Farewell 2010

Posted on 31/12/2010 by Lillian C.G

The sunlight is starting to fade outside in the streets. I look through the window from my home town, thinking that in about 4 hours, I will be living a bran new year. This fact makes me think about the present combination of twelve months…For a moment, I have the feeling that I would not be able to described 2010 with one word…But even so, I try, and the word that I find in the back of my mind is: ‘overwhelming’. Maybe you disagree with me, dear reader. I really hope so, and I really hope that the word you will use to define 2010 would be Awesome, Wonderful, or Great. However, when you take a look at the news, it is difficult to not feel upset. What has happened in 2010? What have we seen on the television, or read in the newspapers?

Unfortunately the year started with a massive earthquake in Haiti, and alter on the year another one in Chile. Several accidents have occurred all around the globe. Again in Chile, a mine collapsed with its miners inside the underground cave. Luckily enough they all came back to the surface alive. What else? A world-scale scandal started with the issue of Wikileaks, and it still continues. Money has been cut down: governments, work places, families… We as students suffer this all, but also, in addition as we study in the U.K our “wonderful” Prime Minister has decided to rise our Tuition Fees, cut off resources for many degrees…All these at the same time that a brief insulting riot took place in London during Remembrance Day…2010…What a lovely year, right? Well, maybe I have been a bit too pessimistic. Let’s think about this year as something else, something that is part of our memory. 2010 is also a year of anniversaries, anniversary of sad events, funny events or just shocking or curious facts.

For example, 500 years ago the artist Botticelli died, but he left an amazing artistic legacy behind him, of which we should be pleased. 300 years ago, the first law about copyright appeared in the U.K!…Annd you though that was something new! 150 years ago the Ponny Express was inaugurated, and two great artists were born: J.M Barry and Maller. 100 years ago the first match of the Five Nations rugby tournament took place. Yes, it was that long ago. Also, at that same year, women were winning their rights to study at universities, and China said “good-bye” to slavery.75 years ago, “The King”, Elvis Presley was born, the first canned drink was commercialised in the U.S.A and Roosevelt passed the Social Security law…In addition, the nazis, at the same time, enacted the Nuremberg law…50 years ago, the U.S.A government created the law that granted voting for black population. Our last stage in this compilation of anniversaries that took place in 2010, is 1985. In that year, 17 different African countries got their independence. In the U.K, M. Thatcher won her conflict against the miners and Gorvachov was pronounced secretary of the PCUS. Also, the Rainbow Warrior (Green Peace boat) was attacked by the French secret services and a terrible earthquake took place in Mexico D.C, causing more than 10.000 vixtims…

Unfortunately history repeats itself…Earthquakes, political problems…But it also repeats itself for good. Technological advances, like the canned drink nowadays have been replaced by items such as the IPad (significance of this artifact is shown in The Economist top 20 charts, No.6). Joyful events have taken place this year as well. Aun San Suu Kyi has been finally released, good news for the Birmanian people. Spain won the FIFA World Cup. The football national team make their country smile and forget about the bad things for almost a whole month. Perhaps 2010 can teach us about disgrace but also about joy.

I would like to put some emphasis now, just before I finish this post, on a series of articles that have been published in The Guardian. ‘A history of the year in 100 objects’ they have been called.To give some examples, I have personally chosen a Berlusconi face mask, the Georgian Flag (R.I.P Nodar Kumaritashvili), Nelson Mandela’s buggy and, surprise, surprise, a turquoise hat. I think these 100 articles somehow, even though they could seem insignificant for many, show us what things are important for our society, what are our concerns, our problems, and that is history folks. History of the present, but already history as 2010 is leaving us.We will never be certain if it was a good year or a bad year, or something else, but be optimistic; at least the Mayans postpone the end of the world until 2012!

So, good-bye 2010, and Happy New Year to you, whoever you are, be merry and joyful and check this video that summarises the whole idea of this post:

List of Sources:

-La Vanguardia (Spanish Newspaper): Efemérides

http://hemeroteca.lavanguardia.es/preview/2010/01/01/pagina-28/80337403/pdf.html

-The Guardian: A history of the year in 100 objects

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/dec/27/history-year-100-objects-part-one?INTCMP=SRCH

-The Economist: Top 20 Charts (really interesting)

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/12/economists_daily_charts

-El Pais (Spanish Newspaper), ‘Los Rostros de 2010′, Sunday,26/12/2010

Christmas Traditions

Posted on 23/12/2010 by Caroline S.

The inspiration for this blog post has actually come from a quiz I took part in as part of an International Cafe. It was just a fun quiz to demonstrate the English customs at Christmas and to see how much us more local people knew, but I thought it an interesting topic; I certainly learnt something along with our international friends. To be honest, I’d never really thought about it before. How long have I been taking part in certain traditions without having a clue about the history of them or why I’m even doing it?

So I thought it’d be fun to have a look into the most common traditions we have in England. Starting with….

The Christmas Tree – It is thought that evergreen fir trees have been a staple of winter festivals before Christianity. The Romans used them for their festival of Saturnalia in honour of Saturn, which was their god of agriculture, while the Vikings thought that they had special significance for their sun-god, Balder. For Christians, the fir-tree is a symbol of everlasting life with God, and as such takes a leading role in the Christmas decorations. The Christmas tree as we know it today originated in Germany in the sixteenth century. A popular conception is that the father of the Protestant reformation, Martin Luther, was the first person to put candles on the tree. They really became popular in England when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were pictured around a tree with their children. The candles on the tree were eventually replaced with electrical lights, which although not as bright, helped to prevent the problem of trees burning down.

Mistletoe – The initial idea of hangings it in houses came from a Druid custom, and it was thought to prevent evil spirits from entering the house. The custom of kissing under the mistletoe comes from the fact that it was a symbol of love and friendship in Norse mythology. Traditionally, people could only kiss under the mistletoe if there were still berries on it, and a berry would be plucked off for every kiss completed.

Santa Claus – Quite a few people will probably already know that Father Christmas has his origins in the form of the catholic saint, Nicholas. He was born sometime in 280 AD and was naturally renowned for his generosity and piety, and was eventually established as the protector of children. The idea of hanging up a stocking for Santa is based on one of the acts of kindness undertaken by St. Nicholas, when he sent sacks of gold down the chimney to provide a dowry for three sisters so that they could get married. These were caught in the sister’s stockings, and this is where the tradition of hanging stockings up for Santa comes from. The inspiration for the Santa that we know today comes from the poem ‘An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas’ by Clement Clarke Moore in 1822. The poem itself starts off with the immortal lines ‘’twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse’, and I know that for me personally, these lines make me think of my Christmases as a child. It was here that the image of Santa Claus as a jolly man with a large figure comes from. This was later developed by Thomas Nast with his cartoon of Santa in the Harper’s Weekly newspaper, which added the idea of Santa being dressed in red, having a white beard and being married to Mrs. Claus. Rudolf came later in 1939, and was created by Robert L. May in a story based on the poem by Moore.

Carols – Like many other Christmas traditions, the custom of singing Christmas carols come from existing traditions associated with pagan winter festivals. With the conversation of the Romans to Christianity, the focus on these carols developed into a Christian one. St Francis of Assisi is considered to be the person who started the tradition of telling a tale through carols when he started his nativity plays in 1223. Carols in their current form became popular in the Victorian era, and it was then that the custom of special carol services in churches and singing carols on the street became popular.

Christmas Pudding – This has its origins in the fourteenth century, where it was a porridge based dessert with mutton, beef, raisins and other fruits, and by the Victorian period it had been developed into the fruity desert which we now eat at Christmas. The holly decoration which is usually put atop the pudding is symbolic and is meant to represent the crown of thorns that Jesus wore at the Crucifixion. The silver coin put in the pudding is also another English custom, and is meant to bring good luck to the person who finds it in their portion of the desert.

These are the top five Christmas traditions which I thought would be interesting to look in to. If you think I’ve missed your most important tradition in this post, feel drop us a comment here and tell me so!

I thought that I’d leave you with some interesting international traditions. :]

In Russia, Christmas is celebrated on the 7^th of January in accordance with the Russian Orthodox calendar.

In Venezuela, a daily service is held between the 16^th and 24^th where it is traditional for people to travel to it on roller skates. Children tie a piece of string to their big toes when they go to sleep and hang the end of out the window for passersby to tug in the morning.

In Sweden, they have Tomte the Christmas gnome instead of Santa Claus – although there are certain similarities between the two in appearance. He hands out Christmas presents on Christmas Eve while saying funny rhymes.

Merry Christmas!

Sources:

http://www.history.com/topics/christmas

http://www.history.com/topics/history-of-christmas-trees

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/account-of-a-visit-from-st-nicholas/

http://www.the-north-pole.com/around/sweden.html

http://www.the-north-pole.com/around/venezuela.html

http://www.whychristmas.com/customs/

Literature as History

Posted on 20/12/2010 by Maddy V-T

Emery Neff wrote in his book The Poetry of History that “history has been breaking its traditional bounds… to record every manifestation of the human spirit. Literature… has furthered this advance.” Whatever way you look at this, it’s clearly saying that literature has contributed to the formation of history as an entity. This is a debatable point between many historians and something I want to look at.

This topic first came to my attention when I was writing an essay on Dick Turpin for one of my modules. I had to account for the different approaches taken towards Turpin’s life in two different sources. The first one was The Myth of the English Highwayman by James Sharpe and the other was the novel Rookwood, by W.H. Ainsworth. At a first thought, it’s easy to assume that Ainsworth’s work is of little use to the historian, but Rookwood and other works like it can tell us a lot about the past, though not always in the way you’d think.

Using Rookwood as an example, the way history becomes warped by literature is evident. The tale of Dick Turpin and the noble Black Bess is one that any British teen could tell you, whether they’d studied Turpin or not. However, by every historical account, this is totally inaccurate. Rookwood is written in the gothic style – something very common in Victorian times. It was an escapist style, a way for the literate to visit the ‘romantic’ age that had come before the coming of industry and the destruction of much of the idyllic peace the Victorians liked to imagine was around before their time. Rookwood is a huge example of this – though Turpin is not the hero, or even a main character, he is a romantic character that was far more popular than any of the actual characters in the book. The age of the highwayman had ended in 1831, three years before the book was published. This was long enough for a rose-tinted glow to settle on the highwaymen, much like the modern view of pirates that has been perpetuated by Pirates of the Caribbean.

You can see the resounding effect Rookwood has had on literature in all sorts of works, the one that immediately springs to mind being Alfred Noyes’ famous poem The Highwayman.

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding—
Riding—riding—
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

He’d a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,
A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin;
They fitted with never a wrinkle: his boots were up to the thigh!
And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,
His pistol butts a-twinkle,
His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.

You can see the romanticism that was heaped on highwaymen in the nineteenth century clearly in just this extract – the tale of love that ensues in the rest of the poem is typical of the view adopted in the Victorian age.

This is perhaps a topic most people think is more suited to a student of English Literature, rather than a history undergraduate. However, much can be learned from famous works from history, more than the author intended. Rookwood, for example, and The Highwayman both show the Victorian romanticism and the peculiar honour they gave to people who were among the most violent of criminals. You can pick out things about the respect given to family and inheritance from Rookwood, as well as information about the kind of struggles that went on if there was any contest for the wealth left in the wake of a death.

Other works of literature that contribute to history can be found throughout the ages. A good example from the Tudor age is Shakespeare’s Richard III, something that was written as an attempt to change history. The historian can pick out the way the monarchy still wanted to slur the Plantagenet line, even in their third generation on the throne. This, combined with artwork at the time that was changed, portrayed Richard III as a hunchbacked tyrant – giving him a deformity that was thought to bring bad luck. This is an obvious example of how literature can influence and indeed be a part of history in a way that was not intended at the time it was written.

It can even be argued that the authors of historical novels are making history in their own way. In the future, people may look back at the works of the likes of Phillipa Gregory or C.J. Sansom and use them to prove how we thought about the kings and queens of the past, or even attempt to use them as factual books to prove how life was lived back then. It’s hopefully unlikely that will happen, but the possibility is always there.

To bring this to a conclusion, you can’t discount literature as a form of history. Whilst it’s not traditional, textbook history, it is definitely a form of public history and can be used to find out about the perceptions of the author, also giving an indicator of the general mindset of the time.

And, of course, it’s much more enjoyable to read.

Sources

Ainsworth, W.H., Rookwood (London, 1834).
Neff, E., The Poetry of History (New York, 1979).
Noyes, A., The Highwayman (London, 1906).
Shakespeare, W., Richard III.

History through Song Lyrics: Unconventional Sources

Posted on 09/12/2010 by Lillian C.G

I would like to inaugurate this blog (without considering last week welcome post) with my favorite controversial topic in history: Non-academical history. It does not really matter how it is called, but what does matter is that it exists, and it can be use for a better understanding of history, or a more engaging, touching and easier way to get along with history. “Learning about unconventional history is, at the very same time, learning about conventional history, its strengths and limitations” [1]. Usually, this kind of history, popular or public history, is conceived in a variety of ways. The most common are: museums, and in general the heritage industry, tv shows, and books. But today, I would like to talk about one which is not commonly considered and I, personally, think it is rather interesting and useful.

I remember how in my first year of A-levels one of my classmates made up a funny song about the French Revolution, in order to remember the main events and personalities. And thanks to that, I would never ever forget those things. The issue I am presenting here is music as a source in the learning and teaching of history. Music is an art that has been linked with history since ancient times, and it has been developed through it until the present day, and it will most likely continue the process in the future. We know about the role of entertainment of musicians in the past and nowadays…But what about the rest? It is not the most common of the cases but many artists and bands do create material related with history. Although sometimes it is needed to read deeply through the lyrics, the ideas are still there.

My research has brought together material from diverse places and periods, but I would like to focus on the most modern evidences. 1974 was a critical year in the history of Portugal; after years of dictatorship the country was ready to embrace democracy as their political system [2]. The use of music was crucial for the coordination of the whole movement known as ‘Revolução dos Cravos’ (The Carnation revolution). Those songs used during this revolution have prevailed in history. They are a symbol and they are living history, those lyrics portray the spirit and meaning of the whole event. One of the most famous songs used for this event was “Grândola, Vila Morena”, written by Jose ‘Zeca’ Alfonso [3], a couple of years before this happened. Despite the fact the song was previous to the event, the Portuguese people identify themselves in that circumstances with these lyrics:

”Grândola, vila morena

Terra da fraternidade

O povo é quem mais ordena

Dentro de ti, ó cidade

…Em cada esquina um amigo, em cada rostro igualdade” [4]

(Could be translated as: Granola, dark land, land of fraternity, your population rules within you, oh city…In everycorner, a friend, in every face equality)

The perfect song for a revolution against the fascist regime that was oppressing the population…The song by which this is remembered.

But this is maybe the most evident case. An even more modern example: in 1990, one of the most celebrated german rock band of all times, The Scorpions, released their album Crazy World, in which their famous song ‘Wind of Change’ was included [5]. Just with a quick look to the lyrics and a bit of historical knowledge, the topic can be disguised: The fall of Berlin Wall, in 1989. Such an important event in western modern history immortalised in a radio hit, famous in the whole world. And the list goes on. Published in May, 1983, Iron Maiden’s album Piece of Mind contains their famous song ‘Die with Your Boots On’ [6]. “They die with their boots on, yes they die” [7],lyrics in honor of the disastrous and miserable General G.A. Custer’s death at Little Big Horn. The last example is from the album Lost in Space Part II, the third EP of Tobias Sammet’s metal opera project known as Avantasia, published by Nuclear Blast[8].The following extract is from the song ‘Promised Land’, which embraces a rather historical and religious topic; the Crusades and the Holy Land:

“Like moths to a flame
Driven by vanity
They been off to Jerusalem
Chasing a dream
Calling on me
We re just trading in needs” [9]

The Crusades, the end of fascism in Portugal, the fall of the wall in Berlin and one of the biggest disasters in the history of war, all in music…All historical. And these are just four, rather recent, examples…We might question now: what can music offer to the study of history for academical historians (and other humanists) but, also, how can these lyrics been used for students (like ourselves) or for lower levels, where history in most of the cases is not a choice but a must.

I would leave here the topic, not without first putting the link to some interesting websites related with the topic:

http://www.voicesacrosstime.org/

http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/IEC/iecmusic.html

References & Bibliography: