitors rather have nographic garden displays and to struggle for information. endless erotica including a bust of a surprisingly tender encounLife and Death in Pompeii ter between a satyr and a goat and Herculaneum will run unthat has long been hidden from til 29th September 2013. Adpublic view. Ours is not a culvance booking is essential. ture that readily incorporates Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei phalluses into an unending array Charlie Bush Page 28

www.manchesterhistorian.com

Issue 8, May 2013

A Doll’s House: Review Ibsen intended his play to be a critique of the contemporary institution of marriage in Norway when he wrote it in 1879. It was highly controversial and sent ripples through the traditional country, as well as the rest of Europe. A Doll’s House is reminder of the importance of women’s liberation at its most literal. This portrayal of a patriarchal and rigid society, governed by men and their conception of honour, is like the subjects of a staged Victorian photograph coming to life. I longed for its chilly, antique norms Jonathan Keenan and strictures to be challenged and subtly they were. Jumbo plays Nora’s fragile declaration of her independence with incredible dignity and resolve. It is declaration of empowerment that was a provocative challenge in the 1870s and it will also confront complacent audiences today.

I wrote in the last issue about the wonderful range of strong roles for women in the current season at the Royal Exchange and, frankly, the new production of A Doll’s House knocks the ball out of the park. Cush Jumbo gives a fantastic performance as Nora, a woman infantilised by her domineering husband. Jumbo captures the vapidity of the bourgeoisie ‘struggle’ with as much authenticity and A Doll’s House is at the Royal Exchange in Manpotency as she does Nora’s growing desperation chester until 1st June 2013. and finally her sudden comprehension of her uneCharlie Bush qual relationship with her husband, Torvald.

To the modern eye there is something obviously abusive about their marriage. Torvald, played with skin-crawling condescension by David Sturzaker, treats his ‘little bird’ more like his daughter than his wife. There is nothing physical about his abuse of Nora but their relationship is horrendously unequal and manipulative.

Jonathan Keenan @TheMcrHistorian

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What are the Old Team up to now?

We got in touch with some of last year’s Manchester Historian team and found out what post-undergraduate life has brought them…

Max Jones

The Manchester Historian team 2011-12

Florence Holmes, co-creator of the Manchester Historian

and one of the editors from last year’s team kept on rolling after University has ended. Just nine days after completing her degree she started a twelve month internship at the Students’ Union. Some of her highlights have included running around View of the history awards from the balcony the Union dressed as a penguin during elections and managing the café during Welcome Week without any major catastrophe!

Co-creator and editor, Juliette Donaldson, has also gone on to post-University success. She is currently working as an administrator in a busy secondary school. In between lesson cover and pastoral care she has also managed to find time to coach the cheerleading squad!

Jemma Gibson, the prior head of marketing for the His-

torian also continued in a Manchester University environment. Currently, she is the Venues Management Intern Jennifer Ho shows off her award for contribution to the Manchester Historian website at the Students’ Union, working as the assistant manager to the busy cafe and bar. From September she will be on the prestigious TK Maxx buying graduate programme.

The previous head of layout, Christopher McMahon moved back to his hometown and is now doing an MA in International Relations & Security at the University of Liverpool.

He works in a library and claims to drink more wine than the population of Lebanon combined since he moved back home.

It gives us great pleasure to know that last year’s team have gone onto great things!

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Jamie Lawless, Credited to Brand Lawless www.manchesterhistorian.com

Issue 8, May 2013

The History Awards evening On 8th May the staff and students of the History Department gathered together to celebrate the achievements of the students this year. The Manchester Historian team were awarded for their efforts on the paper and awards were given to history students who displayed sporting excellence and members of the History Society and those who have dedicated their time this year as student ambassadors.

Awards Nominated by students for general helpfulness: Thomas Maitland Students Union: Nick Pringle Grace Skelton Rosie Dammers Student Ambassadors: Victoria Carroll Robert I’Anson Conor McStay Ed Potter Pippa Stannard Thomas Waring Peer Mentoring Coordinators: Sam Comer Sophie Gold Incoming student coordinators: Sophie Praill Georgina Calle Peer Mentors of the Year: Rebecca Hennell-Smith Tom Wroblewski

@TheMcrHistorian

Enjoying the complimentary wine

The Manchester Historian: Ata Rahman Charlie Bush Becky Stevens Charlotte Johnson Gemma Newton Michael Cass Catherine Macleod-Adams Bethany Gent Sinead Doherty Rebecca Hennel-Smith Kate Blaxill Leah Crowther Aditya Iyer Feargal Logue Jessie Brener Amy Garnett Sigourney Fox Eve Commander Jennifer Ho Mancunion Student Newspaper: Richard Crook Sophie Donovan Ciaran Milner Anthony Organ Jonathan Breen

History Society: President Jamie Lawlor Vice President Becca Dyson Treasurer Tom Cook Secretary Charlotte Cole Academic Officer Pippa Stannard Academic Officer Thom Ellison-Scott Media Secretary Rachel Jones Tour Secretary Aamira Challenger-Mynett Sports Secretary Oli Scholes Careers Secretary Charlotte Johnson Incoming History Society : President James Eatwell Vice President Zoey Strzelecki Treasurer Michael Cass Secretary Corinne Abrahams Media Secretary Rebecca Hennell-Smith Tour Secretary Andrew Day Careers Secretary Keir Forde Sporting achievements: Eleni Papadopoulos Peter Speight Sophie Crosley Nikolai Bond Page 31

Recent publications in the Department Professor Paul Fouracre’s book Frankish History: Studies in the Construction of Power has recently been published in Ashgate’s Variorum Collected Studies Series.

Dr Yangwen Zheng edited The Chinese Chameleon Revisited: From the Jesuits to Zhang Yimou which was also published recently.

Dr Pedro Ramos Pinto wrote a chapter entitled ‘Why Inequalities Matter’ published in Reducing Inequalities: A Sustainable Development Challenge earlier in the semester.

Dr Peter Yeandle had a chapter called ‘Christian Socialism and the Stage? Henry Arthur Jones’s Wealth (1889) and the Dramatisation of Ruskinian Political Economy’ included in Persistent Ruskin: Aesthetics, Education and Social Theory, 1870-1914.

Dr Aaron Moore’s book Writing War: Soldiers Record the Japanese Empire will be published by Harvard University Press at the end of this month.

Don’t forget to pick-up the next issue of the Manchester Historian in the autumn to read our interview with Manchester’s new Professor of Public History, the great television historian, Michael Wood, to find out what brought him to the University and what place history has in society.