The Eternal Come Back of History

Now, we love come backs, don’t we? That old hero of sport who, when no one thought about it returns and defeats the youngster heir; that love story that sparkles again when the embers seemed cold; The empire strikes back…
Then we have this famous Francis Fukuyama’s theory about “the end of History”. But, at the same time, we have been told thousands of times that “history repeats itself”. So, please, someone tell us: Where is the truth?
Well, here we think that come backs are in fact a substantial part of History. Even more, that History is made of every sort of come backs of every possible kind : some are short and unworthy, others form series or cadences that conform entire periods in History. So, we are sorry Mr. Fukuyama, but it is our believe that History not only have not reach an end, but, moreover, there are a lot of come backs keeping it going forward. Nothing personal, sir, just a different point of view.
This next month we will be busy trying to show you, dear readers, some comebacks in History. Comebacks of politicians, based in honesty…no, no, I am talking seriously. Others reflecting the swinging rhythm of artistic moods, those revivals of musical or literary or architectural styles perpetually changing; territories, and their people, going back and forth in the aftermath of political conflict or even war…or perhaps the eternal struggle of every kind of –ism to come back and gain its final victory. Even now, amidst this seemingly never-ending crisis we could talk about the come back of XIX Century capitalism…but maybe that would be going a pound too far.
In any case, be sure that, in a few days, we will come back with more stories about comebacks. So please, do come back yourselves to our humble page, and share with us all this comings and goings.

Some Kind of Hero…

We all think we know what is a hero. Or, at least, we all think we know. And of course we have our own particular heroes albeit it usually happens that, except for those within the family or something of the kind, most of our own private heroes happen to be someone elses’ heroes too.

Heroism is somewhat way far familiar to us as it may well be, given the consideration that heroic deeds are (or were) supposed to be quite extraordinary affaires, uncommon, even uncanny moments in time. But it seems we are very prone to grant lion-hearted qualities to almost everyone who struks us with his acts.

Beyond that realm of popular heroism, there always have existed the real heroes. Larger than life, or at least, larger than themselves figures who were the greatest, or very close, in war, science, sports, politics, diplomacy, medicine…sometimes they were just there in the right time, sometimes heroism was there at the very beginning of their lives, waiting, or that it seems when you listen to stories about Lincoln and the famous log cabin in the wilderness, for example. Anyway, there they are, History’s heroes…

But, wait a minute. Whatever happened to those who were not achieving the Academy Award in a leading role?  Those proud supporters, adjutants, ministers, wives, or just those figures that, for any reason, were relegated to anonymity or to live the obscure afterlife of the not-so-well-known, gaining recognition from awkward scholars or the very minute. With luck, some of them could apply for a book, or an article. Some happy few would reach the sky in a film or documentary. History is not known for its very generosity, is it?

So that is where we are now. We would like to know them. And we would like to think about their lives and see why they did not make it to stardom, maybe just ask ourselves whether they deserve the heroic status. For that mission, we have selected a few figures we consider not that well-known, and we would like to introduce them to our readers that have not met them yet, or refresh the memories of those familiar. In April we will discuss what makes a general a leader of men or not such, why reasoning and pacifism tend to lose important battles although falling always with dignity, why there are great explorers still unknown to the public in general and why some others, not really exploring, got massive appraisal. It could well be that, just because, we could explore some secondary villains whose evil deeds are not appreciate enough. Because, what is a hero without a villain to subdue?

Stay tuned. There is a lot of action still to come.

Along Came March

Along came March, then.

There is something special with this month; it could be something related to the fact that the long winter is ending, at well last, and new life is finally awaken. There is even something compelling in the very name, a somewhat martial quality: March! It talks about movement, about development, not necessarily about careful planning though, but there’s a force arising in that name. March.

Then you have the origin of the name, back to the Romans and their gods. There was this god of war, Mars, to whom the first month of spring, hence the first in the campaigning season, was consecrated.

Well. Up till now we have a god of war, the surging of a new life, something on the move; but, what’s all this to do with History? Let’s go back again to the Romans. There was a ruler there, once. Popular. A military genius. Probably loved by his peace hungry people. He was having second thoughts on the idea of becoming a sort of king; some of his closest associates were having their own thoughts about not having a king whatsoever. The Ides of March, 44 B.C, precisely the commemoration of the god Mars was the chosen date for the assassination of Julius Caesar, and the beginning of a chain of events wich, in turn, lead to the advent of the Empire.

March had its comings and its goings through History.; Augustus became Pontifex Maximus; The Royal Canadian Mounted Police was formed; Germany occupied Austria; The Babylonians captured Jerusalem; yet another eruption of Mount Etna in 1699 killed over 20000 people. Business as usual for Mother Nature…That is a relevant point, a path. March is a bloody month. It’s not only that little incident with Caesar, Let’s see…

In the first day of March, 1244, the so-called crusaders finally took the Albigensian fortress of Montsegur. It was not as if it had been a clean war with all that fuss about God recognising Thy people amidst the corpses, but the final episode was surely amongst the more bitter moments of a war fought not only nor mainly for religious reasons, as we will see.

There must be something in the air, something in the promise of a new hope that makes March so apt for revolutions. Or maybe it’s just the desperation piling up during the long dark hours of winter, waiting the flimsiest opportunity to explode. What was it in Boston 1770? Hunger for freedom? Or just was it a braggart gone too far? Whatever happened, blood lead the way to a new world era. And the romantic streets of Paris, so often plenty of barricades astride XVIII and XIX centuries, were really in need of yet another bloodbath during the events known as La Comune? Was it the best of times for the people to try and grab the power just when their country was under control of Prussia and a cruel war was recently lost? Would ever be enough blood shed to quench Mars eternal thirst?

Or it’s just that the new sprouts need all that blood to grow strong and create the spring of History? Keep on reading, and you may get to know.