Retrospect Autumn 2010 - Unlikely Unions
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Transcript of Retrospect Autumn 2010 - Unlikely Unions
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4 Retrospect
ociet Come rain or shine EYer Pd-~ shows the History Society have an action packed semester in any weather WHAT HAVE the history society been up to tllis semester A better question might be what havent we been up LO gtew welcomed many new members and celebrated th e new academic year pmperly ith lots of events Our s tall at the Fresher Fair was very popular A highlight from Freshers Week was our Meadows Picnic which had to be relocated to the Loft Bar at Tciot due to the un e-cpected nun it was the only day in flre~hcrs Week that it rained but we soldiered on an d enioyed the winning combination of pints and fairy cakes
cve also wnved goodbye to the rabbi warren that was the Villiam
Robertson Building Hopefully well bave got ou r bearings by the time Lhe next issue comes out Well miss walkshying down tlle wrong set of stairs and having no idea where youve ended up as well as being either freezing or boiling depending on what level yu ure on but we re sure we wont be
crying for too much longer You may hwe heard that the history
society posed for the annual READ Calendar along with many other societie~s including the girls hockey
team and the gang from Fresll Air The charity who produce a naked cllendar each year raise money for the ren ovation of libraries in Uganda and Tanzania and to send thousands of book~ each year to these countries We were nervous but privileged to
take part Ve d iscussed the calendar in many
many committee meetings but the day finally dawned and the nerves set in Luckily for all of us the studio was suitably warm for nudity in October and we survived In order to truly repshy
resent the History Society our props were suitably themed with a vintage telephone and typewriter along with the American Com titlltion and varishyous swords all used in the hope of
protecting our modesty Then came th e official unveiling of
tbe calendar We steeled ourselves for the launch - aided by some necessary
Dutch courage The night went really
well at TIle Hive with hrilliant raffle
prizes and a computer screen projectshying our photos throughout the nighL Get in contact with READ aDd purshychase a calendar soon - apparently they are likely to sell out although our modesty depends on refuting this
Weve also been keeping up our links witll H ili toric Scotland and takshy
ing members to both Edinburgh Casshytle and Lilllitllgow Palace Both sites were amazing but very different and gave us a great inSight into Scottish hi$tory
We enjoyed the sunshine at Edinshyburgh Castle and urrived just in time to hear the one oelock gun go off alshythough we werent entirely prepared for it and people did scream in fear but I wont incriminate certain comshymittee mem bers After we got over the shock of the canon we enjoyed looking at tlle Scottish Crown Jewe1~
and then headed down to the castle dungeons to leaf about the prisonshyers of war
Our trip to Linlithgow Palace was
another case entirely as we battled against rain and wind but were not
defeated We gOI the Unlithgow train and found Oill wa) to the Palace al shy
though possibly not by the quickest route Linlithgow gave us an insight into the fourteenth century and we
came to the conclusion that they should consider lighting the old fire shyplaces in order to warm the visitors up The weather cleared so that we were able to take a stroll around tllt
loch and cnjoy being out of the City for a few hours
ext semester weve got trips planned to Slid ing Castle and hopeshy
fully a day trip to St Andrews Watch tbis space
It ha~ been something of a busy semester where the social calendar
was concerned O ur pub scrawl was a great success with various history reshylated puns and slogans being written all over people Favourites included I like to party like its 1776 (Amtllcan revolution reference there if youre wondering) We made it to four bars
starting at Teviot and ending the n ight dancing at 1he Hive
We represented the History Society at the Society and Sporf~ Fundraiser which was a great fun for all who went Sadly we lost out on the main
prize to various sports teams but EUSA did givc us a pound tor every person we got through the door Last
year we donned togas wrule this year we plumped fu r the beard Everyone embraced the theme by varying deshy
grees some opting fur the handlebar moustache while the more outrashygeous of us went with full bushy Capshytain Birdseye beard
NeA1 issue well be able to give you a full update on the Annual Christmas History Ball which is being held at TIle Caves and is likely to be a huge success and a fabulous night will be had by all Until then keep a look out on our facebook page and various messages from the department about our upcoming events
5
10
t1lW~ 1 H- CPl ~~d f1 ~_l
ll _ - )_ ~ -- ----
AS WRlTERS of h istory th e Retroshyspect team are used to commenting
on the successes o f o thers History is littered with winners of great acshy
claim awa rds and achievem ents
many of whi ch we have read ily
observed app reciated and wriI ten
about with interest n lis M ay Retshyrospect offi cially m ad e it s o wn hisshy
tory as it was named Best Magashyzine in The Herald Stude nt P re
Awards 2010
The awards ceremon) which
took pl ace in Glasgows C entre fo r
Contemporary Art s s aw a celebrashytion of Scotlan ds finest stud ent
jo urnalism amongs t w h ich RetJOshy
spect was p roud to be COlUlted The
ni ght was a n acknowledgme nt of
young talent across seveml fields
of journalism from Best Sports Writer to Best Publi cation Speakshy
ing to The Herald Dr G ill Stewart
SQAs D irector of Qualifications
sa id these awards really s howcase
the great talent of student journalshy
ists in ScotIan d
W ith free-flowing bar and plenty
of complimenta ry canapes the atshy
mosphere was jovial and everyone was very suppo rtive of each others
work Ind eed the standard was
high as Scotlands best and brightshy
est celebrated the ir ta le nts in a n ight
honourmg the grea t and ever growshy
ing presence of stud ent media
Our editorial team we re present
to receive the ir awardand were im shy
pressed by the level of professionshyalism of the other candidates and
the creative talent on display In the
category of Best M agazine Retroshyspect faced great competi t ion with
excelle nt entries from Glasgow
Un ivers irys m agazines GUM and Qmlm ica te Th e judges acknowlshy
edged tbat the standa rd was high
and th at it h ad been a great year for
m agazine publications in Scottish nivers it ies
Retrospect s triumph at tbe cershy
emony reflected a ris ing public interest in academic Journals Acshy
k nowledged by the judges as havshying I1lare se rio us content t-han its
competitors Retrospects ach ieveshy
men t can be viewed as part of t he
growing trend towards greater pubshylic interest in the academic genre
Misa Klim es then editor in chief
was p resen ted vith a weeks internshy
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lect m em bers o f Retrospects ed itoshy
rial staff we re prese nt to accept the
lward at th e ce rem on y Also p resent
wen Edin burgh based newspape r~
TIle Jou rna l an d The Student both receiving accolades o n the n ig ht
Retrospects success at Th e H ershy
ald Awards is a g reat accomplishshy
ment for the magazine for budding
jou rna li sts and for Lh ose wri ters at
The Un iversiti of Ed in bu rgh with a p articular interest in histo ry We
hope that th is will encourage future
writers to join the team and lead us
to greater future success
YOllre History Captain j 1111 i _ rllI j rallies the troops behind the Football Teams tough season
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6
WHAT BEITER combination than free food and a film at Frankensteins The University ofEdinburghs History Society held its first film night of the year on October 6th and was pleased to welcome plenty of new tiaces
We had all gathered hu ddled into the basement of Frankensteins and out of sight from the hideous weather The nights screening was to be Frost NIXon a popular choice with first and second time viewers alike But before the film began members refuelled on a selection of free dishes with burgshyers and chips being the finn favourshyite Thanks to the Frankenstein cards there were plenty of enticing drink deals to be had and the society settled down comfortably on the lower floor in preparation for the movie
FrostNixon directed in 2008 by Ron Howard is an account of the legendary interviews conducted by David Frost talk show host with the former US President Richard Nixon Initially Frosts determination to stage these interviews and to extract a confession from Nixon regarding his role in the in taolOus vVatergate scanshydal seems ridiculous His big gamshyble costing him thousands of dollars appears to be litrle more than a chalshylenge to satisfy his ego However by the end of the fllm it is clear that he
Retrospect
moment Michael Sheens impersonshyation of Frost as a smooth care-free and daring television presenter conshytrasts ri th Oscar nominated Frank Langel1as portrayal of an ageing alshymost tragic Nixon who is presented as riddled by suspiciolL The result is an entertaining and thought-provokshying dranla about the power of televishysion over politics
This succcssful film night was a reshylaxed evening enjoyed by many from all years and will be repeated in the near futu re
Alice Pease recounts a night of film screenings and free food with society members
7
History in the News
IgtOCUMJNP) DErAlIJNG the 0shy
perinces of Channel ]sland residents who chose to resisit Nazi occupashytion during the second Wod War have been re-discovered Thrown into suitcases and stowed in the back of a wardrobe these papers are considered to be the m ost imshyportant archive material to be unshyearthed concerning the occupation
The islands were occupied by azi forces between 1940 and 1945
and with one German guard to eveshyry three residents massive resistance was difficult Despite the improbable success of such act ion lhese hidshyden documents reveaJ the unusually silent and often symbolic nature of the resistance that islanders particishypated in
Compiled by a resident Frank Falla these documents tell of the harrowing experinces many inhabitshyants faced Some were forced to listen to fellow prisoners being decapitated by guillotine in German prisons
Falla himself liS deported after organ ising a clandestine newspaper designed to deliver updates about the war once radios were con fisshycated in 1942 Irate by the lack of recogn i lion that resistors received after the war Falla compiled the papers after the Br itish government received compensation from Gershymany in the 19605 Testimonies of the suffering endwcd by resideJ1ts have led to calls for a memorial ded shyicated to those who strove to resist occupation These docum ents also provide eveidence contrary to trashyditional interpretations that suggest islanders corroborated too easily Catherine Me Gloin
AN ANaENr Roman village has been unearthed in the parkland of a stately home in West Lonshydon in the unlikely surroundshyings of modem -day suburbia
Archaeologists excavating on the outskirts of the histor ic Syon Parle Estate discovered a stretch of Roman road and the foundations of some dwellings Alongside the remains of the road were over 11 5DO pottery fragments a large number of coins a Bronze Age gold bracelet and a lava stone quem
The road that was uncovered is beHeved to have been one of the most important linking Londinium with SildlCster It is reckoned that the vilshylage supplied the metropolis as well as existing as a a resting place for travelshylers giving insight into the way that the city interacted with and was conshynected to the country at large
1he Museum of London Archaeshyology an thrilled at the d iscoveries and believe that there is much to be learned about the daily lives of those livingjust outside Roman Londiniwn WiIl EUis
HISfORIAN KFIIH Jeffrey has been granted unprecedented access into the previously classified ilkS of the Secret Intelligence Service more commonly known as Ml6 It is the first and only official history of the shadowy goverruneJJt agency the very existence of which was not fo rmally acknowledged until 1994
Owing to the high ly sensitive nature of some of the documentashytion Jeffreys history only covers a forty-year period of the agencys background from its initial foundshying as the Secret Servi ce Bureau in 1909 until 1949 The lucky historishyan recently described the archives to which he had access as a cornucoshypia an extraordinary Aladdins cave of h istorical mater ials~
His book reveals often overlooked episodes in the history of British esshypionage such as the thwarting of an attempted Communist revolution in Brazil in 1935 and the controversial Operation Embarrass documenting both the successes and the failures of British intelligence throughout the first half of the twentieth century Gregor Donaldson
8 Retrospect
No stopping E~ burgh bullthe presses mYers ress
Rebecca auk presses Timothy Wright for some history on Edinburgh University Press
FOR STUDENTS and schola rs aJ ike Edinburgh University Press j widel ) regarded as one of the best academ ic publishing offices in th e ountry Having been publishing
and publicising high quali ty acashydemic books for almost fif1) years the Press is celebrating its successes both internationally and at home In the midst (I f this great ~ucccss Chief Executive Timothy Wrigb t taJks t
Retr(lspect about the h istory of the press and what the future holds
Edinburgh Univers ity Press founded over fi fty years ago is a wholly owned subSidiary of the University of Edinbu rgh 1hough the conpan)s main business is the publishing of textbooks and supshyplementary textbooks the roles that the Press plays range across d iffe rent academic areas The pubshylish ing of textbooks senes an edu shycat ional role the p ublica tion of scholarly works and monograph serves to help the advancemen t of knowledge wh ilst the pub]jcalion of works of re fe rence support both
holarly and educational util ity The compmy also boaSL~ a portfolJ or over thirty jou rnals
The Presss chosen fiel ds of pubshylish ing are American Studies Classhyics Film Studies M edia amp Cultural tudies History Islam ic Studies
Language and Linguistics La Litshyerary Stu dj es PhUosophy Politics and Scottish History The Press is well eqlllpped to serve the hu manshyties departmen ts publishing on an xtensive range of subjects and topshy
ics The Presss publishing is recogshy
nised as being of the highest qual shyity It is amonitortd by th e Un ivershy
sitys Press Committee which has to approve a ll titles proposed for publication The sale of its publicashytions is increasingly intern at ional enhancing the Universi tys global image and reflecting well on Scotshyland itsel f In the year ended 31 July 2009 over 50 of the presss revshyenues were outside the UK markshying a Significant profit outside of the University itself
J i I I I ) i I ~
I lit l lll I I I I 1
t
~ ~ j ~ 111shy
L ~ I I gt
i I
upporting its internation al CO ll shy
nections is the Presss close rella shytionship with other acacemic pubshylishersThe press has a nehvork of dis tr ibutors world wide includiJlg pa rtn erships with the University of
ew South Vales in Sydney and most importantly a longstanding relationship with Columbia Uni shyversity Press in the Unitcd States of
merica TIle maiJl objectives of the p ress
are fourfold Firstly it contrlbutes significantly to knowledge tTansfer and the dissemination of the resu lts f scholarly researcht also contribshy
utes Significantly to the education of uni1ersity students and others By Lllaintaining its position as the leading university press in Scotland it contributes to the dissemination of scholarly work in Scottish his shytory md other Scottish subjects and on contemporary Scottish issues Lastl y the presitige of the conpan) nhances the univerSitys reputashy
tion internationally through the acknowledged high quality of its publishing
The key objectiVes se t by the Trusshytees for the year were to increase th e to tal income of the Press through contill uing to publi sh high quality
books and subsequ ently increase the gross and net marg ins These overall objectives are supported by a nUJ11ber of detailed targets which are monitored by the Trustees on a regular basis
In its fifty ycar history Edinburgb Un iversity Press has achieved great
thi ngs From high prestige to high saJes repor ts the intern ationaJ sucshycess that tb e press is now enj oying was only to be expected Its great prestige is an honour for the comshypany and the University alike as the Press was undoubtedly made for success
9
eat Odessa in the middle Varvara Bashkirova reminds us of the personal consequences of history CATHERINE THE Great fou nded the city of Odessa in 1794 when she decided that a port on the Black Sea wouId be a wise in vestshyment She invited architects from all over the world and it resuIted in a beautiful southern citywith an extremely diverse populati on and culture- albeit mostly Russian As a new centre of culture and trade it soon became the fourth largest city in the Russian Empire
I was born here hut nowadays I cannot go to the cinema to watch a film in Russian nor can I listen to the radio in Russ ian and most cershytainly I wouId not be able to study in Russian How did this happen During my fath ers childhood he heard only Russian or Yiddish sposhyken on tbe streets He never spok Ukra inian I only learned it in school There were some Ukrainshyian programmes on television but they were not my favourites so living in the south of the country my contact with the language was lim ited to three hours a week
I rem ember the day a woman came to our school with a lecture about how great Ukraine is In itialshyly we did not pay her much attenshytion but as ber lecture grew more ridiculous my classmates could not help laughing She argued that Ukrainian is m OTe beautifu l than Russian-I still do not know how she measured tb at Wbat we loved the most was her earnest claim that Jesus was Ukrainian It was proved by the studies of a historian who clai med that Buddha was Ukrain shyian too It was the year we stopped learning Russian literature Gogol and Pushkin both of whom created some of their best works in Odessa were now considered to be foreign writers The best part was that we still studied them in our foreign litshyerature course but in translation whicb was much harder to undershystand than the original Russian
After that everythi ng changed quickly Our history teacher was forced to teach in Ukrainian under
th e threat of being fireQ She did n ot speak it having lived all her li fe in Odessa Before education was mostly in Uhtainian anyway but once it was forced we hated it
What happened to the cinemas was even more ridiculous By forcing the Russian population to speak Ukrainian the government made dozens of cinemas bankrupt As Vestern films had never been translated in to Ukrainian before it suddenly came to light that man modern words Simply didnt exshyist in Ukrainian But this did not stopthe patriots-they started inshyventing words It was so contrived that we went to the cinema once and ended up laugh ing all the way through
Additionally in science and techshynology Uk rainian is quite behind 111at is why l11y fr iend who is studshyying programming in Ukraine is always complaining- when writshying essays the words he needs to use simply do not exist t hey can not be found in any of the dictionshyaries
Southeast Ukraine with its proshyRussian attitude contrasts to the western part of th e country 20 per cent of the population in Lvov a western city have a negative opinion of Russia This is a result of history From 1919-1936 westshyern Ukraine was a part of Poland whilst the southeastern was part of Russia Western Ukraine more agricultural and rural than the east is where Ukrainian traditions and language have been strongly mainshytained Many of the southeastern cit ies on the contrary were and always have been Russian Crishy
mea is an obvious example haVing existed as a Russian territory si nce 1794 On 19 February 1954 it was transferred from the Soviet Unshyion to Ukraine as a gi ft I would imagine it was quite a surprise for the local population to move to a different cou ntry without realisshying Ukrainisation was much mor tangible there as 90 per cent of the Crimean populalion was Russian For iJ1stance they were not capashyble of watching Ukrainian films as they didnt kn ow the language In other words western Ukraine feels strong antipathy to the pro-Russian East for bei ng unpatriotic whilst eastern Ukraine feels the same to the anti-Russian West for imposing on them an alien language Most Easterners admit the necessi ty of knowing and do know Ukrainian However they also argue that they should be allowed to choose beshytween the languages
Such a sharpened situation can be partly explained by the constant changes in the government After the 2004 Orange Revolution remiddot lations with Russia significantly worsened thus reviving the bisshytorical confl ic t 111ere were fights on the streets and on the in terneL Friendships broke down over the issue This resonated deeply fo r Ukrain isation which had affected
so many in the east of Ukraine ow that the government has
changed to diametrically opposite sides by strengtl1ening relations with Russia it seems like people can not keep up to date with the number of ideological shifts that they are supposed to accept every four year~ The contlict rontinues to deepen as the government conshytinuously changes its stance havshying only balf of the nations support each time
I still visi t Odessa at least once a yea r Walking along tbe streets I can sense the tension between the t raditional and the in1posed It is felt in quotid ian things such as street Signs TIle em blem has cbanged but tbe beart of the cit) is still the same The city is its people who keep the culture of their anmiddot cestors I know it when I see flowshyers laid in front of the memorial to the Russian poet Alexander Pushshykin on his birthday They say To Pushki ll from the grateful citizens of Odessa as it was constructed in 1889 solely from citizens doshynations I know that Odessa like other southern ci ties can never bemiddot come truly Ukrainian as it retai ns too much of the historical and culshytural heritage it has received from Russia
Retrospect10
th b
THE 1707 Acts of Union have always been sources of great debate and the topics popularity is still present as the dlree hundred year old act continu to have repercussions today AltJlough the union of Scotland and England may seem inevitable wiLh hindsight Lhe lrum is Lhat it was an exLrnordi shynary alJiance Simon Schama could not have been more correct when he described it as one of the most astonshyishing trnnsformat ions in Ew-optan histori
cotland and England possess rich intertwining pasts Competition be it in commerce politics or warfare stemmed from the Mo nations cul shytural differences What could possibl)t give these two separate and tradishytionaUy competing naUons common ground upon which to unify There were three major fac tors involved religion external threats and circulllshylance
The 15005 saw sweeping change throughout Europe as the Reformashytion gained momentum creating an upsurge of turmoil thar would take well over a century to abate By the Uruon of the Crowns in 1603 both Scotland and England were largely Protstant countries though disashygreement over doctrine was fierce The Bishops Van of 1639 and 1640 are merely examples of th~ c()nflict that occurred anlongst Lhe various denominations Lhat considered themshyselves true Proteltants
OtherneSS as explorcd by Linda Colley gives us an inkling into Lhe
nattlrc of the second major factor behind unification Shc states that otllerness was defined as lin aversion to militant Catholicism or a hostile
ontinental European system or at its most basic level external threats
ilh Lhe common ground of religion and a shared monarchy Scotland and England were similar enough by 1707 to tee jOiJldy threatened by foreign powers Traditionally these other were Roman Catholics and seen as the natural enemy l1ljS however is a rather skewed view to take For examshyple tlle League ofAugsburg of which both Scotland and England were a ke part of in 1689 included the staunchly
tholic nations of Austria Portugal and the Holy Roman Empire yet the nations of Britain certainly profited from beiJlg a part of this aliiance
Resistance to foreign threats real or percehmiddoted also fostered idea~ of unitt amongst one very influential faction of society the military Scottish and English Regiments fought side b) side throughout the Low Couotries A1sace and the RhineJand in both the Nine Yeurs War and the War of the Span ish Succession not only earning respect for aile another but laying me founshydatioJlS of a British army years before tlle Union ac tua lly took place Whilst tlle Acts of Union officialI) merged Lhe Scottish and English arnlies they had actuaUy been fighting together [or decades Success of the twin nashytions when allied militarily would doubtless have smootJled tlle road to union especially when tlloughts
of Empire canle to the forefront Full political union can perhaps be seen a the next logical step yct circumstance would first need to take a hand in promiddot ceedings
It did so in the late 1690s Ihe Darshyien Scheme an attempt by Scotland to break into the world market by establishing a small trading colony 0 11
the Isthmus of Panama went hOrribly wrong The nation was left teetering on the brink of bankruptcy Memshybers of the Scots nobility were forced to petition the English Parliament in Westminster for finan cial aid and me whole debacle caused many of the ruling elite to believe that Scotland could never la) imperial foundations without aid [rom its (lId rival Even by tlle early 1700s Scotlands economy was shOWing little signs of recovering from the savage blow wiLh tvtichael Fry pointing out that in 1704 the nashytiOD remaincd backward and with no financial markets of its own
The deaLh of Scotlands global ambishytions and the severe damage dealt to its economy can UJcrefore be cited as among the primary short-term reashysons for the Un ion of 1707 VVilliam Fergusons 1964 paper unearthed tbe grave extent to which bribes had been accepted by Scottish noblemen in orshyder to help push tlle Union through Parliament It is undcniable tllat for some expediency took the place of pride
t Lhe same time it would be a misshytake to believe that only Lhe Scots noshybles were responsible for selling their
country for English gold as Burns would have US believe Christopher A vVhatleys Scots rlrld the Unioll arshygues that this point does not stand up to close scrutiny nor does the argushyment that Scots bargained away their Parliament for free trade The bouts of insurrection throughout Scotland which fi) lImved in the inlmcdiate wake oflhe Union including the infamous exccutions of two English sailors 0 11
trumped up charges of pm cy would have been conSiderably more grievous had there truly been no support fix the move amongst the lower d Many of tlle more fa mous first-hand accounts such as those of Daniel Deshyfoe state d early that the vast majority of the nation was against the idea of Union Yet Whatleys detailed study of numerous smaller primary accounts shows surprising apathy amongst many commentators that proves true or at least militant anti- Un ionist senshytiment was not in the dear majority in Scotland at the time of the Union
The Acts of 1707 therefore can surely be remembered as amongst tile most unusual Union~ to have taken place in European history Scotland and EnghUld though they had many similarities were stiUlargely au tonoshymous nations before May 1707 It took a century of religious and poshylitical upheaval numerous external mreats and misfortune on a national scale to not only pave tlle wa) but acshytually bring about the Union It was a omplex rich and fascinating event
which provides us witll one of the
~
11
RAT HER LI KE th l m arri age of the owl and the pussycat the civil part shynership between Scotlan d and Engshyland seemed an unlikely union at the bme of its inau guration 1n 1707 Lord Bel havells remark - Theres ane end to an c auJd sang - seems to capture the sense of loss o cca shysioned by the termil1ltion of Scotshyti sh indep endence How d id someshything SO unpopular at birth survive for so long The slow evolution of tl11 Union deserves some attention
The Un ited Ki ngdom of 170 7 was augmented in ]SO ] wi th the ad shydition of the island oj Irehu1d In 1922 after over a century of unshyhappy relations Ireland was part ishytioned and only six of th e thi rtyshytwo counties remained as par t of a r(branded Uni ted Kingd om of Great Britain and Northern Ireshyland In its various incarnations the Un ion is now an auld sang and its melo dy may be more dHncult to forget than is ofte11 assumed
If Scotlan d is no t qUite an addishytionaJ county of England there are more similarities and links than Jllany are prepared to contemplate There has been a massive moveshyment of people in both directions
between Scotland and England The English in Scotland and the Scots in Englan d have integrated m ore seamlessly than aDY other min ori ty in either host society There ha ve been outbu rsts of S(Oshytophobia but the) have not proved to be a central fea ture of the Anshyglo-Scotti sh relati onship and the same can be said for Anglophoshybia Scotland bems a greater deshygree of Similarity to England than any ot her comparator Although th is m ay be a partial product of the Union it would not be quickly altered by furth er const itut ional chan ge even ren ew ed Scottish in dependence In deed if Scotshylands eighteenth and ni ncteenth cent ur y history cannot ent ir ely be ex plained by reference to events of l707 the Union has increasingly left its impressjon on the twentieth cen tu ry - the Welfare State might be an even grea te r symbol of the Union th an th e British Empire
Much recent comment about the Union has been peSSimistic and has sought reasons for its apparshyen tly likely demise an event wh ich inconveniently has not ye t taken place Despite d evolut io n perhaps
even despite the advent of an SN P ad ministration in Holyrood this may be the w rong question It is tbe longevity rather than the frashygil ity of th e Anglo-S cottish Un ion which reqUires explanation 1 his is not to say th at the Union m ay nol flo under in tbe [uture perh aps even the ncar future Histor ians are no to riously ba d at peering into th e future but one can confi dently p reshydict the outbreak o f a fierce debate between those who will argue that the inh erent features of the Un ion sowed the seeds of its destruction over a long period an d others who will contend that the sundershying of th e Union can be found in the consequences of the political divergence between Scotlan d and
nglaJ1d since 1979 Vha tever happens to the Union it is vital that we do not fabricate a sense of denjal about deep-sealed and longshys tan ding Scott ish enth usiasm for it
Ewen Cameron is H ead of H istory at Edinb urgh University Hi s book Impaled on a Thistle Scot la nd sil ce 1880 was released earl ier this year
A strange survival As a special feature Ewen Cameron provides a scholars perspecshytive on th e endurance Great Britain and the Acts of the Union
12 Retrospect
THE COLD War caused the worlds superpowers to forge some of h isto rys m ost unlikely of unshyions O ne such union was thaI of the USA with the leader of South Vietnam from ]954 to 1963 Ngo Dinh Diem and one that was arshyguably the first step on the path to full-scale American military in shyvolvement in Vietnam
Following Fr ances withdrawal from Indochina in 1954 Vietnam was divided in two along the 17th Parallel with Ho Chl Minhs C omshymuni sts ruling the North and the French sponsored democracy in the South with nation al elections planned for 1956 to reunite the COUlltry Fearful of communism the Eisenhower administration threw their support behind the staunchly anti -communist Diem in the bope that he would form a strong government that would be sympathetic to America The union would end almost a decade later in t he most ignominious of ways
At fi rs t there seemed to be several good reasons to suppor t Diem he was zealously anti-communist but aho exceedingly nationalistic and anti-French m aking it easier for the Americans to support h im without contradicting the if own an ti-imshyperialist rhetor ic He had travelled widely in the US an d had expressed a desire to work with Americans to build a new Vietnam
However from the start it was eVident that Diems belief in democracy was dubious as he stead fastly refu sed to conform to American political ideals The US
had entered th e two world wars to in President Woodrow Wilsons wor ds make the world safe fo r deshymocracy wh ilst the conflict wi th the Soviet Union was defi ned by Americas beUef in democracy and capitalism The US expounded the ideals of democracy over the tyranshynies o f authori tarian govern ment Diem refused to m ake democratic refo rms in his country
1 hen D iem took power he faced a bar rage of problems an undershydeveloped and antiquated gove rn shymental infras tructu re with staff who lacked experience in adminisshytmtion a country ravaged by war an immat ure agricult ural econoshymy With US help Diem thwarted several attempted coup detats in th e first year of his presidency An even bigger test of Diems leadershyship arrived in 1955 willl the Sec t Crisis where the mllitarised sects the Cao Dru the Hoa Hao and the Vletnamese Mafia the Binh Xu)rshyen joined forces to wage wllr on the government in Saigon Diem looked to be lOsing control and at one point US Ambassador to Vishyetnanl General Coll ins convinced Eisenhower that Diem should be removed A m iraculous and unshyexpected victory agrunst the Binh Xuyen ensured Diem stayed in
power and retained American supshyport Encouraged by the American delight at this victory Djem began to consolidate his power
W hen D iem rehlsed tJ) par ticipat e in the scheduled na tional election s to reunite the two Vietnams the US supported Il is decis io n to do so effectively ensu ring tb e long term separation between South and Nor th Vietnam The popular ity of the Communist leader Ho Chj Mi nh meant he would have swept these elections causing the US to forego their politi cal beliefs
With Diem established the US proceeded to pour rud in to his regime with $ 1 bill ion spent on economic and m ilitary assistance between 1955-1 961 Diems govshyernment squandered the aid refusshyin g to refo rm the army and governshyment to fit a democratic model
vThilst Diem prud li p service to the Am ericans democratic deshym ands reform vas always an illushyion D iem and rus three brothers
con trolled bot h the exec utive and the legi sla tive branches of govern shym enl - dissenters were immediateshyly pu rged Diems poli cies towards the villages d isregarded centu r ies of tradition and in dependence stirring up deep discon tent Any expression of th is was dealt with as George Herring puts it in a man shyner that would have made J Edgar H oover blanch as thousands of dissidents were incarcerated in reshyeducation centres Such was the USs fear of communism that they turned a bli nd eye to these arroci shyt ies
Alex Thomson explores the ideological sacrifices of Americas Vietnam policy
Better the Diem you know
In 1960 the new Kennedy adshyminis tration inherited the commitshyment to Diem and with Kennedys pledges to get tough itwould have been impossible to withdraw supshyport for Diem and so the governshyUen t increased th e aid to stabilise h im whils t begging him ineffectu shyally to refo rm Most Americans at this time could
not have even located Vietnam on a map but the issue was forced in to the nations consciousness ill May 1963 with th e Buddh ist Cri shysis A devout Catholic Diem had oppressed the Buddhist majority of the countr) Protests in the city of Hue saw government troops fire into the crowd killing a number of protestors sparking widespread reaction around South Vietnam cu lmin ating in the n otorious selfshyim molations of Buddhist monks which h it headlines worldwide
ot only was Diem embarrassshying the American government on the in ternational stage but with the disastrous defeat at Ap Bac in January 1963 it became increasi ngshyly apparent that Diem was also an ineffectual bulwark against comshymunism a fac t compounded by Diems covert attempts to negotiate a settlemen t wi th Ho Chi Min h After the Budd hist Crisis several generals of the South Vietnamese army approached tlle US Ambasshysador in Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge Jr about US reachons to a military coup Convinced that the war against communism in Vietshynam co uld not be won with Diem as leader Lodge replied that wruJs t they would not support a coup they would do nothirlg to oppose it effectively signing Diems death warrant Thus on November 1st 1963 the generals successfully deposed Diem who was then brushytally murdered in the back of a van after seeking sanctuary in a Cathoshylic church
President Kennedy said that ~iem is Diem and hes the best weve go This is an accurate swnshymary of the unlikely alliance beshytween D iem and the US Authorishytarian and despotic Diem was ana thema to the American polit ishycal system but it was ironical]y the USs fear of another foreign politi shycal system on the left that caused them to create so unlikely an allishyance
13
Practical impiety Hamish Kinnear discusses the unthinkshyable Franco-Ottoman Alliance of 1536
IN 1536 an alliance was finalised that was met with disbelief and disgust throughout Europe The union of France and the Ottoman Empire against their mutual enshyemy - Charles V - was the first alshyliance between a major Christian and nnn-Christian power since the crusades
Europe was on the verge of great change at the outset of the sixshyteenth century The introduction of gunpowder was revolutionisshying warfare and the printing press enabled the distribution of mateshyrial opposed to the ruling elite The fiercely anti-derical speeches of Martin Luther and his sympashythisers initiated the Reformation destroying the medieval idea of a united Christendom with the Pope as its nominal head Increasshyingly European states began to act in their own interests and ignored ing the legitimacy of Islam Pracshy common knowledge an alliance the purpose of defence as opposed
the demands of the pope Four ticality however often triumphs with the Great Turk was not only to a specifically offensive crusade
great historical figures also came over ideology unlikely it was unthinkable Henry VIII of England struck a
to the fore in the early 16th centushy Interestingly both Francis I and The alliance however held blow to Christian unity by breakshy
ry Henry VII of England Francis Charles V had argued that if they benefits for both parties France ing away from the papal authorshy
I of France Charles V of Spain and became Holy Roman Emperor for was given an ally that posed a seshy ity and establishing the Church of
Suleiman the Magnificent of the they were both candidates for the rious threat to Charles V for the England allowing his marriage to
Ottoman Empire The stage was elective office they would lead a Ottoman Empire of Suleiman the Anne Boleyn The greatest atrocshy
set for a conflict that involved all Crusade against the Great Turk Magnificent was at the height of ity occurred when the underpaid
the major powers of Europe one This promise invoked a desire to its power Fresh from victory over and mutinous troops of Charles
in which the French were the fi rst return to the perceived Christian the Egyptian Mamluke Sultanate V in the search of plunder sacked
to realise that the days of a united unity of the Middle Ages where Suleiman wished to make himself Rome and imprisoned the Pope
medieval Christendom were over the nations of Europe allied to Caesar of Europe An alliance with This event more than anything take back the Holy Land After the French was in the interests of else signified the demise of medishyCharles V took the title however the Ottomans as it provided them eval Christendom In this atmosshyFrancis wasted no time in declarshy with a military partner and a finshy phere of widespread anti-papal ing war on his fellow Christian ancier to help invade Hapsburg feeling the France-Ottoman allishynation The subsequent invasion lands More importantly for Suleishy ance comes as less of a surprise of Italy ended in disaster for the man the alliance kept the states of The impious alliance of the French at the Battle of Pavia durshy Christian Europe divided French and Ottomans then does ing which Francis I was captured not seem so scandalous when
By 1519 France was in despershy by the forces of Charles V To seshy placed in the context of its time
ate need of allies The domain of cure his release from prison Franshy However it should come as no
the Hapsburg ruler Charles V who cis was forced to sign the humillishy surprise that it was received in
had inherited the rule of both the ating Treaty of Madrid in which this negative fashion There was
Spanish Empire and the Holy Roshy he renounced his claims to Italy evidently a form of European
man Empire almost surrounded Flanders and Burgundy Charles nostalgia for the days of the Crushy
the French Kingdom of Francis I V had risen to unrivalled power in sades in which Christendom was
The French also had to deal with Europe united in a common cause even
Henry VIIIs England whose arshy During Franciss imprisonment though the military expeditions to
mies still remained in Normandy the French court had sent a deleshy Despite the reactions of horror the Holy Land had only been seshy
and coffers funded Charles milishy gation to the court of Suleiman the to the Franco-Ottoman alliance riously pursued centufies before
tary expeditions To the French Magnificent to discuss a treaty of that were evident throughout Eushy Francis Is alliance with the Otshy
advantage a new power was rising friendship These talks resulted in rope the actions of other Christian tomans was a stark indicator that
in the East The Ottoman Empire an alliance that was met with disshy rulers could hardly be considered the Crusader days were long past
of Suleiman the Magnificent was belief and disgust by the other Eushy pious If a pious ruler was one War from then on became comshy
expanding through the Balkans at ropean states Charles V began a who acted for the unity of Chrisshy mon between Christian States as
an alarming rate and posed a great vitriolic campaign of propaganda tendom engaged in crusading a means to maintain the balance
threat to the domains of Charles against the French deeming the activities and respected both the of power or achieve superiority
V Yet an alliance with this major union the sacrilegious union of temporal and spiritual power of in Europe Christendom was finshy
Islamic power was still considered the Lily and the Crescent Indeed the Pope then Charles V and Henshy ished The unlikely Franco-Ottoshy
blasphemous by the kingdoms of given that Francis had strongly ry the VII failed on all these reshy man Alliance however lasted for
Europe as by acknowledging the supported a crusade against the quirements Admittedly Charles V centuries
existence of the Ottoman Empire Ottomans a pretence he mainshy spent much of his life fighting the
the French were in effect accept- tained even after the pact became Ottomans but this was more for
14 Retrospect
c e Old Ship of Zion Catherine Me Gloin examines a widely forgotten aspect of American History THE STRUGGLE for AfricanshyAmerican rights iJl the United States is a long and contested road Ve are repeatedly exposed to narratives that stress key leaders and religious f1 gureshyheads Arguably no discourse would be complete without an analysis of tbe role of MartiQ Luther King Jr the decisions of th e Supreme Court or tbe varying levels of comm itment that each president expressed throughout this tuibulent ruld mythologised peshyriod in Americ1l history
However one element of the strugshygle for bLack dvil rights that has been often underplayed in popular accounts increasingly based on bioshygrap hical and oral testimony is the role of the new labour movement during the 19305 and J94Ds In the
space bern the post-World far red scare a reactionary phenomenon that disabled socialism as a tool for social advancement bl1Ck unjonisID 3Jld potentially the Communist Party ofshyfered African-Ameri cans a wllque opportunity to unite to fight oppresshysion Unionism offered the poorest black workers a political voice one they fel t was [[lUted by elite middleshyclass civil rights organisations such as the NAACP [n this respect the Communist Party can be considered as a viable alternative for some groups within tll euro civil rights movement and as a suitablevehide for civil rights adshyvancemel1t
The h istory of black organh ed lashybour in the South has only begun in the last thirty years to receive du attention in the historiography of American labour movements gainshying increasing recogni tion from lashybour and social historians Perhaps it has traditionally been ampi de-lined because of an ideological aversion to socialism deeply ingrained into the American psyche Alternatively its diminished prominence may be explained by the compl~ities of periodisation It is commonly acshyknowledged by maIl) h istorians who dorninate the field of civil rights that the movement characterised by cross-national di rect action began in the late 19505 Morc specifically the
birth of the movement is often seen as a consequence of the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and the Brown decision of the Supreme Court the plevious year Thus any event which pre-dates tJlis revered trajectory is generally dismissed as a pre-requisite and subsequently garshyners less attention than it perhaps warrants The widening of industrial w1ionism to Southern blacks during the first half of the twentieth century has traditionally been treated as a pre-cursor yet it deserves a more prominent position not only for the wider organ isational implications it held flr the development of the llovement but as acknowledgement afits improbable success
N l an alysis of labour Qrganisation and class structure amongst the varyshying groups active in the civil rights m ovement serves to convey what is often lost til e tight for equality was not solely [ought by biack elites or enlightened whites but poor workshying class African-Americans a1SQ
played a leading role These groups although united in th eir cause did not un iformly a gree at every stage but could be divided by societal catshyegQries other than race
It is important to note that the Southern labour force were distincshytive in their anti-union tradition Even as organised labour became increasingly entrencbed in the North (following the National Labour Relashytions Act 1935) the South as Robert Zieger argues rem ained an anti-lashybour island Much of the historiogshyraphy stresses the traditionally Ilostile relationship between organised lashybour and African-Americans Meier
and Bracey assert that blacks were susp icious of wlions who typically discriminated against them Thus unionism was seen as the tool of white racist workers rather than the site of tenlpered racial Ultagonisms in the hce of a common adversary shyexploitative industries The American Federation of Labour (AFL) supportshyed craft unions that created raCially exd usive iobs often driving blacks from secured employment opportushynities in order to give them to unemshyployed whites A symptom of segreshygateJ society this was lot a qUEstion of education more a simple fUllction of the caste system in operation in the South that largely kept black labour unorgnnised yet was held as a necessishyty for business prosperity Any efforts towards unionisatioJ1 were usuall thwarted by employer intimidation police brutality or deep-rooted susshypicions of unions Moreover a cheap and ready supply of white and black vmrkerswn ited the power of strike action African Americans had been used as strike-breakers ill the heavy industries for decades
However the 19305 heralded the widening of labour organisation in part a response to post-World War I migration to northern industrial cities persistent inequalit ies within some of the New Deal programmes and the devastating financial impact of the Great Depression which was disproportionately felt by black workshyers Therefore it may be argued that the erosion of the distinctive union free character of Southern labour had begun
Attitudes towards labour organ ishysa60n shifted during the 1930s This may havc been a consequence of a more general swing to the left durshying the period as evidenced by the re-alignment of the black vote away from thc RepUblicans tovards the Democrat Party Mkhael Honey main tains that the late 1930s and early 1940$ promised huge change a consegum ce of war industrialisation and unionisation The founding of organisations such as the Congress of Industrial Organ isations (CIO) point
Lo increased co-open t-ion between Souther wh ite and black workers ruld an albeit temporary shift away from the attitudes of the segregation era
he CIO was born out of the hardshyships of the depression years and its inter-racial organising strategy crul be ccn as cridence ofa morc co-operashy
tive approach to labour organisat ion than is tradi tiol)ally given credit in the historiography Ihe CTO sought African -American recruits and fo shycussed its unionisiog efforts on secshytors with large black work forces such as steel and meatln their promotion of inter-racial un ionism such orshyganisatiom acted lts a bridge between the black community and white workers although this function was more successful in the North where African-Americans he1d a limited degree of political and economic power Bi-raciaJ unionism provided the philosophy of equal rights as well as the means to augment ~ocial conditions and alter the relationship between worker and boss a source of daily oppression in the lives of many black workers For African-Amerishycan labour this was a great step toshywards achieving social and economic equality
However no unionising organisashytion was free from tht constraints of racist social customs particularly in the SQuth where ero union leaders would rather capitulate to opposition tJ1an lose members and where white workers continuously strove to asshysert their superiority over their black colleagues In many ways the CI achieved their initial economic goals and succeeded by 1940 in persuadshying whites to join and work alongside African-Americans However they failed to farce white elites to accept black demands for an end to racial wage differences Nonetheless allishyances between black and white workshyers civil r ights groups and left-Wing New Dealers had been established benefitting the African-Anlerican struggle against economic discrimishynation
11le influence of the left was evident
15
in the leading unions thal were also committed to equality like the CIO as well as the United Packinghouse Workers of America who organised meatpackers in Chicago and Texas Whilst these unions engaged a lot of black workers as members they also had a significant communist pres shyence The impact of the Communist Party and its role in intluencing both inter-racial unionism and the civil rights movement is a contentious isshyue Their rhetoric and its evolution
from calls for a separate Black Reshypublic to talk of a more united-front is an area that provokes much conshytroversy Was it conceived in order to subvert labour organisations directly or to control them from behind the scenes Alternatively a cynical iew of the motivations behind Commushynist Part) involvement can be temshypered The Part) recognised the revshyolutionar y potential of industrial and agricultural workers and thereforc called for African- American sclfshydetermination as a strategy whereby white American acceptance of blacks right to self-government was the goal Thus white workers would be able to conquer their raci sm and a united working class would result
Traditional interpretations sugshygest that unionism was treated with
hostility by all blacks we must not be blind to tlle differences amongst the black community and the fact tbat they were far from a homogshyenous group hils the Communist Party becanle the rivals of the black elite arld middle-class organisations such as the NAACI~ the poor black working class were attracted to the ideology and the Party in incrcasing numbers throughout tlle depression and during the New Deal era degThey prOided the black working classes with an alternative vehicle for social protest Furthermore communism introduced many blacks to world politics enabling them to place their own struggle in a global context demonstrating the roots of poverty and ra05m
This educated the non -reading classes and gave them a sense of pride something many fel t was deshynied to them by tlle black eli tes of the
AACP whom it has been argued had unwisely assumed a pastoral poshysition as spokesperson for all blacks Moreover the Party challenged both white supremacy and the bourgeOiS politics of the black mjddle-class A Philip Randolph - considered a sooalist and largely hailed as the spokesman for black workers after his success with the Pullman porshy
ters of the 1920s and thc recogni tion of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters by tbe A FL in 1937 - attacked WE B Du Bois and the NAACP for neglecting the needs of the AfricanshyAmerican in favour of bourgeois inshyterests Fostering an atmosphere of debate and discussion communism helped to educate and empower the black working-classes For the black elites it was an unwelcome SQurce of agitation as communists began to enter into the realm of black bourshygeois politics Thus support for the Communist Party divided civil rights campaigners and highlighted undershylying class antagoni~m
The involvement of the commushynist-led ILD in the trial of the Scottsshyboro boys demonstrates the resentshyments and the growing frustrat ion with the NAACP and other black middle-class organisations Failure to secure Significant federal anti -lynchshying legislation ineffective in helping desperate blacks devastated by the depression and limited by thei r OWll political powerlessness ill the face of economic decline amongst tllCir own elite members the NAACPs imposhytence was made apparent during the 1931 Scottsboro boys trial In Alashybama nine black men aged thirteen to n ineteen were charged with the
rape of two while women travelling on the san1e train as them and were tried convicted and sentenced to death in three days WhcU1C~r or not the IlD simply offered their support and advice or they ID U$cled in with shrill bravado their involvement earned the Com mullist Party black support
They were portrayed as defenders of the race whilst wltites chose to view them as outsiders and defendshyers of rapists
Interpretations of communisms impact on the Qjl rights moveshyment during the 1930s var y II may be maintained tllat membership to the Party and adherence to commushynist ideology was limited ultim ateJy most blacks wanted to work within the American system and reap any benefits accrued hy the programmes of the New Deal Africall-Americaru were comm itted to these me3iur and Similarly to Presiden t Roosevelt fe-clec ting him for a th ird term in 1940 Thus communism was a marshyginal force that many blocks chose to
ignore as a vehid c for social protest However it is important to recognise
its significance in the Lives of many African-Americans who for the first time were organised in to tradeullions on relatively equal terms t() those of their whil-e co-workers and were able to understand their $truggle through the framework of a shared commushynist ideology Communists fo rmed the central pillar to trade un ion acshytivism and 0 0 inter-raciali sm This new socialism in the barber shop a broadened ID1d popular sense off self empowered many black vOrkers to fight against economic and social disshycrimination in a way that seemed to
speak more directly to them and their social s tanding than the rhetoric esshypoused by the black-bourgeoisie
Bibliograpby
Leslie H Fishel Jr The Negro and dle New Deal in Twentieth Ce1ltury America Recent Interpretations ed Bernstein and Matusow (1 972)
Robert H Zieger (eei) Orgal ised Labour in the TWeIIlielh Centw y Soulh (1991)
Robin DG Kelley Hammer and Hoe Alabama Conlllllmists During the Great Depression (l990)
16 Retrospect
OFfEN OVERSHADOWED by the tumultuous events that were to weep Europe in the late 19305 and
194Ds the Spanish Civil War (1936shy1939) remairu a pivotal moment in twentieth century European history TIle conflict divided families towns and polarised political opinion across the continent and beyond It resulted in an estimated 500000
deaths and witnessed the establishshyment of a Fascist dictatorship in Spain under General Franco which ould last for almost forty years
The conflict has been a fruitful jeC of historical scholarship and many explanations as to why the fragile democracy of the Second Reshypublic collapsed have been offered Did the RepublJcaJlS Lose because of a lack of fo reign support given to them but that the Nationalists were lucky to receive or was their defeat a result of the weakness of Republican mili tias oin the face of the discipline of the Spanish army
In order to ascertain which if eishy
ther of the aforementioned suggesshytions WdS most significan t it is imshyportant to examine the patchwork of ideologies that the Popular Front composed of the Marxlst POU1vl (Partido Obrero Unification Marxshyista) Socialist UGT (Union General de Trabajores) Communist PSU (PartitSocialiSta UnificalCatalwlya) and Anardllst CNT (Conf-ederacion
acional del Trabajo) Furthermore the effect of foreign intervention on relations within the National Front and upon the contlict asa whole must be taken into consideration
From the outset it would be fai r to suggest that the Republicans lacked the same opportunities as the Nashytionalists The material support offered by the Soviet Union WJS
ultimately to be a hindrance insofar as it catalysed factionalism within the National Front In the opposite camp Adolf Hitler was in reality not much more supportive of the Nationalists than foseph Stalin had been of the Republicans and it is likeshyly that he like Stalin merely wanted the war to continue as a distraction for the estern democracies Argushyably it was MUSSOWlis support that would be key to the Nationalist side He was adan1ant that the emergence of another Fascist state on the model of Italy could only be to his political advantage As it turns out Italy reshyceived relatively little in return from Franco after the war
Despite the fact that the Repuhlishycans were on the side of the legally elected government they were necr allowed to purchase arms from the major suppliers The United States was pursuing a policy of non-inshytervention after World War I and
Britain and France followed suit re1 uctant to upset the political stashybili) of Europe at the time It was decided that neither side would be given military aid under the NODshyIntervention Pact However this pact was then widely and blatantly flaunted by the dictatorships of Eu shyrope Italy Germany an d the Soviet Union The purchasing of foreign arms was poli tically charged as it was tantamount to subscription to the ideology of the dictatorship that was selling them TIle fact that only the Fascist dictatorships of Europe and the USSR were willing to so brashy
j zenly ignore the Non-Intervention pact was to have an enormous imshypact within the Spanish Left as will be later discussed
The aid of the Soviet Union was useful to the Republican cause insoshyfar that the weapons they provided were far superior to any the Republishycans already Pc)ssessed whilst Soviet aircraft were used for reconnaissance missions which were central to the militias military tactics However the weapons were not given to all parties within the Popular Front but were directed at only a handful Mostly they were given to the Socialists of the UCT and tlle Communists of the PSUC which stirred discontent amongst the other parties who were using old and inferior weaponry to that of their fellow comarades
The Civil War polarised Span isJ political discourse into those who were opposed to Francos regime and those who were not The Republican fOrces therefore contained many disparate political groups from moderate republicans to Anarchists Trotskyites and Stalinists Conseshyquently the Soviet aid exacerbated internal tensions within the Republishycan forces between the loosely assoshyciated left wing political groups The acceptance of Soviet weapons was a dangerous move as it allowed the access of agents of the Couummist Party of Soviet Russia into Spanish affairs someth ing that was to prove decisive in the outcome of the war
The Spanish Civil War was a conflict which could be referred to as a battle between reactionary forces of conshyservativism and progressive revolushytionaries Though many have claim ed that the Nationalists were fasc ists British Titer George Orwell who was fighting in Spain at the time along side the Republicans wrote of the Nationshyalists that their ideology was closer to that of feudalism The Nationalists were composed chiefly of members of the army members of the clergy and leaders of international business all united in their common distrust of the working classes Their victory in the war would certainly jeopardise the livshying conditions and dghts of working class people resulting in the deterIorashytion labour relations a Catholic crackshydown of secularism and the army would suppress any dissent
In contrast to the Nationalists clarshyity oJ goals the Republicans seemed to all be working towards different ends TIle objectives of moderate reshyforming socialists and the Anarchist
NT were very difficult to reconshycUe Furthermore the Soviet belief in a revol utionary vanguard instigatshying and leading the proletariat was at odds with populist movements such as Anarchism that took hold in Spain With such differences in polshyicy it is hard to envisage what could force these parties to work together for any length of time
Part of the problem with compreshyhending the Spanish Civil War comes from the spectrum of ideologies within the broad alliance of the Reshypublican forces The ideologies were further apart than could be counteshynanced and particularly so after the Conununist Party decided to impose itself upon the revolution that the Marxists and Anarchists were trying to fashion themselves in Barcelona In his book Hom age to Catalonia Orwell describes Barcelona Practically eveshyry building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists Every shop md cafe had an inscription saying it had been collectivised even the bootblacks had been collectivised md their boxes painted red and blacK The extent of the social change seems almost hyshyperbolic particularly when O rwell stresses that even the bootblacks were part of a trade union The Comshymunist Party however was to disrupt this workers paradise in May of j 937 with the attempted repossesshysion of a telephone exchange that was under Anarchist control 111is sparked a conflict that lasted several days and threatened the stability of the entire Republic General Franco who said he planned it after the Communists
ran newspaper stories blaming the Marxists for starting the fight used disunity in Barcelona to his own ends Being the largest party with the most well-developed press organisations the Communists managed to direct the aftermath of the situation and use it to discredit a competing party Disunity among the Republican side flourished as the AnarclUsts caught on to the Communist attempts to discredit the ]vIandst faction Though they were not persecuted to the same extent though their collectives were broken up to increase efficiency they realised thal they were fighting for
mebody who was n ot sympathetic of their ideology and who tney could not trust The Republican t~1Ctions
vigour started to deteriorate after the May Days riot of 1937
One might ask the question why did the Conununists try and reposshysess an Anarchist building It would be naive of them to assume they could take it vithout a fight unless they disregarded the fact that all Anarshychist doctrine of the em was against government coercion It bardly seems that there might be any great gains in taking one building even if it did allow Anarchists to eaesdrop on telephone conversations The sudden megaloshymania of the Communists seems to have sprung from advice given by the Communist Party of Soviet Russhysia The tactical value of the telephone exchange was not worth risking the integIity of the Republican coalishytiDn The PSUCs party line that At present nothing matters but vinning the war is especially telling
Arguably it was the fragile alliance of circumstance within the Republishycan movement exacerbated by Soviet Aid that only reached certain fuctions wbicb resulted in the collapse of the Spanish Republic Though the weapshyOIlS helped fOT a while they could not Sllstain an entire nation with the limishytations placed upon their deployment Anarchists did not trust the help of Soviet Russia and neither did they trust the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain or any of its regional counshyterparts Tnere were other culprits howeveJ in the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic
It would be wrong to suggest that disWlity on the part of the Republi shycans was all that preven ted them from victor)l The wider European context of the conflict was also fundamenshytal in the collapse of the Republican Movement Gen11any and Russia nevshyer gave sufficient help to either side to let it decisivel) win at any pace but it appears that both used the war to their own advantage Germany tested out their bombers on Spanish tovms such as Guernica and the Soviet Union
17
used the war as a distraction while it increased its level of militarization
In conclusion then the conmct polarised Spanish political discourse around the two totalitarim cxtrerrtishyties of Fascism and Stalinism This resulted in an internally divided and factionalised Republicm force which struggled to retain its integrity in the fuce ofa destructive internal feud The feud was sparked b) the actions of an externalgovernment hence it ccruld be argued that the collapse of tbe second republic was was more to do vith the international context of the conflict as it provided both the ex1rem e ideolohY and the cause of fTiction vithin the Republican movement
BibUography
Qmell George Orwell hi Spain (Penshyguin London2001)
Thomas Hugh The Spanish Civil War 4th edition (Pellguin London 2003)
Beevor Anthony The Battlefor SpainThe Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (WampN London 2006)
Taylor AJP The OrigirtS of the Second World War (Penguin London 1991)
18 Retrospect
Sh may be the Reason Frances Rromagc explores the often overlooked contribution of female scientists during the Enlightenment
FOR MANY centuries befo re the seventeenth Aristotles concepshytion of the bod y and the mind as insepa rable matte r domin ated Western thinking It was used to justify the subjugation of wom en and their subsequent excl us ion from so -called masculine activi shyties
Anatomical differen ces and hormonal systems provi ded new rationales for keeping women below men in the intellectual hishyerarchy Chauvinism expressed it self in every walk of life from religi on and education to science and medicine Even the common shyest of medical symptoms such as nerVOllsness irritability and loss of appetite for foo d or sex were generally diagnosed in women as the result of female Hysteria - a problem deriving from the hysshytna or uterus Science which explored the worl d outside the domestic sphere remai ned an ex shyclusively masculine discipline up until the eighteenth cent ury
Then came th e Enlightenment Enlightenment philosophers were infl uenced by Descartes theori es on critical thinking and Lock es empir icism and as a conseshyqu ence adopted a new approach to learn ing one which promoted free in te ll ectual inquiry and reshyjecled the influence of the state an d religion Despite the moveshyments vast scope few topics were as vigorously discussed as the subject of female education T he changing conception of the mind as no longer constrained by physical attributes opened a new conception of the mind as a sex shyless entity Therefore wom ens education became the subject of m uch debate in polite society spurring contribut ions from feshymale and male thinkers on both sides of the discu ss ion Womens access to scientific knowlcdge proved particularly controversial as it cha llenged a long-established perception of womens role as lim shyited to the domain of domestic ity
owhere has thi ~ challenge been so eloquently pu t as in words of British poet Elizabeth Toilet in her 1724 her poem Hypatia What cruel Laws depress the female KindTo humble Ca res and servile Ta sks confild That haughty Mall IIllriFald and alone May boast the world or Science all his owwl As barbarous Tyrants to secure their Sway Conclude that ignorallce will best obey
Whilst men may have been harbarous tyrants and attempted to clamp down on womens parshyticipation in scientific disciplines lu ckily th ey were not entirely suc shycessful in doing so History proshyvides LI S with a few precious exshyamples l1f women who refused to bow to blind ignorance and tbus su cceeded in rising above amashyteur status to become serious conshytributors to the field of scient ific knowledge
Of these the only one about whom much contemporary inshyformati o n as well as a substanshytial body of original writings has survived is Emilie Marquise du Chatelet She is most famous for having been Voltaires mistress but in fa ct this does great injusshytice not only to he r independent character but also to her intellecshytual brilliance and considerable sc ientific contribution hilst she remain ed all bu t inv isible to histo rical aCCo wlts before her asshysociation with Voltaire in 1733 during tJ1e next fifteen years of her life she proved herself a worshythy match to the brilliant French philosopher Living mainly in Pa rh or in her country estate at Cirey to where she retreated with Voltaire she wrote and published a book on the metaphysics of natshyural science (institutions de physhysique) an essay on the nature of fire and neat (pisserta tion sur la nature ct propagation du feu) and two short pieces on the problem of melsu ri ng physical force She also co- authored anonymously Voltaires popularisation of Newshytoni an physic s for which she was resp onsi bl e for most of th e mathshyematical calculations an d to top her numerous achievements in 1748 she produced a translation of Newtons PrincipiI mathemati shyca with a commentary which was published posth Wll ously and is sti l1 used as the standard translashy
tion of h is work in France today In 1835 th e Royal Astro nomical
Society in London made a breakshythrough by awarding honorar y m~mbership to a woman Caroshylin e Herschel She became famous for her discove ry o f ncw nebu lae in 1783 (Androme da and Cetus) and for bei ng the fi rst woman to di scover a comet In hOnOltr of Herschel the SOCiety made what was perhaps the fi rst sta temen t on equal opportuuities in science While tests of astronomi cal merit sho uld in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to th ose of a man the sex of the former shou ld no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acshyknowledgement wh ich might be hel d due to the latter But whi lst modem biographers have used these numerous firsts to turn Caroline Herschel in to a female icon of sci ence it is importan t to note that she wa~ rewarded not for her own discoveries but beshycause she recorded compi led and recalc ulated th ose of her brother vVilliam Herschel
The very natu re of he r brothers research concen trated on collectshying and classif)Ti ng large numb ers of stars and in th is Ca rolines cataloguing skills were of ceotral importanc e Lacking her pati en ce and meticul ous att ention to deshytall he became heavily reliant on her sci enti fi c inpu t Therefo re her im portance in her brothers research was far greater than most of their contemporaries realised yet she never theless allowed her efforts to further his reputation
Finally th e faScinating case of Laura Bassi (1711-177S) shows how some rare women were able to forge thems elves a career in scientific fields during the En shylightenm ent Bassi was gifted with a capacity for learning consi d shyered so extraordillar y in a wom an that it just ified a concession for a
university degree in philosophy Thereafter she was awarded an entrance to Bolognas lstituto delle Scicnze later to be admitted as an honorary member of the college and fl naUy assigned the position of lecturer in physics at the presshytigious Universi ta eli Bologna the first of its kin d in Europe Scholshyar~ from aU over Eu rope would attend Bassis lectu res on Newtoshynian physics and sJle became the envy oflearned women across the contin ent
These scientific women came fre)m upper or middle cla ss backshygrounds and whilst th eir ach ieveshyments were not replicated to the same extent by women in the lowshyer echelons of society a degree of sci entific and pract ical k novledge never theless took hold Daughters of clergymen particularly in the dissenters tnldition and certain widows who were made to tak e up their husbands trade after th ei r death became learned women and hi ghly ski lled T he famous case of lIlada me Cliquot who in 1805 took over her husbands company after h is death is a ch arming exshyample Hi s enterprise whi ch had
een variously involved in bankshying wool trading and Champagne producing th ri ved under her di shyrec tion and eventu ally became the brand La Vcuve C liquol She is directly accred ited will) a great breakthro ugh in champagne han shydling that made mass produc tion of th e wine possible an d estabshylished the producers reputation of excellence which continues to the present day
T hese examples demonstrate that women were capable of takshying part in scientific debates and developments but it should be stressed that their contr ibution was li mited Womens access to sci entific knowledge was dependshyent on wealth class and cru cially on an association with men who would encourage scientific en shydeavours This last condition is all the more important when one considers the institutionshyalised chauvinism that women continued to experience during the eighteenth century Throughshyout Europe with the exception of
orthern Italy un i7ersi ties and scientific academi es such as the Roya l In stitution in London were closed to women
19
Furthermore whilst the enliglltshyenmenl undeniably brought an improvement to the female conshydition entrenched conservatism in contemporary attitudes even amongst enlightened th inkers such as Rou sseau meant that feshymale scientists were not only ex shy
tremely rare but also str uggled to be accepted in m al e- d ominated
circles T llere was a general lack or even absence of formal rec()gshynit ion of womens involvement in scientific publications For ex shyample Marie Lavoisier th e gifted wife of Fren ch chemist Antoine
Lavois ie r in now recog-ni sed as having carried out many calculashytions and observations in her husshyband s Elements of Chemistry The original m an uscript of h is work contai ns evid ence of her notes and comments yet the printed version fail s to ackn owledge her contribution entirely Even in be tter-documented cases such as that of Lavois ier it very difficult fo r the modern -day h isto rian to pin -point the individu al accomshypli shments female scientists in coll aborative works
However one can argue quite
confidently the instrumental rol e that women p layed in th e disshysem in ation and subsequent adshy
van cement o f sci ent ific ideas T hey were g rea t m ediators often translating simplifying and illusshytrat ing com plex scienti fic works Their versions of these texts were
generally aimed at a female read shyership a n otable exam ple bein g EmiJie d u Chatelet s translation of Francesco Algarottis Ne wtonishy(Ism for Ladies (1737) These were often read in wid er circles as they were clear illustrated and easier to understand T his helped the sp read of scientific id eas the im shy
plied message being that if science was s imple enough for a woman to unders tand than anyone could understand it Furthermore women facilitated the populari sashytion of science by hosting disc usshy
~ions in salons or holding p rivate exhibitions in their homes where gues ts cou ld appreciate and marshyvel at discoveries such the Leyden jar and static electrici ty These so shycial gatherings were particularly important when one considers science and the En lightenment as a wider social phenomenon
as opposed to a string of isolated discove ries mad e by individual mal e scientists
There is a tragiC element un shyderlying this whole s to ry Recent studies led by historian s such as Patr ic ia Fara have attempted to give a clearer and fairer in terp re shytation of womens contribution to science d uring thi s per iod
However history has b ee n unfair and insensi tive in its representashytion of female scientists Consid shyer ing the wealth of literature on Science and Enlightenment it is quite re markable tha t so little nas b een written about the women who took part Givmiddoten th e sparseshyness of original sources and the strong m ale bias wit h which most existing d ocumentation is writshyten it is very difficult impossible
perhaps to accu rately assess the Signifi cance o f womens contribushytion to the scientific fi eld
Feminists have often rewritshyten the story of these women to underline independen t achieve shyments and contributions mad e in a bid to break down prejudic es again st their sex But when does a shift of emphasis become an exagshy
geration a disto rt iongt Scientific
women have been concealed for so long that it is very tempting to tum them into unsung heroines It would be unju st to retell these wom ens stories in a way which
forces them to conform to the ideal s of m odern day fem inists Alte rna tivey we mll st appreciate their contr ibutions on their own meri t
Bibliograpby
Fara Patricia Pandoras Breeches Women Science amp Power in the Enlightenm ent (Great Britain Pimlico 2004)
Gardiner Linda Wo men ill Scishyetlce From French Women al7d
the Age of El7ligiztenmellt ed S Spencer (USA Indi ana University Press 1984 )
Bragg Melvyn P Fara K O Brian amp j Hawley In Our Time Wo men alld Science ill the E11 ligi7tenll7ellt LondOl (BBC Radio 4 4th vemb er 2010)
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
=shy
4 Retrospect
ociet Come rain or shine EYer Pd-~ shows the History Society have an action packed semester in any weather WHAT HAVE the history society been up to tllis semester A better question might be what havent we been up LO gtew welcomed many new members and celebrated th e new academic year pmperly ith lots of events Our s tall at the Fresher Fair was very popular A highlight from Freshers Week was our Meadows Picnic which had to be relocated to the Loft Bar at Tciot due to the un e-cpected nun it was the only day in flre~hcrs Week that it rained but we soldiered on an d enioyed the winning combination of pints and fairy cakes
cve also wnved goodbye to the rabbi warren that was the Villiam
Robertson Building Hopefully well bave got ou r bearings by the time Lhe next issue comes out Well miss walkshying down tlle wrong set of stairs and having no idea where youve ended up as well as being either freezing or boiling depending on what level yu ure on but we re sure we wont be
crying for too much longer You may hwe heard that the history
society posed for the annual READ Calendar along with many other societie~s including the girls hockey
team and the gang from Fresll Air The charity who produce a naked cllendar each year raise money for the ren ovation of libraries in Uganda and Tanzania and to send thousands of book~ each year to these countries We were nervous but privileged to
take part Ve d iscussed the calendar in many
many committee meetings but the day finally dawned and the nerves set in Luckily for all of us the studio was suitably warm for nudity in October and we survived In order to truly repshy
resent the History Society our props were suitably themed with a vintage telephone and typewriter along with the American Com titlltion and varishyous swords all used in the hope of
protecting our modesty Then came th e official unveiling of
tbe calendar We steeled ourselves for the launch - aided by some necessary
Dutch courage The night went really
well at TIle Hive with hrilliant raffle
prizes and a computer screen projectshying our photos throughout the nighL Get in contact with READ aDd purshychase a calendar soon - apparently they are likely to sell out although our modesty depends on refuting this
Weve also been keeping up our links witll H ili toric Scotland and takshy
ing members to both Edinburgh Casshytle and Lilllitllgow Palace Both sites were amazing but very different and gave us a great inSight into Scottish hi$tory
We enjoyed the sunshine at Edinshyburgh Castle and urrived just in time to hear the one oelock gun go off alshythough we werent entirely prepared for it and people did scream in fear but I wont incriminate certain comshymittee mem bers After we got over the shock of the canon we enjoyed looking at tlle Scottish Crown Jewe1~
and then headed down to the castle dungeons to leaf about the prisonshyers of war
Our trip to Linlithgow Palace was
another case entirely as we battled against rain and wind but were not
defeated We gOI the Unlithgow train and found Oill wa) to the Palace al shy
though possibly not by the quickest route Linlithgow gave us an insight into the fourteenth century and we
came to the conclusion that they should consider lighting the old fire shyplaces in order to warm the visitors up The weather cleared so that we were able to take a stroll around tllt
loch and cnjoy being out of the City for a few hours
ext semester weve got trips planned to Slid ing Castle and hopeshy
fully a day trip to St Andrews Watch tbis space
It ha~ been something of a busy semester where the social calendar
was concerned O ur pub scrawl was a great success with various history reshylated puns and slogans being written all over people Favourites included I like to party like its 1776 (Amtllcan revolution reference there if youre wondering) We made it to four bars
starting at Teviot and ending the n ight dancing at 1he Hive
We represented the History Society at the Society and Sporf~ Fundraiser which was a great fun for all who went Sadly we lost out on the main
prize to various sports teams but EUSA did givc us a pound tor every person we got through the door Last
year we donned togas wrule this year we plumped fu r the beard Everyone embraced the theme by varying deshy
grees some opting fur the handlebar moustache while the more outrashygeous of us went with full bushy Capshytain Birdseye beard
NeA1 issue well be able to give you a full update on the Annual Christmas History Ball which is being held at TIle Caves and is likely to be a huge success and a fabulous night will be had by all Until then keep a look out on our facebook page and various messages from the department about our upcoming events
5
10
t1lW~ 1 H- CPl ~~d f1 ~_l
ll _ - )_ ~ -- ----
AS WRlTERS of h istory th e Retroshyspect team are used to commenting
on the successes o f o thers History is littered with winners of great acshy
claim awa rds and achievem ents
many of whi ch we have read ily
observed app reciated and wriI ten
about with interest n lis M ay Retshyrospect offi cially m ad e it s o wn hisshy
tory as it was named Best Magashyzine in The Herald Stude nt P re
Awards 2010
The awards ceremon) which
took pl ace in Glasgows C entre fo r
Contemporary Art s s aw a celebrashytion of Scotlan ds finest stud ent
jo urnalism amongs t w h ich RetJOshy
spect was p roud to be COlUlted The
ni ght was a n acknowledgme nt of
young talent across seveml fields
of journalism from Best Sports Writer to Best Publi cation Speakshy
ing to The Herald Dr G ill Stewart
SQAs D irector of Qualifications
sa id these awards really s howcase
the great talent of student journalshy
ists in ScotIan d
W ith free-flowing bar and plenty
of complimenta ry canapes the atshy
mosphere was jovial and everyone was very suppo rtive of each others
work Ind eed the standard was
high as Scotlands best and brightshy
est celebrated the ir ta le nts in a n ight
honourmg the grea t and ever growshy
ing presence of stud ent media
Our editorial team we re present
to receive the ir awardand were im shy
pressed by the level of professionshyalism of the other candidates and
the creative talent on display In the
category of Best M agazine Retroshyspect faced great competi t ion with
excelle nt entries from Glasgow
Un ivers irys m agazines GUM and Qmlm ica te Th e judges acknowlshy
edged tbat the standa rd was high
and th at it h ad been a great year for
m agazine publications in Scottish nivers it ies
Retrospect s triumph at tbe cershy
emony reflected a ris ing public interest in academic Journals Acshy
k nowledged by the judges as havshying I1lare se rio us content t-han its
competitors Retrospects ach ieveshy
men t can be viewed as part of t he
growing trend towards greater pubshylic interest in the academic genre
Misa Klim es then editor in chief
was p resen ted vith a weeks internshy
lkt i I -f (_l
tillli) 11 jgt - - t j
~~~~~~ Iltl-llmiddotl 1 I
1 11 - - bull 1 ) I - bull 1-11 I ~Il 1lt 11
ih ip at The Herald o ffices and se shy
lect m em bers o f Retrospects ed itoshy
rial staff we re prese nt to accept the
lward at th e ce rem on y Also p resent
wen Edin burgh based newspape r~
TIle Jou rna l an d The Student both receiving accolades o n the n ig ht
Retrospects success at Th e H ershy
ald Awards is a g reat accomplishshy
ment for the magazine for budding
jou rna li sts and for Lh ose wri ters at
The Un iversiti of Ed in bu rgh with a p articular interest in histo ry We
hope that th is will encourage future
writers to join the team and lead us
to greater future success
YOllre History Captain j 1111 i _ rllI j rallies the troops behind the Football Teams tough season
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6
WHAT BEITER combination than free food and a film at Frankensteins The University ofEdinburghs History Society held its first film night of the year on October 6th and was pleased to welcome plenty of new tiaces
We had all gathered hu ddled into the basement of Frankensteins and out of sight from the hideous weather The nights screening was to be Frost NIXon a popular choice with first and second time viewers alike But before the film began members refuelled on a selection of free dishes with burgshyers and chips being the finn favourshyite Thanks to the Frankenstein cards there were plenty of enticing drink deals to be had and the society settled down comfortably on the lower floor in preparation for the movie
FrostNixon directed in 2008 by Ron Howard is an account of the legendary interviews conducted by David Frost talk show host with the former US President Richard Nixon Initially Frosts determination to stage these interviews and to extract a confession from Nixon regarding his role in the in taolOus vVatergate scanshydal seems ridiculous His big gamshyble costing him thousands of dollars appears to be litrle more than a chalshylenge to satisfy his ego However by the end of the fllm it is clear that he
Retrospect
moment Michael Sheens impersonshyation of Frost as a smooth care-free and daring television presenter conshytrasts ri th Oscar nominated Frank Langel1as portrayal of an ageing alshymost tragic Nixon who is presented as riddled by suspiciolL The result is an entertaining and thought-provokshying dranla about the power of televishysion over politics
This succcssful film night was a reshylaxed evening enjoyed by many from all years and will be repeated in the near futu re
Alice Pease recounts a night of film screenings and free food with society members
7
History in the News
IgtOCUMJNP) DErAlIJNG the 0shy
perinces of Channel ]sland residents who chose to resisit Nazi occupashytion during the second Wod War have been re-discovered Thrown into suitcases and stowed in the back of a wardrobe these papers are considered to be the m ost imshyportant archive material to be unshyearthed concerning the occupation
The islands were occupied by azi forces between 1940 and 1945
and with one German guard to eveshyry three residents massive resistance was difficult Despite the improbable success of such act ion lhese hidshyden documents reveaJ the unusually silent and often symbolic nature of the resistance that islanders particishypated in
Compiled by a resident Frank Falla these documents tell of the harrowing experinces many inhabitshyants faced Some were forced to listen to fellow prisoners being decapitated by guillotine in German prisons
Falla himself liS deported after organ ising a clandestine newspaper designed to deliver updates about the war once radios were con fisshycated in 1942 Irate by the lack of recogn i lion that resistors received after the war Falla compiled the papers after the Br itish government received compensation from Gershymany in the 19605 Testimonies of the suffering endwcd by resideJ1ts have led to calls for a memorial ded shyicated to those who strove to resist occupation These docum ents also provide eveidence contrary to trashyditional interpretations that suggest islanders corroborated too easily Catherine Me Gloin
AN ANaENr Roman village has been unearthed in the parkland of a stately home in West Lonshydon in the unlikely surroundshyings of modem -day suburbia
Archaeologists excavating on the outskirts of the histor ic Syon Parle Estate discovered a stretch of Roman road and the foundations of some dwellings Alongside the remains of the road were over 11 5DO pottery fragments a large number of coins a Bronze Age gold bracelet and a lava stone quem
The road that was uncovered is beHeved to have been one of the most important linking Londinium with SildlCster It is reckoned that the vilshylage supplied the metropolis as well as existing as a a resting place for travelshylers giving insight into the way that the city interacted with and was conshynected to the country at large
1he Museum of London Archaeshyology an thrilled at the d iscoveries and believe that there is much to be learned about the daily lives of those livingjust outside Roman Londiniwn WiIl EUis
HISfORIAN KFIIH Jeffrey has been granted unprecedented access into the previously classified ilkS of the Secret Intelligence Service more commonly known as Ml6 It is the first and only official history of the shadowy goverruneJJt agency the very existence of which was not fo rmally acknowledged until 1994
Owing to the high ly sensitive nature of some of the documentashytion Jeffreys history only covers a forty-year period of the agencys background from its initial foundshying as the Secret Servi ce Bureau in 1909 until 1949 The lucky historishyan recently described the archives to which he had access as a cornucoshypia an extraordinary Aladdins cave of h istorical mater ials~
His book reveals often overlooked episodes in the history of British esshypionage such as the thwarting of an attempted Communist revolution in Brazil in 1935 and the controversial Operation Embarrass documenting both the successes and the failures of British intelligence throughout the first half of the twentieth century Gregor Donaldson
8 Retrospect
No stopping E~ burgh bullthe presses mYers ress
Rebecca auk presses Timothy Wright for some history on Edinburgh University Press
FOR STUDENTS and schola rs aJ ike Edinburgh University Press j widel ) regarded as one of the best academ ic publishing offices in th e ountry Having been publishing
and publicising high quali ty acashydemic books for almost fif1) years the Press is celebrating its successes both internationally and at home In the midst (I f this great ~ucccss Chief Executive Timothy Wrigb t taJks t
Retr(lspect about the h istory of the press and what the future holds
Edinburgh Univers ity Press founded over fi fty years ago is a wholly owned subSidiary of the University of Edinbu rgh 1hough the conpan)s main business is the publishing of textbooks and supshyplementary textbooks the roles that the Press plays range across d iffe rent academic areas The pubshylish ing of textbooks senes an edu shycat ional role the p ublica tion of scholarly works and monograph serves to help the advancemen t of knowledge wh ilst the pub]jcalion of works of re fe rence support both
holarly and educational util ity The compmy also boaSL~ a portfolJ or over thirty jou rnals
The Presss chosen fiel ds of pubshylish ing are American Studies Classhyics Film Studies M edia amp Cultural tudies History Islam ic Studies
Language and Linguistics La Litshyerary Stu dj es PhUosophy Politics and Scottish History The Press is well eqlllpped to serve the hu manshyties departmen ts publishing on an xtensive range of subjects and topshy
ics The Presss publishing is recogshy
nised as being of the highest qual shyity It is amonitortd by th e Un ivershy
sitys Press Committee which has to approve a ll titles proposed for publication The sale of its publicashytions is increasingly intern at ional enhancing the Universi tys global image and reflecting well on Scotshyland itsel f In the year ended 31 July 2009 over 50 of the presss revshyenues were outside the UK markshying a Significant profit outside of the University itself
J i I I I ) i I ~
I lit l lll I I I I 1
t
~ ~ j ~ 111shy
L ~ I I gt
i I
upporting its internation al CO ll shy
nections is the Presss close rella shytionship with other acacemic pubshylishersThe press has a nehvork of dis tr ibutors world wide includiJlg pa rtn erships with the University of
ew South Vales in Sydney and most importantly a longstanding relationship with Columbia Uni shyversity Press in the Unitcd States of
merica TIle maiJl objectives of the p ress
are fourfold Firstly it contrlbutes significantly to knowledge tTansfer and the dissemination of the resu lts f scholarly researcht also contribshy
utes Significantly to the education of uni1ersity students and others By Lllaintaining its position as the leading university press in Scotland it contributes to the dissemination of scholarly work in Scottish his shytory md other Scottish subjects and on contemporary Scottish issues Lastl y the presitige of the conpan) nhances the univerSitys reputashy
tion internationally through the acknowledged high quality of its publishing
The key objectiVes se t by the Trusshytees for the year were to increase th e to tal income of the Press through contill uing to publi sh high quality
books and subsequ ently increase the gross and net marg ins These overall objectives are supported by a nUJ11ber of detailed targets which are monitored by the Trustees on a regular basis
In its fifty ycar history Edinburgb Un iversity Press has achieved great
thi ngs From high prestige to high saJes repor ts the intern ationaJ sucshycess that tb e press is now enj oying was only to be expected Its great prestige is an honour for the comshypany and the University alike as the Press was undoubtedly made for success
9
eat Odessa in the middle Varvara Bashkirova reminds us of the personal consequences of history CATHERINE THE Great fou nded the city of Odessa in 1794 when she decided that a port on the Black Sea wouId be a wise in vestshyment She invited architects from all over the world and it resuIted in a beautiful southern citywith an extremely diverse populati on and culture- albeit mostly Russian As a new centre of culture and trade it soon became the fourth largest city in the Russian Empire
I was born here hut nowadays I cannot go to the cinema to watch a film in Russian nor can I listen to the radio in Russ ian and most cershytainly I wouId not be able to study in Russian How did this happen During my fath ers childhood he heard only Russian or Yiddish sposhyken on tbe streets He never spok Ukra inian I only learned it in school There were some Ukrainshyian programmes on television but they were not my favourites so living in the south of the country my contact with the language was lim ited to three hours a week
I rem ember the day a woman came to our school with a lecture about how great Ukraine is In itialshyly we did not pay her much attenshytion but as ber lecture grew more ridiculous my classmates could not help laughing She argued that Ukrainian is m OTe beautifu l than Russian-I still do not know how she measured tb at Wbat we loved the most was her earnest claim that Jesus was Ukrainian It was proved by the studies of a historian who clai med that Buddha was Ukrain shyian too It was the year we stopped learning Russian literature Gogol and Pushkin both of whom created some of their best works in Odessa were now considered to be foreign writers The best part was that we still studied them in our foreign litshyerature course but in translation whicb was much harder to undershystand than the original Russian
After that everythi ng changed quickly Our history teacher was forced to teach in Ukrainian under
th e threat of being fireQ She did n ot speak it having lived all her li fe in Odessa Before education was mostly in Uhtainian anyway but once it was forced we hated it
What happened to the cinemas was even more ridiculous By forcing the Russian population to speak Ukrainian the government made dozens of cinemas bankrupt As Vestern films had never been translated in to Ukrainian before it suddenly came to light that man modern words Simply didnt exshyist in Ukrainian But this did not stopthe patriots-they started inshyventing words It was so contrived that we went to the cinema once and ended up laugh ing all the way through
Additionally in science and techshynology Uk rainian is quite behind 111at is why l11y fr iend who is studshyying programming in Ukraine is always complaining- when writshying essays the words he needs to use simply do not exist t hey can not be found in any of the dictionshyaries
Southeast Ukraine with its proshyRussian attitude contrasts to the western part of th e country 20 per cent of the population in Lvov a western city have a negative opinion of Russia This is a result of history From 1919-1936 westshyern Ukraine was a part of Poland whilst the southeastern was part of Russia Western Ukraine more agricultural and rural than the east is where Ukrainian traditions and language have been strongly mainshytained Many of the southeastern cit ies on the contrary were and always have been Russian Crishy
mea is an obvious example haVing existed as a Russian territory si nce 1794 On 19 February 1954 it was transferred from the Soviet Unshyion to Ukraine as a gi ft I would imagine it was quite a surprise for the local population to move to a different cou ntry without realisshying Ukrainisation was much mor tangible there as 90 per cent of the Crimean populalion was Russian For iJ1stance they were not capashyble of watching Ukrainian films as they didnt kn ow the language In other words western Ukraine feels strong antipathy to the pro-Russian East for bei ng unpatriotic whilst eastern Ukraine feels the same to the anti-Russian West for imposing on them an alien language Most Easterners admit the necessi ty of knowing and do know Ukrainian However they also argue that they should be allowed to choose beshytween the languages
Such a sharpened situation can be partly explained by the constant changes in the government After the 2004 Orange Revolution remiddot lations with Russia significantly worsened thus reviving the bisshytorical confl ic t 111ere were fights on the streets and on the in terneL Friendships broke down over the issue This resonated deeply fo r Ukrain isation which had affected
so many in the east of Ukraine ow that the government has
changed to diametrically opposite sides by strengtl1ening relations with Russia it seems like people can not keep up to date with the number of ideological shifts that they are supposed to accept every four year~ The contlict rontinues to deepen as the government conshytinuously changes its stance havshying only balf of the nations support each time
I still visi t Odessa at least once a yea r Walking along tbe streets I can sense the tension between the t raditional and the in1posed It is felt in quotid ian things such as street Signs TIle em blem has cbanged but tbe beart of the cit) is still the same The city is its people who keep the culture of their anmiddot cestors I know it when I see flowshyers laid in front of the memorial to the Russian poet Alexander Pushshykin on his birthday They say To Pushki ll from the grateful citizens of Odessa as it was constructed in 1889 solely from citizens doshynations I know that Odessa like other southern ci ties can never bemiddot come truly Ukrainian as it retai ns too much of the historical and culshytural heritage it has received from Russia
Retrospect10
th b
THE 1707 Acts of Union have always been sources of great debate and the topics popularity is still present as the dlree hundred year old act continu to have repercussions today AltJlough the union of Scotland and England may seem inevitable wiLh hindsight Lhe lrum is Lhat it was an exLrnordi shynary alJiance Simon Schama could not have been more correct when he described it as one of the most astonshyishing trnnsformat ions in Ew-optan histori
cotland and England possess rich intertwining pasts Competition be it in commerce politics or warfare stemmed from the Mo nations cul shytural differences What could possibl)t give these two separate and tradishytionaUy competing naUons common ground upon which to unify There were three major fac tors involved religion external threats and circulllshylance
The 15005 saw sweeping change throughout Europe as the Reformashytion gained momentum creating an upsurge of turmoil thar would take well over a century to abate By the Uruon of the Crowns in 1603 both Scotland and England were largely Protstant countries though disashygreement over doctrine was fierce The Bishops Van of 1639 and 1640 are merely examples of th~ c()nflict that occurred anlongst Lhe various denominations Lhat considered themshyselves true Proteltants
OtherneSS as explorcd by Linda Colley gives us an inkling into Lhe
nattlrc of the second major factor behind unification Shc states that otllerness was defined as lin aversion to militant Catholicism or a hostile
ontinental European system or at its most basic level external threats
ilh Lhe common ground of religion and a shared monarchy Scotland and England were similar enough by 1707 to tee jOiJldy threatened by foreign powers Traditionally these other were Roman Catholics and seen as the natural enemy l1ljS however is a rather skewed view to take For examshyple tlle League ofAugsburg of which both Scotland and England were a ke part of in 1689 included the staunchly
tholic nations of Austria Portugal and the Holy Roman Empire yet the nations of Britain certainly profited from beiJlg a part of this aliiance
Resistance to foreign threats real or percehmiddoted also fostered idea~ of unitt amongst one very influential faction of society the military Scottish and English Regiments fought side b) side throughout the Low Couotries A1sace and the RhineJand in both the Nine Yeurs War and the War of the Span ish Succession not only earning respect for aile another but laying me founshydatioJlS of a British army years before tlle Union ac tua lly took place Whilst tlle Acts of Union officialI) merged Lhe Scottish and English arnlies they had actuaUy been fighting together [or decades Success of the twin nashytions when allied militarily would doubtless have smootJled tlle road to union especially when tlloughts
of Empire canle to the forefront Full political union can perhaps be seen a the next logical step yct circumstance would first need to take a hand in promiddot ceedings
It did so in the late 1690s Ihe Darshyien Scheme an attempt by Scotland to break into the world market by establishing a small trading colony 0 11
the Isthmus of Panama went hOrribly wrong The nation was left teetering on the brink of bankruptcy Memshybers of the Scots nobility were forced to petition the English Parliament in Westminster for finan cial aid and me whole debacle caused many of the ruling elite to believe that Scotland could never la) imperial foundations without aid [rom its (lId rival Even by tlle early 1700s Scotlands economy was shOWing little signs of recovering from the savage blow wiLh tvtichael Fry pointing out that in 1704 the nashytiOD remaincd backward and with no financial markets of its own
The deaLh of Scotlands global ambishytions and the severe damage dealt to its economy can UJcrefore be cited as among the primary short-term reashysons for the Un ion of 1707 VVilliam Fergusons 1964 paper unearthed tbe grave extent to which bribes had been accepted by Scottish noblemen in orshyder to help push tlle Union through Parliament It is undcniable tllat for some expediency took the place of pride
t Lhe same time it would be a misshytake to believe that only Lhe Scots noshybles were responsible for selling their
country for English gold as Burns would have US believe Christopher A vVhatleys Scots rlrld the Unioll arshygues that this point does not stand up to close scrutiny nor does the argushyment that Scots bargained away their Parliament for free trade The bouts of insurrection throughout Scotland which fi) lImved in the inlmcdiate wake oflhe Union including the infamous exccutions of two English sailors 0 11
trumped up charges of pm cy would have been conSiderably more grievous had there truly been no support fix the move amongst the lower d Many of tlle more fa mous first-hand accounts such as those of Daniel Deshyfoe state d early that the vast majority of the nation was against the idea of Union Yet Whatleys detailed study of numerous smaller primary accounts shows surprising apathy amongst many commentators that proves true or at least militant anti- Un ionist senshytiment was not in the dear majority in Scotland at the time of the Union
The Acts of 1707 therefore can surely be remembered as amongst tile most unusual Union~ to have taken place in European history Scotland and EnghUld though they had many similarities were stiUlargely au tonoshymous nations before May 1707 It took a century of religious and poshylitical upheaval numerous external mreats and misfortune on a national scale to not only pave tlle wa) but acshytually bring about the Union It was a omplex rich and fascinating event
which provides us witll one of the
~
11
RAT HER LI KE th l m arri age of the owl and the pussycat the civil part shynership between Scotlan d and Engshyland seemed an unlikely union at the bme of its inau guration 1n 1707 Lord Bel havells remark - Theres ane end to an c auJd sang - seems to capture the sense of loss o cca shysioned by the termil1ltion of Scotshyti sh indep endence How d id someshything SO unpopular at birth survive for so long The slow evolution of tl11 Union deserves some attention
The Un ited Ki ngdom of 170 7 was augmented in ]SO ] wi th the ad shydition of the island oj Irehu1d In 1922 after over a century of unshyhappy relations Ireland was part ishytioned and only six of th e thi rtyshytwo counties remained as par t of a r(branded Uni ted Kingd om of Great Britain and Northern Ireshyland In its various incarnations the Un ion is now an auld sang and its melo dy may be more dHncult to forget than is ofte11 assumed
If Scotlan d is no t qUite an addishytionaJ county of England there are more similarities and links than Jllany are prepared to contemplate There has been a massive moveshyment of people in both directions
between Scotland and England The English in Scotland and the Scots in Englan d have integrated m ore seamlessly than aDY other min ori ty in either host society There ha ve been outbu rsts of S(Oshytophobia but the) have not proved to be a central fea ture of the Anshyglo-Scotti sh relati onship and the same can be said for Anglophoshybia Scotland bems a greater deshygree of Similarity to England than any ot her comparator Although th is m ay be a partial product of the Union it would not be quickly altered by furth er const itut ional chan ge even ren ew ed Scottish in dependence In deed if Scotshylands eighteenth and ni ncteenth cent ur y history cannot ent ir ely be ex plained by reference to events of l707 the Union has increasingly left its impressjon on the twentieth cen tu ry - the Welfare State might be an even grea te r symbol of the Union th an th e British Empire
Much recent comment about the Union has been peSSimistic and has sought reasons for its apparshyen tly likely demise an event wh ich inconveniently has not ye t taken place Despite d evolut io n perhaps
even despite the advent of an SN P ad ministration in Holyrood this may be the w rong question It is tbe longevity rather than the frashygil ity of th e Anglo-S cottish Un ion which reqUires explanation 1 his is not to say th at the Union m ay nol flo under in tbe [uture perh aps even the ncar future Histor ians are no to riously ba d at peering into th e future but one can confi dently p reshydict the outbreak o f a fierce debate between those who will argue that the inh erent features of the Un ion sowed the seeds of its destruction over a long period an d others who will contend that the sundershying of th e Union can be found in the consequences of the political divergence between Scotlan d and
nglaJ1d since 1979 Vha tever happens to the Union it is vital that we do not fabricate a sense of denjal about deep-sealed and longshys tan ding Scott ish enth usiasm for it
Ewen Cameron is H ead of H istory at Edinb urgh University Hi s book Impaled on a Thistle Scot la nd sil ce 1880 was released earl ier this year
A strange survival As a special feature Ewen Cameron provides a scholars perspecshytive on th e endurance Great Britain and the Acts of the Union
12 Retrospect
THE COLD War caused the worlds superpowers to forge some of h isto rys m ost unlikely of unshyions O ne such union was thaI of the USA with the leader of South Vietnam from ]954 to 1963 Ngo Dinh Diem and one that was arshyguably the first step on the path to full-scale American military in shyvolvement in Vietnam
Following Fr ances withdrawal from Indochina in 1954 Vietnam was divided in two along the 17th Parallel with Ho Chl Minhs C omshymuni sts ruling the North and the French sponsored democracy in the South with nation al elections planned for 1956 to reunite the COUlltry Fearful of communism the Eisenhower administration threw their support behind the staunchly anti -communist Diem in the bope that he would form a strong government that would be sympathetic to America The union would end almost a decade later in t he most ignominious of ways
At fi rs t there seemed to be several good reasons to suppor t Diem he was zealously anti-communist but aho exceedingly nationalistic and anti-French m aking it easier for the Americans to support h im without contradicting the if own an ti-imshyperialist rhetor ic He had travelled widely in the US an d had expressed a desire to work with Americans to build a new Vietnam
However from the start it was eVident that Diems belief in democracy was dubious as he stead fastly refu sed to conform to American political ideals The US
had entered th e two world wars to in President Woodrow Wilsons wor ds make the world safe fo r deshymocracy wh ilst the conflict wi th the Soviet Union was defi ned by Americas beUef in democracy and capitalism The US expounded the ideals of democracy over the tyranshynies o f authori tarian govern ment Diem refused to m ake democratic refo rms in his country
1 hen D iem took power he faced a bar rage of problems an undershydeveloped and antiquated gove rn shymental infras tructu re with staff who lacked experience in adminisshytmtion a country ravaged by war an immat ure agricult ural econoshymy With US help Diem thwarted several attempted coup detats in th e first year of his presidency An even bigger test of Diems leadershyship arrived in 1955 willl the Sec t Crisis where the mllitarised sects the Cao Dru the Hoa Hao and the Vletnamese Mafia the Binh Xu)rshyen joined forces to wage wllr on the government in Saigon Diem looked to be lOsing control and at one point US Ambassador to Vishyetnanl General Coll ins convinced Eisenhower that Diem should be removed A m iraculous and unshyexpected victory agrunst the Binh Xuyen ensured Diem stayed in
power and retained American supshyport Encouraged by the American delight at this victory Djem began to consolidate his power
W hen D iem rehlsed tJ) par ticipat e in the scheduled na tional election s to reunite the two Vietnams the US supported Il is decis io n to do so effectively ensu ring tb e long term separation between South and Nor th Vietnam The popular ity of the Communist leader Ho Chj Mi nh meant he would have swept these elections causing the US to forego their politi cal beliefs
With Diem established the US proceeded to pour rud in to his regime with $ 1 bill ion spent on economic and m ilitary assistance between 1955-1 961 Diems govshyernment squandered the aid refusshyin g to refo rm the army and governshyment to fit a democratic model
vThilst Diem prud li p service to the Am ericans democratic deshym ands reform vas always an illushyion D iem and rus three brothers
con trolled bot h the exec utive and the legi sla tive branches of govern shym enl - dissenters were immediateshyly pu rged Diems poli cies towards the villages d isregarded centu r ies of tradition and in dependence stirring up deep discon tent Any expression of th is was dealt with as George Herring puts it in a man shyner that would have made J Edgar H oover blanch as thousands of dissidents were incarcerated in reshyeducation centres Such was the USs fear of communism that they turned a bli nd eye to these arroci shyt ies
Alex Thomson explores the ideological sacrifices of Americas Vietnam policy
Better the Diem you know
In 1960 the new Kennedy adshyminis tration inherited the commitshyment to Diem and with Kennedys pledges to get tough itwould have been impossible to withdraw supshyport for Diem and so the governshyUen t increased th e aid to stabilise h im whils t begging him ineffectu shyally to refo rm Most Americans at this time could
not have even located Vietnam on a map but the issue was forced in to the nations consciousness ill May 1963 with th e Buddh ist Cri shysis A devout Catholic Diem had oppressed the Buddhist majority of the countr) Protests in the city of Hue saw government troops fire into the crowd killing a number of protestors sparking widespread reaction around South Vietnam cu lmin ating in the n otorious selfshyim molations of Buddhist monks which h it headlines worldwide
ot only was Diem embarrassshying the American government on the in ternational stage but with the disastrous defeat at Ap Bac in January 1963 it became increasi ngshyly apparent that Diem was also an ineffectual bulwark against comshymunism a fac t compounded by Diems covert attempts to negotiate a settlemen t wi th Ho Chi Min h After the Budd hist Crisis several generals of the South Vietnamese army approached tlle US Ambasshysador in Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge Jr about US reachons to a military coup Convinced that the war against communism in Vietshynam co uld not be won with Diem as leader Lodge replied that wruJs t they would not support a coup they would do nothirlg to oppose it effectively signing Diems death warrant Thus on November 1st 1963 the generals successfully deposed Diem who was then brushytally murdered in the back of a van after seeking sanctuary in a Cathoshylic church
President Kennedy said that ~iem is Diem and hes the best weve go This is an accurate swnshymary of the unlikely alliance beshytween D iem and the US Authorishytarian and despotic Diem was ana thema to the American polit ishycal system but it was ironical]y the USs fear of another foreign politi shycal system on the left that caused them to create so unlikely an allishyance
13
Practical impiety Hamish Kinnear discusses the unthinkshyable Franco-Ottoman Alliance of 1536
IN 1536 an alliance was finalised that was met with disbelief and disgust throughout Europe The union of France and the Ottoman Empire against their mutual enshyemy - Charles V - was the first alshyliance between a major Christian and nnn-Christian power since the crusades
Europe was on the verge of great change at the outset of the sixshyteenth century The introduction of gunpowder was revolutionisshying warfare and the printing press enabled the distribution of mateshyrial opposed to the ruling elite The fiercely anti-derical speeches of Martin Luther and his sympashythisers initiated the Reformation destroying the medieval idea of a united Christendom with the Pope as its nominal head Increasshyingly European states began to act in their own interests and ignored ing the legitimacy of Islam Pracshy common knowledge an alliance the purpose of defence as opposed
the demands of the pope Four ticality however often triumphs with the Great Turk was not only to a specifically offensive crusade
great historical figures also came over ideology unlikely it was unthinkable Henry VIII of England struck a
to the fore in the early 16th centushy Interestingly both Francis I and The alliance however held blow to Christian unity by breakshy
ry Henry VII of England Francis Charles V had argued that if they benefits for both parties France ing away from the papal authorshy
I of France Charles V of Spain and became Holy Roman Emperor for was given an ally that posed a seshy ity and establishing the Church of
Suleiman the Magnificent of the they were both candidates for the rious threat to Charles V for the England allowing his marriage to
Ottoman Empire The stage was elective office they would lead a Ottoman Empire of Suleiman the Anne Boleyn The greatest atrocshy
set for a conflict that involved all Crusade against the Great Turk Magnificent was at the height of ity occurred when the underpaid
the major powers of Europe one This promise invoked a desire to its power Fresh from victory over and mutinous troops of Charles
in which the French were the fi rst return to the perceived Christian the Egyptian Mamluke Sultanate V in the search of plunder sacked
to realise that the days of a united unity of the Middle Ages where Suleiman wished to make himself Rome and imprisoned the Pope
medieval Christendom were over the nations of Europe allied to Caesar of Europe An alliance with This event more than anything take back the Holy Land After the French was in the interests of else signified the demise of medishyCharles V took the title however the Ottomans as it provided them eval Christendom In this atmosshyFrancis wasted no time in declarshy with a military partner and a finshy phere of widespread anti-papal ing war on his fellow Christian ancier to help invade Hapsburg feeling the France-Ottoman allishynation The subsequent invasion lands More importantly for Suleishy ance comes as less of a surprise of Italy ended in disaster for the man the alliance kept the states of The impious alliance of the French at the Battle of Pavia durshy Christian Europe divided French and Ottomans then does ing which Francis I was captured not seem so scandalous when
By 1519 France was in despershy by the forces of Charles V To seshy placed in the context of its time
ate need of allies The domain of cure his release from prison Franshy However it should come as no
the Hapsburg ruler Charles V who cis was forced to sign the humillishy surprise that it was received in
had inherited the rule of both the ating Treaty of Madrid in which this negative fashion There was
Spanish Empire and the Holy Roshy he renounced his claims to Italy evidently a form of European
man Empire almost surrounded Flanders and Burgundy Charles nostalgia for the days of the Crushy
the French Kingdom of Francis I V had risen to unrivalled power in sades in which Christendom was
The French also had to deal with Europe united in a common cause even
Henry VIIIs England whose arshy During Franciss imprisonment though the military expeditions to
mies still remained in Normandy the French court had sent a deleshy Despite the reactions of horror the Holy Land had only been seshy
and coffers funded Charles milishy gation to the court of Suleiman the to the Franco-Ottoman alliance riously pursued centufies before
tary expeditions To the French Magnificent to discuss a treaty of that were evident throughout Eushy Francis Is alliance with the Otshy
advantage a new power was rising friendship These talks resulted in rope the actions of other Christian tomans was a stark indicator that
in the East The Ottoman Empire an alliance that was met with disshy rulers could hardly be considered the Crusader days were long past
of Suleiman the Magnificent was belief and disgust by the other Eushy pious If a pious ruler was one War from then on became comshy
expanding through the Balkans at ropean states Charles V began a who acted for the unity of Chrisshy mon between Christian States as
an alarming rate and posed a great vitriolic campaign of propaganda tendom engaged in crusading a means to maintain the balance
threat to the domains of Charles against the French deeming the activities and respected both the of power or achieve superiority
V Yet an alliance with this major union the sacrilegious union of temporal and spiritual power of in Europe Christendom was finshy
Islamic power was still considered the Lily and the Crescent Indeed the Pope then Charles V and Henshy ished The unlikely Franco-Ottoshy
blasphemous by the kingdoms of given that Francis had strongly ry the VII failed on all these reshy man Alliance however lasted for
Europe as by acknowledging the supported a crusade against the quirements Admittedly Charles V centuries
existence of the Ottoman Empire Ottomans a pretence he mainshy spent much of his life fighting the
the French were in effect accept- tained even after the pact became Ottomans but this was more for
14 Retrospect
c e Old Ship of Zion Catherine Me Gloin examines a widely forgotten aspect of American History THE STRUGGLE for AfricanshyAmerican rights iJl the United States is a long and contested road Ve are repeatedly exposed to narratives that stress key leaders and religious f1 gureshyheads Arguably no discourse would be complete without an analysis of tbe role of MartiQ Luther King Jr the decisions of th e Supreme Court or tbe varying levels of comm itment that each president expressed throughout this tuibulent ruld mythologised peshyriod in Americ1l history
However one element of the strugshygle for bLack dvil rights that has been often underplayed in popular accounts increasingly based on bioshygrap hical and oral testimony is the role of the new labour movement during the 19305 and J94Ds In the
space bern the post-World far red scare a reactionary phenomenon that disabled socialism as a tool for social advancement bl1Ck unjonisID 3Jld potentially the Communist Party ofshyfered African-Ameri cans a wllque opportunity to unite to fight oppresshysion Unionism offered the poorest black workers a political voice one they fel t was [[lUted by elite middleshyclass civil rights organisations such as the NAACP [n this respect the Communist Party can be considered as a viable alternative for some groups within tll euro civil rights movement and as a suitablevehide for civil rights adshyvancemel1t
The h istory of black organh ed lashybour in the South has only begun in the last thirty years to receive du attention in the historiography of American labour movements gainshying increasing recogni tion from lashybour and social historians Perhaps it has traditionally been ampi de-lined because of an ideological aversion to socialism deeply ingrained into the American psyche Alternatively its diminished prominence may be explained by the compl~ities of periodisation It is commonly acshyknowledged by maIl) h istorians who dorninate the field of civil rights that the movement characterised by cross-national di rect action began in the late 19505 Morc specifically the
birth of the movement is often seen as a consequence of the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and the Brown decision of the Supreme Court the plevious year Thus any event which pre-dates tJlis revered trajectory is generally dismissed as a pre-requisite and subsequently garshyners less attention than it perhaps warrants The widening of industrial w1ionism to Southern blacks during the first half of the twentieth century has traditionally been treated as a pre-cursor yet it deserves a more prominent position not only for the wider organ isational implications it held flr the development of the llovement but as acknowledgement afits improbable success
N l an alysis of labour Qrganisation and class structure amongst the varyshying groups active in the civil rights m ovement serves to convey what is often lost til e tight for equality was not solely [ought by biack elites or enlightened whites but poor workshying class African-Americans a1SQ
played a leading role These groups although united in th eir cause did not un iformly a gree at every stage but could be divided by societal catshyegQries other than race
It is important to note that the Southern labour force were distincshytive in their anti-union tradition Even as organised labour became increasingly entrencbed in the North (following the National Labour Relashytions Act 1935) the South as Robert Zieger argues rem ained an anti-lashybour island Much of the historiogshyraphy stresses the traditionally Ilostile relationship between organised lashybour and African-Americans Meier
and Bracey assert that blacks were susp icious of wlions who typically discriminated against them Thus unionism was seen as the tool of white racist workers rather than the site of tenlpered racial Ultagonisms in the hce of a common adversary shyexploitative industries The American Federation of Labour (AFL) supportshyed craft unions that created raCially exd usive iobs often driving blacks from secured employment opportushynities in order to give them to unemshyployed whites A symptom of segreshygateJ society this was lot a qUEstion of education more a simple fUllction of the caste system in operation in the South that largely kept black labour unorgnnised yet was held as a necessishyty for business prosperity Any efforts towards unionisatioJ1 were usuall thwarted by employer intimidation police brutality or deep-rooted susshypicions of unions Moreover a cheap and ready supply of white and black vmrkerswn ited the power of strike action African Americans had been used as strike-breakers ill the heavy industries for decades
However the 19305 heralded the widening of labour organisation in part a response to post-World War I migration to northern industrial cities persistent inequalit ies within some of the New Deal programmes and the devastating financial impact of the Great Depression which was disproportionately felt by black workshyers Therefore it may be argued that the erosion of the distinctive union free character of Southern labour had begun
Attitudes towards labour organ ishysa60n shifted during the 1930s This may havc been a consequence of a more general swing to the left durshying the period as evidenced by the re-alignment of the black vote away from thc RepUblicans tovards the Democrat Party Mkhael Honey main tains that the late 1930s and early 1940$ promised huge change a consegum ce of war industrialisation and unionisation The founding of organisations such as the Congress of Industrial Organ isations (CIO) point
Lo increased co-open t-ion between Souther wh ite and black workers ruld an albeit temporary shift away from the attitudes of the segregation era
he CIO was born out of the hardshyships of the depression years and its inter-racial organising strategy crul be ccn as cridence ofa morc co-operashy
tive approach to labour organisat ion than is tradi tiol)ally given credit in the historiography Ihe CTO sought African -American recruits and fo shycussed its unionisiog efforts on secshytors with large black work forces such as steel and meatln their promotion of inter-racial un ionism such orshyganisatiom acted lts a bridge between the black community and white workers although this function was more successful in the North where African-Americans he1d a limited degree of political and economic power Bi-raciaJ unionism provided the philosophy of equal rights as well as the means to augment ~ocial conditions and alter the relationship between worker and boss a source of daily oppression in the lives of many black workers For African-Amerishycan labour this was a great step toshywards achieving social and economic equality
However no unionising organisashytion was free from tht constraints of racist social customs particularly in the SQuth where ero union leaders would rather capitulate to opposition tJ1an lose members and where white workers continuously strove to asshysert their superiority over their black colleagues In many ways the CI achieved their initial economic goals and succeeded by 1940 in persuadshying whites to join and work alongside African-Americans However they failed to farce white elites to accept black demands for an end to racial wage differences Nonetheless allishyances between black and white workshyers civil r ights groups and left-Wing New Dealers had been established benefitting the African-Anlerican struggle against economic discrimishynation
11le influence of the left was evident
15
in the leading unions thal were also committed to equality like the CIO as well as the United Packinghouse Workers of America who organised meatpackers in Chicago and Texas Whilst these unions engaged a lot of black workers as members they also had a significant communist pres shyence The impact of the Communist Party and its role in intluencing both inter-racial unionism and the civil rights movement is a contentious isshyue Their rhetoric and its evolution
from calls for a separate Black Reshypublic to talk of a more united-front is an area that provokes much conshytroversy Was it conceived in order to subvert labour organisations directly or to control them from behind the scenes Alternatively a cynical iew of the motivations behind Commushynist Part) involvement can be temshypered The Part) recognised the revshyolutionar y potential of industrial and agricultural workers and thereforc called for African- American sclfshydetermination as a strategy whereby white American acceptance of blacks right to self-government was the goal Thus white workers would be able to conquer their raci sm and a united working class would result
Traditional interpretations sugshygest that unionism was treated with
hostility by all blacks we must not be blind to tlle differences amongst the black community and the fact tbat they were far from a homogshyenous group hils the Communist Party becanle the rivals of the black elite arld middle-class organisations such as the NAACI~ the poor black working class were attracted to the ideology and the Party in incrcasing numbers throughout tlle depression and during the New Deal era degThey prOided the black working classes with an alternative vehicle for social protest Furthermore communism introduced many blacks to world politics enabling them to place their own struggle in a global context demonstrating the roots of poverty and ra05m
This educated the non -reading classes and gave them a sense of pride something many fel t was deshynied to them by tlle black eli tes of the
AACP whom it has been argued had unwisely assumed a pastoral poshysition as spokesperson for all blacks Moreover the Party challenged both white supremacy and the bourgeOiS politics of the black mjddle-class A Philip Randolph - considered a sooalist and largely hailed as the spokesman for black workers after his success with the Pullman porshy
ters of the 1920s and thc recogni tion of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters by tbe A FL in 1937 - attacked WE B Du Bois and the NAACP for neglecting the needs of the AfricanshyAmerican in favour of bourgeois inshyterests Fostering an atmosphere of debate and discussion communism helped to educate and empower the black working-classes For the black elites it was an unwelcome SQurce of agitation as communists began to enter into the realm of black bourshygeois politics Thus support for the Communist Party divided civil rights campaigners and highlighted undershylying class antagoni~m
The involvement of the commushynist-led ILD in the trial of the Scottsshyboro boys demonstrates the resentshyments and the growing frustrat ion with the NAACP and other black middle-class organisations Failure to secure Significant federal anti -lynchshying legislation ineffective in helping desperate blacks devastated by the depression and limited by thei r OWll political powerlessness ill the face of economic decline amongst tllCir own elite members the NAACPs imposhytence was made apparent during the 1931 Scottsboro boys trial In Alashybama nine black men aged thirteen to n ineteen were charged with the
rape of two while women travelling on the san1e train as them and were tried convicted and sentenced to death in three days WhcU1C~r or not the IlD simply offered their support and advice or they ID U$cled in with shrill bravado their involvement earned the Com mullist Party black support
They were portrayed as defenders of the race whilst wltites chose to view them as outsiders and defendshyers of rapists
Interpretations of communisms impact on the Qjl rights moveshyment during the 1930s var y II may be maintained tllat membership to the Party and adherence to commushynist ideology was limited ultim ateJy most blacks wanted to work within the American system and reap any benefits accrued hy the programmes of the New Deal Africall-Americaru were comm itted to these me3iur and Similarly to Presiden t Roosevelt fe-clec ting him for a th ird term in 1940 Thus communism was a marshyginal force that many blocks chose to
ignore as a vehid c for social protest However it is important to recognise
its significance in the Lives of many African-Americans who for the first time were organised in to tradeullions on relatively equal terms t() those of their whil-e co-workers and were able to understand their $truggle through the framework of a shared commushynist ideology Communists fo rmed the central pillar to trade un ion acshytivism and 0 0 inter-raciali sm This new socialism in the barber shop a broadened ID1d popular sense off self empowered many black vOrkers to fight against economic and social disshycrimination in a way that seemed to
speak more directly to them and their social s tanding than the rhetoric esshypoused by the black-bourgeoisie
Bibliograpby
Leslie H Fishel Jr The Negro and dle New Deal in Twentieth Ce1ltury America Recent Interpretations ed Bernstein and Matusow (1 972)
Robert H Zieger (eei) Orgal ised Labour in the TWeIIlielh Centw y Soulh (1991)
Robin DG Kelley Hammer and Hoe Alabama Conlllllmists During the Great Depression (l990)
16 Retrospect
OFfEN OVERSHADOWED by the tumultuous events that were to weep Europe in the late 19305 and
194Ds the Spanish Civil War (1936shy1939) remairu a pivotal moment in twentieth century European history TIle conflict divided families towns and polarised political opinion across the continent and beyond It resulted in an estimated 500000
deaths and witnessed the establishshyment of a Fascist dictatorship in Spain under General Franco which ould last for almost forty years
The conflict has been a fruitful jeC of historical scholarship and many explanations as to why the fragile democracy of the Second Reshypublic collapsed have been offered Did the RepublJcaJlS Lose because of a lack of fo reign support given to them but that the Nationalists were lucky to receive or was their defeat a result of the weakness of Republican mili tias oin the face of the discipline of the Spanish army
In order to ascertain which if eishy
ther of the aforementioned suggesshytions WdS most significan t it is imshyportant to examine the patchwork of ideologies that the Popular Front composed of the Marxlst POU1vl (Partido Obrero Unification Marxshyista) Socialist UGT (Union General de Trabajores) Communist PSU (PartitSocialiSta UnificalCatalwlya) and Anardllst CNT (Conf-ederacion
acional del Trabajo) Furthermore the effect of foreign intervention on relations within the National Front and upon the contlict asa whole must be taken into consideration
From the outset it would be fai r to suggest that the Republicans lacked the same opportunities as the Nashytionalists The material support offered by the Soviet Union WJS
ultimately to be a hindrance insofar as it catalysed factionalism within the National Front In the opposite camp Adolf Hitler was in reality not much more supportive of the Nationalists than foseph Stalin had been of the Republicans and it is likeshyly that he like Stalin merely wanted the war to continue as a distraction for the estern democracies Argushyably it was MUSSOWlis support that would be key to the Nationalist side He was adan1ant that the emergence of another Fascist state on the model of Italy could only be to his political advantage As it turns out Italy reshyceived relatively little in return from Franco after the war
Despite the fact that the Repuhlishycans were on the side of the legally elected government they were necr allowed to purchase arms from the major suppliers The United States was pursuing a policy of non-inshytervention after World War I and
Britain and France followed suit re1 uctant to upset the political stashybili) of Europe at the time It was decided that neither side would be given military aid under the NODshyIntervention Pact However this pact was then widely and blatantly flaunted by the dictatorships of Eu shyrope Italy Germany an d the Soviet Union The purchasing of foreign arms was poli tically charged as it was tantamount to subscription to the ideology of the dictatorship that was selling them TIle fact that only the Fascist dictatorships of Europe and the USSR were willing to so brashy
j zenly ignore the Non-Intervention pact was to have an enormous imshypact within the Spanish Left as will be later discussed
The aid of the Soviet Union was useful to the Republican cause insoshyfar that the weapons they provided were far superior to any the Republishycans already Pc)ssessed whilst Soviet aircraft were used for reconnaissance missions which were central to the militias military tactics However the weapons were not given to all parties within the Popular Front but were directed at only a handful Mostly they were given to the Socialists of the UCT and tlle Communists of the PSUC which stirred discontent amongst the other parties who were using old and inferior weaponry to that of their fellow comarades
The Civil War polarised Span isJ political discourse into those who were opposed to Francos regime and those who were not The Republican fOrces therefore contained many disparate political groups from moderate republicans to Anarchists Trotskyites and Stalinists Conseshyquently the Soviet aid exacerbated internal tensions within the Republishycan forces between the loosely assoshyciated left wing political groups The acceptance of Soviet weapons was a dangerous move as it allowed the access of agents of the Couummist Party of Soviet Russia into Spanish affairs someth ing that was to prove decisive in the outcome of the war
The Spanish Civil War was a conflict which could be referred to as a battle between reactionary forces of conshyservativism and progressive revolushytionaries Though many have claim ed that the Nationalists were fasc ists British Titer George Orwell who was fighting in Spain at the time along side the Republicans wrote of the Nationshyalists that their ideology was closer to that of feudalism The Nationalists were composed chiefly of members of the army members of the clergy and leaders of international business all united in their common distrust of the working classes Their victory in the war would certainly jeopardise the livshying conditions and dghts of working class people resulting in the deterIorashytion labour relations a Catholic crackshydown of secularism and the army would suppress any dissent
In contrast to the Nationalists clarshyity oJ goals the Republicans seemed to all be working towards different ends TIle objectives of moderate reshyforming socialists and the Anarchist
NT were very difficult to reconshycUe Furthermore the Soviet belief in a revol utionary vanguard instigatshying and leading the proletariat was at odds with populist movements such as Anarchism that took hold in Spain With such differences in polshyicy it is hard to envisage what could force these parties to work together for any length of time
Part of the problem with compreshyhending the Spanish Civil War comes from the spectrum of ideologies within the broad alliance of the Reshypublican forces The ideologies were further apart than could be counteshynanced and particularly so after the Conununist Party decided to impose itself upon the revolution that the Marxists and Anarchists were trying to fashion themselves in Barcelona In his book Hom age to Catalonia Orwell describes Barcelona Practically eveshyry building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists Every shop md cafe had an inscription saying it had been collectivised even the bootblacks had been collectivised md their boxes painted red and blacK The extent of the social change seems almost hyshyperbolic particularly when O rwell stresses that even the bootblacks were part of a trade union The Comshymunist Party however was to disrupt this workers paradise in May of j 937 with the attempted repossesshysion of a telephone exchange that was under Anarchist control 111is sparked a conflict that lasted several days and threatened the stability of the entire Republic General Franco who said he planned it after the Communists
ran newspaper stories blaming the Marxists for starting the fight used disunity in Barcelona to his own ends Being the largest party with the most well-developed press organisations the Communists managed to direct the aftermath of the situation and use it to discredit a competing party Disunity among the Republican side flourished as the AnarclUsts caught on to the Communist attempts to discredit the ]vIandst faction Though they were not persecuted to the same extent though their collectives were broken up to increase efficiency they realised thal they were fighting for
mebody who was n ot sympathetic of their ideology and who tney could not trust The Republican t~1Ctions
vigour started to deteriorate after the May Days riot of 1937
One might ask the question why did the Conununists try and reposshysess an Anarchist building It would be naive of them to assume they could take it vithout a fight unless they disregarded the fact that all Anarshychist doctrine of the em was against government coercion It bardly seems that there might be any great gains in taking one building even if it did allow Anarchists to eaesdrop on telephone conversations The sudden megaloshymania of the Communists seems to have sprung from advice given by the Communist Party of Soviet Russhysia The tactical value of the telephone exchange was not worth risking the integIity of the Republican coalishytiDn The PSUCs party line that At present nothing matters but vinning the war is especially telling
Arguably it was the fragile alliance of circumstance within the Republishycan movement exacerbated by Soviet Aid that only reached certain fuctions wbicb resulted in the collapse of the Spanish Republic Though the weapshyOIlS helped fOT a while they could not Sllstain an entire nation with the limishytations placed upon their deployment Anarchists did not trust the help of Soviet Russia and neither did they trust the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain or any of its regional counshyterparts Tnere were other culprits howeveJ in the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic
It would be wrong to suggest that disWlity on the part of the Republi shycans was all that preven ted them from victor)l The wider European context of the conflict was also fundamenshytal in the collapse of the Republican Movement Gen11any and Russia nevshyer gave sufficient help to either side to let it decisivel) win at any pace but it appears that both used the war to their own advantage Germany tested out their bombers on Spanish tovms such as Guernica and the Soviet Union
17
used the war as a distraction while it increased its level of militarization
In conclusion then the conmct polarised Spanish political discourse around the two totalitarim cxtrerrtishyties of Fascism and Stalinism This resulted in an internally divided and factionalised Republicm force which struggled to retain its integrity in the fuce ofa destructive internal feud The feud was sparked b) the actions of an externalgovernment hence it ccruld be argued that the collapse of tbe second republic was was more to do vith the international context of the conflict as it provided both the ex1rem e ideolohY and the cause of fTiction vithin the Republican movement
BibUography
Qmell George Orwell hi Spain (Penshyguin London2001)
Thomas Hugh The Spanish Civil War 4th edition (Pellguin London 2003)
Beevor Anthony The Battlefor SpainThe Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (WampN London 2006)
Taylor AJP The OrigirtS of the Second World War (Penguin London 1991)
18 Retrospect
Sh may be the Reason Frances Rromagc explores the often overlooked contribution of female scientists during the Enlightenment
FOR MANY centuries befo re the seventeenth Aristotles concepshytion of the bod y and the mind as insepa rable matte r domin ated Western thinking It was used to justify the subjugation of wom en and their subsequent excl us ion from so -called masculine activi shyties
Anatomical differen ces and hormonal systems provi ded new rationales for keeping women below men in the intellectual hishyerarchy Chauvinism expressed it self in every walk of life from religi on and education to science and medicine Even the common shyest of medical symptoms such as nerVOllsness irritability and loss of appetite for foo d or sex were generally diagnosed in women as the result of female Hysteria - a problem deriving from the hysshytna or uterus Science which explored the worl d outside the domestic sphere remai ned an ex shyclusively masculine discipline up until the eighteenth cent ury
Then came th e Enlightenment Enlightenment philosophers were infl uenced by Descartes theori es on critical thinking and Lock es empir icism and as a conseshyqu ence adopted a new approach to learn ing one which promoted free in te ll ectual inquiry and reshyjecled the influence of the state an d religion Despite the moveshyments vast scope few topics were as vigorously discussed as the subject of female education T he changing conception of the mind as no longer constrained by physical attributes opened a new conception of the mind as a sex shyless entity Therefore wom ens education became the subject of m uch debate in polite society spurring contribut ions from feshymale and male thinkers on both sides of the discu ss ion Womens access to scientific knowlcdge proved particularly controversial as it cha llenged a long-established perception of womens role as lim shyited to the domain of domestic ity
owhere has thi ~ challenge been so eloquently pu t as in words of British poet Elizabeth Toilet in her 1724 her poem Hypatia What cruel Laws depress the female KindTo humble Ca res and servile Ta sks confild That haughty Mall IIllriFald and alone May boast the world or Science all his owwl As barbarous Tyrants to secure their Sway Conclude that ignorallce will best obey
Whilst men may have been harbarous tyrants and attempted to clamp down on womens parshyticipation in scientific disciplines lu ckily th ey were not entirely suc shycessful in doing so History proshyvides LI S with a few precious exshyamples l1f women who refused to bow to blind ignorance and tbus su cceeded in rising above amashyteur status to become serious conshytributors to the field of scient ific knowledge
Of these the only one about whom much contemporary inshyformati o n as well as a substanshytial body of original writings has survived is Emilie Marquise du Chatelet She is most famous for having been Voltaires mistress but in fa ct this does great injusshytice not only to he r independent character but also to her intellecshytual brilliance and considerable sc ientific contribution hilst she remain ed all bu t inv isible to histo rical aCCo wlts before her asshysociation with Voltaire in 1733 during tJ1e next fifteen years of her life she proved herself a worshythy match to the brilliant French philosopher Living mainly in Pa rh or in her country estate at Cirey to where she retreated with Voltaire she wrote and published a book on the metaphysics of natshyural science (institutions de physhysique) an essay on the nature of fire and neat (pisserta tion sur la nature ct propagation du feu) and two short pieces on the problem of melsu ri ng physical force She also co- authored anonymously Voltaires popularisation of Newshytoni an physic s for which she was resp onsi bl e for most of th e mathshyematical calculations an d to top her numerous achievements in 1748 she produced a translation of Newtons PrincipiI mathemati shyca with a commentary which was published posth Wll ously and is sti l1 used as the standard translashy
tion of h is work in France today In 1835 th e Royal Astro nomical
Society in London made a breakshythrough by awarding honorar y m~mbership to a woman Caroshylin e Herschel She became famous for her discove ry o f ncw nebu lae in 1783 (Androme da and Cetus) and for bei ng the fi rst woman to di scover a comet In hOnOltr of Herschel the SOCiety made what was perhaps the fi rst sta temen t on equal opportuuities in science While tests of astronomi cal merit sho uld in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to th ose of a man the sex of the former shou ld no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acshyknowledgement wh ich might be hel d due to the latter But whi lst modem biographers have used these numerous firsts to turn Caroline Herschel in to a female icon of sci ence it is importan t to note that she wa~ rewarded not for her own discoveries but beshycause she recorded compi led and recalc ulated th ose of her brother vVilliam Herschel
The very natu re of he r brothers research concen trated on collectshying and classif)Ti ng large numb ers of stars and in th is Ca rolines cataloguing skills were of ceotral importanc e Lacking her pati en ce and meticul ous att ention to deshytall he became heavily reliant on her sci enti fi c inpu t Therefo re her im portance in her brothers research was far greater than most of their contemporaries realised yet she never theless allowed her efforts to further his reputation
Finally th e faScinating case of Laura Bassi (1711-177S) shows how some rare women were able to forge thems elves a career in scientific fields during the En shylightenm ent Bassi was gifted with a capacity for learning consi d shyered so extraordillar y in a wom an that it just ified a concession for a
university degree in philosophy Thereafter she was awarded an entrance to Bolognas lstituto delle Scicnze later to be admitted as an honorary member of the college and fl naUy assigned the position of lecturer in physics at the presshytigious Universi ta eli Bologna the first of its kin d in Europe Scholshyar~ from aU over Eu rope would attend Bassis lectu res on Newtoshynian physics and sJle became the envy oflearned women across the contin ent
These scientific women came fre)m upper or middle cla ss backshygrounds and whilst th eir ach ieveshyments were not replicated to the same extent by women in the lowshyer echelons of society a degree of sci entific and pract ical k novledge never theless took hold Daughters of clergymen particularly in the dissenters tnldition and certain widows who were made to tak e up their husbands trade after th ei r death became learned women and hi ghly ski lled T he famous case of lIlada me Cliquot who in 1805 took over her husbands company after h is death is a ch arming exshyample Hi s enterprise whi ch had
een variously involved in bankshying wool trading and Champagne producing th ri ved under her di shyrec tion and eventu ally became the brand La Vcuve C liquol She is directly accred ited will) a great breakthro ugh in champagne han shydling that made mass produc tion of th e wine possible an d estabshylished the producers reputation of excellence which continues to the present day
T hese examples demonstrate that women were capable of takshying part in scientific debates and developments but it should be stressed that their contr ibution was li mited Womens access to sci entific knowledge was dependshyent on wealth class and cru cially on an association with men who would encourage scientific en shydeavours This last condition is all the more important when one considers the institutionshyalised chauvinism that women continued to experience during the eighteenth century Throughshyout Europe with the exception of
orthern Italy un i7ersi ties and scientific academi es such as the Roya l In stitution in London were closed to women
19
Furthermore whilst the enliglltshyenmenl undeniably brought an improvement to the female conshydition entrenched conservatism in contemporary attitudes even amongst enlightened th inkers such as Rou sseau meant that feshymale scientists were not only ex shy
tremely rare but also str uggled to be accepted in m al e- d ominated
circles T llere was a general lack or even absence of formal rec()gshynit ion of womens involvement in scientific publications For ex shyample Marie Lavoisier th e gifted wife of Fren ch chemist Antoine
Lavois ie r in now recog-ni sed as having carried out many calculashytions and observations in her husshyband s Elements of Chemistry The original m an uscript of h is work contai ns evid ence of her notes and comments yet the printed version fail s to ackn owledge her contribution entirely Even in be tter-documented cases such as that of Lavois ier it very difficult fo r the modern -day h isto rian to pin -point the individu al accomshypli shments female scientists in coll aborative works
However one can argue quite
confidently the instrumental rol e that women p layed in th e disshysem in ation and subsequent adshy
van cement o f sci ent ific ideas T hey were g rea t m ediators often translating simplifying and illusshytrat ing com plex scienti fic works Their versions of these texts were
generally aimed at a female read shyership a n otable exam ple bein g EmiJie d u Chatelet s translation of Francesco Algarottis Ne wtonishy(Ism for Ladies (1737) These were often read in wid er circles as they were clear illustrated and easier to understand T his helped the sp read of scientific id eas the im shy
plied message being that if science was s imple enough for a woman to unders tand than anyone could understand it Furthermore women facilitated the populari sashytion of science by hosting disc usshy
~ions in salons or holding p rivate exhibitions in their homes where gues ts cou ld appreciate and marshyvel at discoveries such the Leyden jar and static electrici ty These so shycial gatherings were particularly important when one considers science and the En lightenment as a wider social phenomenon
as opposed to a string of isolated discove ries mad e by individual mal e scientists
There is a tragiC element un shyderlying this whole s to ry Recent studies led by historian s such as Patr ic ia Fara have attempted to give a clearer and fairer in terp re shytation of womens contribution to science d uring thi s per iod
However history has b ee n unfair and insensi tive in its representashytion of female scientists Consid shyer ing the wealth of literature on Science and Enlightenment it is quite re markable tha t so little nas b een written about the women who took part Givmiddoten th e sparseshyness of original sources and the strong m ale bias wit h which most existing d ocumentation is writshyten it is very difficult impossible
perhaps to accu rately assess the Signifi cance o f womens contribushytion to the scientific fi eld
Feminists have often rewritshyten the story of these women to underline independen t achieve shyments and contributions mad e in a bid to break down prejudic es again st their sex But when does a shift of emphasis become an exagshy
geration a disto rt iongt Scientific
women have been concealed for so long that it is very tempting to tum them into unsung heroines It would be unju st to retell these wom ens stories in a way which
forces them to conform to the ideal s of m odern day fem inists Alte rna tivey we mll st appreciate their contr ibutions on their own meri t
Bibliograpby
Fara Patricia Pandoras Breeches Women Science amp Power in the Enlightenm ent (Great Britain Pimlico 2004)
Gardiner Linda Wo men ill Scishyetlce From French Women al7d
the Age of El7ligiztenmellt ed S Spencer (USA Indi ana University Press 1984 )
Bragg Melvyn P Fara K O Brian amp j Hawley In Our Time Wo men alld Science ill the E11 ligi7tenll7ellt LondOl (BBC Radio 4 4th vemb er 2010)
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
4 Retrospect
ociet Come rain or shine EYer Pd-~ shows the History Society have an action packed semester in any weather WHAT HAVE the history society been up to tllis semester A better question might be what havent we been up LO gtew welcomed many new members and celebrated th e new academic year pmperly ith lots of events Our s tall at the Fresher Fair was very popular A highlight from Freshers Week was our Meadows Picnic which had to be relocated to the Loft Bar at Tciot due to the un e-cpected nun it was the only day in flre~hcrs Week that it rained but we soldiered on an d enioyed the winning combination of pints and fairy cakes
cve also wnved goodbye to the rabbi warren that was the Villiam
Robertson Building Hopefully well bave got ou r bearings by the time Lhe next issue comes out Well miss walkshying down tlle wrong set of stairs and having no idea where youve ended up as well as being either freezing or boiling depending on what level yu ure on but we re sure we wont be
crying for too much longer You may hwe heard that the history
society posed for the annual READ Calendar along with many other societie~s including the girls hockey
team and the gang from Fresll Air The charity who produce a naked cllendar each year raise money for the ren ovation of libraries in Uganda and Tanzania and to send thousands of book~ each year to these countries We were nervous but privileged to
take part Ve d iscussed the calendar in many
many committee meetings but the day finally dawned and the nerves set in Luckily for all of us the studio was suitably warm for nudity in October and we survived In order to truly repshy
resent the History Society our props were suitably themed with a vintage telephone and typewriter along with the American Com titlltion and varishyous swords all used in the hope of
protecting our modesty Then came th e official unveiling of
tbe calendar We steeled ourselves for the launch - aided by some necessary
Dutch courage The night went really
well at TIle Hive with hrilliant raffle
prizes and a computer screen projectshying our photos throughout the nighL Get in contact with READ aDd purshychase a calendar soon - apparently they are likely to sell out although our modesty depends on refuting this
Weve also been keeping up our links witll H ili toric Scotland and takshy
ing members to both Edinburgh Casshytle and Lilllitllgow Palace Both sites were amazing but very different and gave us a great inSight into Scottish hi$tory
We enjoyed the sunshine at Edinshyburgh Castle and urrived just in time to hear the one oelock gun go off alshythough we werent entirely prepared for it and people did scream in fear but I wont incriminate certain comshymittee mem bers After we got over the shock of the canon we enjoyed looking at tlle Scottish Crown Jewe1~
and then headed down to the castle dungeons to leaf about the prisonshyers of war
Our trip to Linlithgow Palace was
another case entirely as we battled against rain and wind but were not
defeated We gOI the Unlithgow train and found Oill wa) to the Palace al shy
though possibly not by the quickest route Linlithgow gave us an insight into the fourteenth century and we
came to the conclusion that they should consider lighting the old fire shyplaces in order to warm the visitors up The weather cleared so that we were able to take a stroll around tllt
loch and cnjoy being out of the City for a few hours
ext semester weve got trips planned to Slid ing Castle and hopeshy
fully a day trip to St Andrews Watch tbis space
It ha~ been something of a busy semester where the social calendar
was concerned O ur pub scrawl was a great success with various history reshylated puns and slogans being written all over people Favourites included I like to party like its 1776 (Amtllcan revolution reference there if youre wondering) We made it to four bars
starting at Teviot and ending the n ight dancing at 1he Hive
We represented the History Society at the Society and Sporf~ Fundraiser which was a great fun for all who went Sadly we lost out on the main
prize to various sports teams but EUSA did givc us a pound tor every person we got through the door Last
year we donned togas wrule this year we plumped fu r the beard Everyone embraced the theme by varying deshy
grees some opting fur the handlebar moustache while the more outrashygeous of us went with full bushy Capshytain Birdseye beard
NeA1 issue well be able to give you a full update on the Annual Christmas History Ball which is being held at TIle Caves and is likely to be a huge success and a fabulous night will be had by all Until then keep a look out on our facebook page and various messages from the department about our upcoming events
5
10
t1lW~ 1 H- CPl ~~d f1 ~_l
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AS WRlTERS of h istory th e Retroshyspect team are used to commenting
on the successes o f o thers History is littered with winners of great acshy
claim awa rds and achievem ents
many of whi ch we have read ily
observed app reciated and wriI ten
about with interest n lis M ay Retshyrospect offi cially m ad e it s o wn hisshy
tory as it was named Best Magashyzine in The Herald Stude nt P re
Awards 2010
The awards ceremon) which
took pl ace in Glasgows C entre fo r
Contemporary Art s s aw a celebrashytion of Scotlan ds finest stud ent
jo urnalism amongs t w h ich RetJOshy
spect was p roud to be COlUlted The
ni ght was a n acknowledgme nt of
young talent across seveml fields
of journalism from Best Sports Writer to Best Publi cation Speakshy
ing to The Herald Dr G ill Stewart
SQAs D irector of Qualifications
sa id these awards really s howcase
the great talent of student journalshy
ists in ScotIan d
W ith free-flowing bar and plenty
of complimenta ry canapes the atshy
mosphere was jovial and everyone was very suppo rtive of each others
work Ind eed the standard was
high as Scotlands best and brightshy
est celebrated the ir ta le nts in a n ight
honourmg the grea t and ever growshy
ing presence of stud ent media
Our editorial team we re present
to receive the ir awardand were im shy
pressed by the level of professionshyalism of the other candidates and
the creative talent on display In the
category of Best M agazine Retroshyspect faced great competi t ion with
excelle nt entries from Glasgow
Un ivers irys m agazines GUM and Qmlm ica te Th e judges acknowlshy
edged tbat the standa rd was high
and th at it h ad been a great year for
m agazine publications in Scottish nivers it ies
Retrospect s triumph at tbe cershy
emony reflected a ris ing public interest in academic Journals Acshy
k nowledged by the judges as havshying I1lare se rio us content t-han its
competitors Retrospects ach ieveshy
men t can be viewed as part of t he
growing trend towards greater pubshylic interest in the academic genre
Misa Klim es then editor in chief
was p resen ted vith a weeks internshy
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wen Edin burgh based newspape r~
TIle Jou rna l an d The Student both receiving accolades o n the n ig ht
Retrospects success at Th e H ershy
ald Awards is a g reat accomplishshy
ment for the magazine for budding
jou rna li sts and for Lh ose wri ters at
The Un iversiti of Ed in bu rgh with a p articular interest in histo ry We
hope that th is will encourage future
writers to join the team and lead us
to greater future success
YOllre History Captain j 1111 i _ rllI j rallies the troops behind the Football Teams tough season
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6
WHAT BEITER combination than free food and a film at Frankensteins The University ofEdinburghs History Society held its first film night of the year on October 6th and was pleased to welcome plenty of new tiaces
We had all gathered hu ddled into the basement of Frankensteins and out of sight from the hideous weather The nights screening was to be Frost NIXon a popular choice with first and second time viewers alike But before the film began members refuelled on a selection of free dishes with burgshyers and chips being the finn favourshyite Thanks to the Frankenstein cards there were plenty of enticing drink deals to be had and the society settled down comfortably on the lower floor in preparation for the movie
FrostNixon directed in 2008 by Ron Howard is an account of the legendary interviews conducted by David Frost talk show host with the former US President Richard Nixon Initially Frosts determination to stage these interviews and to extract a confession from Nixon regarding his role in the in taolOus vVatergate scanshydal seems ridiculous His big gamshyble costing him thousands of dollars appears to be litrle more than a chalshylenge to satisfy his ego However by the end of the fllm it is clear that he
Retrospect
moment Michael Sheens impersonshyation of Frost as a smooth care-free and daring television presenter conshytrasts ri th Oscar nominated Frank Langel1as portrayal of an ageing alshymost tragic Nixon who is presented as riddled by suspiciolL The result is an entertaining and thought-provokshying dranla about the power of televishysion over politics
This succcssful film night was a reshylaxed evening enjoyed by many from all years and will be repeated in the near futu re
Alice Pease recounts a night of film screenings and free food with society members
7
History in the News
IgtOCUMJNP) DErAlIJNG the 0shy
perinces of Channel ]sland residents who chose to resisit Nazi occupashytion during the second Wod War have been re-discovered Thrown into suitcases and stowed in the back of a wardrobe these papers are considered to be the m ost imshyportant archive material to be unshyearthed concerning the occupation
The islands were occupied by azi forces between 1940 and 1945
and with one German guard to eveshyry three residents massive resistance was difficult Despite the improbable success of such act ion lhese hidshyden documents reveaJ the unusually silent and often symbolic nature of the resistance that islanders particishypated in
Compiled by a resident Frank Falla these documents tell of the harrowing experinces many inhabitshyants faced Some were forced to listen to fellow prisoners being decapitated by guillotine in German prisons
Falla himself liS deported after organ ising a clandestine newspaper designed to deliver updates about the war once radios were con fisshycated in 1942 Irate by the lack of recogn i lion that resistors received after the war Falla compiled the papers after the Br itish government received compensation from Gershymany in the 19605 Testimonies of the suffering endwcd by resideJ1ts have led to calls for a memorial ded shyicated to those who strove to resist occupation These docum ents also provide eveidence contrary to trashyditional interpretations that suggest islanders corroborated too easily Catherine Me Gloin
AN ANaENr Roman village has been unearthed in the parkland of a stately home in West Lonshydon in the unlikely surroundshyings of modem -day suburbia
Archaeologists excavating on the outskirts of the histor ic Syon Parle Estate discovered a stretch of Roman road and the foundations of some dwellings Alongside the remains of the road were over 11 5DO pottery fragments a large number of coins a Bronze Age gold bracelet and a lava stone quem
The road that was uncovered is beHeved to have been one of the most important linking Londinium with SildlCster It is reckoned that the vilshylage supplied the metropolis as well as existing as a a resting place for travelshylers giving insight into the way that the city interacted with and was conshynected to the country at large
1he Museum of London Archaeshyology an thrilled at the d iscoveries and believe that there is much to be learned about the daily lives of those livingjust outside Roman Londiniwn WiIl EUis
HISfORIAN KFIIH Jeffrey has been granted unprecedented access into the previously classified ilkS of the Secret Intelligence Service more commonly known as Ml6 It is the first and only official history of the shadowy goverruneJJt agency the very existence of which was not fo rmally acknowledged until 1994
Owing to the high ly sensitive nature of some of the documentashytion Jeffreys history only covers a forty-year period of the agencys background from its initial foundshying as the Secret Servi ce Bureau in 1909 until 1949 The lucky historishyan recently described the archives to which he had access as a cornucoshypia an extraordinary Aladdins cave of h istorical mater ials~
His book reveals often overlooked episodes in the history of British esshypionage such as the thwarting of an attempted Communist revolution in Brazil in 1935 and the controversial Operation Embarrass documenting both the successes and the failures of British intelligence throughout the first half of the twentieth century Gregor Donaldson
8 Retrospect
No stopping E~ burgh bullthe presses mYers ress
Rebecca auk presses Timothy Wright for some history on Edinburgh University Press
FOR STUDENTS and schola rs aJ ike Edinburgh University Press j widel ) regarded as one of the best academ ic publishing offices in th e ountry Having been publishing
and publicising high quali ty acashydemic books for almost fif1) years the Press is celebrating its successes both internationally and at home In the midst (I f this great ~ucccss Chief Executive Timothy Wrigb t taJks t
Retr(lspect about the h istory of the press and what the future holds
Edinburgh Univers ity Press founded over fi fty years ago is a wholly owned subSidiary of the University of Edinbu rgh 1hough the conpan)s main business is the publishing of textbooks and supshyplementary textbooks the roles that the Press plays range across d iffe rent academic areas The pubshylish ing of textbooks senes an edu shycat ional role the p ublica tion of scholarly works and monograph serves to help the advancemen t of knowledge wh ilst the pub]jcalion of works of re fe rence support both
holarly and educational util ity The compmy also boaSL~ a portfolJ or over thirty jou rnals
The Presss chosen fiel ds of pubshylish ing are American Studies Classhyics Film Studies M edia amp Cultural tudies History Islam ic Studies
Language and Linguistics La Litshyerary Stu dj es PhUosophy Politics and Scottish History The Press is well eqlllpped to serve the hu manshyties departmen ts publishing on an xtensive range of subjects and topshy
ics The Presss publishing is recogshy
nised as being of the highest qual shyity It is amonitortd by th e Un ivershy
sitys Press Committee which has to approve a ll titles proposed for publication The sale of its publicashytions is increasingly intern at ional enhancing the Universi tys global image and reflecting well on Scotshyland itsel f In the year ended 31 July 2009 over 50 of the presss revshyenues were outside the UK markshying a Significant profit outside of the University itself
J i I I I ) i I ~
I lit l lll I I I I 1
t
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i I
upporting its internation al CO ll shy
nections is the Presss close rella shytionship with other acacemic pubshylishersThe press has a nehvork of dis tr ibutors world wide includiJlg pa rtn erships with the University of
ew South Vales in Sydney and most importantly a longstanding relationship with Columbia Uni shyversity Press in the Unitcd States of
merica TIle maiJl objectives of the p ress
are fourfold Firstly it contrlbutes significantly to knowledge tTansfer and the dissemination of the resu lts f scholarly researcht also contribshy
utes Significantly to the education of uni1ersity students and others By Lllaintaining its position as the leading university press in Scotland it contributes to the dissemination of scholarly work in Scottish his shytory md other Scottish subjects and on contemporary Scottish issues Lastl y the presitige of the conpan) nhances the univerSitys reputashy
tion internationally through the acknowledged high quality of its publishing
The key objectiVes se t by the Trusshytees for the year were to increase th e to tal income of the Press through contill uing to publi sh high quality
books and subsequ ently increase the gross and net marg ins These overall objectives are supported by a nUJ11ber of detailed targets which are monitored by the Trustees on a regular basis
In its fifty ycar history Edinburgb Un iversity Press has achieved great
thi ngs From high prestige to high saJes repor ts the intern ationaJ sucshycess that tb e press is now enj oying was only to be expected Its great prestige is an honour for the comshypany and the University alike as the Press was undoubtedly made for success
9
eat Odessa in the middle Varvara Bashkirova reminds us of the personal consequences of history CATHERINE THE Great fou nded the city of Odessa in 1794 when she decided that a port on the Black Sea wouId be a wise in vestshyment She invited architects from all over the world and it resuIted in a beautiful southern citywith an extremely diverse populati on and culture- albeit mostly Russian As a new centre of culture and trade it soon became the fourth largest city in the Russian Empire
I was born here hut nowadays I cannot go to the cinema to watch a film in Russian nor can I listen to the radio in Russ ian and most cershytainly I wouId not be able to study in Russian How did this happen During my fath ers childhood he heard only Russian or Yiddish sposhyken on tbe streets He never spok Ukra inian I only learned it in school There were some Ukrainshyian programmes on television but they were not my favourites so living in the south of the country my contact with the language was lim ited to three hours a week
I rem ember the day a woman came to our school with a lecture about how great Ukraine is In itialshyly we did not pay her much attenshytion but as ber lecture grew more ridiculous my classmates could not help laughing She argued that Ukrainian is m OTe beautifu l than Russian-I still do not know how she measured tb at Wbat we loved the most was her earnest claim that Jesus was Ukrainian It was proved by the studies of a historian who clai med that Buddha was Ukrain shyian too It was the year we stopped learning Russian literature Gogol and Pushkin both of whom created some of their best works in Odessa were now considered to be foreign writers The best part was that we still studied them in our foreign litshyerature course but in translation whicb was much harder to undershystand than the original Russian
After that everythi ng changed quickly Our history teacher was forced to teach in Ukrainian under
th e threat of being fireQ She did n ot speak it having lived all her li fe in Odessa Before education was mostly in Uhtainian anyway but once it was forced we hated it
What happened to the cinemas was even more ridiculous By forcing the Russian population to speak Ukrainian the government made dozens of cinemas bankrupt As Vestern films had never been translated in to Ukrainian before it suddenly came to light that man modern words Simply didnt exshyist in Ukrainian But this did not stopthe patriots-they started inshyventing words It was so contrived that we went to the cinema once and ended up laugh ing all the way through
Additionally in science and techshynology Uk rainian is quite behind 111at is why l11y fr iend who is studshyying programming in Ukraine is always complaining- when writshying essays the words he needs to use simply do not exist t hey can not be found in any of the dictionshyaries
Southeast Ukraine with its proshyRussian attitude contrasts to the western part of th e country 20 per cent of the population in Lvov a western city have a negative opinion of Russia This is a result of history From 1919-1936 westshyern Ukraine was a part of Poland whilst the southeastern was part of Russia Western Ukraine more agricultural and rural than the east is where Ukrainian traditions and language have been strongly mainshytained Many of the southeastern cit ies on the contrary were and always have been Russian Crishy
mea is an obvious example haVing existed as a Russian territory si nce 1794 On 19 February 1954 it was transferred from the Soviet Unshyion to Ukraine as a gi ft I would imagine it was quite a surprise for the local population to move to a different cou ntry without realisshying Ukrainisation was much mor tangible there as 90 per cent of the Crimean populalion was Russian For iJ1stance they were not capashyble of watching Ukrainian films as they didnt kn ow the language In other words western Ukraine feels strong antipathy to the pro-Russian East for bei ng unpatriotic whilst eastern Ukraine feels the same to the anti-Russian West for imposing on them an alien language Most Easterners admit the necessi ty of knowing and do know Ukrainian However they also argue that they should be allowed to choose beshytween the languages
Such a sharpened situation can be partly explained by the constant changes in the government After the 2004 Orange Revolution remiddot lations with Russia significantly worsened thus reviving the bisshytorical confl ic t 111ere were fights on the streets and on the in terneL Friendships broke down over the issue This resonated deeply fo r Ukrain isation which had affected
so many in the east of Ukraine ow that the government has
changed to diametrically opposite sides by strengtl1ening relations with Russia it seems like people can not keep up to date with the number of ideological shifts that they are supposed to accept every four year~ The contlict rontinues to deepen as the government conshytinuously changes its stance havshying only balf of the nations support each time
I still visi t Odessa at least once a yea r Walking along tbe streets I can sense the tension between the t raditional and the in1posed It is felt in quotid ian things such as street Signs TIle em blem has cbanged but tbe beart of the cit) is still the same The city is its people who keep the culture of their anmiddot cestors I know it when I see flowshyers laid in front of the memorial to the Russian poet Alexander Pushshykin on his birthday They say To Pushki ll from the grateful citizens of Odessa as it was constructed in 1889 solely from citizens doshynations I know that Odessa like other southern ci ties can never bemiddot come truly Ukrainian as it retai ns too much of the historical and culshytural heritage it has received from Russia
Retrospect10
th b
THE 1707 Acts of Union have always been sources of great debate and the topics popularity is still present as the dlree hundred year old act continu to have repercussions today AltJlough the union of Scotland and England may seem inevitable wiLh hindsight Lhe lrum is Lhat it was an exLrnordi shynary alJiance Simon Schama could not have been more correct when he described it as one of the most astonshyishing trnnsformat ions in Ew-optan histori
cotland and England possess rich intertwining pasts Competition be it in commerce politics or warfare stemmed from the Mo nations cul shytural differences What could possibl)t give these two separate and tradishytionaUy competing naUons common ground upon which to unify There were three major fac tors involved religion external threats and circulllshylance
The 15005 saw sweeping change throughout Europe as the Reformashytion gained momentum creating an upsurge of turmoil thar would take well over a century to abate By the Uruon of the Crowns in 1603 both Scotland and England were largely Protstant countries though disashygreement over doctrine was fierce The Bishops Van of 1639 and 1640 are merely examples of th~ c()nflict that occurred anlongst Lhe various denominations Lhat considered themshyselves true Proteltants
OtherneSS as explorcd by Linda Colley gives us an inkling into Lhe
nattlrc of the second major factor behind unification Shc states that otllerness was defined as lin aversion to militant Catholicism or a hostile
ontinental European system or at its most basic level external threats
ilh Lhe common ground of religion and a shared monarchy Scotland and England were similar enough by 1707 to tee jOiJldy threatened by foreign powers Traditionally these other were Roman Catholics and seen as the natural enemy l1ljS however is a rather skewed view to take For examshyple tlle League ofAugsburg of which both Scotland and England were a ke part of in 1689 included the staunchly
tholic nations of Austria Portugal and the Holy Roman Empire yet the nations of Britain certainly profited from beiJlg a part of this aliiance
Resistance to foreign threats real or percehmiddoted also fostered idea~ of unitt amongst one very influential faction of society the military Scottish and English Regiments fought side b) side throughout the Low Couotries A1sace and the RhineJand in both the Nine Yeurs War and the War of the Span ish Succession not only earning respect for aile another but laying me founshydatioJlS of a British army years before tlle Union ac tua lly took place Whilst tlle Acts of Union officialI) merged Lhe Scottish and English arnlies they had actuaUy been fighting together [or decades Success of the twin nashytions when allied militarily would doubtless have smootJled tlle road to union especially when tlloughts
of Empire canle to the forefront Full political union can perhaps be seen a the next logical step yct circumstance would first need to take a hand in promiddot ceedings
It did so in the late 1690s Ihe Darshyien Scheme an attempt by Scotland to break into the world market by establishing a small trading colony 0 11
the Isthmus of Panama went hOrribly wrong The nation was left teetering on the brink of bankruptcy Memshybers of the Scots nobility were forced to petition the English Parliament in Westminster for finan cial aid and me whole debacle caused many of the ruling elite to believe that Scotland could never la) imperial foundations without aid [rom its (lId rival Even by tlle early 1700s Scotlands economy was shOWing little signs of recovering from the savage blow wiLh tvtichael Fry pointing out that in 1704 the nashytiOD remaincd backward and with no financial markets of its own
The deaLh of Scotlands global ambishytions and the severe damage dealt to its economy can UJcrefore be cited as among the primary short-term reashysons for the Un ion of 1707 VVilliam Fergusons 1964 paper unearthed tbe grave extent to which bribes had been accepted by Scottish noblemen in orshyder to help push tlle Union through Parliament It is undcniable tllat for some expediency took the place of pride
t Lhe same time it would be a misshytake to believe that only Lhe Scots noshybles were responsible for selling their
country for English gold as Burns would have US believe Christopher A vVhatleys Scots rlrld the Unioll arshygues that this point does not stand up to close scrutiny nor does the argushyment that Scots bargained away their Parliament for free trade The bouts of insurrection throughout Scotland which fi) lImved in the inlmcdiate wake oflhe Union including the infamous exccutions of two English sailors 0 11
trumped up charges of pm cy would have been conSiderably more grievous had there truly been no support fix the move amongst the lower d Many of tlle more fa mous first-hand accounts such as those of Daniel Deshyfoe state d early that the vast majority of the nation was against the idea of Union Yet Whatleys detailed study of numerous smaller primary accounts shows surprising apathy amongst many commentators that proves true or at least militant anti- Un ionist senshytiment was not in the dear majority in Scotland at the time of the Union
The Acts of 1707 therefore can surely be remembered as amongst tile most unusual Union~ to have taken place in European history Scotland and EnghUld though they had many similarities were stiUlargely au tonoshymous nations before May 1707 It took a century of religious and poshylitical upheaval numerous external mreats and misfortune on a national scale to not only pave tlle wa) but acshytually bring about the Union It was a omplex rich and fascinating event
which provides us witll one of the
~
11
RAT HER LI KE th l m arri age of the owl and the pussycat the civil part shynership between Scotlan d and Engshyland seemed an unlikely union at the bme of its inau guration 1n 1707 Lord Bel havells remark - Theres ane end to an c auJd sang - seems to capture the sense of loss o cca shysioned by the termil1ltion of Scotshyti sh indep endence How d id someshything SO unpopular at birth survive for so long The slow evolution of tl11 Union deserves some attention
The Un ited Ki ngdom of 170 7 was augmented in ]SO ] wi th the ad shydition of the island oj Irehu1d In 1922 after over a century of unshyhappy relations Ireland was part ishytioned and only six of th e thi rtyshytwo counties remained as par t of a r(branded Uni ted Kingd om of Great Britain and Northern Ireshyland In its various incarnations the Un ion is now an auld sang and its melo dy may be more dHncult to forget than is ofte11 assumed
If Scotlan d is no t qUite an addishytionaJ county of England there are more similarities and links than Jllany are prepared to contemplate There has been a massive moveshyment of people in both directions
between Scotland and England The English in Scotland and the Scots in Englan d have integrated m ore seamlessly than aDY other min ori ty in either host society There ha ve been outbu rsts of S(Oshytophobia but the) have not proved to be a central fea ture of the Anshyglo-Scotti sh relati onship and the same can be said for Anglophoshybia Scotland bems a greater deshygree of Similarity to England than any ot her comparator Although th is m ay be a partial product of the Union it would not be quickly altered by furth er const itut ional chan ge even ren ew ed Scottish in dependence In deed if Scotshylands eighteenth and ni ncteenth cent ur y history cannot ent ir ely be ex plained by reference to events of l707 the Union has increasingly left its impressjon on the twentieth cen tu ry - the Welfare State might be an even grea te r symbol of the Union th an th e British Empire
Much recent comment about the Union has been peSSimistic and has sought reasons for its apparshyen tly likely demise an event wh ich inconveniently has not ye t taken place Despite d evolut io n perhaps
even despite the advent of an SN P ad ministration in Holyrood this may be the w rong question It is tbe longevity rather than the frashygil ity of th e Anglo-S cottish Un ion which reqUires explanation 1 his is not to say th at the Union m ay nol flo under in tbe [uture perh aps even the ncar future Histor ians are no to riously ba d at peering into th e future but one can confi dently p reshydict the outbreak o f a fierce debate between those who will argue that the inh erent features of the Un ion sowed the seeds of its destruction over a long period an d others who will contend that the sundershying of th e Union can be found in the consequences of the political divergence between Scotlan d and
nglaJ1d since 1979 Vha tever happens to the Union it is vital that we do not fabricate a sense of denjal about deep-sealed and longshys tan ding Scott ish enth usiasm for it
Ewen Cameron is H ead of H istory at Edinb urgh University Hi s book Impaled on a Thistle Scot la nd sil ce 1880 was released earl ier this year
A strange survival As a special feature Ewen Cameron provides a scholars perspecshytive on th e endurance Great Britain and the Acts of the Union
12 Retrospect
THE COLD War caused the worlds superpowers to forge some of h isto rys m ost unlikely of unshyions O ne such union was thaI of the USA with the leader of South Vietnam from ]954 to 1963 Ngo Dinh Diem and one that was arshyguably the first step on the path to full-scale American military in shyvolvement in Vietnam
Following Fr ances withdrawal from Indochina in 1954 Vietnam was divided in two along the 17th Parallel with Ho Chl Minhs C omshymuni sts ruling the North and the French sponsored democracy in the South with nation al elections planned for 1956 to reunite the COUlltry Fearful of communism the Eisenhower administration threw their support behind the staunchly anti -communist Diem in the bope that he would form a strong government that would be sympathetic to America The union would end almost a decade later in t he most ignominious of ways
At fi rs t there seemed to be several good reasons to suppor t Diem he was zealously anti-communist but aho exceedingly nationalistic and anti-French m aking it easier for the Americans to support h im without contradicting the if own an ti-imshyperialist rhetor ic He had travelled widely in the US an d had expressed a desire to work with Americans to build a new Vietnam
However from the start it was eVident that Diems belief in democracy was dubious as he stead fastly refu sed to conform to American political ideals The US
had entered th e two world wars to in President Woodrow Wilsons wor ds make the world safe fo r deshymocracy wh ilst the conflict wi th the Soviet Union was defi ned by Americas beUef in democracy and capitalism The US expounded the ideals of democracy over the tyranshynies o f authori tarian govern ment Diem refused to m ake democratic refo rms in his country
1 hen D iem took power he faced a bar rage of problems an undershydeveloped and antiquated gove rn shymental infras tructu re with staff who lacked experience in adminisshytmtion a country ravaged by war an immat ure agricult ural econoshymy With US help Diem thwarted several attempted coup detats in th e first year of his presidency An even bigger test of Diems leadershyship arrived in 1955 willl the Sec t Crisis where the mllitarised sects the Cao Dru the Hoa Hao and the Vletnamese Mafia the Binh Xu)rshyen joined forces to wage wllr on the government in Saigon Diem looked to be lOsing control and at one point US Ambassador to Vishyetnanl General Coll ins convinced Eisenhower that Diem should be removed A m iraculous and unshyexpected victory agrunst the Binh Xuyen ensured Diem stayed in
power and retained American supshyport Encouraged by the American delight at this victory Djem began to consolidate his power
W hen D iem rehlsed tJ) par ticipat e in the scheduled na tional election s to reunite the two Vietnams the US supported Il is decis io n to do so effectively ensu ring tb e long term separation between South and Nor th Vietnam The popular ity of the Communist leader Ho Chj Mi nh meant he would have swept these elections causing the US to forego their politi cal beliefs
With Diem established the US proceeded to pour rud in to his regime with $ 1 bill ion spent on economic and m ilitary assistance between 1955-1 961 Diems govshyernment squandered the aid refusshyin g to refo rm the army and governshyment to fit a democratic model
vThilst Diem prud li p service to the Am ericans democratic deshym ands reform vas always an illushyion D iem and rus three brothers
con trolled bot h the exec utive and the legi sla tive branches of govern shym enl - dissenters were immediateshyly pu rged Diems poli cies towards the villages d isregarded centu r ies of tradition and in dependence stirring up deep discon tent Any expression of th is was dealt with as George Herring puts it in a man shyner that would have made J Edgar H oover blanch as thousands of dissidents were incarcerated in reshyeducation centres Such was the USs fear of communism that they turned a bli nd eye to these arroci shyt ies
Alex Thomson explores the ideological sacrifices of Americas Vietnam policy
Better the Diem you know
In 1960 the new Kennedy adshyminis tration inherited the commitshyment to Diem and with Kennedys pledges to get tough itwould have been impossible to withdraw supshyport for Diem and so the governshyUen t increased th e aid to stabilise h im whils t begging him ineffectu shyally to refo rm Most Americans at this time could
not have even located Vietnam on a map but the issue was forced in to the nations consciousness ill May 1963 with th e Buddh ist Cri shysis A devout Catholic Diem had oppressed the Buddhist majority of the countr) Protests in the city of Hue saw government troops fire into the crowd killing a number of protestors sparking widespread reaction around South Vietnam cu lmin ating in the n otorious selfshyim molations of Buddhist monks which h it headlines worldwide
ot only was Diem embarrassshying the American government on the in ternational stage but with the disastrous defeat at Ap Bac in January 1963 it became increasi ngshyly apparent that Diem was also an ineffectual bulwark against comshymunism a fac t compounded by Diems covert attempts to negotiate a settlemen t wi th Ho Chi Min h After the Budd hist Crisis several generals of the South Vietnamese army approached tlle US Ambasshysador in Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge Jr about US reachons to a military coup Convinced that the war against communism in Vietshynam co uld not be won with Diem as leader Lodge replied that wruJs t they would not support a coup they would do nothirlg to oppose it effectively signing Diems death warrant Thus on November 1st 1963 the generals successfully deposed Diem who was then brushytally murdered in the back of a van after seeking sanctuary in a Cathoshylic church
President Kennedy said that ~iem is Diem and hes the best weve go This is an accurate swnshymary of the unlikely alliance beshytween D iem and the US Authorishytarian and despotic Diem was ana thema to the American polit ishycal system but it was ironical]y the USs fear of another foreign politi shycal system on the left that caused them to create so unlikely an allishyance
13
Practical impiety Hamish Kinnear discusses the unthinkshyable Franco-Ottoman Alliance of 1536
IN 1536 an alliance was finalised that was met with disbelief and disgust throughout Europe The union of France and the Ottoman Empire against their mutual enshyemy - Charles V - was the first alshyliance between a major Christian and nnn-Christian power since the crusades
Europe was on the verge of great change at the outset of the sixshyteenth century The introduction of gunpowder was revolutionisshying warfare and the printing press enabled the distribution of mateshyrial opposed to the ruling elite The fiercely anti-derical speeches of Martin Luther and his sympashythisers initiated the Reformation destroying the medieval idea of a united Christendom with the Pope as its nominal head Increasshyingly European states began to act in their own interests and ignored ing the legitimacy of Islam Pracshy common knowledge an alliance the purpose of defence as opposed
the demands of the pope Four ticality however often triumphs with the Great Turk was not only to a specifically offensive crusade
great historical figures also came over ideology unlikely it was unthinkable Henry VIII of England struck a
to the fore in the early 16th centushy Interestingly both Francis I and The alliance however held blow to Christian unity by breakshy
ry Henry VII of England Francis Charles V had argued that if they benefits for both parties France ing away from the papal authorshy
I of France Charles V of Spain and became Holy Roman Emperor for was given an ally that posed a seshy ity and establishing the Church of
Suleiman the Magnificent of the they were both candidates for the rious threat to Charles V for the England allowing his marriage to
Ottoman Empire The stage was elective office they would lead a Ottoman Empire of Suleiman the Anne Boleyn The greatest atrocshy
set for a conflict that involved all Crusade against the Great Turk Magnificent was at the height of ity occurred when the underpaid
the major powers of Europe one This promise invoked a desire to its power Fresh from victory over and mutinous troops of Charles
in which the French were the fi rst return to the perceived Christian the Egyptian Mamluke Sultanate V in the search of plunder sacked
to realise that the days of a united unity of the Middle Ages where Suleiman wished to make himself Rome and imprisoned the Pope
medieval Christendom were over the nations of Europe allied to Caesar of Europe An alliance with This event more than anything take back the Holy Land After the French was in the interests of else signified the demise of medishyCharles V took the title however the Ottomans as it provided them eval Christendom In this atmosshyFrancis wasted no time in declarshy with a military partner and a finshy phere of widespread anti-papal ing war on his fellow Christian ancier to help invade Hapsburg feeling the France-Ottoman allishynation The subsequent invasion lands More importantly for Suleishy ance comes as less of a surprise of Italy ended in disaster for the man the alliance kept the states of The impious alliance of the French at the Battle of Pavia durshy Christian Europe divided French and Ottomans then does ing which Francis I was captured not seem so scandalous when
By 1519 France was in despershy by the forces of Charles V To seshy placed in the context of its time
ate need of allies The domain of cure his release from prison Franshy However it should come as no
the Hapsburg ruler Charles V who cis was forced to sign the humillishy surprise that it was received in
had inherited the rule of both the ating Treaty of Madrid in which this negative fashion There was
Spanish Empire and the Holy Roshy he renounced his claims to Italy evidently a form of European
man Empire almost surrounded Flanders and Burgundy Charles nostalgia for the days of the Crushy
the French Kingdom of Francis I V had risen to unrivalled power in sades in which Christendom was
The French also had to deal with Europe united in a common cause even
Henry VIIIs England whose arshy During Franciss imprisonment though the military expeditions to
mies still remained in Normandy the French court had sent a deleshy Despite the reactions of horror the Holy Land had only been seshy
and coffers funded Charles milishy gation to the court of Suleiman the to the Franco-Ottoman alliance riously pursued centufies before
tary expeditions To the French Magnificent to discuss a treaty of that were evident throughout Eushy Francis Is alliance with the Otshy
advantage a new power was rising friendship These talks resulted in rope the actions of other Christian tomans was a stark indicator that
in the East The Ottoman Empire an alliance that was met with disshy rulers could hardly be considered the Crusader days were long past
of Suleiman the Magnificent was belief and disgust by the other Eushy pious If a pious ruler was one War from then on became comshy
expanding through the Balkans at ropean states Charles V began a who acted for the unity of Chrisshy mon between Christian States as
an alarming rate and posed a great vitriolic campaign of propaganda tendom engaged in crusading a means to maintain the balance
threat to the domains of Charles against the French deeming the activities and respected both the of power or achieve superiority
V Yet an alliance with this major union the sacrilegious union of temporal and spiritual power of in Europe Christendom was finshy
Islamic power was still considered the Lily and the Crescent Indeed the Pope then Charles V and Henshy ished The unlikely Franco-Ottoshy
blasphemous by the kingdoms of given that Francis had strongly ry the VII failed on all these reshy man Alliance however lasted for
Europe as by acknowledging the supported a crusade against the quirements Admittedly Charles V centuries
existence of the Ottoman Empire Ottomans a pretence he mainshy spent much of his life fighting the
the French were in effect accept- tained even after the pact became Ottomans but this was more for
14 Retrospect
c e Old Ship of Zion Catherine Me Gloin examines a widely forgotten aspect of American History THE STRUGGLE for AfricanshyAmerican rights iJl the United States is a long and contested road Ve are repeatedly exposed to narratives that stress key leaders and religious f1 gureshyheads Arguably no discourse would be complete without an analysis of tbe role of MartiQ Luther King Jr the decisions of th e Supreme Court or tbe varying levels of comm itment that each president expressed throughout this tuibulent ruld mythologised peshyriod in Americ1l history
However one element of the strugshygle for bLack dvil rights that has been often underplayed in popular accounts increasingly based on bioshygrap hical and oral testimony is the role of the new labour movement during the 19305 and J94Ds In the
space bern the post-World far red scare a reactionary phenomenon that disabled socialism as a tool for social advancement bl1Ck unjonisID 3Jld potentially the Communist Party ofshyfered African-Ameri cans a wllque opportunity to unite to fight oppresshysion Unionism offered the poorest black workers a political voice one they fel t was [[lUted by elite middleshyclass civil rights organisations such as the NAACP [n this respect the Communist Party can be considered as a viable alternative for some groups within tll euro civil rights movement and as a suitablevehide for civil rights adshyvancemel1t
The h istory of black organh ed lashybour in the South has only begun in the last thirty years to receive du attention in the historiography of American labour movements gainshying increasing recogni tion from lashybour and social historians Perhaps it has traditionally been ampi de-lined because of an ideological aversion to socialism deeply ingrained into the American psyche Alternatively its diminished prominence may be explained by the compl~ities of periodisation It is commonly acshyknowledged by maIl) h istorians who dorninate the field of civil rights that the movement characterised by cross-national di rect action began in the late 19505 Morc specifically the
birth of the movement is often seen as a consequence of the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and the Brown decision of the Supreme Court the plevious year Thus any event which pre-dates tJlis revered trajectory is generally dismissed as a pre-requisite and subsequently garshyners less attention than it perhaps warrants The widening of industrial w1ionism to Southern blacks during the first half of the twentieth century has traditionally been treated as a pre-cursor yet it deserves a more prominent position not only for the wider organ isational implications it held flr the development of the llovement but as acknowledgement afits improbable success
N l an alysis of labour Qrganisation and class structure amongst the varyshying groups active in the civil rights m ovement serves to convey what is often lost til e tight for equality was not solely [ought by biack elites or enlightened whites but poor workshying class African-Americans a1SQ
played a leading role These groups although united in th eir cause did not un iformly a gree at every stage but could be divided by societal catshyegQries other than race
It is important to note that the Southern labour force were distincshytive in their anti-union tradition Even as organised labour became increasingly entrencbed in the North (following the National Labour Relashytions Act 1935) the South as Robert Zieger argues rem ained an anti-lashybour island Much of the historiogshyraphy stresses the traditionally Ilostile relationship between organised lashybour and African-Americans Meier
and Bracey assert that blacks were susp icious of wlions who typically discriminated against them Thus unionism was seen as the tool of white racist workers rather than the site of tenlpered racial Ultagonisms in the hce of a common adversary shyexploitative industries The American Federation of Labour (AFL) supportshyed craft unions that created raCially exd usive iobs often driving blacks from secured employment opportushynities in order to give them to unemshyployed whites A symptom of segreshygateJ society this was lot a qUEstion of education more a simple fUllction of the caste system in operation in the South that largely kept black labour unorgnnised yet was held as a necessishyty for business prosperity Any efforts towards unionisatioJ1 were usuall thwarted by employer intimidation police brutality or deep-rooted susshypicions of unions Moreover a cheap and ready supply of white and black vmrkerswn ited the power of strike action African Americans had been used as strike-breakers ill the heavy industries for decades
However the 19305 heralded the widening of labour organisation in part a response to post-World War I migration to northern industrial cities persistent inequalit ies within some of the New Deal programmes and the devastating financial impact of the Great Depression which was disproportionately felt by black workshyers Therefore it may be argued that the erosion of the distinctive union free character of Southern labour had begun
Attitudes towards labour organ ishysa60n shifted during the 1930s This may havc been a consequence of a more general swing to the left durshying the period as evidenced by the re-alignment of the black vote away from thc RepUblicans tovards the Democrat Party Mkhael Honey main tains that the late 1930s and early 1940$ promised huge change a consegum ce of war industrialisation and unionisation The founding of organisations such as the Congress of Industrial Organ isations (CIO) point
Lo increased co-open t-ion between Souther wh ite and black workers ruld an albeit temporary shift away from the attitudes of the segregation era
he CIO was born out of the hardshyships of the depression years and its inter-racial organising strategy crul be ccn as cridence ofa morc co-operashy
tive approach to labour organisat ion than is tradi tiol)ally given credit in the historiography Ihe CTO sought African -American recruits and fo shycussed its unionisiog efforts on secshytors with large black work forces such as steel and meatln their promotion of inter-racial un ionism such orshyganisatiom acted lts a bridge between the black community and white workers although this function was more successful in the North where African-Americans he1d a limited degree of political and economic power Bi-raciaJ unionism provided the philosophy of equal rights as well as the means to augment ~ocial conditions and alter the relationship between worker and boss a source of daily oppression in the lives of many black workers For African-Amerishycan labour this was a great step toshywards achieving social and economic equality
However no unionising organisashytion was free from tht constraints of racist social customs particularly in the SQuth where ero union leaders would rather capitulate to opposition tJ1an lose members and where white workers continuously strove to asshysert their superiority over their black colleagues In many ways the CI achieved their initial economic goals and succeeded by 1940 in persuadshying whites to join and work alongside African-Americans However they failed to farce white elites to accept black demands for an end to racial wage differences Nonetheless allishyances between black and white workshyers civil r ights groups and left-Wing New Dealers had been established benefitting the African-Anlerican struggle against economic discrimishynation
11le influence of the left was evident
15
in the leading unions thal were also committed to equality like the CIO as well as the United Packinghouse Workers of America who organised meatpackers in Chicago and Texas Whilst these unions engaged a lot of black workers as members they also had a significant communist pres shyence The impact of the Communist Party and its role in intluencing both inter-racial unionism and the civil rights movement is a contentious isshyue Their rhetoric and its evolution
from calls for a separate Black Reshypublic to talk of a more united-front is an area that provokes much conshytroversy Was it conceived in order to subvert labour organisations directly or to control them from behind the scenes Alternatively a cynical iew of the motivations behind Commushynist Part) involvement can be temshypered The Part) recognised the revshyolutionar y potential of industrial and agricultural workers and thereforc called for African- American sclfshydetermination as a strategy whereby white American acceptance of blacks right to self-government was the goal Thus white workers would be able to conquer their raci sm and a united working class would result
Traditional interpretations sugshygest that unionism was treated with
hostility by all blacks we must not be blind to tlle differences amongst the black community and the fact tbat they were far from a homogshyenous group hils the Communist Party becanle the rivals of the black elite arld middle-class organisations such as the NAACI~ the poor black working class were attracted to the ideology and the Party in incrcasing numbers throughout tlle depression and during the New Deal era degThey prOided the black working classes with an alternative vehicle for social protest Furthermore communism introduced many blacks to world politics enabling them to place their own struggle in a global context demonstrating the roots of poverty and ra05m
This educated the non -reading classes and gave them a sense of pride something many fel t was deshynied to them by tlle black eli tes of the
AACP whom it has been argued had unwisely assumed a pastoral poshysition as spokesperson for all blacks Moreover the Party challenged both white supremacy and the bourgeOiS politics of the black mjddle-class A Philip Randolph - considered a sooalist and largely hailed as the spokesman for black workers after his success with the Pullman porshy
ters of the 1920s and thc recogni tion of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters by tbe A FL in 1937 - attacked WE B Du Bois and the NAACP for neglecting the needs of the AfricanshyAmerican in favour of bourgeois inshyterests Fostering an atmosphere of debate and discussion communism helped to educate and empower the black working-classes For the black elites it was an unwelcome SQurce of agitation as communists began to enter into the realm of black bourshygeois politics Thus support for the Communist Party divided civil rights campaigners and highlighted undershylying class antagoni~m
The involvement of the commushynist-led ILD in the trial of the Scottsshyboro boys demonstrates the resentshyments and the growing frustrat ion with the NAACP and other black middle-class organisations Failure to secure Significant federal anti -lynchshying legislation ineffective in helping desperate blacks devastated by the depression and limited by thei r OWll political powerlessness ill the face of economic decline amongst tllCir own elite members the NAACPs imposhytence was made apparent during the 1931 Scottsboro boys trial In Alashybama nine black men aged thirteen to n ineteen were charged with the
rape of two while women travelling on the san1e train as them and were tried convicted and sentenced to death in three days WhcU1C~r or not the IlD simply offered their support and advice or they ID U$cled in with shrill bravado their involvement earned the Com mullist Party black support
They were portrayed as defenders of the race whilst wltites chose to view them as outsiders and defendshyers of rapists
Interpretations of communisms impact on the Qjl rights moveshyment during the 1930s var y II may be maintained tllat membership to the Party and adherence to commushynist ideology was limited ultim ateJy most blacks wanted to work within the American system and reap any benefits accrued hy the programmes of the New Deal Africall-Americaru were comm itted to these me3iur and Similarly to Presiden t Roosevelt fe-clec ting him for a th ird term in 1940 Thus communism was a marshyginal force that many blocks chose to
ignore as a vehid c for social protest However it is important to recognise
its significance in the Lives of many African-Americans who for the first time were organised in to tradeullions on relatively equal terms t() those of their whil-e co-workers and were able to understand their $truggle through the framework of a shared commushynist ideology Communists fo rmed the central pillar to trade un ion acshytivism and 0 0 inter-raciali sm This new socialism in the barber shop a broadened ID1d popular sense off self empowered many black vOrkers to fight against economic and social disshycrimination in a way that seemed to
speak more directly to them and their social s tanding than the rhetoric esshypoused by the black-bourgeoisie
Bibliograpby
Leslie H Fishel Jr The Negro and dle New Deal in Twentieth Ce1ltury America Recent Interpretations ed Bernstein and Matusow (1 972)
Robert H Zieger (eei) Orgal ised Labour in the TWeIIlielh Centw y Soulh (1991)
Robin DG Kelley Hammer and Hoe Alabama Conlllllmists During the Great Depression (l990)
16 Retrospect
OFfEN OVERSHADOWED by the tumultuous events that were to weep Europe in the late 19305 and
194Ds the Spanish Civil War (1936shy1939) remairu a pivotal moment in twentieth century European history TIle conflict divided families towns and polarised political opinion across the continent and beyond It resulted in an estimated 500000
deaths and witnessed the establishshyment of a Fascist dictatorship in Spain under General Franco which ould last for almost forty years
The conflict has been a fruitful jeC of historical scholarship and many explanations as to why the fragile democracy of the Second Reshypublic collapsed have been offered Did the RepublJcaJlS Lose because of a lack of fo reign support given to them but that the Nationalists were lucky to receive or was their defeat a result of the weakness of Republican mili tias oin the face of the discipline of the Spanish army
In order to ascertain which if eishy
ther of the aforementioned suggesshytions WdS most significan t it is imshyportant to examine the patchwork of ideologies that the Popular Front composed of the Marxlst POU1vl (Partido Obrero Unification Marxshyista) Socialist UGT (Union General de Trabajores) Communist PSU (PartitSocialiSta UnificalCatalwlya) and Anardllst CNT (Conf-ederacion
acional del Trabajo) Furthermore the effect of foreign intervention on relations within the National Front and upon the contlict asa whole must be taken into consideration
From the outset it would be fai r to suggest that the Republicans lacked the same opportunities as the Nashytionalists The material support offered by the Soviet Union WJS
ultimately to be a hindrance insofar as it catalysed factionalism within the National Front In the opposite camp Adolf Hitler was in reality not much more supportive of the Nationalists than foseph Stalin had been of the Republicans and it is likeshyly that he like Stalin merely wanted the war to continue as a distraction for the estern democracies Argushyably it was MUSSOWlis support that would be key to the Nationalist side He was adan1ant that the emergence of another Fascist state on the model of Italy could only be to his political advantage As it turns out Italy reshyceived relatively little in return from Franco after the war
Despite the fact that the Repuhlishycans were on the side of the legally elected government they were necr allowed to purchase arms from the major suppliers The United States was pursuing a policy of non-inshytervention after World War I and
Britain and France followed suit re1 uctant to upset the political stashybili) of Europe at the time It was decided that neither side would be given military aid under the NODshyIntervention Pact However this pact was then widely and blatantly flaunted by the dictatorships of Eu shyrope Italy Germany an d the Soviet Union The purchasing of foreign arms was poli tically charged as it was tantamount to subscription to the ideology of the dictatorship that was selling them TIle fact that only the Fascist dictatorships of Europe and the USSR were willing to so brashy
j zenly ignore the Non-Intervention pact was to have an enormous imshypact within the Spanish Left as will be later discussed
The aid of the Soviet Union was useful to the Republican cause insoshyfar that the weapons they provided were far superior to any the Republishycans already Pc)ssessed whilst Soviet aircraft were used for reconnaissance missions which were central to the militias military tactics However the weapons were not given to all parties within the Popular Front but were directed at only a handful Mostly they were given to the Socialists of the UCT and tlle Communists of the PSUC which stirred discontent amongst the other parties who were using old and inferior weaponry to that of their fellow comarades
The Civil War polarised Span isJ political discourse into those who were opposed to Francos regime and those who were not The Republican fOrces therefore contained many disparate political groups from moderate republicans to Anarchists Trotskyites and Stalinists Conseshyquently the Soviet aid exacerbated internal tensions within the Republishycan forces between the loosely assoshyciated left wing political groups The acceptance of Soviet weapons was a dangerous move as it allowed the access of agents of the Couummist Party of Soviet Russia into Spanish affairs someth ing that was to prove decisive in the outcome of the war
The Spanish Civil War was a conflict which could be referred to as a battle between reactionary forces of conshyservativism and progressive revolushytionaries Though many have claim ed that the Nationalists were fasc ists British Titer George Orwell who was fighting in Spain at the time along side the Republicans wrote of the Nationshyalists that their ideology was closer to that of feudalism The Nationalists were composed chiefly of members of the army members of the clergy and leaders of international business all united in their common distrust of the working classes Their victory in the war would certainly jeopardise the livshying conditions and dghts of working class people resulting in the deterIorashytion labour relations a Catholic crackshydown of secularism and the army would suppress any dissent
In contrast to the Nationalists clarshyity oJ goals the Republicans seemed to all be working towards different ends TIle objectives of moderate reshyforming socialists and the Anarchist
NT were very difficult to reconshycUe Furthermore the Soviet belief in a revol utionary vanguard instigatshying and leading the proletariat was at odds with populist movements such as Anarchism that took hold in Spain With such differences in polshyicy it is hard to envisage what could force these parties to work together for any length of time
Part of the problem with compreshyhending the Spanish Civil War comes from the spectrum of ideologies within the broad alliance of the Reshypublican forces The ideologies were further apart than could be counteshynanced and particularly so after the Conununist Party decided to impose itself upon the revolution that the Marxists and Anarchists were trying to fashion themselves in Barcelona In his book Hom age to Catalonia Orwell describes Barcelona Practically eveshyry building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists Every shop md cafe had an inscription saying it had been collectivised even the bootblacks had been collectivised md their boxes painted red and blacK The extent of the social change seems almost hyshyperbolic particularly when O rwell stresses that even the bootblacks were part of a trade union The Comshymunist Party however was to disrupt this workers paradise in May of j 937 with the attempted repossesshysion of a telephone exchange that was under Anarchist control 111is sparked a conflict that lasted several days and threatened the stability of the entire Republic General Franco who said he planned it after the Communists
ran newspaper stories blaming the Marxists for starting the fight used disunity in Barcelona to his own ends Being the largest party with the most well-developed press organisations the Communists managed to direct the aftermath of the situation and use it to discredit a competing party Disunity among the Republican side flourished as the AnarclUsts caught on to the Communist attempts to discredit the ]vIandst faction Though they were not persecuted to the same extent though their collectives were broken up to increase efficiency they realised thal they were fighting for
mebody who was n ot sympathetic of their ideology and who tney could not trust The Republican t~1Ctions
vigour started to deteriorate after the May Days riot of 1937
One might ask the question why did the Conununists try and reposshysess an Anarchist building It would be naive of them to assume they could take it vithout a fight unless they disregarded the fact that all Anarshychist doctrine of the em was against government coercion It bardly seems that there might be any great gains in taking one building even if it did allow Anarchists to eaesdrop on telephone conversations The sudden megaloshymania of the Communists seems to have sprung from advice given by the Communist Party of Soviet Russhysia The tactical value of the telephone exchange was not worth risking the integIity of the Republican coalishytiDn The PSUCs party line that At present nothing matters but vinning the war is especially telling
Arguably it was the fragile alliance of circumstance within the Republishycan movement exacerbated by Soviet Aid that only reached certain fuctions wbicb resulted in the collapse of the Spanish Republic Though the weapshyOIlS helped fOT a while they could not Sllstain an entire nation with the limishytations placed upon their deployment Anarchists did not trust the help of Soviet Russia and neither did they trust the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain or any of its regional counshyterparts Tnere were other culprits howeveJ in the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic
It would be wrong to suggest that disWlity on the part of the Republi shycans was all that preven ted them from victor)l The wider European context of the conflict was also fundamenshytal in the collapse of the Republican Movement Gen11any and Russia nevshyer gave sufficient help to either side to let it decisivel) win at any pace but it appears that both used the war to their own advantage Germany tested out their bombers on Spanish tovms such as Guernica and the Soviet Union
17
used the war as a distraction while it increased its level of militarization
In conclusion then the conmct polarised Spanish political discourse around the two totalitarim cxtrerrtishyties of Fascism and Stalinism This resulted in an internally divided and factionalised Republicm force which struggled to retain its integrity in the fuce ofa destructive internal feud The feud was sparked b) the actions of an externalgovernment hence it ccruld be argued that the collapse of tbe second republic was was more to do vith the international context of the conflict as it provided both the ex1rem e ideolohY and the cause of fTiction vithin the Republican movement
BibUography
Qmell George Orwell hi Spain (Penshyguin London2001)
Thomas Hugh The Spanish Civil War 4th edition (Pellguin London 2003)
Beevor Anthony The Battlefor SpainThe Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (WampN London 2006)
Taylor AJP The OrigirtS of the Second World War (Penguin London 1991)
18 Retrospect
Sh may be the Reason Frances Rromagc explores the often overlooked contribution of female scientists during the Enlightenment
FOR MANY centuries befo re the seventeenth Aristotles concepshytion of the bod y and the mind as insepa rable matte r domin ated Western thinking It was used to justify the subjugation of wom en and their subsequent excl us ion from so -called masculine activi shyties
Anatomical differen ces and hormonal systems provi ded new rationales for keeping women below men in the intellectual hishyerarchy Chauvinism expressed it self in every walk of life from religi on and education to science and medicine Even the common shyest of medical symptoms such as nerVOllsness irritability and loss of appetite for foo d or sex were generally diagnosed in women as the result of female Hysteria - a problem deriving from the hysshytna or uterus Science which explored the worl d outside the domestic sphere remai ned an ex shyclusively masculine discipline up until the eighteenth cent ury
Then came th e Enlightenment Enlightenment philosophers were infl uenced by Descartes theori es on critical thinking and Lock es empir icism and as a conseshyqu ence adopted a new approach to learn ing one which promoted free in te ll ectual inquiry and reshyjecled the influence of the state an d religion Despite the moveshyments vast scope few topics were as vigorously discussed as the subject of female education T he changing conception of the mind as no longer constrained by physical attributes opened a new conception of the mind as a sex shyless entity Therefore wom ens education became the subject of m uch debate in polite society spurring contribut ions from feshymale and male thinkers on both sides of the discu ss ion Womens access to scientific knowlcdge proved particularly controversial as it cha llenged a long-established perception of womens role as lim shyited to the domain of domestic ity
owhere has thi ~ challenge been so eloquently pu t as in words of British poet Elizabeth Toilet in her 1724 her poem Hypatia What cruel Laws depress the female KindTo humble Ca res and servile Ta sks confild That haughty Mall IIllriFald and alone May boast the world or Science all his owwl As barbarous Tyrants to secure their Sway Conclude that ignorallce will best obey
Whilst men may have been harbarous tyrants and attempted to clamp down on womens parshyticipation in scientific disciplines lu ckily th ey were not entirely suc shycessful in doing so History proshyvides LI S with a few precious exshyamples l1f women who refused to bow to blind ignorance and tbus su cceeded in rising above amashyteur status to become serious conshytributors to the field of scient ific knowledge
Of these the only one about whom much contemporary inshyformati o n as well as a substanshytial body of original writings has survived is Emilie Marquise du Chatelet She is most famous for having been Voltaires mistress but in fa ct this does great injusshytice not only to he r independent character but also to her intellecshytual brilliance and considerable sc ientific contribution hilst she remain ed all bu t inv isible to histo rical aCCo wlts before her asshysociation with Voltaire in 1733 during tJ1e next fifteen years of her life she proved herself a worshythy match to the brilliant French philosopher Living mainly in Pa rh or in her country estate at Cirey to where she retreated with Voltaire she wrote and published a book on the metaphysics of natshyural science (institutions de physhysique) an essay on the nature of fire and neat (pisserta tion sur la nature ct propagation du feu) and two short pieces on the problem of melsu ri ng physical force She also co- authored anonymously Voltaires popularisation of Newshytoni an physic s for which she was resp onsi bl e for most of th e mathshyematical calculations an d to top her numerous achievements in 1748 she produced a translation of Newtons PrincipiI mathemati shyca with a commentary which was published posth Wll ously and is sti l1 used as the standard translashy
tion of h is work in France today In 1835 th e Royal Astro nomical
Society in London made a breakshythrough by awarding honorar y m~mbership to a woman Caroshylin e Herschel She became famous for her discove ry o f ncw nebu lae in 1783 (Androme da and Cetus) and for bei ng the fi rst woman to di scover a comet In hOnOltr of Herschel the SOCiety made what was perhaps the fi rst sta temen t on equal opportuuities in science While tests of astronomi cal merit sho uld in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to th ose of a man the sex of the former shou ld no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acshyknowledgement wh ich might be hel d due to the latter But whi lst modem biographers have used these numerous firsts to turn Caroline Herschel in to a female icon of sci ence it is importan t to note that she wa~ rewarded not for her own discoveries but beshycause she recorded compi led and recalc ulated th ose of her brother vVilliam Herschel
The very natu re of he r brothers research concen trated on collectshying and classif)Ti ng large numb ers of stars and in th is Ca rolines cataloguing skills were of ceotral importanc e Lacking her pati en ce and meticul ous att ention to deshytall he became heavily reliant on her sci enti fi c inpu t Therefo re her im portance in her brothers research was far greater than most of their contemporaries realised yet she never theless allowed her efforts to further his reputation
Finally th e faScinating case of Laura Bassi (1711-177S) shows how some rare women were able to forge thems elves a career in scientific fields during the En shylightenm ent Bassi was gifted with a capacity for learning consi d shyered so extraordillar y in a wom an that it just ified a concession for a
university degree in philosophy Thereafter she was awarded an entrance to Bolognas lstituto delle Scicnze later to be admitted as an honorary member of the college and fl naUy assigned the position of lecturer in physics at the presshytigious Universi ta eli Bologna the first of its kin d in Europe Scholshyar~ from aU over Eu rope would attend Bassis lectu res on Newtoshynian physics and sJle became the envy oflearned women across the contin ent
These scientific women came fre)m upper or middle cla ss backshygrounds and whilst th eir ach ieveshyments were not replicated to the same extent by women in the lowshyer echelons of society a degree of sci entific and pract ical k novledge never theless took hold Daughters of clergymen particularly in the dissenters tnldition and certain widows who were made to tak e up their husbands trade after th ei r death became learned women and hi ghly ski lled T he famous case of lIlada me Cliquot who in 1805 took over her husbands company after h is death is a ch arming exshyample Hi s enterprise whi ch had
een variously involved in bankshying wool trading and Champagne producing th ri ved under her di shyrec tion and eventu ally became the brand La Vcuve C liquol She is directly accred ited will) a great breakthro ugh in champagne han shydling that made mass produc tion of th e wine possible an d estabshylished the producers reputation of excellence which continues to the present day
T hese examples demonstrate that women were capable of takshying part in scientific debates and developments but it should be stressed that their contr ibution was li mited Womens access to sci entific knowledge was dependshyent on wealth class and cru cially on an association with men who would encourage scientific en shydeavours This last condition is all the more important when one considers the institutionshyalised chauvinism that women continued to experience during the eighteenth century Throughshyout Europe with the exception of
orthern Italy un i7ersi ties and scientific academi es such as the Roya l In stitution in London were closed to women
19
Furthermore whilst the enliglltshyenmenl undeniably brought an improvement to the female conshydition entrenched conservatism in contemporary attitudes even amongst enlightened th inkers such as Rou sseau meant that feshymale scientists were not only ex shy
tremely rare but also str uggled to be accepted in m al e- d ominated
circles T llere was a general lack or even absence of formal rec()gshynit ion of womens involvement in scientific publications For ex shyample Marie Lavoisier th e gifted wife of Fren ch chemist Antoine
Lavois ie r in now recog-ni sed as having carried out many calculashytions and observations in her husshyband s Elements of Chemistry The original m an uscript of h is work contai ns evid ence of her notes and comments yet the printed version fail s to ackn owledge her contribution entirely Even in be tter-documented cases such as that of Lavois ier it very difficult fo r the modern -day h isto rian to pin -point the individu al accomshypli shments female scientists in coll aborative works
However one can argue quite
confidently the instrumental rol e that women p layed in th e disshysem in ation and subsequent adshy
van cement o f sci ent ific ideas T hey were g rea t m ediators often translating simplifying and illusshytrat ing com plex scienti fic works Their versions of these texts were
generally aimed at a female read shyership a n otable exam ple bein g EmiJie d u Chatelet s translation of Francesco Algarottis Ne wtonishy(Ism for Ladies (1737) These were often read in wid er circles as they were clear illustrated and easier to understand T his helped the sp read of scientific id eas the im shy
plied message being that if science was s imple enough for a woman to unders tand than anyone could understand it Furthermore women facilitated the populari sashytion of science by hosting disc usshy
~ions in salons or holding p rivate exhibitions in their homes where gues ts cou ld appreciate and marshyvel at discoveries such the Leyden jar and static electrici ty These so shycial gatherings were particularly important when one considers science and the En lightenment as a wider social phenomenon
as opposed to a string of isolated discove ries mad e by individual mal e scientists
There is a tragiC element un shyderlying this whole s to ry Recent studies led by historian s such as Patr ic ia Fara have attempted to give a clearer and fairer in terp re shytation of womens contribution to science d uring thi s per iod
However history has b ee n unfair and insensi tive in its representashytion of female scientists Consid shyer ing the wealth of literature on Science and Enlightenment it is quite re markable tha t so little nas b een written about the women who took part Givmiddoten th e sparseshyness of original sources and the strong m ale bias wit h which most existing d ocumentation is writshyten it is very difficult impossible
perhaps to accu rately assess the Signifi cance o f womens contribushytion to the scientific fi eld
Feminists have often rewritshyten the story of these women to underline independen t achieve shyments and contributions mad e in a bid to break down prejudic es again st their sex But when does a shift of emphasis become an exagshy
geration a disto rt iongt Scientific
women have been concealed for so long that it is very tempting to tum them into unsung heroines It would be unju st to retell these wom ens stories in a way which
forces them to conform to the ideal s of m odern day fem inists Alte rna tivey we mll st appreciate their contr ibutions on their own meri t
Bibliograpby
Fara Patricia Pandoras Breeches Women Science amp Power in the Enlightenm ent (Great Britain Pimlico 2004)
Gardiner Linda Wo men ill Scishyetlce From French Women al7d
the Age of El7ligiztenmellt ed S Spencer (USA Indi ana University Press 1984 )
Bragg Melvyn P Fara K O Brian amp j Hawley In Our Time Wo men alld Science ill the E11 ligi7tenll7ellt LondOl (BBC Radio 4 4th vemb er 2010)
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
5
10
t1lW~ 1 H- CPl ~~d f1 ~_l
ll _ - )_ ~ -- ----
AS WRlTERS of h istory th e Retroshyspect team are used to commenting
on the successes o f o thers History is littered with winners of great acshy
claim awa rds and achievem ents
many of whi ch we have read ily
observed app reciated and wriI ten
about with interest n lis M ay Retshyrospect offi cially m ad e it s o wn hisshy
tory as it was named Best Magashyzine in The Herald Stude nt P re
Awards 2010
The awards ceremon) which
took pl ace in Glasgows C entre fo r
Contemporary Art s s aw a celebrashytion of Scotlan ds finest stud ent
jo urnalism amongs t w h ich RetJOshy
spect was p roud to be COlUlted The
ni ght was a n acknowledgme nt of
young talent across seveml fields
of journalism from Best Sports Writer to Best Publi cation Speakshy
ing to The Herald Dr G ill Stewart
SQAs D irector of Qualifications
sa id these awards really s howcase
the great talent of student journalshy
ists in ScotIan d
W ith free-flowing bar and plenty
of complimenta ry canapes the atshy
mosphere was jovial and everyone was very suppo rtive of each others
work Ind eed the standard was
high as Scotlands best and brightshy
est celebrated the ir ta le nts in a n ight
honourmg the grea t and ever growshy
ing presence of stud ent media
Our editorial team we re present
to receive the ir awardand were im shy
pressed by the level of professionshyalism of the other candidates and
the creative talent on display In the
category of Best M agazine Retroshyspect faced great competi t ion with
excelle nt entries from Glasgow
Un ivers irys m agazines GUM and Qmlm ica te Th e judges acknowlshy
edged tbat the standa rd was high
and th at it h ad been a great year for
m agazine publications in Scottish nivers it ies
Retrospect s triumph at tbe cershy
emony reflected a ris ing public interest in academic Journals Acshy
k nowledged by the judges as havshying I1lare se rio us content t-han its
competitors Retrospects ach ieveshy
men t can be viewed as part of t he
growing trend towards greater pubshylic interest in the academic genre
Misa Klim es then editor in chief
was p resen ted vith a weeks internshy
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wen Edin burgh based newspape r~
TIle Jou rna l an d The Student both receiving accolades o n the n ig ht
Retrospects success at Th e H ershy
ald Awards is a g reat accomplishshy
ment for the magazine for budding
jou rna li sts and for Lh ose wri ters at
The Un iversiti of Ed in bu rgh with a p articular interest in histo ry We
hope that th is will encourage future
writers to join the team and lead us
to greater future success
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6
WHAT BEITER combination than free food and a film at Frankensteins The University ofEdinburghs History Society held its first film night of the year on October 6th and was pleased to welcome plenty of new tiaces
We had all gathered hu ddled into the basement of Frankensteins and out of sight from the hideous weather The nights screening was to be Frost NIXon a popular choice with first and second time viewers alike But before the film began members refuelled on a selection of free dishes with burgshyers and chips being the finn favourshyite Thanks to the Frankenstein cards there were plenty of enticing drink deals to be had and the society settled down comfortably on the lower floor in preparation for the movie
FrostNixon directed in 2008 by Ron Howard is an account of the legendary interviews conducted by David Frost talk show host with the former US President Richard Nixon Initially Frosts determination to stage these interviews and to extract a confession from Nixon regarding his role in the in taolOus vVatergate scanshydal seems ridiculous His big gamshyble costing him thousands of dollars appears to be litrle more than a chalshylenge to satisfy his ego However by the end of the fllm it is clear that he
Retrospect
moment Michael Sheens impersonshyation of Frost as a smooth care-free and daring television presenter conshytrasts ri th Oscar nominated Frank Langel1as portrayal of an ageing alshymost tragic Nixon who is presented as riddled by suspiciolL The result is an entertaining and thought-provokshying dranla about the power of televishysion over politics
This succcssful film night was a reshylaxed evening enjoyed by many from all years and will be repeated in the near futu re
Alice Pease recounts a night of film screenings and free food with society members
7
History in the News
IgtOCUMJNP) DErAlIJNG the 0shy
perinces of Channel ]sland residents who chose to resisit Nazi occupashytion during the second Wod War have been re-discovered Thrown into suitcases and stowed in the back of a wardrobe these papers are considered to be the m ost imshyportant archive material to be unshyearthed concerning the occupation
The islands were occupied by azi forces between 1940 and 1945
and with one German guard to eveshyry three residents massive resistance was difficult Despite the improbable success of such act ion lhese hidshyden documents reveaJ the unusually silent and often symbolic nature of the resistance that islanders particishypated in
Compiled by a resident Frank Falla these documents tell of the harrowing experinces many inhabitshyants faced Some were forced to listen to fellow prisoners being decapitated by guillotine in German prisons
Falla himself liS deported after organ ising a clandestine newspaper designed to deliver updates about the war once radios were con fisshycated in 1942 Irate by the lack of recogn i lion that resistors received after the war Falla compiled the papers after the Br itish government received compensation from Gershymany in the 19605 Testimonies of the suffering endwcd by resideJ1ts have led to calls for a memorial ded shyicated to those who strove to resist occupation These docum ents also provide eveidence contrary to trashyditional interpretations that suggest islanders corroborated too easily Catherine Me Gloin
AN ANaENr Roman village has been unearthed in the parkland of a stately home in West Lonshydon in the unlikely surroundshyings of modem -day suburbia
Archaeologists excavating on the outskirts of the histor ic Syon Parle Estate discovered a stretch of Roman road and the foundations of some dwellings Alongside the remains of the road were over 11 5DO pottery fragments a large number of coins a Bronze Age gold bracelet and a lava stone quem
The road that was uncovered is beHeved to have been one of the most important linking Londinium with SildlCster It is reckoned that the vilshylage supplied the metropolis as well as existing as a a resting place for travelshylers giving insight into the way that the city interacted with and was conshynected to the country at large
1he Museum of London Archaeshyology an thrilled at the d iscoveries and believe that there is much to be learned about the daily lives of those livingjust outside Roman Londiniwn WiIl EUis
HISfORIAN KFIIH Jeffrey has been granted unprecedented access into the previously classified ilkS of the Secret Intelligence Service more commonly known as Ml6 It is the first and only official history of the shadowy goverruneJJt agency the very existence of which was not fo rmally acknowledged until 1994
Owing to the high ly sensitive nature of some of the documentashytion Jeffreys history only covers a forty-year period of the agencys background from its initial foundshying as the Secret Servi ce Bureau in 1909 until 1949 The lucky historishyan recently described the archives to which he had access as a cornucoshypia an extraordinary Aladdins cave of h istorical mater ials~
His book reveals often overlooked episodes in the history of British esshypionage such as the thwarting of an attempted Communist revolution in Brazil in 1935 and the controversial Operation Embarrass documenting both the successes and the failures of British intelligence throughout the first half of the twentieth century Gregor Donaldson
8 Retrospect
No stopping E~ burgh bullthe presses mYers ress
Rebecca auk presses Timothy Wright for some history on Edinburgh University Press
FOR STUDENTS and schola rs aJ ike Edinburgh University Press j widel ) regarded as one of the best academ ic publishing offices in th e ountry Having been publishing
and publicising high quali ty acashydemic books for almost fif1) years the Press is celebrating its successes both internationally and at home In the midst (I f this great ~ucccss Chief Executive Timothy Wrigb t taJks t
Retr(lspect about the h istory of the press and what the future holds
Edinburgh Univers ity Press founded over fi fty years ago is a wholly owned subSidiary of the University of Edinbu rgh 1hough the conpan)s main business is the publishing of textbooks and supshyplementary textbooks the roles that the Press plays range across d iffe rent academic areas The pubshylish ing of textbooks senes an edu shycat ional role the p ublica tion of scholarly works and monograph serves to help the advancemen t of knowledge wh ilst the pub]jcalion of works of re fe rence support both
holarly and educational util ity The compmy also boaSL~ a portfolJ or over thirty jou rnals
The Presss chosen fiel ds of pubshylish ing are American Studies Classhyics Film Studies M edia amp Cultural tudies History Islam ic Studies
Language and Linguistics La Litshyerary Stu dj es PhUosophy Politics and Scottish History The Press is well eqlllpped to serve the hu manshyties departmen ts publishing on an xtensive range of subjects and topshy
ics The Presss publishing is recogshy
nised as being of the highest qual shyity It is amonitortd by th e Un ivershy
sitys Press Committee which has to approve a ll titles proposed for publication The sale of its publicashytions is increasingly intern at ional enhancing the Universi tys global image and reflecting well on Scotshyland itsel f In the year ended 31 July 2009 over 50 of the presss revshyenues were outside the UK markshying a Significant profit outside of the University itself
J i I I I ) i I ~
I lit l lll I I I I 1
t
~ ~ j ~ 111shy
L ~ I I gt
i I
upporting its internation al CO ll shy
nections is the Presss close rella shytionship with other acacemic pubshylishersThe press has a nehvork of dis tr ibutors world wide includiJlg pa rtn erships with the University of
ew South Vales in Sydney and most importantly a longstanding relationship with Columbia Uni shyversity Press in the Unitcd States of
merica TIle maiJl objectives of the p ress
are fourfold Firstly it contrlbutes significantly to knowledge tTansfer and the dissemination of the resu lts f scholarly researcht also contribshy
utes Significantly to the education of uni1ersity students and others By Lllaintaining its position as the leading university press in Scotland it contributes to the dissemination of scholarly work in Scottish his shytory md other Scottish subjects and on contemporary Scottish issues Lastl y the presitige of the conpan) nhances the univerSitys reputashy
tion internationally through the acknowledged high quality of its publishing
The key objectiVes se t by the Trusshytees for the year were to increase th e to tal income of the Press through contill uing to publi sh high quality
books and subsequ ently increase the gross and net marg ins These overall objectives are supported by a nUJ11ber of detailed targets which are monitored by the Trustees on a regular basis
In its fifty ycar history Edinburgb Un iversity Press has achieved great
thi ngs From high prestige to high saJes repor ts the intern ationaJ sucshycess that tb e press is now enj oying was only to be expected Its great prestige is an honour for the comshypany and the University alike as the Press was undoubtedly made for success
9
eat Odessa in the middle Varvara Bashkirova reminds us of the personal consequences of history CATHERINE THE Great fou nded the city of Odessa in 1794 when she decided that a port on the Black Sea wouId be a wise in vestshyment She invited architects from all over the world and it resuIted in a beautiful southern citywith an extremely diverse populati on and culture- albeit mostly Russian As a new centre of culture and trade it soon became the fourth largest city in the Russian Empire
I was born here hut nowadays I cannot go to the cinema to watch a film in Russian nor can I listen to the radio in Russ ian and most cershytainly I wouId not be able to study in Russian How did this happen During my fath ers childhood he heard only Russian or Yiddish sposhyken on tbe streets He never spok Ukra inian I only learned it in school There were some Ukrainshyian programmes on television but they were not my favourites so living in the south of the country my contact with the language was lim ited to three hours a week
I rem ember the day a woman came to our school with a lecture about how great Ukraine is In itialshyly we did not pay her much attenshytion but as ber lecture grew more ridiculous my classmates could not help laughing She argued that Ukrainian is m OTe beautifu l than Russian-I still do not know how she measured tb at Wbat we loved the most was her earnest claim that Jesus was Ukrainian It was proved by the studies of a historian who clai med that Buddha was Ukrain shyian too It was the year we stopped learning Russian literature Gogol and Pushkin both of whom created some of their best works in Odessa were now considered to be foreign writers The best part was that we still studied them in our foreign litshyerature course but in translation whicb was much harder to undershystand than the original Russian
After that everythi ng changed quickly Our history teacher was forced to teach in Ukrainian under
th e threat of being fireQ She did n ot speak it having lived all her li fe in Odessa Before education was mostly in Uhtainian anyway but once it was forced we hated it
What happened to the cinemas was even more ridiculous By forcing the Russian population to speak Ukrainian the government made dozens of cinemas bankrupt As Vestern films had never been translated in to Ukrainian before it suddenly came to light that man modern words Simply didnt exshyist in Ukrainian But this did not stopthe patriots-they started inshyventing words It was so contrived that we went to the cinema once and ended up laugh ing all the way through
Additionally in science and techshynology Uk rainian is quite behind 111at is why l11y fr iend who is studshyying programming in Ukraine is always complaining- when writshying essays the words he needs to use simply do not exist t hey can not be found in any of the dictionshyaries
Southeast Ukraine with its proshyRussian attitude contrasts to the western part of th e country 20 per cent of the population in Lvov a western city have a negative opinion of Russia This is a result of history From 1919-1936 westshyern Ukraine was a part of Poland whilst the southeastern was part of Russia Western Ukraine more agricultural and rural than the east is where Ukrainian traditions and language have been strongly mainshytained Many of the southeastern cit ies on the contrary were and always have been Russian Crishy
mea is an obvious example haVing existed as a Russian territory si nce 1794 On 19 February 1954 it was transferred from the Soviet Unshyion to Ukraine as a gi ft I would imagine it was quite a surprise for the local population to move to a different cou ntry without realisshying Ukrainisation was much mor tangible there as 90 per cent of the Crimean populalion was Russian For iJ1stance they were not capashyble of watching Ukrainian films as they didnt kn ow the language In other words western Ukraine feels strong antipathy to the pro-Russian East for bei ng unpatriotic whilst eastern Ukraine feels the same to the anti-Russian West for imposing on them an alien language Most Easterners admit the necessi ty of knowing and do know Ukrainian However they also argue that they should be allowed to choose beshytween the languages
Such a sharpened situation can be partly explained by the constant changes in the government After the 2004 Orange Revolution remiddot lations with Russia significantly worsened thus reviving the bisshytorical confl ic t 111ere were fights on the streets and on the in terneL Friendships broke down over the issue This resonated deeply fo r Ukrain isation which had affected
so many in the east of Ukraine ow that the government has
changed to diametrically opposite sides by strengtl1ening relations with Russia it seems like people can not keep up to date with the number of ideological shifts that they are supposed to accept every four year~ The contlict rontinues to deepen as the government conshytinuously changes its stance havshying only balf of the nations support each time
I still visi t Odessa at least once a yea r Walking along tbe streets I can sense the tension between the t raditional and the in1posed It is felt in quotid ian things such as street Signs TIle em blem has cbanged but tbe beart of the cit) is still the same The city is its people who keep the culture of their anmiddot cestors I know it when I see flowshyers laid in front of the memorial to the Russian poet Alexander Pushshykin on his birthday They say To Pushki ll from the grateful citizens of Odessa as it was constructed in 1889 solely from citizens doshynations I know that Odessa like other southern ci ties can never bemiddot come truly Ukrainian as it retai ns too much of the historical and culshytural heritage it has received from Russia
Retrospect10
th b
THE 1707 Acts of Union have always been sources of great debate and the topics popularity is still present as the dlree hundred year old act continu to have repercussions today AltJlough the union of Scotland and England may seem inevitable wiLh hindsight Lhe lrum is Lhat it was an exLrnordi shynary alJiance Simon Schama could not have been more correct when he described it as one of the most astonshyishing trnnsformat ions in Ew-optan histori
cotland and England possess rich intertwining pasts Competition be it in commerce politics or warfare stemmed from the Mo nations cul shytural differences What could possibl)t give these two separate and tradishytionaUy competing naUons common ground upon which to unify There were three major fac tors involved religion external threats and circulllshylance
The 15005 saw sweeping change throughout Europe as the Reformashytion gained momentum creating an upsurge of turmoil thar would take well over a century to abate By the Uruon of the Crowns in 1603 both Scotland and England were largely Protstant countries though disashygreement over doctrine was fierce The Bishops Van of 1639 and 1640 are merely examples of th~ c()nflict that occurred anlongst Lhe various denominations Lhat considered themshyselves true Proteltants
OtherneSS as explorcd by Linda Colley gives us an inkling into Lhe
nattlrc of the second major factor behind unification Shc states that otllerness was defined as lin aversion to militant Catholicism or a hostile
ontinental European system or at its most basic level external threats
ilh Lhe common ground of religion and a shared monarchy Scotland and England were similar enough by 1707 to tee jOiJldy threatened by foreign powers Traditionally these other were Roman Catholics and seen as the natural enemy l1ljS however is a rather skewed view to take For examshyple tlle League ofAugsburg of which both Scotland and England were a ke part of in 1689 included the staunchly
tholic nations of Austria Portugal and the Holy Roman Empire yet the nations of Britain certainly profited from beiJlg a part of this aliiance
Resistance to foreign threats real or percehmiddoted also fostered idea~ of unitt amongst one very influential faction of society the military Scottish and English Regiments fought side b) side throughout the Low Couotries A1sace and the RhineJand in both the Nine Yeurs War and the War of the Span ish Succession not only earning respect for aile another but laying me founshydatioJlS of a British army years before tlle Union ac tua lly took place Whilst tlle Acts of Union officialI) merged Lhe Scottish and English arnlies they had actuaUy been fighting together [or decades Success of the twin nashytions when allied militarily would doubtless have smootJled tlle road to union especially when tlloughts
of Empire canle to the forefront Full political union can perhaps be seen a the next logical step yct circumstance would first need to take a hand in promiddot ceedings
It did so in the late 1690s Ihe Darshyien Scheme an attempt by Scotland to break into the world market by establishing a small trading colony 0 11
the Isthmus of Panama went hOrribly wrong The nation was left teetering on the brink of bankruptcy Memshybers of the Scots nobility were forced to petition the English Parliament in Westminster for finan cial aid and me whole debacle caused many of the ruling elite to believe that Scotland could never la) imperial foundations without aid [rom its (lId rival Even by tlle early 1700s Scotlands economy was shOWing little signs of recovering from the savage blow wiLh tvtichael Fry pointing out that in 1704 the nashytiOD remaincd backward and with no financial markets of its own
The deaLh of Scotlands global ambishytions and the severe damage dealt to its economy can UJcrefore be cited as among the primary short-term reashysons for the Un ion of 1707 VVilliam Fergusons 1964 paper unearthed tbe grave extent to which bribes had been accepted by Scottish noblemen in orshyder to help push tlle Union through Parliament It is undcniable tllat for some expediency took the place of pride
t Lhe same time it would be a misshytake to believe that only Lhe Scots noshybles were responsible for selling their
country for English gold as Burns would have US believe Christopher A vVhatleys Scots rlrld the Unioll arshygues that this point does not stand up to close scrutiny nor does the argushyment that Scots bargained away their Parliament for free trade The bouts of insurrection throughout Scotland which fi) lImved in the inlmcdiate wake oflhe Union including the infamous exccutions of two English sailors 0 11
trumped up charges of pm cy would have been conSiderably more grievous had there truly been no support fix the move amongst the lower d Many of tlle more fa mous first-hand accounts such as those of Daniel Deshyfoe state d early that the vast majority of the nation was against the idea of Union Yet Whatleys detailed study of numerous smaller primary accounts shows surprising apathy amongst many commentators that proves true or at least militant anti- Un ionist senshytiment was not in the dear majority in Scotland at the time of the Union
The Acts of 1707 therefore can surely be remembered as amongst tile most unusual Union~ to have taken place in European history Scotland and EnghUld though they had many similarities were stiUlargely au tonoshymous nations before May 1707 It took a century of religious and poshylitical upheaval numerous external mreats and misfortune on a national scale to not only pave tlle wa) but acshytually bring about the Union It was a omplex rich and fascinating event
which provides us witll one of the
~
11
RAT HER LI KE th l m arri age of the owl and the pussycat the civil part shynership between Scotlan d and Engshyland seemed an unlikely union at the bme of its inau guration 1n 1707 Lord Bel havells remark - Theres ane end to an c auJd sang - seems to capture the sense of loss o cca shysioned by the termil1ltion of Scotshyti sh indep endence How d id someshything SO unpopular at birth survive for so long The slow evolution of tl11 Union deserves some attention
The Un ited Ki ngdom of 170 7 was augmented in ]SO ] wi th the ad shydition of the island oj Irehu1d In 1922 after over a century of unshyhappy relations Ireland was part ishytioned and only six of th e thi rtyshytwo counties remained as par t of a r(branded Uni ted Kingd om of Great Britain and Northern Ireshyland In its various incarnations the Un ion is now an auld sang and its melo dy may be more dHncult to forget than is ofte11 assumed
If Scotlan d is no t qUite an addishytionaJ county of England there are more similarities and links than Jllany are prepared to contemplate There has been a massive moveshyment of people in both directions
between Scotland and England The English in Scotland and the Scots in Englan d have integrated m ore seamlessly than aDY other min ori ty in either host society There ha ve been outbu rsts of S(Oshytophobia but the) have not proved to be a central fea ture of the Anshyglo-Scotti sh relati onship and the same can be said for Anglophoshybia Scotland bems a greater deshygree of Similarity to England than any ot her comparator Although th is m ay be a partial product of the Union it would not be quickly altered by furth er const itut ional chan ge even ren ew ed Scottish in dependence In deed if Scotshylands eighteenth and ni ncteenth cent ur y history cannot ent ir ely be ex plained by reference to events of l707 the Union has increasingly left its impressjon on the twentieth cen tu ry - the Welfare State might be an even grea te r symbol of the Union th an th e British Empire
Much recent comment about the Union has been peSSimistic and has sought reasons for its apparshyen tly likely demise an event wh ich inconveniently has not ye t taken place Despite d evolut io n perhaps
even despite the advent of an SN P ad ministration in Holyrood this may be the w rong question It is tbe longevity rather than the frashygil ity of th e Anglo-S cottish Un ion which reqUires explanation 1 his is not to say th at the Union m ay nol flo under in tbe [uture perh aps even the ncar future Histor ians are no to riously ba d at peering into th e future but one can confi dently p reshydict the outbreak o f a fierce debate between those who will argue that the inh erent features of the Un ion sowed the seeds of its destruction over a long period an d others who will contend that the sundershying of th e Union can be found in the consequences of the political divergence between Scotlan d and
nglaJ1d since 1979 Vha tever happens to the Union it is vital that we do not fabricate a sense of denjal about deep-sealed and longshys tan ding Scott ish enth usiasm for it
Ewen Cameron is H ead of H istory at Edinb urgh University Hi s book Impaled on a Thistle Scot la nd sil ce 1880 was released earl ier this year
A strange survival As a special feature Ewen Cameron provides a scholars perspecshytive on th e endurance Great Britain and the Acts of the Union
12 Retrospect
THE COLD War caused the worlds superpowers to forge some of h isto rys m ost unlikely of unshyions O ne such union was thaI of the USA with the leader of South Vietnam from ]954 to 1963 Ngo Dinh Diem and one that was arshyguably the first step on the path to full-scale American military in shyvolvement in Vietnam
Following Fr ances withdrawal from Indochina in 1954 Vietnam was divided in two along the 17th Parallel with Ho Chl Minhs C omshymuni sts ruling the North and the French sponsored democracy in the South with nation al elections planned for 1956 to reunite the COUlltry Fearful of communism the Eisenhower administration threw their support behind the staunchly anti -communist Diem in the bope that he would form a strong government that would be sympathetic to America The union would end almost a decade later in t he most ignominious of ways
At fi rs t there seemed to be several good reasons to suppor t Diem he was zealously anti-communist but aho exceedingly nationalistic and anti-French m aking it easier for the Americans to support h im without contradicting the if own an ti-imshyperialist rhetor ic He had travelled widely in the US an d had expressed a desire to work with Americans to build a new Vietnam
However from the start it was eVident that Diems belief in democracy was dubious as he stead fastly refu sed to conform to American political ideals The US
had entered th e two world wars to in President Woodrow Wilsons wor ds make the world safe fo r deshymocracy wh ilst the conflict wi th the Soviet Union was defi ned by Americas beUef in democracy and capitalism The US expounded the ideals of democracy over the tyranshynies o f authori tarian govern ment Diem refused to m ake democratic refo rms in his country
1 hen D iem took power he faced a bar rage of problems an undershydeveloped and antiquated gove rn shymental infras tructu re with staff who lacked experience in adminisshytmtion a country ravaged by war an immat ure agricult ural econoshymy With US help Diem thwarted several attempted coup detats in th e first year of his presidency An even bigger test of Diems leadershyship arrived in 1955 willl the Sec t Crisis where the mllitarised sects the Cao Dru the Hoa Hao and the Vletnamese Mafia the Binh Xu)rshyen joined forces to wage wllr on the government in Saigon Diem looked to be lOsing control and at one point US Ambassador to Vishyetnanl General Coll ins convinced Eisenhower that Diem should be removed A m iraculous and unshyexpected victory agrunst the Binh Xuyen ensured Diem stayed in
power and retained American supshyport Encouraged by the American delight at this victory Djem began to consolidate his power
W hen D iem rehlsed tJ) par ticipat e in the scheduled na tional election s to reunite the two Vietnams the US supported Il is decis io n to do so effectively ensu ring tb e long term separation between South and Nor th Vietnam The popular ity of the Communist leader Ho Chj Mi nh meant he would have swept these elections causing the US to forego their politi cal beliefs
With Diem established the US proceeded to pour rud in to his regime with $ 1 bill ion spent on economic and m ilitary assistance between 1955-1 961 Diems govshyernment squandered the aid refusshyin g to refo rm the army and governshyment to fit a democratic model
vThilst Diem prud li p service to the Am ericans democratic deshym ands reform vas always an illushyion D iem and rus three brothers
con trolled bot h the exec utive and the legi sla tive branches of govern shym enl - dissenters were immediateshyly pu rged Diems poli cies towards the villages d isregarded centu r ies of tradition and in dependence stirring up deep discon tent Any expression of th is was dealt with as George Herring puts it in a man shyner that would have made J Edgar H oover blanch as thousands of dissidents were incarcerated in reshyeducation centres Such was the USs fear of communism that they turned a bli nd eye to these arroci shyt ies
Alex Thomson explores the ideological sacrifices of Americas Vietnam policy
Better the Diem you know
In 1960 the new Kennedy adshyminis tration inherited the commitshyment to Diem and with Kennedys pledges to get tough itwould have been impossible to withdraw supshyport for Diem and so the governshyUen t increased th e aid to stabilise h im whils t begging him ineffectu shyally to refo rm Most Americans at this time could
not have even located Vietnam on a map but the issue was forced in to the nations consciousness ill May 1963 with th e Buddh ist Cri shysis A devout Catholic Diem had oppressed the Buddhist majority of the countr) Protests in the city of Hue saw government troops fire into the crowd killing a number of protestors sparking widespread reaction around South Vietnam cu lmin ating in the n otorious selfshyim molations of Buddhist monks which h it headlines worldwide
ot only was Diem embarrassshying the American government on the in ternational stage but with the disastrous defeat at Ap Bac in January 1963 it became increasi ngshyly apparent that Diem was also an ineffectual bulwark against comshymunism a fac t compounded by Diems covert attempts to negotiate a settlemen t wi th Ho Chi Min h After the Budd hist Crisis several generals of the South Vietnamese army approached tlle US Ambasshysador in Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge Jr about US reachons to a military coup Convinced that the war against communism in Vietshynam co uld not be won with Diem as leader Lodge replied that wruJs t they would not support a coup they would do nothirlg to oppose it effectively signing Diems death warrant Thus on November 1st 1963 the generals successfully deposed Diem who was then brushytally murdered in the back of a van after seeking sanctuary in a Cathoshylic church
President Kennedy said that ~iem is Diem and hes the best weve go This is an accurate swnshymary of the unlikely alliance beshytween D iem and the US Authorishytarian and despotic Diem was ana thema to the American polit ishycal system but it was ironical]y the USs fear of another foreign politi shycal system on the left that caused them to create so unlikely an allishyance
13
Practical impiety Hamish Kinnear discusses the unthinkshyable Franco-Ottoman Alliance of 1536
IN 1536 an alliance was finalised that was met with disbelief and disgust throughout Europe The union of France and the Ottoman Empire against their mutual enshyemy - Charles V - was the first alshyliance between a major Christian and nnn-Christian power since the crusades
Europe was on the verge of great change at the outset of the sixshyteenth century The introduction of gunpowder was revolutionisshying warfare and the printing press enabled the distribution of mateshyrial opposed to the ruling elite The fiercely anti-derical speeches of Martin Luther and his sympashythisers initiated the Reformation destroying the medieval idea of a united Christendom with the Pope as its nominal head Increasshyingly European states began to act in their own interests and ignored ing the legitimacy of Islam Pracshy common knowledge an alliance the purpose of defence as opposed
the demands of the pope Four ticality however often triumphs with the Great Turk was not only to a specifically offensive crusade
great historical figures also came over ideology unlikely it was unthinkable Henry VIII of England struck a
to the fore in the early 16th centushy Interestingly both Francis I and The alliance however held blow to Christian unity by breakshy
ry Henry VII of England Francis Charles V had argued that if they benefits for both parties France ing away from the papal authorshy
I of France Charles V of Spain and became Holy Roman Emperor for was given an ally that posed a seshy ity and establishing the Church of
Suleiman the Magnificent of the they were both candidates for the rious threat to Charles V for the England allowing his marriage to
Ottoman Empire The stage was elective office they would lead a Ottoman Empire of Suleiman the Anne Boleyn The greatest atrocshy
set for a conflict that involved all Crusade against the Great Turk Magnificent was at the height of ity occurred when the underpaid
the major powers of Europe one This promise invoked a desire to its power Fresh from victory over and mutinous troops of Charles
in which the French were the fi rst return to the perceived Christian the Egyptian Mamluke Sultanate V in the search of plunder sacked
to realise that the days of a united unity of the Middle Ages where Suleiman wished to make himself Rome and imprisoned the Pope
medieval Christendom were over the nations of Europe allied to Caesar of Europe An alliance with This event more than anything take back the Holy Land After the French was in the interests of else signified the demise of medishyCharles V took the title however the Ottomans as it provided them eval Christendom In this atmosshyFrancis wasted no time in declarshy with a military partner and a finshy phere of widespread anti-papal ing war on his fellow Christian ancier to help invade Hapsburg feeling the France-Ottoman allishynation The subsequent invasion lands More importantly for Suleishy ance comes as less of a surprise of Italy ended in disaster for the man the alliance kept the states of The impious alliance of the French at the Battle of Pavia durshy Christian Europe divided French and Ottomans then does ing which Francis I was captured not seem so scandalous when
By 1519 France was in despershy by the forces of Charles V To seshy placed in the context of its time
ate need of allies The domain of cure his release from prison Franshy However it should come as no
the Hapsburg ruler Charles V who cis was forced to sign the humillishy surprise that it was received in
had inherited the rule of both the ating Treaty of Madrid in which this negative fashion There was
Spanish Empire and the Holy Roshy he renounced his claims to Italy evidently a form of European
man Empire almost surrounded Flanders and Burgundy Charles nostalgia for the days of the Crushy
the French Kingdom of Francis I V had risen to unrivalled power in sades in which Christendom was
The French also had to deal with Europe united in a common cause even
Henry VIIIs England whose arshy During Franciss imprisonment though the military expeditions to
mies still remained in Normandy the French court had sent a deleshy Despite the reactions of horror the Holy Land had only been seshy
and coffers funded Charles milishy gation to the court of Suleiman the to the Franco-Ottoman alliance riously pursued centufies before
tary expeditions To the French Magnificent to discuss a treaty of that were evident throughout Eushy Francis Is alliance with the Otshy
advantage a new power was rising friendship These talks resulted in rope the actions of other Christian tomans was a stark indicator that
in the East The Ottoman Empire an alliance that was met with disshy rulers could hardly be considered the Crusader days were long past
of Suleiman the Magnificent was belief and disgust by the other Eushy pious If a pious ruler was one War from then on became comshy
expanding through the Balkans at ropean states Charles V began a who acted for the unity of Chrisshy mon between Christian States as
an alarming rate and posed a great vitriolic campaign of propaganda tendom engaged in crusading a means to maintain the balance
threat to the domains of Charles against the French deeming the activities and respected both the of power or achieve superiority
V Yet an alliance with this major union the sacrilegious union of temporal and spiritual power of in Europe Christendom was finshy
Islamic power was still considered the Lily and the Crescent Indeed the Pope then Charles V and Henshy ished The unlikely Franco-Ottoshy
blasphemous by the kingdoms of given that Francis had strongly ry the VII failed on all these reshy man Alliance however lasted for
Europe as by acknowledging the supported a crusade against the quirements Admittedly Charles V centuries
existence of the Ottoman Empire Ottomans a pretence he mainshy spent much of his life fighting the
the French were in effect accept- tained even after the pact became Ottomans but this was more for
14 Retrospect
c e Old Ship of Zion Catherine Me Gloin examines a widely forgotten aspect of American History THE STRUGGLE for AfricanshyAmerican rights iJl the United States is a long and contested road Ve are repeatedly exposed to narratives that stress key leaders and religious f1 gureshyheads Arguably no discourse would be complete without an analysis of tbe role of MartiQ Luther King Jr the decisions of th e Supreme Court or tbe varying levels of comm itment that each president expressed throughout this tuibulent ruld mythologised peshyriod in Americ1l history
However one element of the strugshygle for bLack dvil rights that has been often underplayed in popular accounts increasingly based on bioshygrap hical and oral testimony is the role of the new labour movement during the 19305 and J94Ds In the
space bern the post-World far red scare a reactionary phenomenon that disabled socialism as a tool for social advancement bl1Ck unjonisID 3Jld potentially the Communist Party ofshyfered African-Ameri cans a wllque opportunity to unite to fight oppresshysion Unionism offered the poorest black workers a political voice one they fel t was [[lUted by elite middleshyclass civil rights organisations such as the NAACP [n this respect the Communist Party can be considered as a viable alternative for some groups within tll euro civil rights movement and as a suitablevehide for civil rights adshyvancemel1t
The h istory of black organh ed lashybour in the South has only begun in the last thirty years to receive du attention in the historiography of American labour movements gainshying increasing recogni tion from lashybour and social historians Perhaps it has traditionally been ampi de-lined because of an ideological aversion to socialism deeply ingrained into the American psyche Alternatively its diminished prominence may be explained by the compl~ities of periodisation It is commonly acshyknowledged by maIl) h istorians who dorninate the field of civil rights that the movement characterised by cross-national di rect action began in the late 19505 Morc specifically the
birth of the movement is often seen as a consequence of the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and the Brown decision of the Supreme Court the plevious year Thus any event which pre-dates tJlis revered trajectory is generally dismissed as a pre-requisite and subsequently garshyners less attention than it perhaps warrants The widening of industrial w1ionism to Southern blacks during the first half of the twentieth century has traditionally been treated as a pre-cursor yet it deserves a more prominent position not only for the wider organ isational implications it held flr the development of the llovement but as acknowledgement afits improbable success
N l an alysis of labour Qrganisation and class structure amongst the varyshying groups active in the civil rights m ovement serves to convey what is often lost til e tight for equality was not solely [ought by biack elites or enlightened whites but poor workshying class African-Americans a1SQ
played a leading role These groups although united in th eir cause did not un iformly a gree at every stage but could be divided by societal catshyegQries other than race
It is important to note that the Southern labour force were distincshytive in their anti-union tradition Even as organised labour became increasingly entrencbed in the North (following the National Labour Relashytions Act 1935) the South as Robert Zieger argues rem ained an anti-lashybour island Much of the historiogshyraphy stresses the traditionally Ilostile relationship between organised lashybour and African-Americans Meier
and Bracey assert that blacks were susp icious of wlions who typically discriminated against them Thus unionism was seen as the tool of white racist workers rather than the site of tenlpered racial Ultagonisms in the hce of a common adversary shyexploitative industries The American Federation of Labour (AFL) supportshyed craft unions that created raCially exd usive iobs often driving blacks from secured employment opportushynities in order to give them to unemshyployed whites A symptom of segreshygateJ society this was lot a qUEstion of education more a simple fUllction of the caste system in operation in the South that largely kept black labour unorgnnised yet was held as a necessishyty for business prosperity Any efforts towards unionisatioJ1 were usuall thwarted by employer intimidation police brutality or deep-rooted susshypicions of unions Moreover a cheap and ready supply of white and black vmrkerswn ited the power of strike action African Americans had been used as strike-breakers ill the heavy industries for decades
However the 19305 heralded the widening of labour organisation in part a response to post-World War I migration to northern industrial cities persistent inequalit ies within some of the New Deal programmes and the devastating financial impact of the Great Depression which was disproportionately felt by black workshyers Therefore it may be argued that the erosion of the distinctive union free character of Southern labour had begun
Attitudes towards labour organ ishysa60n shifted during the 1930s This may havc been a consequence of a more general swing to the left durshying the period as evidenced by the re-alignment of the black vote away from thc RepUblicans tovards the Democrat Party Mkhael Honey main tains that the late 1930s and early 1940$ promised huge change a consegum ce of war industrialisation and unionisation The founding of organisations such as the Congress of Industrial Organ isations (CIO) point
Lo increased co-open t-ion between Souther wh ite and black workers ruld an albeit temporary shift away from the attitudes of the segregation era
he CIO was born out of the hardshyships of the depression years and its inter-racial organising strategy crul be ccn as cridence ofa morc co-operashy
tive approach to labour organisat ion than is tradi tiol)ally given credit in the historiography Ihe CTO sought African -American recruits and fo shycussed its unionisiog efforts on secshytors with large black work forces such as steel and meatln their promotion of inter-racial un ionism such orshyganisatiom acted lts a bridge between the black community and white workers although this function was more successful in the North where African-Americans he1d a limited degree of political and economic power Bi-raciaJ unionism provided the philosophy of equal rights as well as the means to augment ~ocial conditions and alter the relationship between worker and boss a source of daily oppression in the lives of many black workers For African-Amerishycan labour this was a great step toshywards achieving social and economic equality
However no unionising organisashytion was free from tht constraints of racist social customs particularly in the SQuth where ero union leaders would rather capitulate to opposition tJ1an lose members and where white workers continuously strove to asshysert their superiority over their black colleagues In many ways the CI achieved their initial economic goals and succeeded by 1940 in persuadshying whites to join and work alongside African-Americans However they failed to farce white elites to accept black demands for an end to racial wage differences Nonetheless allishyances between black and white workshyers civil r ights groups and left-Wing New Dealers had been established benefitting the African-Anlerican struggle against economic discrimishynation
11le influence of the left was evident
15
in the leading unions thal were also committed to equality like the CIO as well as the United Packinghouse Workers of America who organised meatpackers in Chicago and Texas Whilst these unions engaged a lot of black workers as members they also had a significant communist pres shyence The impact of the Communist Party and its role in intluencing both inter-racial unionism and the civil rights movement is a contentious isshyue Their rhetoric and its evolution
from calls for a separate Black Reshypublic to talk of a more united-front is an area that provokes much conshytroversy Was it conceived in order to subvert labour organisations directly or to control them from behind the scenes Alternatively a cynical iew of the motivations behind Commushynist Part) involvement can be temshypered The Part) recognised the revshyolutionar y potential of industrial and agricultural workers and thereforc called for African- American sclfshydetermination as a strategy whereby white American acceptance of blacks right to self-government was the goal Thus white workers would be able to conquer their raci sm and a united working class would result
Traditional interpretations sugshygest that unionism was treated with
hostility by all blacks we must not be blind to tlle differences amongst the black community and the fact tbat they were far from a homogshyenous group hils the Communist Party becanle the rivals of the black elite arld middle-class organisations such as the NAACI~ the poor black working class were attracted to the ideology and the Party in incrcasing numbers throughout tlle depression and during the New Deal era degThey prOided the black working classes with an alternative vehicle for social protest Furthermore communism introduced many blacks to world politics enabling them to place their own struggle in a global context demonstrating the roots of poverty and ra05m
This educated the non -reading classes and gave them a sense of pride something many fel t was deshynied to them by tlle black eli tes of the
AACP whom it has been argued had unwisely assumed a pastoral poshysition as spokesperson for all blacks Moreover the Party challenged both white supremacy and the bourgeOiS politics of the black mjddle-class A Philip Randolph - considered a sooalist and largely hailed as the spokesman for black workers after his success with the Pullman porshy
ters of the 1920s and thc recogni tion of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters by tbe A FL in 1937 - attacked WE B Du Bois and the NAACP for neglecting the needs of the AfricanshyAmerican in favour of bourgeois inshyterests Fostering an atmosphere of debate and discussion communism helped to educate and empower the black working-classes For the black elites it was an unwelcome SQurce of agitation as communists began to enter into the realm of black bourshygeois politics Thus support for the Communist Party divided civil rights campaigners and highlighted undershylying class antagoni~m
The involvement of the commushynist-led ILD in the trial of the Scottsshyboro boys demonstrates the resentshyments and the growing frustrat ion with the NAACP and other black middle-class organisations Failure to secure Significant federal anti -lynchshying legislation ineffective in helping desperate blacks devastated by the depression and limited by thei r OWll political powerlessness ill the face of economic decline amongst tllCir own elite members the NAACPs imposhytence was made apparent during the 1931 Scottsboro boys trial In Alashybama nine black men aged thirteen to n ineteen were charged with the
rape of two while women travelling on the san1e train as them and were tried convicted and sentenced to death in three days WhcU1C~r or not the IlD simply offered their support and advice or they ID U$cled in with shrill bravado their involvement earned the Com mullist Party black support
They were portrayed as defenders of the race whilst wltites chose to view them as outsiders and defendshyers of rapists
Interpretations of communisms impact on the Qjl rights moveshyment during the 1930s var y II may be maintained tllat membership to the Party and adherence to commushynist ideology was limited ultim ateJy most blacks wanted to work within the American system and reap any benefits accrued hy the programmes of the New Deal Africall-Americaru were comm itted to these me3iur and Similarly to Presiden t Roosevelt fe-clec ting him for a th ird term in 1940 Thus communism was a marshyginal force that many blocks chose to
ignore as a vehid c for social protest However it is important to recognise
its significance in the Lives of many African-Americans who for the first time were organised in to tradeullions on relatively equal terms t() those of their whil-e co-workers and were able to understand their $truggle through the framework of a shared commushynist ideology Communists fo rmed the central pillar to trade un ion acshytivism and 0 0 inter-raciali sm This new socialism in the barber shop a broadened ID1d popular sense off self empowered many black vOrkers to fight against economic and social disshycrimination in a way that seemed to
speak more directly to them and their social s tanding than the rhetoric esshypoused by the black-bourgeoisie
Bibliograpby
Leslie H Fishel Jr The Negro and dle New Deal in Twentieth Ce1ltury America Recent Interpretations ed Bernstein and Matusow (1 972)
Robert H Zieger (eei) Orgal ised Labour in the TWeIIlielh Centw y Soulh (1991)
Robin DG Kelley Hammer and Hoe Alabama Conlllllmists During the Great Depression (l990)
16 Retrospect
OFfEN OVERSHADOWED by the tumultuous events that were to weep Europe in the late 19305 and
194Ds the Spanish Civil War (1936shy1939) remairu a pivotal moment in twentieth century European history TIle conflict divided families towns and polarised political opinion across the continent and beyond It resulted in an estimated 500000
deaths and witnessed the establishshyment of a Fascist dictatorship in Spain under General Franco which ould last for almost forty years
The conflict has been a fruitful jeC of historical scholarship and many explanations as to why the fragile democracy of the Second Reshypublic collapsed have been offered Did the RepublJcaJlS Lose because of a lack of fo reign support given to them but that the Nationalists were lucky to receive or was their defeat a result of the weakness of Republican mili tias oin the face of the discipline of the Spanish army
In order to ascertain which if eishy
ther of the aforementioned suggesshytions WdS most significan t it is imshyportant to examine the patchwork of ideologies that the Popular Front composed of the Marxlst POU1vl (Partido Obrero Unification Marxshyista) Socialist UGT (Union General de Trabajores) Communist PSU (PartitSocialiSta UnificalCatalwlya) and Anardllst CNT (Conf-ederacion
acional del Trabajo) Furthermore the effect of foreign intervention on relations within the National Front and upon the contlict asa whole must be taken into consideration
From the outset it would be fai r to suggest that the Republicans lacked the same opportunities as the Nashytionalists The material support offered by the Soviet Union WJS
ultimately to be a hindrance insofar as it catalysed factionalism within the National Front In the opposite camp Adolf Hitler was in reality not much more supportive of the Nationalists than foseph Stalin had been of the Republicans and it is likeshyly that he like Stalin merely wanted the war to continue as a distraction for the estern democracies Argushyably it was MUSSOWlis support that would be key to the Nationalist side He was adan1ant that the emergence of another Fascist state on the model of Italy could only be to his political advantage As it turns out Italy reshyceived relatively little in return from Franco after the war
Despite the fact that the Repuhlishycans were on the side of the legally elected government they were necr allowed to purchase arms from the major suppliers The United States was pursuing a policy of non-inshytervention after World War I and
Britain and France followed suit re1 uctant to upset the political stashybili) of Europe at the time It was decided that neither side would be given military aid under the NODshyIntervention Pact However this pact was then widely and blatantly flaunted by the dictatorships of Eu shyrope Italy Germany an d the Soviet Union The purchasing of foreign arms was poli tically charged as it was tantamount to subscription to the ideology of the dictatorship that was selling them TIle fact that only the Fascist dictatorships of Europe and the USSR were willing to so brashy
j zenly ignore the Non-Intervention pact was to have an enormous imshypact within the Spanish Left as will be later discussed
The aid of the Soviet Union was useful to the Republican cause insoshyfar that the weapons they provided were far superior to any the Republishycans already Pc)ssessed whilst Soviet aircraft were used for reconnaissance missions which were central to the militias military tactics However the weapons were not given to all parties within the Popular Front but were directed at only a handful Mostly they were given to the Socialists of the UCT and tlle Communists of the PSUC which stirred discontent amongst the other parties who were using old and inferior weaponry to that of their fellow comarades
The Civil War polarised Span isJ political discourse into those who were opposed to Francos regime and those who were not The Republican fOrces therefore contained many disparate political groups from moderate republicans to Anarchists Trotskyites and Stalinists Conseshyquently the Soviet aid exacerbated internal tensions within the Republishycan forces between the loosely assoshyciated left wing political groups The acceptance of Soviet weapons was a dangerous move as it allowed the access of agents of the Couummist Party of Soviet Russia into Spanish affairs someth ing that was to prove decisive in the outcome of the war
The Spanish Civil War was a conflict which could be referred to as a battle between reactionary forces of conshyservativism and progressive revolushytionaries Though many have claim ed that the Nationalists were fasc ists British Titer George Orwell who was fighting in Spain at the time along side the Republicans wrote of the Nationshyalists that their ideology was closer to that of feudalism The Nationalists were composed chiefly of members of the army members of the clergy and leaders of international business all united in their common distrust of the working classes Their victory in the war would certainly jeopardise the livshying conditions and dghts of working class people resulting in the deterIorashytion labour relations a Catholic crackshydown of secularism and the army would suppress any dissent
In contrast to the Nationalists clarshyity oJ goals the Republicans seemed to all be working towards different ends TIle objectives of moderate reshyforming socialists and the Anarchist
NT were very difficult to reconshycUe Furthermore the Soviet belief in a revol utionary vanguard instigatshying and leading the proletariat was at odds with populist movements such as Anarchism that took hold in Spain With such differences in polshyicy it is hard to envisage what could force these parties to work together for any length of time
Part of the problem with compreshyhending the Spanish Civil War comes from the spectrum of ideologies within the broad alliance of the Reshypublican forces The ideologies were further apart than could be counteshynanced and particularly so after the Conununist Party decided to impose itself upon the revolution that the Marxists and Anarchists were trying to fashion themselves in Barcelona In his book Hom age to Catalonia Orwell describes Barcelona Practically eveshyry building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists Every shop md cafe had an inscription saying it had been collectivised even the bootblacks had been collectivised md their boxes painted red and blacK The extent of the social change seems almost hyshyperbolic particularly when O rwell stresses that even the bootblacks were part of a trade union The Comshymunist Party however was to disrupt this workers paradise in May of j 937 with the attempted repossesshysion of a telephone exchange that was under Anarchist control 111is sparked a conflict that lasted several days and threatened the stability of the entire Republic General Franco who said he planned it after the Communists
ran newspaper stories blaming the Marxists for starting the fight used disunity in Barcelona to his own ends Being the largest party with the most well-developed press organisations the Communists managed to direct the aftermath of the situation and use it to discredit a competing party Disunity among the Republican side flourished as the AnarclUsts caught on to the Communist attempts to discredit the ]vIandst faction Though they were not persecuted to the same extent though their collectives were broken up to increase efficiency they realised thal they were fighting for
mebody who was n ot sympathetic of their ideology and who tney could not trust The Republican t~1Ctions
vigour started to deteriorate after the May Days riot of 1937
One might ask the question why did the Conununists try and reposshysess an Anarchist building It would be naive of them to assume they could take it vithout a fight unless they disregarded the fact that all Anarshychist doctrine of the em was against government coercion It bardly seems that there might be any great gains in taking one building even if it did allow Anarchists to eaesdrop on telephone conversations The sudden megaloshymania of the Communists seems to have sprung from advice given by the Communist Party of Soviet Russhysia The tactical value of the telephone exchange was not worth risking the integIity of the Republican coalishytiDn The PSUCs party line that At present nothing matters but vinning the war is especially telling
Arguably it was the fragile alliance of circumstance within the Republishycan movement exacerbated by Soviet Aid that only reached certain fuctions wbicb resulted in the collapse of the Spanish Republic Though the weapshyOIlS helped fOT a while they could not Sllstain an entire nation with the limishytations placed upon their deployment Anarchists did not trust the help of Soviet Russia and neither did they trust the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain or any of its regional counshyterparts Tnere were other culprits howeveJ in the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic
It would be wrong to suggest that disWlity on the part of the Republi shycans was all that preven ted them from victor)l The wider European context of the conflict was also fundamenshytal in the collapse of the Republican Movement Gen11any and Russia nevshyer gave sufficient help to either side to let it decisivel) win at any pace but it appears that both used the war to their own advantage Germany tested out their bombers on Spanish tovms such as Guernica and the Soviet Union
17
used the war as a distraction while it increased its level of militarization
In conclusion then the conmct polarised Spanish political discourse around the two totalitarim cxtrerrtishyties of Fascism and Stalinism This resulted in an internally divided and factionalised Republicm force which struggled to retain its integrity in the fuce ofa destructive internal feud The feud was sparked b) the actions of an externalgovernment hence it ccruld be argued that the collapse of tbe second republic was was more to do vith the international context of the conflict as it provided both the ex1rem e ideolohY and the cause of fTiction vithin the Republican movement
BibUography
Qmell George Orwell hi Spain (Penshyguin London2001)
Thomas Hugh The Spanish Civil War 4th edition (Pellguin London 2003)
Beevor Anthony The Battlefor SpainThe Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (WampN London 2006)
Taylor AJP The OrigirtS of the Second World War (Penguin London 1991)
18 Retrospect
Sh may be the Reason Frances Rromagc explores the often overlooked contribution of female scientists during the Enlightenment
FOR MANY centuries befo re the seventeenth Aristotles concepshytion of the bod y and the mind as insepa rable matte r domin ated Western thinking It was used to justify the subjugation of wom en and their subsequent excl us ion from so -called masculine activi shyties
Anatomical differen ces and hormonal systems provi ded new rationales for keeping women below men in the intellectual hishyerarchy Chauvinism expressed it self in every walk of life from religi on and education to science and medicine Even the common shyest of medical symptoms such as nerVOllsness irritability and loss of appetite for foo d or sex were generally diagnosed in women as the result of female Hysteria - a problem deriving from the hysshytna or uterus Science which explored the worl d outside the domestic sphere remai ned an ex shyclusively masculine discipline up until the eighteenth cent ury
Then came th e Enlightenment Enlightenment philosophers were infl uenced by Descartes theori es on critical thinking and Lock es empir icism and as a conseshyqu ence adopted a new approach to learn ing one which promoted free in te ll ectual inquiry and reshyjecled the influence of the state an d religion Despite the moveshyments vast scope few topics were as vigorously discussed as the subject of female education T he changing conception of the mind as no longer constrained by physical attributes opened a new conception of the mind as a sex shyless entity Therefore wom ens education became the subject of m uch debate in polite society spurring contribut ions from feshymale and male thinkers on both sides of the discu ss ion Womens access to scientific knowlcdge proved particularly controversial as it cha llenged a long-established perception of womens role as lim shyited to the domain of domestic ity
owhere has thi ~ challenge been so eloquently pu t as in words of British poet Elizabeth Toilet in her 1724 her poem Hypatia What cruel Laws depress the female KindTo humble Ca res and servile Ta sks confild That haughty Mall IIllriFald and alone May boast the world or Science all his owwl As barbarous Tyrants to secure their Sway Conclude that ignorallce will best obey
Whilst men may have been harbarous tyrants and attempted to clamp down on womens parshyticipation in scientific disciplines lu ckily th ey were not entirely suc shycessful in doing so History proshyvides LI S with a few precious exshyamples l1f women who refused to bow to blind ignorance and tbus su cceeded in rising above amashyteur status to become serious conshytributors to the field of scient ific knowledge
Of these the only one about whom much contemporary inshyformati o n as well as a substanshytial body of original writings has survived is Emilie Marquise du Chatelet She is most famous for having been Voltaires mistress but in fa ct this does great injusshytice not only to he r independent character but also to her intellecshytual brilliance and considerable sc ientific contribution hilst she remain ed all bu t inv isible to histo rical aCCo wlts before her asshysociation with Voltaire in 1733 during tJ1e next fifteen years of her life she proved herself a worshythy match to the brilliant French philosopher Living mainly in Pa rh or in her country estate at Cirey to where she retreated with Voltaire she wrote and published a book on the metaphysics of natshyural science (institutions de physhysique) an essay on the nature of fire and neat (pisserta tion sur la nature ct propagation du feu) and two short pieces on the problem of melsu ri ng physical force She also co- authored anonymously Voltaires popularisation of Newshytoni an physic s for which she was resp onsi bl e for most of th e mathshyematical calculations an d to top her numerous achievements in 1748 she produced a translation of Newtons PrincipiI mathemati shyca with a commentary which was published posth Wll ously and is sti l1 used as the standard translashy
tion of h is work in France today In 1835 th e Royal Astro nomical
Society in London made a breakshythrough by awarding honorar y m~mbership to a woman Caroshylin e Herschel She became famous for her discove ry o f ncw nebu lae in 1783 (Androme da and Cetus) and for bei ng the fi rst woman to di scover a comet In hOnOltr of Herschel the SOCiety made what was perhaps the fi rst sta temen t on equal opportuuities in science While tests of astronomi cal merit sho uld in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to th ose of a man the sex of the former shou ld no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acshyknowledgement wh ich might be hel d due to the latter But whi lst modem biographers have used these numerous firsts to turn Caroline Herschel in to a female icon of sci ence it is importan t to note that she wa~ rewarded not for her own discoveries but beshycause she recorded compi led and recalc ulated th ose of her brother vVilliam Herschel
The very natu re of he r brothers research concen trated on collectshying and classif)Ti ng large numb ers of stars and in th is Ca rolines cataloguing skills were of ceotral importanc e Lacking her pati en ce and meticul ous att ention to deshytall he became heavily reliant on her sci enti fi c inpu t Therefo re her im portance in her brothers research was far greater than most of their contemporaries realised yet she never theless allowed her efforts to further his reputation
Finally th e faScinating case of Laura Bassi (1711-177S) shows how some rare women were able to forge thems elves a career in scientific fields during the En shylightenm ent Bassi was gifted with a capacity for learning consi d shyered so extraordillar y in a wom an that it just ified a concession for a
university degree in philosophy Thereafter she was awarded an entrance to Bolognas lstituto delle Scicnze later to be admitted as an honorary member of the college and fl naUy assigned the position of lecturer in physics at the presshytigious Universi ta eli Bologna the first of its kin d in Europe Scholshyar~ from aU over Eu rope would attend Bassis lectu res on Newtoshynian physics and sJle became the envy oflearned women across the contin ent
These scientific women came fre)m upper or middle cla ss backshygrounds and whilst th eir ach ieveshyments were not replicated to the same extent by women in the lowshyer echelons of society a degree of sci entific and pract ical k novledge never theless took hold Daughters of clergymen particularly in the dissenters tnldition and certain widows who were made to tak e up their husbands trade after th ei r death became learned women and hi ghly ski lled T he famous case of lIlada me Cliquot who in 1805 took over her husbands company after h is death is a ch arming exshyample Hi s enterprise whi ch had
een variously involved in bankshying wool trading and Champagne producing th ri ved under her di shyrec tion and eventu ally became the brand La Vcuve C liquol She is directly accred ited will) a great breakthro ugh in champagne han shydling that made mass produc tion of th e wine possible an d estabshylished the producers reputation of excellence which continues to the present day
T hese examples demonstrate that women were capable of takshying part in scientific debates and developments but it should be stressed that their contr ibution was li mited Womens access to sci entific knowledge was dependshyent on wealth class and cru cially on an association with men who would encourage scientific en shydeavours This last condition is all the more important when one considers the institutionshyalised chauvinism that women continued to experience during the eighteenth century Throughshyout Europe with the exception of
orthern Italy un i7ersi ties and scientific academi es such as the Roya l In stitution in London were closed to women
19
Furthermore whilst the enliglltshyenmenl undeniably brought an improvement to the female conshydition entrenched conservatism in contemporary attitudes even amongst enlightened th inkers such as Rou sseau meant that feshymale scientists were not only ex shy
tremely rare but also str uggled to be accepted in m al e- d ominated
circles T llere was a general lack or even absence of formal rec()gshynit ion of womens involvement in scientific publications For ex shyample Marie Lavoisier th e gifted wife of Fren ch chemist Antoine
Lavois ie r in now recog-ni sed as having carried out many calculashytions and observations in her husshyband s Elements of Chemistry The original m an uscript of h is work contai ns evid ence of her notes and comments yet the printed version fail s to ackn owledge her contribution entirely Even in be tter-documented cases such as that of Lavois ier it very difficult fo r the modern -day h isto rian to pin -point the individu al accomshypli shments female scientists in coll aborative works
However one can argue quite
confidently the instrumental rol e that women p layed in th e disshysem in ation and subsequent adshy
van cement o f sci ent ific ideas T hey were g rea t m ediators often translating simplifying and illusshytrat ing com plex scienti fic works Their versions of these texts were
generally aimed at a female read shyership a n otable exam ple bein g EmiJie d u Chatelet s translation of Francesco Algarottis Ne wtonishy(Ism for Ladies (1737) These were often read in wid er circles as they were clear illustrated and easier to understand T his helped the sp read of scientific id eas the im shy
plied message being that if science was s imple enough for a woman to unders tand than anyone could understand it Furthermore women facilitated the populari sashytion of science by hosting disc usshy
~ions in salons or holding p rivate exhibitions in their homes where gues ts cou ld appreciate and marshyvel at discoveries such the Leyden jar and static electrici ty These so shycial gatherings were particularly important when one considers science and the En lightenment as a wider social phenomenon
as opposed to a string of isolated discove ries mad e by individual mal e scientists
There is a tragiC element un shyderlying this whole s to ry Recent studies led by historian s such as Patr ic ia Fara have attempted to give a clearer and fairer in terp re shytation of womens contribution to science d uring thi s per iod
However history has b ee n unfair and insensi tive in its representashytion of female scientists Consid shyer ing the wealth of literature on Science and Enlightenment it is quite re markable tha t so little nas b een written about the women who took part Givmiddoten th e sparseshyness of original sources and the strong m ale bias wit h which most existing d ocumentation is writshyten it is very difficult impossible
perhaps to accu rately assess the Signifi cance o f womens contribushytion to the scientific fi eld
Feminists have often rewritshyten the story of these women to underline independen t achieve shyments and contributions mad e in a bid to break down prejudic es again st their sex But when does a shift of emphasis become an exagshy
geration a disto rt iongt Scientific
women have been concealed for so long that it is very tempting to tum them into unsung heroines It would be unju st to retell these wom ens stories in a way which
forces them to conform to the ideal s of m odern day fem inists Alte rna tivey we mll st appreciate their contr ibutions on their own meri t
Bibliograpby
Fara Patricia Pandoras Breeches Women Science amp Power in the Enlightenm ent (Great Britain Pimlico 2004)
Gardiner Linda Wo men ill Scishyetlce From French Women al7d
the Age of El7ligiztenmellt ed S Spencer (USA Indi ana University Press 1984 )
Bragg Melvyn P Fara K O Brian amp j Hawley In Our Time Wo men alld Science ill the E11 ligi7tenll7ellt LondOl (BBC Radio 4 4th vemb er 2010)
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
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The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
6
WHAT BEITER combination than free food and a film at Frankensteins The University ofEdinburghs History Society held its first film night of the year on October 6th and was pleased to welcome plenty of new tiaces
We had all gathered hu ddled into the basement of Frankensteins and out of sight from the hideous weather The nights screening was to be Frost NIXon a popular choice with first and second time viewers alike But before the film began members refuelled on a selection of free dishes with burgshyers and chips being the finn favourshyite Thanks to the Frankenstein cards there were plenty of enticing drink deals to be had and the society settled down comfortably on the lower floor in preparation for the movie
FrostNixon directed in 2008 by Ron Howard is an account of the legendary interviews conducted by David Frost talk show host with the former US President Richard Nixon Initially Frosts determination to stage these interviews and to extract a confession from Nixon regarding his role in the in taolOus vVatergate scanshydal seems ridiculous His big gamshyble costing him thousands of dollars appears to be litrle more than a chalshylenge to satisfy his ego However by the end of the fllm it is clear that he
Retrospect
moment Michael Sheens impersonshyation of Frost as a smooth care-free and daring television presenter conshytrasts ri th Oscar nominated Frank Langel1as portrayal of an ageing alshymost tragic Nixon who is presented as riddled by suspiciolL The result is an entertaining and thought-provokshying dranla about the power of televishysion over politics
This succcssful film night was a reshylaxed evening enjoyed by many from all years and will be repeated in the near futu re
Alice Pease recounts a night of film screenings and free food with society members
7
History in the News
IgtOCUMJNP) DErAlIJNG the 0shy
perinces of Channel ]sland residents who chose to resisit Nazi occupashytion during the second Wod War have been re-discovered Thrown into suitcases and stowed in the back of a wardrobe these papers are considered to be the m ost imshyportant archive material to be unshyearthed concerning the occupation
The islands were occupied by azi forces between 1940 and 1945
and with one German guard to eveshyry three residents massive resistance was difficult Despite the improbable success of such act ion lhese hidshyden documents reveaJ the unusually silent and often symbolic nature of the resistance that islanders particishypated in
Compiled by a resident Frank Falla these documents tell of the harrowing experinces many inhabitshyants faced Some were forced to listen to fellow prisoners being decapitated by guillotine in German prisons
Falla himself liS deported after organ ising a clandestine newspaper designed to deliver updates about the war once radios were con fisshycated in 1942 Irate by the lack of recogn i lion that resistors received after the war Falla compiled the papers after the Br itish government received compensation from Gershymany in the 19605 Testimonies of the suffering endwcd by resideJ1ts have led to calls for a memorial ded shyicated to those who strove to resist occupation These docum ents also provide eveidence contrary to trashyditional interpretations that suggest islanders corroborated too easily Catherine Me Gloin
AN ANaENr Roman village has been unearthed in the parkland of a stately home in West Lonshydon in the unlikely surroundshyings of modem -day suburbia
Archaeologists excavating on the outskirts of the histor ic Syon Parle Estate discovered a stretch of Roman road and the foundations of some dwellings Alongside the remains of the road were over 11 5DO pottery fragments a large number of coins a Bronze Age gold bracelet and a lava stone quem
The road that was uncovered is beHeved to have been one of the most important linking Londinium with SildlCster It is reckoned that the vilshylage supplied the metropolis as well as existing as a a resting place for travelshylers giving insight into the way that the city interacted with and was conshynected to the country at large
1he Museum of London Archaeshyology an thrilled at the d iscoveries and believe that there is much to be learned about the daily lives of those livingjust outside Roman Londiniwn WiIl EUis
HISfORIAN KFIIH Jeffrey has been granted unprecedented access into the previously classified ilkS of the Secret Intelligence Service more commonly known as Ml6 It is the first and only official history of the shadowy goverruneJJt agency the very existence of which was not fo rmally acknowledged until 1994
Owing to the high ly sensitive nature of some of the documentashytion Jeffreys history only covers a forty-year period of the agencys background from its initial foundshying as the Secret Servi ce Bureau in 1909 until 1949 The lucky historishyan recently described the archives to which he had access as a cornucoshypia an extraordinary Aladdins cave of h istorical mater ials~
His book reveals often overlooked episodes in the history of British esshypionage such as the thwarting of an attempted Communist revolution in Brazil in 1935 and the controversial Operation Embarrass documenting both the successes and the failures of British intelligence throughout the first half of the twentieth century Gregor Donaldson
8 Retrospect
No stopping E~ burgh bullthe presses mYers ress
Rebecca auk presses Timothy Wright for some history on Edinburgh University Press
FOR STUDENTS and schola rs aJ ike Edinburgh University Press j widel ) regarded as one of the best academ ic publishing offices in th e ountry Having been publishing
and publicising high quali ty acashydemic books for almost fif1) years the Press is celebrating its successes both internationally and at home In the midst (I f this great ~ucccss Chief Executive Timothy Wrigb t taJks t
Retr(lspect about the h istory of the press and what the future holds
Edinburgh Univers ity Press founded over fi fty years ago is a wholly owned subSidiary of the University of Edinbu rgh 1hough the conpan)s main business is the publishing of textbooks and supshyplementary textbooks the roles that the Press plays range across d iffe rent academic areas The pubshylish ing of textbooks senes an edu shycat ional role the p ublica tion of scholarly works and monograph serves to help the advancemen t of knowledge wh ilst the pub]jcalion of works of re fe rence support both
holarly and educational util ity The compmy also boaSL~ a portfolJ or over thirty jou rnals
The Presss chosen fiel ds of pubshylish ing are American Studies Classhyics Film Studies M edia amp Cultural tudies History Islam ic Studies
Language and Linguistics La Litshyerary Stu dj es PhUosophy Politics and Scottish History The Press is well eqlllpped to serve the hu manshyties departmen ts publishing on an xtensive range of subjects and topshy
ics The Presss publishing is recogshy
nised as being of the highest qual shyity It is amonitortd by th e Un ivershy
sitys Press Committee which has to approve a ll titles proposed for publication The sale of its publicashytions is increasingly intern at ional enhancing the Universi tys global image and reflecting well on Scotshyland itsel f In the year ended 31 July 2009 over 50 of the presss revshyenues were outside the UK markshying a Significant profit outside of the University itself
J i I I I ) i I ~
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t
~ ~ j ~ 111shy
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i I
upporting its internation al CO ll shy
nections is the Presss close rella shytionship with other acacemic pubshylishersThe press has a nehvork of dis tr ibutors world wide includiJlg pa rtn erships with the University of
ew South Vales in Sydney and most importantly a longstanding relationship with Columbia Uni shyversity Press in the Unitcd States of
merica TIle maiJl objectives of the p ress
are fourfold Firstly it contrlbutes significantly to knowledge tTansfer and the dissemination of the resu lts f scholarly researcht also contribshy
utes Significantly to the education of uni1ersity students and others By Lllaintaining its position as the leading university press in Scotland it contributes to the dissemination of scholarly work in Scottish his shytory md other Scottish subjects and on contemporary Scottish issues Lastl y the presitige of the conpan) nhances the univerSitys reputashy
tion internationally through the acknowledged high quality of its publishing
The key objectiVes se t by the Trusshytees for the year were to increase th e to tal income of the Press through contill uing to publi sh high quality
books and subsequ ently increase the gross and net marg ins These overall objectives are supported by a nUJ11ber of detailed targets which are monitored by the Trustees on a regular basis
In its fifty ycar history Edinburgb Un iversity Press has achieved great
thi ngs From high prestige to high saJes repor ts the intern ationaJ sucshycess that tb e press is now enj oying was only to be expected Its great prestige is an honour for the comshypany and the University alike as the Press was undoubtedly made for success
9
eat Odessa in the middle Varvara Bashkirova reminds us of the personal consequences of history CATHERINE THE Great fou nded the city of Odessa in 1794 when she decided that a port on the Black Sea wouId be a wise in vestshyment She invited architects from all over the world and it resuIted in a beautiful southern citywith an extremely diverse populati on and culture- albeit mostly Russian As a new centre of culture and trade it soon became the fourth largest city in the Russian Empire
I was born here hut nowadays I cannot go to the cinema to watch a film in Russian nor can I listen to the radio in Russ ian and most cershytainly I wouId not be able to study in Russian How did this happen During my fath ers childhood he heard only Russian or Yiddish sposhyken on tbe streets He never spok Ukra inian I only learned it in school There were some Ukrainshyian programmes on television but they were not my favourites so living in the south of the country my contact with the language was lim ited to three hours a week
I rem ember the day a woman came to our school with a lecture about how great Ukraine is In itialshyly we did not pay her much attenshytion but as ber lecture grew more ridiculous my classmates could not help laughing She argued that Ukrainian is m OTe beautifu l than Russian-I still do not know how she measured tb at Wbat we loved the most was her earnest claim that Jesus was Ukrainian It was proved by the studies of a historian who clai med that Buddha was Ukrain shyian too It was the year we stopped learning Russian literature Gogol and Pushkin both of whom created some of their best works in Odessa were now considered to be foreign writers The best part was that we still studied them in our foreign litshyerature course but in translation whicb was much harder to undershystand than the original Russian
After that everythi ng changed quickly Our history teacher was forced to teach in Ukrainian under
th e threat of being fireQ She did n ot speak it having lived all her li fe in Odessa Before education was mostly in Uhtainian anyway but once it was forced we hated it
What happened to the cinemas was even more ridiculous By forcing the Russian population to speak Ukrainian the government made dozens of cinemas bankrupt As Vestern films had never been translated in to Ukrainian before it suddenly came to light that man modern words Simply didnt exshyist in Ukrainian But this did not stopthe patriots-they started inshyventing words It was so contrived that we went to the cinema once and ended up laugh ing all the way through
Additionally in science and techshynology Uk rainian is quite behind 111at is why l11y fr iend who is studshyying programming in Ukraine is always complaining- when writshying essays the words he needs to use simply do not exist t hey can not be found in any of the dictionshyaries
Southeast Ukraine with its proshyRussian attitude contrasts to the western part of th e country 20 per cent of the population in Lvov a western city have a negative opinion of Russia This is a result of history From 1919-1936 westshyern Ukraine was a part of Poland whilst the southeastern was part of Russia Western Ukraine more agricultural and rural than the east is where Ukrainian traditions and language have been strongly mainshytained Many of the southeastern cit ies on the contrary were and always have been Russian Crishy
mea is an obvious example haVing existed as a Russian territory si nce 1794 On 19 February 1954 it was transferred from the Soviet Unshyion to Ukraine as a gi ft I would imagine it was quite a surprise for the local population to move to a different cou ntry without realisshying Ukrainisation was much mor tangible there as 90 per cent of the Crimean populalion was Russian For iJ1stance they were not capashyble of watching Ukrainian films as they didnt kn ow the language In other words western Ukraine feels strong antipathy to the pro-Russian East for bei ng unpatriotic whilst eastern Ukraine feels the same to the anti-Russian West for imposing on them an alien language Most Easterners admit the necessi ty of knowing and do know Ukrainian However they also argue that they should be allowed to choose beshytween the languages
Such a sharpened situation can be partly explained by the constant changes in the government After the 2004 Orange Revolution remiddot lations with Russia significantly worsened thus reviving the bisshytorical confl ic t 111ere were fights on the streets and on the in terneL Friendships broke down over the issue This resonated deeply fo r Ukrain isation which had affected
so many in the east of Ukraine ow that the government has
changed to diametrically opposite sides by strengtl1ening relations with Russia it seems like people can not keep up to date with the number of ideological shifts that they are supposed to accept every four year~ The contlict rontinues to deepen as the government conshytinuously changes its stance havshying only balf of the nations support each time
I still visi t Odessa at least once a yea r Walking along tbe streets I can sense the tension between the t raditional and the in1posed It is felt in quotid ian things such as street Signs TIle em blem has cbanged but tbe beart of the cit) is still the same The city is its people who keep the culture of their anmiddot cestors I know it when I see flowshyers laid in front of the memorial to the Russian poet Alexander Pushshykin on his birthday They say To Pushki ll from the grateful citizens of Odessa as it was constructed in 1889 solely from citizens doshynations I know that Odessa like other southern ci ties can never bemiddot come truly Ukrainian as it retai ns too much of the historical and culshytural heritage it has received from Russia
Retrospect10
th b
THE 1707 Acts of Union have always been sources of great debate and the topics popularity is still present as the dlree hundred year old act continu to have repercussions today AltJlough the union of Scotland and England may seem inevitable wiLh hindsight Lhe lrum is Lhat it was an exLrnordi shynary alJiance Simon Schama could not have been more correct when he described it as one of the most astonshyishing trnnsformat ions in Ew-optan histori
cotland and England possess rich intertwining pasts Competition be it in commerce politics or warfare stemmed from the Mo nations cul shytural differences What could possibl)t give these two separate and tradishytionaUy competing naUons common ground upon which to unify There were three major fac tors involved religion external threats and circulllshylance
The 15005 saw sweeping change throughout Europe as the Reformashytion gained momentum creating an upsurge of turmoil thar would take well over a century to abate By the Uruon of the Crowns in 1603 both Scotland and England were largely Protstant countries though disashygreement over doctrine was fierce The Bishops Van of 1639 and 1640 are merely examples of th~ c()nflict that occurred anlongst Lhe various denominations Lhat considered themshyselves true Proteltants
OtherneSS as explorcd by Linda Colley gives us an inkling into Lhe
nattlrc of the second major factor behind unification Shc states that otllerness was defined as lin aversion to militant Catholicism or a hostile
ontinental European system or at its most basic level external threats
ilh Lhe common ground of religion and a shared monarchy Scotland and England were similar enough by 1707 to tee jOiJldy threatened by foreign powers Traditionally these other were Roman Catholics and seen as the natural enemy l1ljS however is a rather skewed view to take For examshyple tlle League ofAugsburg of which both Scotland and England were a ke part of in 1689 included the staunchly
tholic nations of Austria Portugal and the Holy Roman Empire yet the nations of Britain certainly profited from beiJlg a part of this aliiance
Resistance to foreign threats real or percehmiddoted also fostered idea~ of unitt amongst one very influential faction of society the military Scottish and English Regiments fought side b) side throughout the Low Couotries A1sace and the RhineJand in both the Nine Yeurs War and the War of the Span ish Succession not only earning respect for aile another but laying me founshydatioJlS of a British army years before tlle Union ac tua lly took place Whilst tlle Acts of Union officialI) merged Lhe Scottish and English arnlies they had actuaUy been fighting together [or decades Success of the twin nashytions when allied militarily would doubtless have smootJled tlle road to union especially when tlloughts
of Empire canle to the forefront Full political union can perhaps be seen a the next logical step yct circumstance would first need to take a hand in promiddot ceedings
It did so in the late 1690s Ihe Darshyien Scheme an attempt by Scotland to break into the world market by establishing a small trading colony 0 11
the Isthmus of Panama went hOrribly wrong The nation was left teetering on the brink of bankruptcy Memshybers of the Scots nobility were forced to petition the English Parliament in Westminster for finan cial aid and me whole debacle caused many of the ruling elite to believe that Scotland could never la) imperial foundations without aid [rom its (lId rival Even by tlle early 1700s Scotlands economy was shOWing little signs of recovering from the savage blow wiLh tvtichael Fry pointing out that in 1704 the nashytiOD remaincd backward and with no financial markets of its own
The deaLh of Scotlands global ambishytions and the severe damage dealt to its economy can UJcrefore be cited as among the primary short-term reashysons for the Un ion of 1707 VVilliam Fergusons 1964 paper unearthed tbe grave extent to which bribes had been accepted by Scottish noblemen in orshyder to help push tlle Union through Parliament It is undcniable tllat for some expediency took the place of pride
t Lhe same time it would be a misshytake to believe that only Lhe Scots noshybles were responsible for selling their
country for English gold as Burns would have US believe Christopher A vVhatleys Scots rlrld the Unioll arshygues that this point does not stand up to close scrutiny nor does the argushyment that Scots bargained away their Parliament for free trade The bouts of insurrection throughout Scotland which fi) lImved in the inlmcdiate wake oflhe Union including the infamous exccutions of two English sailors 0 11
trumped up charges of pm cy would have been conSiderably more grievous had there truly been no support fix the move amongst the lower d Many of tlle more fa mous first-hand accounts such as those of Daniel Deshyfoe state d early that the vast majority of the nation was against the idea of Union Yet Whatleys detailed study of numerous smaller primary accounts shows surprising apathy amongst many commentators that proves true or at least militant anti- Un ionist senshytiment was not in the dear majority in Scotland at the time of the Union
The Acts of 1707 therefore can surely be remembered as amongst tile most unusual Union~ to have taken place in European history Scotland and EnghUld though they had many similarities were stiUlargely au tonoshymous nations before May 1707 It took a century of religious and poshylitical upheaval numerous external mreats and misfortune on a national scale to not only pave tlle wa) but acshytually bring about the Union It was a omplex rich and fascinating event
which provides us witll one of the
~
11
RAT HER LI KE th l m arri age of the owl and the pussycat the civil part shynership between Scotlan d and Engshyland seemed an unlikely union at the bme of its inau guration 1n 1707 Lord Bel havells remark - Theres ane end to an c auJd sang - seems to capture the sense of loss o cca shysioned by the termil1ltion of Scotshyti sh indep endence How d id someshything SO unpopular at birth survive for so long The slow evolution of tl11 Union deserves some attention
The Un ited Ki ngdom of 170 7 was augmented in ]SO ] wi th the ad shydition of the island oj Irehu1d In 1922 after over a century of unshyhappy relations Ireland was part ishytioned and only six of th e thi rtyshytwo counties remained as par t of a r(branded Uni ted Kingd om of Great Britain and Northern Ireshyland In its various incarnations the Un ion is now an auld sang and its melo dy may be more dHncult to forget than is ofte11 assumed
If Scotlan d is no t qUite an addishytionaJ county of England there are more similarities and links than Jllany are prepared to contemplate There has been a massive moveshyment of people in both directions
between Scotland and England The English in Scotland and the Scots in Englan d have integrated m ore seamlessly than aDY other min ori ty in either host society There ha ve been outbu rsts of S(Oshytophobia but the) have not proved to be a central fea ture of the Anshyglo-Scotti sh relati onship and the same can be said for Anglophoshybia Scotland bems a greater deshygree of Similarity to England than any ot her comparator Although th is m ay be a partial product of the Union it would not be quickly altered by furth er const itut ional chan ge even ren ew ed Scottish in dependence In deed if Scotshylands eighteenth and ni ncteenth cent ur y history cannot ent ir ely be ex plained by reference to events of l707 the Union has increasingly left its impressjon on the twentieth cen tu ry - the Welfare State might be an even grea te r symbol of the Union th an th e British Empire
Much recent comment about the Union has been peSSimistic and has sought reasons for its apparshyen tly likely demise an event wh ich inconveniently has not ye t taken place Despite d evolut io n perhaps
even despite the advent of an SN P ad ministration in Holyrood this may be the w rong question It is tbe longevity rather than the frashygil ity of th e Anglo-S cottish Un ion which reqUires explanation 1 his is not to say th at the Union m ay nol flo under in tbe [uture perh aps even the ncar future Histor ians are no to riously ba d at peering into th e future but one can confi dently p reshydict the outbreak o f a fierce debate between those who will argue that the inh erent features of the Un ion sowed the seeds of its destruction over a long period an d others who will contend that the sundershying of th e Union can be found in the consequences of the political divergence between Scotlan d and
nglaJ1d since 1979 Vha tever happens to the Union it is vital that we do not fabricate a sense of denjal about deep-sealed and longshys tan ding Scott ish enth usiasm for it
Ewen Cameron is H ead of H istory at Edinb urgh University Hi s book Impaled on a Thistle Scot la nd sil ce 1880 was released earl ier this year
A strange survival As a special feature Ewen Cameron provides a scholars perspecshytive on th e endurance Great Britain and the Acts of the Union
12 Retrospect
THE COLD War caused the worlds superpowers to forge some of h isto rys m ost unlikely of unshyions O ne such union was thaI of the USA with the leader of South Vietnam from ]954 to 1963 Ngo Dinh Diem and one that was arshyguably the first step on the path to full-scale American military in shyvolvement in Vietnam
Following Fr ances withdrawal from Indochina in 1954 Vietnam was divided in two along the 17th Parallel with Ho Chl Minhs C omshymuni sts ruling the North and the French sponsored democracy in the South with nation al elections planned for 1956 to reunite the COUlltry Fearful of communism the Eisenhower administration threw their support behind the staunchly anti -communist Diem in the bope that he would form a strong government that would be sympathetic to America The union would end almost a decade later in t he most ignominious of ways
At fi rs t there seemed to be several good reasons to suppor t Diem he was zealously anti-communist but aho exceedingly nationalistic and anti-French m aking it easier for the Americans to support h im without contradicting the if own an ti-imshyperialist rhetor ic He had travelled widely in the US an d had expressed a desire to work with Americans to build a new Vietnam
However from the start it was eVident that Diems belief in democracy was dubious as he stead fastly refu sed to conform to American political ideals The US
had entered th e two world wars to in President Woodrow Wilsons wor ds make the world safe fo r deshymocracy wh ilst the conflict wi th the Soviet Union was defi ned by Americas beUef in democracy and capitalism The US expounded the ideals of democracy over the tyranshynies o f authori tarian govern ment Diem refused to m ake democratic refo rms in his country
1 hen D iem took power he faced a bar rage of problems an undershydeveloped and antiquated gove rn shymental infras tructu re with staff who lacked experience in adminisshytmtion a country ravaged by war an immat ure agricult ural econoshymy With US help Diem thwarted several attempted coup detats in th e first year of his presidency An even bigger test of Diems leadershyship arrived in 1955 willl the Sec t Crisis where the mllitarised sects the Cao Dru the Hoa Hao and the Vletnamese Mafia the Binh Xu)rshyen joined forces to wage wllr on the government in Saigon Diem looked to be lOsing control and at one point US Ambassador to Vishyetnanl General Coll ins convinced Eisenhower that Diem should be removed A m iraculous and unshyexpected victory agrunst the Binh Xuyen ensured Diem stayed in
power and retained American supshyport Encouraged by the American delight at this victory Djem began to consolidate his power
W hen D iem rehlsed tJ) par ticipat e in the scheduled na tional election s to reunite the two Vietnams the US supported Il is decis io n to do so effectively ensu ring tb e long term separation between South and Nor th Vietnam The popular ity of the Communist leader Ho Chj Mi nh meant he would have swept these elections causing the US to forego their politi cal beliefs
With Diem established the US proceeded to pour rud in to his regime with $ 1 bill ion spent on economic and m ilitary assistance between 1955-1 961 Diems govshyernment squandered the aid refusshyin g to refo rm the army and governshyment to fit a democratic model
vThilst Diem prud li p service to the Am ericans democratic deshym ands reform vas always an illushyion D iem and rus three brothers
con trolled bot h the exec utive and the legi sla tive branches of govern shym enl - dissenters were immediateshyly pu rged Diems poli cies towards the villages d isregarded centu r ies of tradition and in dependence stirring up deep discon tent Any expression of th is was dealt with as George Herring puts it in a man shyner that would have made J Edgar H oover blanch as thousands of dissidents were incarcerated in reshyeducation centres Such was the USs fear of communism that they turned a bli nd eye to these arroci shyt ies
Alex Thomson explores the ideological sacrifices of Americas Vietnam policy
Better the Diem you know
In 1960 the new Kennedy adshyminis tration inherited the commitshyment to Diem and with Kennedys pledges to get tough itwould have been impossible to withdraw supshyport for Diem and so the governshyUen t increased th e aid to stabilise h im whils t begging him ineffectu shyally to refo rm Most Americans at this time could
not have even located Vietnam on a map but the issue was forced in to the nations consciousness ill May 1963 with th e Buddh ist Cri shysis A devout Catholic Diem had oppressed the Buddhist majority of the countr) Protests in the city of Hue saw government troops fire into the crowd killing a number of protestors sparking widespread reaction around South Vietnam cu lmin ating in the n otorious selfshyim molations of Buddhist monks which h it headlines worldwide
ot only was Diem embarrassshying the American government on the in ternational stage but with the disastrous defeat at Ap Bac in January 1963 it became increasi ngshyly apparent that Diem was also an ineffectual bulwark against comshymunism a fac t compounded by Diems covert attempts to negotiate a settlemen t wi th Ho Chi Min h After the Budd hist Crisis several generals of the South Vietnamese army approached tlle US Ambasshysador in Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge Jr about US reachons to a military coup Convinced that the war against communism in Vietshynam co uld not be won with Diem as leader Lodge replied that wruJs t they would not support a coup they would do nothirlg to oppose it effectively signing Diems death warrant Thus on November 1st 1963 the generals successfully deposed Diem who was then brushytally murdered in the back of a van after seeking sanctuary in a Cathoshylic church
President Kennedy said that ~iem is Diem and hes the best weve go This is an accurate swnshymary of the unlikely alliance beshytween D iem and the US Authorishytarian and despotic Diem was ana thema to the American polit ishycal system but it was ironical]y the USs fear of another foreign politi shycal system on the left that caused them to create so unlikely an allishyance
13
Practical impiety Hamish Kinnear discusses the unthinkshyable Franco-Ottoman Alliance of 1536
IN 1536 an alliance was finalised that was met with disbelief and disgust throughout Europe The union of France and the Ottoman Empire against their mutual enshyemy - Charles V - was the first alshyliance between a major Christian and nnn-Christian power since the crusades
Europe was on the verge of great change at the outset of the sixshyteenth century The introduction of gunpowder was revolutionisshying warfare and the printing press enabled the distribution of mateshyrial opposed to the ruling elite The fiercely anti-derical speeches of Martin Luther and his sympashythisers initiated the Reformation destroying the medieval idea of a united Christendom with the Pope as its nominal head Increasshyingly European states began to act in their own interests and ignored ing the legitimacy of Islam Pracshy common knowledge an alliance the purpose of defence as opposed
the demands of the pope Four ticality however often triumphs with the Great Turk was not only to a specifically offensive crusade
great historical figures also came over ideology unlikely it was unthinkable Henry VIII of England struck a
to the fore in the early 16th centushy Interestingly both Francis I and The alliance however held blow to Christian unity by breakshy
ry Henry VII of England Francis Charles V had argued that if they benefits for both parties France ing away from the papal authorshy
I of France Charles V of Spain and became Holy Roman Emperor for was given an ally that posed a seshy ity and establishing the Church of
Suleiman the Magnificent of the they were both candidates for the rious threat to Charles V for the England allowing his marriage to
Ottoman Empire The stage was elective office they would lead a Ottoman Empire of Suleiman the Anne Boleyn The greatest atrocshy
set for a conflict that involved all Crusade against the Great Turk Magnificent was at the height of ity occurred when the underpaid
the major powers of Europe one This promise invoked a desire to its power Fresh from victory over and mutinous troops of Charles
in which the French were the fi rst return to the perceived Christian the Egyptian Mamluke Sultanate V in the search of plunder sacked
to realise that the days of a united unity of the Middle Ages where Suleiman wished to make himself Rome and imprisoned the Pope
medieval Christendom were over the nations of Europe allied to Caesar of Europe An alliance with This event more than anything take back the Holy Land After the French was in the interests of else signified the demise of medishyCharles V took the title however the Ottomans as it provided them eval Christendom In this atmosshyFrancis wasted no time in declarshy with a military partner and a finshy phere of widespread anti-papal ing war on his fellow Christian ancier to help invade Hapsburg feeling the France-Ottoman allishynation The subsequent invasion lands More importantly for Suleishy ance comes as less of a surprise of Italy ended in disaster for the man the alliance kept the states of The impious alliance of the French at the Battle of Pavia durshy Christian Europe divided French and Ottomans then does ing which Francis I was captured not seem so scandalous when
By 1519 France was in despershy by the forces of Charles V To seshy placed in the context of its time
ate need of allies The domain of cure his release from prison Franshy However it should come as no
the Hapsburg ruler Charles V who cis was forced to sign the humillishy surprise that it was received in
had inherited the rule of both the ating Treaty of Madrid in which this negative fashion There was
Spanish Empire and the Holy Roshy he renounced his claims to Italy evidently a form of European
man Empire almost surrounded Flanders and Burgundy Charles nostalgia for the days of the Crushy
the French Kingdom of Francis I V had risen to unrivalled power in sades in which Christendom was
The French also had to deal with Europe united in a common cause even
Henry VIIIs England whose arshy During Franciss imprisonment though the military expeditions to
mies still remained in Normandy the French court had sent a deleshy Despite the reactions of horror the Holy Land had only been seshy
and coffers funded Charles milishy gation to the court of Suleiman the to the Franco-Ottoman alliance riously pursued centufies before
tary expeditions To the French Magnificent to discuss a treaty of that were evident throughout Eushy Francis Is alliance with the Otshy
advantage a new power was rising friendship These talks resulted in rope the actions of other Christian tomans was a stark indicator that
in the East The Ottoman Empire an alliance that was met with disshy rulers could hardly be considered the Crusader days were long past
of Suleiman the Magnificent was belief and disgust by the other Eushy pious If a pious ruler was one War from then on became comshy
expanding through the Balkans at ropean states Charles V began a who acted for the unity of Chrisshy mon between Christian States as
an alarming rate and posed a great vitriolic campaign of propaganda tendom engaged in crusading a means to maintain the balance
threat to the domains of Charles against the French deeming the activities and respected both the of power or achieve superiority
V Yet an alliance with this major union the sacrilegious union of temporal and spiritual power of in Europe Christendom was finshy
Islamic power was still considered the Lily and the Crescent Indeed the Pope then Charles V and Henshy ished The unlikely Franco-Ottoshy
blasphemous by the kingdoms of given that Francis had strongly ry the VII failed on all these reshy man Alliance however lasted for
Europe as by acknowledging the supported a crusade against the quirements Admittedly Charles V centuries
existence of the Ottoman Empire Ottomans a pretence he mainshy spent much of his life fighting the
the French were in effect accept- tained even after the pact became Ottomans but this was more for
14 Retrospect
c e Old Ship of Zion Catherine Me Gloin examines a widely forgotten aspect of American History THE STRUGGLE for AfricanshyAmerican rights iJl the United States is a long and contested road Ve are repeatedly exposed to narratives that stress key leaders and religious f1 gureshyheads Arguably no discourse would be complete without an analysis of tbe role of MartiQ Luther King Jr the decisions of th e Supreme Court or tbe varying levels of comm itment that each president expressed throughout this tuibulent ruld mythologised peshyriod in Americ1l history
However one element of the strugshygle for bLack dvil rights that has been often underplayed in popular accounts increasingly based on bioshygrap hical and oral testimony is the role of the new labour movement during the 19305 and J94Ds In the
space bern the post-World far red scare a reactionary phenomenon that disabled socialism as a tool for social advancement bl1Ck unjonisID 3Jld potentially the Communist Party ofshyfered African-Ameri cans a wllque opportunity to unite to fight oppresshysion Unionism offered the poorest black workers a political voice one they fel t was [[lUted by elite middleshyclass civil rights organisations such as the NAACP [n this respect the Communist Party can be considered as a viable alternative for some groups within tll euro civil rights movement and as a suitablevehide for civil rights adshyvancemel1t
The h istory of black organh ed lashybour in the South has only begun in the last thirty years to receive du attention in the historiography of American labour movements gainshying increasing recogni tion from lashybour and social historians Perhaps it has traditionally been ampi de-lined because of an ideological aversion to socialism deeply ingrained into the American psyche Alternatively its diminished prominence may be explained by the compl~ities of periodisation It is commonly acshyknowledged by maIl) h istorians who dorninate the field of civil rights that the movement characterised by cross-national di rect action began in the late 19505 Morc specifically the
birth of the movement is often seen as a consequence of the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and the Brown decision of the Supreme Court the plevious year Thus any event which pre-dates tJlis revered trajectory is generally dismissed as a pre-requisite and subsequently garshyners less attention than it perhaps warrants The widening of industrial w1ionism to Southern blacks during the first half of the twentieth century has traditionally been treated as a pre-cursor yet it deserves a more prominent position not only for the wider organ isational implications it held flr the development of the llovement but as acknowledgement afits improbable success
N l an alysis of labour Qrganisation and class structure amongst the varyshying groups active in the civil rights m ovement serves to convey what is often lost til e tight for equality was not solely [ought by biack elites or enlightened whites but poor workshying class African-Americans a1SQ
played a leading role These groups although united in th eir cause did not un iformly a gree at every stage but could be divided by societal catshyegQries other than race
It is important to note that the Southern labour force were distincshytive in their anti-union tradition Even as organised labour became increasingly entrencbed in the North (following the National Labour Relashytions Act 1935) the South as Robert Zieger argues rem ained an anti-lashybour island Much of the historiogshyraphy stresses the traditionally Ilostile relationship between organised lashybour and African-Americans Meier
and Bracey assert that blacks were susp icious of wlions who typically discriminated against them Thus unionism was seen as the tool of white racist workers rather than the site of tenlpered racial Ultagonisms in the hce of a common adversary shyexploitative industries The American Federation of Labour (AFL) supportshyed craft unions that created raCially exd usive iobs often driving blacks from secured employment opportushynities in order to give them to unemshyployed whites A symptom of segreshygateJ society this was lot a qUEstion of education more a simple fUllction of the caste system in operation in the South that largely kept black labour unorgnnised yet was held as a necessishyty for business prosperity Any efforts towards unionisatioJ1 were usuall thwarted by employer intimidation police brutality or deep-rooted susshypicions of unions Moreover a cheap and ready supply of white and black vmrkerswn ited the power of strike action African Americans had been used as strike-breakers ill the heavy industries for decades
However the 19305 heralded the widening of labour organisation in part a response to post-World War I migration to northern industrial cities persistent inequalit ies within some of the New Deal programmes and the devastating financial impact of the Great Depression which was disproportionately felt by black workshyers Therefore it may be argued that the erosion of the distinctive union free character of Southern labour had begun
Attitudes towards labour organ ishysa60n shifted during the 1930s This may havc been a consequence of a more general swing to the left durshying the period as evidenced by the re-alignment of the black vote away from thc RepUblicans tovards the Democrat Party Mkhael Honey main tains that the late 1930s and early 1940$ promised huge change a consegum ce of war industrialisation and unionisation The founding of organisations such as the Congress of Industrial Organ isations (CIO) point
Lo increased co-open t-ion between Souther wh ite and black workers ruld an albeit temporary shift away from the attitudes of the segregation era
he CIO was born out of the hardshyships of the depression years and its inter-racial organising strategy crul be ccn as cridence ofa morc co-operashy
tive approach to labour organisat ion than is tradi tiol)ally given credit in the historiography Ihe CTO sought African -American recruits and fo shycussed its unionisiog efforts on secshytors with large black work forces such as steel and meatln their promotion of inter-racial un ionism such orshyganisatiom acted lts a bridge between the black community and white workers although this function was more successful in the North where African-Americans he1d a limited degree of political and economic power Bi-raciaJ unionism provided the philosophy of equal rights as well as the means to augment ~ocial conditions and alter the relationship between worker and boss a source of daily oppression in the lives of many black workers For African-Amerishycan labour this was a great step toshywards achieving social and economic equality
However no unionising organisashytion was free from tht constraints of racist social customs particularly in the SQuth where ero union leaders would rather capitulate to opposition tJ1an lose members and where white workers continuously strove to asshysert their superiority over their black colleagues In many ways the CI achieved their initial economic goals and succeeded by 1940 in persuadshying whites to join and work alongside African-Americans However they failed to farce white elites to accept black demands for an end to racial wage differences Nonetheless allishyances between black and white workshyers civil r ights groups and left-Wing New Dealers had been established benefitting the African-Anlerican struggle against economic discrimishynation
11le influence of the left was evident
15
in the leading unions thal were also committed to equality like the CIO as well as the United Packinghouse Workers of America who organised meatpackers in Chicago and Texas Whilst these unions engaged a lot of black workers as members they also had a significant communist pres shyence The impact of the Communist Party and its role in intluencing both inter-racial unionism and the civil rights movement is a contentious isshyue Their rhetoric and its evolution
from calls for a separate Black Reshypublic to talk of a more united-front is an area that provokes much conshytroversy Was it conceived in order to subvert labour organisations directly or to control them from behind the scenes Alternatively a cynical iew of the motivations behind Commushynist Part) involvement can be temshypered The Part) recognised the revshyolutionar y potential of industrial and agricultural workers and thereforc called for African- American sclfshydetermination as a strategy whereby white American acceptance of blacks right to self-government was the goal Thus white workers would be able to conquer their raci sm and a united working class would result
Traditional interpretations sugshygest that unionism was treated with
hostility by all blacks we must not be blind to tlle differences amongst the black community and the fact tbat they were far from a homogshyenous group hils the Communist Party becanle the rivals of the black elite arld middle-class organisations such as the NAACI~ the poor black working class were attracted to the ideology and the Party in incrcasing numbers throughout tlle depression and during the New Deal era degThey prOided the black working classes with an alternative vehicle for social protest Furthermore communism introduced many blacks to world politics enabling them to place their own struggle in a global context demonstrating the roots of poverty and ra05m
This educated the non -reading classes and gave them a sense of pride something many fel t was deshynied to them by tlle black eli tes of the
AACP whom it has been argued had unwisely assumed a pastoral poshysition as spokesperson for all blacks Moreover the Party challenged both white supremacy and the bourgeOiS politics of the black mjddle-class A Philip Randolph - considered a sooalist and largely hailed as the spokesman for black workers after his success with the Pullman porshy
ters of the 1920s and thc recogni tion of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters by tbe A FL in 1937 - attacked WE B Du Bois and the NAACP for neglecting the needs of the AfricanshyAmerican in favour of bourgeois inshyterests Fostering an atmosphere of debate and discussion communism helped to educate and empower the black working-classes For the black elites it was an unwelcome SQurce of agitation as communists began to enter into the realm of black bourshygeois politics Thus support for the Communist Party divided civil rights campaigners and highlighted undershylying class antagoni~m
The involvement of the commushynist-led ILD in the trial of the Scottsshyboro boys demonstrates the resentshyments and the growing frustrat ion with the NAACP and other black middle-class organisations Failure to secure Significant federal anti -lynchshying legislation ineffective in helping desperate blacks devastated by the depression and limited by thei r OWll political powerlessness ill the face of economic decline amongst tllCir own elite members the NAACPs imposhytence was made apparent during the 1931 Scottsboro boys trial In Alashybama nine black men aged thirteen to n ineteen were charged with the
rape of two while women travelling on the san1e train as them and were tried convicted and sentenced to death in three days WhcU1C~r or not the IlD simply offered their support and advice or they ID U$cled in with shrill bravado their involvement earned the Com mullist Party black support
They were portrayed as defenders of the race whilst wltites chose to view them as outsiders and defendshyers of rapists
Interpretations of communisms impact on the Qjl rights moveshyment during the 1930s var y II may be maintained tllat membership to the Party and adherence to commushynist ideology was limited ultim ateJy most blacks wanted to work within the American system and reap any benefits accrued hy the programmes of the New Deal Africall-Americaru were comm itted to these me3iur and Similarly to Presiden t Roosevelt fe-clec ting him for a th ird term in 1940 Thus communism was a marshyginal force that many blocks chose to
ignore as a vehid c for social protest However it is important to recognise
its significance in the Lives of many African-Americans who for the first time were organised in to tradeullions on relatively equal terms t() those of their whil-e co-workers and were able to understand their $truggle through the framework of a shared commushynist ideology Communists fo rmed the central pillar to trade un ion acshytivism and 0 0 inter-raciali sm This new socialism in the barber shop a broadened ID1d popular sense off self empowered many black vOrkers to fight against economic and social disshycrimination in a way that seemed to
speak more directly to them and their social s tanding than the rhetoric esshypoused by the black-bourgeoisie
Bibliograpby
Leslie H Fishel Jr The Negro and dle New Deal in Twentieth Ce1ltury America Recent Interpretations ed Bernstein and Matusow (1 972)
Robert H Zieger (eei) Orgal ised Labour in the TWeIIlielh Centw y Soulh (1991)
Robin DG Kelley Hammer and Hoe Alabama Conlllllmists During the Great Depression (l990)
16 Retrospect
OFfEN OVERSHADOWED by the tumultuous events that were to weep Europe in the late 19305 and
194Ds the Spanish Civil War (1936shy1939) remairu a pivotal moment in twentieth century European history TIle conflict divided families towns and polarised political opinion across the continent and beyond It resulted in an estimated 500000
deaths and witnessed the establishshyment of a Fascist dictatorship in Spain under General Franco which ould last for almost forty years
The conflict has been a fruitful jeC of historical scholarship and many explanations as to why the fragile democracy of the Second Reshypublic collapsed have been offered Did the RepublJcaJlS Lose because of a lack of fo reign support given to them but that the Nationalists were lucky to receive or was their defeat a result of the weakness of Republican mili tias oin the face of the discipline of the Spanish army
In order to ascertain which if eishy
ther of the aforementioned suggesshytions WdS most significan t it is imshyportant to examine the patchwork of ideologies that the Popular Front composed of the Marxlst POU1vl (Partido Obrero Unification Marxshyista) Socialist UGT (Union General de Trabajores) Communist PSU (PartitSocialiSta UnificalCatalwlya) and Anardllst CNT (Conf-ederacion
acional del Trabajo) Furthermore the effect of foreign intervention on relations within the National Front and upon the contlict asa whole must be taken into consideration
From the outset it would be fai r to suggest that the Republicans lacked the same opportunities as the Nashytionalists The material support offered by the Soviet Union WJS
ultimately to be a hindrance insofar as it catalysed factionalism within the National Front In the opposite camp Adolf Hitler was in reality not much more supportive of the Nationalists than foseph Stalin had been of the Republicans and it is likeshyly that he like Stalin merely wanted the war to continue as a distraction for the estern democracies Argushyably it was MUSSOWlis support that would be key to the Nationalist side He was adan1ant that the emergence of another Fascist state on the model of Italy could only be to his political advantage As it turns out Italy reshyceived relatively little in return from Franco after the war
Despite the fact that the Repuhlishycans were on the side of the legally elected government they were necr allowed to purchase arms from the major suppliers The United States was pursuing a policy of non-inshytervention after World War I and
Britain and France followed suit re1 uctant to upset the political stashybili) of Europe at the time It was decided that neither side would be given military aid under the NODshyIntervention Pact However this pact was then widely and blatantly flaunted by the dictatorships of Eu shyrope Italy Germany an d the Soviet Union The purchasing of foreign arms was poli tically charged as it was tantamount to subscription to the ideology of the dictatorship that was selling them TIle fact that only the Fascist dictatorships of Europe and the USSR were willing to so brashy
j zenly ignore the Non-Intervention pact was to have an enormous imshypact within the Spanish Left as will be later discussed
The aid of the Soviet Union was useful to the Republican cause insoshyfar that the weapons they provided were far superior to any the Republishycans already Pc)ssessed whilst Soviet aircraft were used for reconnaissance missions which were central to the militias military tactics However the weapons were not given to all parties within the Popular Front but were directed at only a handful Mostly they were given to the Socialists of the UCT and tlle Communists of the PSUC which stirred discontent amongst the other parties who were using old and inferior weaponry to that of their fellow comarades
The Civil War polarised Span isJ political discourse into those who were opposed to Francos regime and those who were not The Republican fOrces therefore contained many disparate political groups from moderate republicans to Anarchists Trotskyites and Stalinists Conseshyquently the Soviet aid exacerbated internal tensions within the Republishycan forces between the loosely assoshyciated left wing political groups The acceptance of Soviet weapons was a dangerous move as it allowed the access of agents of the Couummist Party of Soviet Russia into Spanish affairs someth ing that was to prove decisive in the outcome of the war
The Spanish Civil War was a conflict which could be referred to as a battle between reactionary forces of conshyservativism and progressive revolushytionaries Though many have claim ed that the Nationalists were fasc ists British Titer George Orwell who was fighting in Spain at the time along side the Republicans wrote of the Nationshyalists that their ideology was closer to that of feudalism The Nationalists were composed chiefly of members of the army members of the clergy and leaders of international business all united in their common distrust of the working classes Their victory in the war would certainly jeopardise the livshying conditions and dghts of working class people resulting in the deterIorashytion labour relations a Catholic crackshydown of secularism and the army would suppress any dissent
In contrast to the Nationalists clarshyity oJ goals the Republicans seemed to all be working towards different ends TIle objectives of moderate reshyforming socialists and the Anarchist
NT were very difficult to reconshycUe Furthermore the Soviet belief in a revol utionary vanguard instigatshying and leading the proletariat was at odds with populist movements such as Anarchism that took hold in Spain With such differences in polshyicy it is hard to envisage what could force these parties to work together for any length of time
Part of the problem with compreshyhending the Spanish Civil War comes from the spectrum of ideologies within the broad alliance of the Reshypublican forces The ideologies were further apart than could be counteshynanced and particularly so after the Conununist Party decided to impose itself upon the revolution that the Marxists and Anarchists were trying to fashion themselves in Barcelona In his book Hom age to Catalonia Orwell describes Barcelona Practically eveshyry building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists Every shop md cafe had an inscription saying it had been collectivised even the bootblacks had been collectivised md their boxes painted red and blacK The extent of the social change seems almost hyshyperbolic particularly when O rwell stresses that even the bootblacks were part of a trade union The Comshymunist Party however was to disrupt this workers paradise in May of j 937 with the attempted repossesshysion of a telephone exchange that was under Anarchist control 111is sparked a conflict that lasted several days and threatened the stability of the entire Republic General Franco who said he planned it after the Communists
ran newspaper stories blaming the Marxists for starting the fight used disunity in Barcelona to his own ends Being the largest party with the most well-developed press organisations the Communists managed to direct the aftermath of the situation and use it to discredit a competing party Disunity among the Republican side flourished as the AnarclUsts caught on to the Communist attempts to discredit the ]vIandst faction Though they were not persecuted to the same extent though their collectives were broken up to increase efficiency they realised thal they were fighting for
mebody who was n ot sympathetic of their ideology and who tney could not trust The Republican t~1Ctions
vigour started to deteriorate after the May Days riot of 1937
One might ask the question why did the Conununists try and reposshysess an Anarchist building It would be naive of them to assume they could take it vithout a fight unless they disregarded the fact that all Anarshychist doctrine of the em was against government coercion It bardly seems that there might be any great gains in taking one building even if it did allow Anarchists to eaesdrop on telephone conversations The sudden megaloshymania of the Communists seems to have sprung from advice given by the Communist Party of Soviet Russhysia The tactical value of the telephone exchange was not worth risking the integIity of the Republican coalishytiDn The PSUCs party line that At present nothing matters but vinning the war is especially telling
Arguably it was the fragile alliance of circumstance within the Republishycan movement exacerbated by Soviet Aid that only reached certain fuctions wbicb resulted in the collapse of the Spanish Republic Though the weapshyOIlS helped fOT a while they could not Sllstain an entire nation with the limishytations placed upon their deployment Anarchists did not trust the help of Soviet Russia and neither did they trust the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain or any of its regional counshyterparts Tnere were other culprits howeveJ in the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic
It would be wrong to suggest that disWlity on the part of the Republi shycans was all that preven ted them from victor)l The wider European context of the conflict was also fundamenshytal in the collapse of the Republican Movement Gen11any and Russia nevshyer gave sufficient help to either side to let it decisivel) win at any pace but it appears that both used the war to their own advantage Germany tested out their bombers on Spanish tovms such as Guernica and the Soviet Union
17
used the war as a distraction while it increased its level of militarization
In conclusion then the conmct polarised Spanish political discourse around the two totalitarim cxtrerrtishyties of Fascism and Stalinism This resulted in an internally divided and factionalised Republicm force which struggled to retain its integrity in the fuce ofa destructive internal feud The feud was sparked b) the actions of an externalgovernment hence it ccruld be argued that the collapse of tbe second republic was was more to do vith the international context of the conflict as it provided both the ex1rem e ideolohY and the cause of fTiction vithin the Republican movement
BibUography
Qmell George Orwell hi Spain (Penshyguin London2001)
Thomas Hugh The Spanish Civil War 4th edition (Pellguin London 2003)
Beevor Anthony The Battlefor SpainThe Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (WampN London 2006)
Taylor AJP The OrigirtS of the Second World War (Penguin London 1991)
18 Retrospect
Sh may be the Reason Frances Rromagc explores the often overlooked contribution of female scientists during the Enlightenment
FOR MANY centuries befo re the seventeenth Aristotles concepshytion of the bod y and the mind as insepa rable matte r domin ated Western thinking It was used to justify the subjugation of wom en and their subsequent excl us ion from so -called masculine activi shyties
Anatomical differen ces and hormonal systems provi ded new rationales for keeping women below men in the intellectual hishyerarchy Chauvinism expressed it self in every walk of life from religi on and education to science and medicine Even the common shyest of medical symptoms such as nerVOllsness irritability and loss of appetite for foo d or sex were generally diagnosed in women as the result of female Hysteria - a problem deriving from the hysshytna or uterus Science which explored the worl d outside the domestic sphere remai ned an ex shyclusively masculine discipline up until the eighteenth cent ury
Then came th e Enlightenment Enlightenment philosophers were infl uenced by Descartes theori es on critical thinking and Lock es empir icism and as a conseshyqu ence adopted a new approach to learn ing one which promoted free in te ll ectual inquiry and reshyjecled the influence of the state an d religion Despite the moveshyments vast scope few topics were as vigorously discussed as the subject of female education T he changing conception of the mind as no longer constrained by physical attributes opened a new conception of the mind as a sex shyless entity Therefore wom ens education became the subject of m uch debate in polite society spurring contribut ions from feshymale and male thinkers on both sides of the discu ss ion Womens access to scientific knowlcdge proved particularly controversial as it cha llenged a long-established perception of womens role as lim shyited to the domain of domestic ity
owhere has thi ~ challenge been so eloquently pu t as in words of British poet Elizabeth Toilet in her 1724 her poem Hypatia What cruel Laws depress the female KindTo humble Ca res and servile Ta sks confild That haughty Mall IIllriFald and alone May boast the world or Science all his owwl As barbarous Tyrants to secure their Sway Conclude that ignorallce will best obey
Whilst men may have been harbarous tyrants and attempted to clamp down on womens parshyticipation in scientific disciplines lu ckily th ey were not entirely suc shycessful in doing so History proshyvides LI S with a few precious exshyamples l1f women who refused to bow to blind ignorance and tbus su cceeded in rising above amashyteur status to become serious conshytributors to the field of scient ific knowledge
Of these the only one about whom much contemporary inshyformati o n as well as a substanshytial body of original writings has survived is Emilie Marquise du Chatelet She is most famous for having been Voltaires mistress but in fa ct this does great injusshytice not only to he r independent character but also to her intellecshytual brilliance and considerable sc ientific contribution hilst she remain ed all bu t inv isible to histo rical aCCo wlts before her asshysociation with Voltaire in 1733 during tJ1e next fifteen years of her life she proved herself a worshythy match to the brilliant French philosopher Living mainly in Pa rh or in her country estate at Cirey to where she retreated with Voltaire she wrote and published a book on the metaphysics of natshyural science (institutions de physhysique) an essay on the nature of fire and neat (pisserta tion sur la nature ct propagation du feu) and two short pieces on the problem of melsu ri ng physical force She also co- authored anonymously Voltaires popularisation of Newshytoni an physic s for which she was resp onsi bl e for most of th e mathshyematical calculations an d to top her numerous achievements in 1748 she produced a translation of Newtons PrincipiI mathemati shyca with a commentary which was published posth Wll ously and is sti l1 used as the standard translashy
tion of h is work in France today In 1835 th e Royal Astro nomical
Society in London made a breakshythrough by awarding honorar y m~mbership to a woman Caroshylin e Herschel She became famous for her discove ry o f ncw nebu lae in 1783 (Androme da and Cetus) and for bei ng the fi rst woman to di scover a comet In hOnOltr of Herschel the SOCiety made what was perhaps the fi rst sta temen t on equal opportuuities in science While tests of astronomi cal merit sho uld in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to th ose of a man the sex of the former shou ld no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acshyknowledgement wh ich might be hel d due to the latter But whi lst modem biographers have used these numerous firsts to turn Caroline Herschel in to a female icon of sci ence it is importan t to note that she wa~ rewarded not for her own discoveries but beshycause she recorded compi led and recalc ulated th ose of her brother vVilliam Herschel
The very natu re of he r brothers research concen trated on collectshying and classif)Ti ng large numb ers of stars and in th is Ca rolines cataloguing skills were of ceotral importanc e Lacking her pati en ce and meticul ous att ention to deshytall he became heavily reliant on her sci enti fi c inpu t Therefo re her im portance in her brothers research was far greater than most of their contemporaries realised yet she never theless allowed her efforts to further his reputation
Finally th e faScinating case of Laura Bassi (1711-177S) shows how some rare women were able to forge thems elves a career in scientific fields during the En shylightenm ent Bassi was gifted with a capacity for learning consi d shyered so extraordillar y in a wom an that it just ified a concession for a
university degree in philosophy Thereafter she was awarded an entrance to Bolognas lstituto delle Scicnze later to be admitted as an honorary member of the college and fl naUy assigned the position of lecturer in physics at the presshytigious Universi ta eli Bologna the first of its kin d in Europe Scholshyar~ from aU over Eu rope would attend Bassis lectu res on Newtoshynian physics and sJle became the envy oflearned women across the contin ent
These scientific women came fre)m upper or middle cla ss backshygrounds and whilst th eir ach ieveshyments were not replicated to the same extent by women in the lowshyer echelons of society a degree of sci entific and pract ical k novledge never theless took hold Daughters of clergymen particularly in the dissenters tnldition and certain widows who were made to tak e up their husbands trade after th ei r death became learned women and hi ghly ski lled T he famous case of lIlada me Cliquot who in 1805 took over her husbands company after h is death is a ch arming exshyample Hi s enterprise whi ch had
een variously involved in bankshying wool trading and Champagne producing th ri ved under her di shyrec tion and eventu ally became the brand La Vcuve C liquol She is directly accred ited will) a great breakthro ugh in champagne han shydling that made mass produc tion of th e wine possible an d estabshylished the producers reputation of excellence which continues to the present day
T hese examples demonstrate that women were capable of takshying part in scientific debates and developments but it should be stressed that their contr ibution was li mited Womens access to sci entific knowledge was dependshyent on wealth class and cru cially on an association with men who would encourage scientific en shydeavours This last condition is all the more important when one considers the institutionshyalised chauvinism that women continued to experience during the eighteenth century Throughshyout Europe with the exception of
orthern Italy un i7ersi ties and scientific academi es such as the Roya l In stitution in London were closed to women
19
Furthermore whilst the enliglltshyenmenl undeniably brought an improvement to the female conshydition entrenched conservatism in contemporary attitudes even amongst enlightened th inkers such as Rou sseau meant that feshymale scientists were not only ex shy
tremely rare but also str uggled to be accepted in m al e- d ominated
circles T llere was a general lack or even absence of formal rec()gshynit ion of womens involvement in scientific publications For ex shyample Marie Lavoisier th e gifted wife of Fren ch chemist Antoine
Lavois ie r in now recog-ni sed as having carried out many calculashytions and observations in her husshyband s Elements of Chemistry The original m an uscript of h is work contai ns evid ence of her notes and comments yet the printed version fail s to ackn owledge her contribution entirely Even in be tter-documented cases such as that of Lavois ier it very difficult fo r the modern -day h isto rian to pin -point the individu al accomshypli shments female scientists in coll aborative works
However one can argue quite
confidently the instrumental rol e that women p layed in th e disshysem in ation and subsequent adshy
van cement o f sci ent ific ideas T hey were g rea t m ediators often translating simplifying and illusshytrat ing com plex scienti fic works Their versions of these texts were
generally aimed at a female read shyership a n otable exam ple bein g EmiJie d u Chatelet s translation of Francesco Algarottis Ne wtonishy(Ism for Ladies (1737) These were often read in wid er circles as they were clear illustrated and easier to understand T his helped the sp read of scientific id eas the im shy
plied message being that if science was s imple enough for a woman to unders tand than anyone could understand it Furthermore women facilitated the populari sashytion of science by hosting disc usshy
~ions in salons or holding p rivate exhibitions in their homes where gues ts cou ld appreciate and marshyvel at discoveries such the Leyden jar and static electrici ty These so shycial gatherings were particularly important when one considers science and the En lightenment as a wider social phenomenon
as opposed to a string of isolated discove ries mad e by individual mal e scientists
There is a tragiC element un shyderlying this whole s to ry Recent studies led by historian s such as Patr ic ia Fara have attempted to give a clearer and fairer in terp re shytation of womens contribution to science d uring thi s per iod
However history has b ee n unfair and insensi tive in its representashytion of female scientists Consid shyer ing the wealth of literature on Science and Enlightenment it is quite re markable tha t so little nas b een written about the women who took part Givmiddoten th e sparseshyness of original sources and the strong m ale bias wit h which most existing d ocumentation is writshyten it is very difficult impossible
perhaps to accu rately assess the Signifi cance o f womens contribushytion to the scientific fi eld
Feminists have often rewritshyten the story of these women to underline independen t achieve shyments and contributions mad e in a bid to break down prejudic es again st their sex But when does a shift of emphasis become an exagshy
geration a disto rt iongt Scientific
women have been concealed for so long that it is very tempting to tum them into unsung heroines It would be unju st to retell these wom ens stories in a way which
forces them to conform to the ideal s of m odern day fem inists Alte rna tivey we mll st appreciate their contr ibutions on their own meri t
Bibliograpby
Fara Patricia Pandoras Breeches Women Science amp Power in the Enlightenm ent (Great Britain Pimlico 2004)
Gardiner Linda Wo men ill Scishyetlce From French Women al7d
the Age of El7ligiztenmellt ed S Spencer (USA Indi ana University Press 1984 )
Bragg Melvyn P Fara K O Brian amp j Hawley In Our Time Wo men alld Science ill the E11 ligi7tenll7ellt LondOl (BBC Radio 4 4th vemb er 2010)
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
7
History in the News
IgtOCUMJNP) DErAlIJNG the 0shy
perinces of Channel ]sland residents who chose to resisit Nazi occupashytion during the second Wod War have been re-discovered Thrown into suitcases and stowed in the back of a wardrobe these papers are considered to be the m ost imshyportant archive material to be unshyearthed concerning the occupation
The islands were occupied by azi forces between 1940 and 1945
and with one German guard to eveshyry three residents massive resistance was difficult Despite the improbable success of such act ion lhese hidshyden documents reveaJ the unusually silent and often symbolic nature of the resistance that islanders particishypated in
Compiled by a resident Frank Falla these documents tell of the harrowing experinces many inhabitshyants faced Some were forced to listen to fellow prisoners being decapitated by guillotine in German prisons
Falla himself liS deported after organ ising a clandestine newspaper designed to deliver updates about the war once radios were con fisshycated in 1942 Irate by the lack of recogn i lion that resistors received after the war Falla compiled the papers after the Br itish government received compensation from Gershymany in the 19605 Testimonies of the suffering endwcd by resideJ1ts have led to calls for a memorial ded shyicated to those who strove to resist occupation These docum ents also provide eveidence contrary to trashyditional interpretations that suggest islanders corroborated too easily Catherine Me Gloin
AN ANaENr Roman village has been unearthed in the parkland of a stately home in West Lonshydon in the unlikely surroundshyings of modem -day suburbia
Archaeologists excavating on the outskirts of the histor ic Syon Parle Estate discovered a stretch of Roman road and the foundations of some dwellings Alongside the remains of the road were over 11 5DO pottery fragments a large number of coins a Bronze Age gold bracelet and a lava stone quem
The road that was uncovered is beHeved to have been one of the most important linking Londinium with SildlCster It is reckoned that the vilshylage supplied the metropolis as well as existing as a a resting place for travelshylers giving insight into the way that the city interacted with and was conshynected to the country at large
1he Museum of London Archaeshyology an thrilled at the d iscoveries and believe that there is much to be learned about the daily lives of those livingjust outside Roman Londiniwn WiIl EUis
HISfORIAN KFIIH Jeffrey has been granted unprecedented access into the previously classified ilkS of the Secret Intelligence Service more commonly known as Ml6 It is the first and only official history of the shadowy goverruneJJt agency the very existence of which was not fo rmally acknowledged until 1994
Owing to the high ly sensitive nature of some of the documentashytion Jeffreys history only covers a forty-year period of the agencys background from its initial foundshying as the Secret Servi ce Bureau in 1909 until 1949 The lucky historishyan recently described the archives to which he had access as a cornucoshypia an extraordinary Aladdins cave of h istorical mater ials~
His book reveals often overlooked episodes in the history of British esshypionage such as the thwarting of an attempted Communist revolution in Brazil in 1935 and the controversial Operation Embarrass documenting both the successes and the failures of British intelligence throughout the first half of the twentieth century Gregor Donaldson
8 Retrospect
No stopping E~ burgh bullthe presses mYers ress
Rebecca auk presses Timothy Wright for some history on Edinburgh University Press
FOR STUDENTS and schola rs aJ ike Edinburgh University Press j widel ) regarded as one of the best academ ic publishing offices in th e ountry Having been publishing
and publicising high quali ty acashydemic books for almost fif1) years the Press is celebrating its successes both internationally and at home In the midst (I f this great ~ucccss Chief Executive Timothy Wrigb t taJks t
Retr(lspect about the h istory of the press and what the future holds
Edinburgh Univers ity Press founded over fi fty years ago is a wholly owned subSidiary of the University of Edinbu rgh 1hough the conpan)s main business is the publishing of textbooks and supshyplementary textbooks the roles that the Press plays range across d iffe rent academic areas The pubshylish ing of textbooks senes an edu shycat ional role the p ublica tion of scholarly works and monograph serves to help the advancemen t of knowledge wh ilst the pub]jcalion of works of re fe rence support both
holarly and educational util ity The compmy also boaSL~ a portfolJ or over thirty jou rnals
The Presss chosen fiel ds of pubshylish ing are American Studies Classhyics Film Studies M edia amp Cultural tudies History Islam ic Studies
Language and Linguistics La Litshyerary Stu dj es PhUosophy Politics and Scottish History The Press is well eqlllpped to serve the hu manshyties departmen ts publishing on an xtensive range of subjects and topshy
ics The Presss publishing is recogshy
nised as being of the highest qual shyity It is amonitortd by th e Un ivershy
sitys Press Committee which has to approve a ll titles proposed for publication The sale of its publicashytions is increasingly intern at ional enhancing the Universi tys global image and reflecting well on Scotshyland itsel f In the year ended 31 July 2009 over 50 of the presss revshyenues were outside the UK markshying a Significant profit outside of the University itself
J i I I I ) i I ~
I lit l lll I I I I 1
t
~ ~ j ~ 111shy
L ~ I I gt
i I
upporting its internation al CO ll shy
nections is the Presss close rella shytionship with other acacemic pubshylishersThe press has a nehvork of dis tr ibutors world wide includiJlg pa rtn erships with the University of
ew South Vales in Sydney and most importantly a longstanding relationship with Columbia Uni shyversity Press in the Unitcd States of
merica TIle maiJl objectives of the p ress
are fourfold Firstly it contrlbutes significantly to knowledge tTansfer and the dissemination of the resu lts f scholarly researcht also contribshy
utes Significantly to the education of uni1ersity students and others By Lllaintaining its position as the leading university press in Scotland it contributes to the dissemination of scholarly work in Scottish his shytory md other Scottish subjects and on contemporary Scottish issues Lastl y the presitige of the conpan) nhances the univerSitys reputashy
tion internationally through the acknowledged high quality of its publishing
The key objectiVes se t by the Trusshytees for the year were to increase th e to tal income of the Press through contill uing to publi sh high quality
books and subsequ ently increase the gross and net marg ins These overall objectives are supported by a nUJ11ber of detailed targets which are monitored by the Trustees on a regular basis
In its fifty ycar history Edinburgb Un iversity Press has achieved great
thi ngs From high prestige to high saJes repor ts the intern ationaJ sucshycess that tb e press is now enj oying was only to be expected Its great prestige is an honour for the comshypany and the University alike as the Press was undoubtedly made for success
9
eat Odessa in the middle Varvara Bashkirova reminds us of the personal consequences of history CATHERINE THE Great fou nded the city of Odessa in 1794 when she decided that a port on the Black Sea wouId be a wise in vestshyment She invited architects from all over the world and it resuIted in a beautiful southern citywith an extremely diverse populati on and culture- albeit mostly Russian As a new centre of culture and trade it soon became the fourth largest city in the Russian Empire
I was born here hut nowadays I cannot go to the cinema to watch a film in Russian nor can I listen to the radio in Russ ian and most cershytainly I wouId not be able to study in Russian How did this happen During my fath ers childhood he heard only Russian or Yiddish sposhyken on tbe streets He never spok Ukra inian I only learned it in school There were some Ukrainshyian programmes on television but they were not my favourites so living in the south of the country my contact with the language was lim ited to three hours a week
I rem ember the day a woman came to our school with a lecture about how great Ukraine is In itialshyly we did not pay her much attenshytion but as ber lecture grew more ridiculous my classmates could not help laughing She argued that Ukrainian is m OTe beautifu l than Russian-I still do not know how she measured tb at Wbat we loved the most was her earnest claim that Jesus was Ukrainian It was proved by the studies of a historian who clai med that Buddha was Ukrain shyian too It was the year we stopped learning Russian literature Gogol and Pushkin both of whom created some of their best works in Odessa were now considered to be foreign writers The best part was that we still studied them in our foreign litshyerature course but in translation whicb was much harder to undershystand than the original Russian
After that everythi ng changed quickly Our history teacher was forced to teach in Ukrainian under
th e threat of being fireQ She did n ot speak it having lived all her li fe in Odessa Before education was mostly in Uhtainian anyway but once it was forced we hated it
What happened to the cinemas was even more ridiculous By forcing the Russian population to speak Ukrainian the government made dozens of cinemas bankrupt As Vestern films had never been translated in to Ukrainian before it suddenly came to light that man modern words Simply didnt exshyist in Ukrainian But this did not stopthe patriots-they started inshyventing words It was so contrived that we went to the cinema once and ended up laugh ing all the way through
Additionally in science and techshynology Uk rainian is quite behind 111at is why l11y fr iend who is studshyying programming in Ukraine is always complaining- when writshying essays the words he needs to use simply do not exist t hey can not be found in any of the dictionshyaries
Southeast Ukraine with its proshyRussian attitude contrasts to the western part of th e country 20 per cent of the population in Lvov a western city have a negative opinion of Russia This is a result of history From 1919-1936 westshyern Ukraine was a part of Poland whilst the southeastern was part of Russia Western Ukraine more agricultural and rural than the east is where Ukrainian traditions and language have been strongly mainshytained Many of the southeastern cit ies on the contrary were and always have been Russian Crishy
mea is an obvious example haVing existed as a Russian territory si nce 1794 On 19 February 1954 it was transferred from the Soviet Unshyion to Ukraine as a gi ft I would imagine it was quite a surprise for the local population to move to a different cou ntry without realisshying Ukrainisation was much mor tangible there as 90 per cent of the Crimean populalion was Russian For iJ1stance they were not capashyble of watching Ukrainian films as they didnt kn ow the language In other words western Ukraine feels strong antipathy to the pro-Russian East for bei ng unpatriotic whilst eastern Ukraine feels the same to the anti-Russian West for imposing on them an alien language Most Easterners admit the necessi ty of knowing and do know Ukrainian However they also argue that they should be allowed to choose beshytween the languages
Such a sharpened situation can be partly explained by the constant changes in the government After the 2004 Orange Revolution remiddot lations with Russia significantly worsened thus reviving the bisshytorical confl ic t 111ere were fights on the streets and on the in terneL Friendships broke down over the issue This resonated deeply fo r Ukrain isation which had affected
so many in the east of Ukraine ow that the government has
changed to diametrically opposite sides by strengtl1ening relations with Russia it seems like people can not keep up to date with the number of ideological shifts that they are supposed to accept every four year~ The contlict rontinues to deepen as the government conshytinuously changes its stance havshying only balf of the nations support each time
I still visi t Odessa at least once a yea r Walking along tbe streets I can sense the tension between the t raditional and the in1posed It is felt in quotid ian things such as street Signs TIle em blem has cbanged but tbe beart of the cit) is still the same The city is its people who keep the culture of their anmiddot cestors I know it when I see flowshyers laid in front of the memorial to the Russian poet Alexander Pushshykin on his birthday They say To Pushki ll from the grateful citizens of Odessa as it was constructed in 1889 solely from citizens doshynations I know that Odessa like other southern ci ties can never bemiddot come truly Ukrainian as it retai ns too much of the historical and culshytural heritage it has received from Russia
Retrospect10
th b
THE 1707 Acts of Union have always been sources of great debate and the topics popularity is still present as the dlree hundred year old act continu to have repercussions today AltJlough the union of Scotland and England may seem inevitable wiLh hindsight Lhe lrum is Lhat it was an exLrnordi shynary alJiance Simon Schama could not have been more correct when he described it as one of the most astonshyishing trnnsformat ions in Ew-optan histori
cotland and England possess rich intertwining pasts Competition be it in commerce politics or warfare stemmed from the Mo nations cul shytural differences What could possibl)t give these two separate and tradishytionaUy competing naUons common ground upon which to unify There were three major fac tors involved religion external threats and circulllshylance
The 15005 saw sweeping change throughout Europe as the Reformashytion gained momentum creating an upsurge of turmoil thar would take well over a century to abate By the Uruon of the Crowns in 1603 both Scotland and England were largely Protstant countries though disashygreement over doctrine was fierce The Bishops Van of 1639 and 1640 are merely examples of th~ c()nflict that occurred anlongst Lhe various denominations Lhat considered themshyselves true Proteltants
OtherneSS as explorcd by Linda Colley gives us an inkling into Lhe
nattlrc of the second major factor behind unification Shc states that otllerness was defined as lin aversion to militant Catholicism or a hostile
ontinental European system or at its most basic level external threats
ilh Lhe common ground of religion and a shared monarchy Scotland and England were similar enough by 1707 to tee jOiJldy threatened by foreign powers Traditionally these other were Roman Catholics and seen as the natural enemy l1ljS however is a rather skewed view to take For examshyple tlle League ofAugsburg of which both Scotland and England were a ke part of in 1689 included the staunchly
tholic nations of Austria Portugal and the Holy Roman Empire yet the nations of Britain certainly profited from beiJlg a part of this aliiance
Resistance to foreign threats real or percehmiddoted also fostered idea~ of unitt amongst one very influential faction of society the military Scottish and English Regiments fought side b) side throughout the Low Couotries A1sace and the RhineJand in both the Nine Yeurs War and the War of the Span ish Succession not only earning respect for aile another but laying me founshydatioJlS of a British army years before tlle Union ac tua lly took place Whilst tlle Acts of Union officialI) merged Lhe Scottish and English arnlies they had actuaUy been fighting together [or decades Success of the twin nashytions when allied militarily would doubtless have smootJled tlle road to union especially when tlloughts
of Empire canle to the forefront Full political union can perhaps be seen a the next logical step yct circumstance would first need to take a hand in promiddot ceedings
It did so in the late 1690s Ihe Darshyien Scheme an attempt by Scotland to break into the world market by establishing a small trading colony 0 11
the Isthmus of Panama went hOrribly wrong The nation was left teetering on the brink of bankruptcy Memshybers of the Scots nobility were forced to petition the English Parliament in Westminster for finan cial aid and me whole debacle caused many of the ruling elite to believe that Scotland could never la) imperial foundations without aid [rom its (lId rival Even by tlle early 1700s Scotlands economy was shOWing little signs of recovering from the savage blow wiLh tvtichael Fry pointing out that in 1704 the nashytiOD remaincd backward and with no financial markets of its own
The deaLh of Scotlands global ambishytions and the severe damage dealt to its economy can UJcrefore be cited as among the primary short-term reashysons for the Un ion of 1707 VVilliam Fergusons 1964 paper unearthed tbe grave extent to which bribes had been accepted by Scottish noblemen in orshyder to help push tlle Union through Parliament It is undcniable tllat for some expediency took the place of pride
t Lhe same time it would be a misshytake to believe that only Lhe Scots noshybles were responsible for selling their
country for English gold as Burns would have US believe Christopher A vVhatleys Scots rlrld the Unioll arshygues that this point does not stand up to close scrutiny nor does the argushyment that Scots bargained away their Parliament for free trade The bouts of insurrection throughout Scotland which fi) lImved in the inlmcdiate wake oflhe Union including the infamous exccutions of two English sailors 0 11
trumped up charges of pm cy would have been conSiderably more grievous had there truly been no support fix the move amongst the lower d Many of tlle more fa mous first-hand accounts such as those of Daniel Deshyfoe state d early that the vast majority of the nation was against the idea of Union Yet Whatleys detailed study of numerous smaller primary accounts shows surprising apathy amongst many commentators that proves true or at least militant anti- Un ionist senshytiment was not in the dear majority in Scotland at the time of the Union
The Acts of 1707 therefore can surely be remembered as amongst tile most unusual Union~ to have taken place in European history Scotland and EnghUld though they had many similarities were stiUlargely au tonoshymous nations before May 1707 It took a century of religious and poshylitical upheaval numerous external mreats and misfortune on a national scale to not only pave tlle wa) but acshytually bring about the Union It was a omplex rich and fascinating event
which provides us witll one of the
~
11
RAT HER LI KE th l m arri age of the owl and the pussycat the civil part shynership between Scotlan d and Engshyland seemed an unlikely union at the bme of its inau guration 1n 1707 Lord Bel havells remark - Theres ane end to an c auJd sang - seems to capture the sense of loss o cca shysioned by the termil1ltion of Scotshyti sh indep endence How d id someshything SO unpopular at birth survive for so long The slow evolution of tl11 Union deserves some attention
The Un ited Ki ngdom of 170 7 was augmented in ]SO ] wi th the ad shydition of the island oj Irehu1d In 1922 after over a century of unshyhappy relations Ireland was part ishytioned and only six of th e thi rtyshytwo counties remained as par t of a r(branded Uni ted Kingd om of Great Britain and Northern Ireshyland In its various incarnations the Un ion is now an auld sang and its melo dy may be more dHncult to forget than is ofte11 assumed
If Scotlan d is no t qUite an addishytionaJ county of England there are more similarities and links than Jllany are prepared to contemplate There has been a massive moveshyment of people in both directions
between Scotland and England The English in Scotland and the Scots in Englan d have integrated m ore seamlessly than aDY other min ori ty in either host society There ha ve been outbu rsts of S(Oshytophobia but the) have not proved to be a central fea ture of the Anshyglo-Scotti sh relati onship and the same can be said for Anglophoshybia Scotland bems a greater deshygree of Similarity to England than any ot her comparator Although th is m ay be a partial product of the Union it would not be quickly altered by furth er const itut ional chan ge even ren ew ed Scottish in dependence In deed if Scotshylands eighteenth and ni ncteenth cent ur y history cannot ent ir ely be ex plained by reference to events of l707 the Union has increasingly left its impressjon on the twentieth cen tu ry - the Welfare State might be an even grea te r symbol of the Union th an th e British Empire
Much recent comment about the Union has been peSSimistic and has sought reasons for its apparshyen tly likely demise an event wh ich inconveniently has not ye t taken place Despite d evolut io n perhaps
even despite the advent of an SN P ad ministration in Holyrood this may be the w rong question It is tbe longevity rather than the frashygil ity of th e Anglo-S cottish Un ion which reqUires explanation 1 his is not to say th at the Union m ay nol flo under in tbe [uture perh aps even the ncar future Histor ians are no to riously ba d at peering into th e future but one can confi dently p reshydict the outbreak o f a fierce debate between those who will argue that the inh erent features of the Un ion sowed the seeds of its destruction over a long period an d others who will contend that the sundershying of th e Union can be found in the consequences of the political divergence between Scotlan d and
nglaJ1d since 1979 Vha tever happens to the Union it is vital that we do not fabricate a sense of denjal about deep-sealed and longshys tan ding Scott ish enth usiasm for it
Ewen Cameron is H ead of H istory at Edinb urgh University Hi s book Impaled on a Thistle Scot la nd sil ce 1880 was released earl ier this year
A strange survival As a special feature Ewen Cameron provides a scholars perspecshytive on th e endurance Great Britain and the Acts of the Union
12 Retrospect
THE COLD War caused the worlds superpowers to forge some of h isto rys m ost unlikely of unshyions O ne such union was thaI of the USA with the leader of South Vietnam from ]954 to 1963 Ngo Dinh Diem and one that was arshyguably the first step on the path to full-scale American military in shyvolvement in Vietnam
Following Fr ances withdrawal from Indochina in 1954 Vietnam was divided in two along the 17th Parallel with Ho Chl Minhs C omshymuni sts ruling the North and the French sponsored democracy in the South with nation al elections planned for 1956 to reunite the COUlltry Fearful of communism the Eisenhower administration threw their support behind the staunchly anti -communist Diem in the bope that he would form a strong government that would be sympathetic to America The union would end almost a decade later in t he most ignominious of ways
At fi rs t there seemed to be several good reasons to suppor t Diem he was zealously anti-communist but aho exceedingly nationalistic and anti-French m aking it easier for the Americans to support h im without contradicting the if own an ti-imshyperialist rhetor ic He had travelled widely in the US an d had expressed a desire to work with Americans to build a new Vietnam
However from the start it was eVident that Diems belief in democracy was dubious as he stead fastly refu sed to conform to American political ideals The US
had entered th e two world wars to in President Woodrow Wilsons wor ds make the world safe fo r deshymocracy wh ilst the conflict wi th the Soviet Union was defi ned by Americas beUef in democracy and capitalism The US expounded the ideals of democracy over the tyranshynies o f authori tarian govern ment Diem refused to m ake democratic refo rms in his country
1 hen D iem took power he faced a bar rage of problems an undershydeveloped and antiquated gove rn shymental infras tructu re with staff who lacked experience in adminisshytmtion a country ravaged by war an immat ure agricult ural econoshymy With US help Diem thwarted several attempted coup detats in th e first year of his presidency An even bigger test of Diems leadershyship arrived in 1955 willl the Sec t Crisis where the mllitarised sects the Cao Dru the Hoa Hao and the Vletnamese Mafia the Binh Xu)rshyen joined forces to wage wllr on the government in Saigon Diem looked to be lOsing control and at one point US Ambassador to Vishyetnanl General Coll ins convinced Eisenhower that Diem should be removed A m iraculous and unshyexpected victory agrunst the Binh Xuyen ensured Diem stayed in
power and retained American supshyport Encouraged by the American delight at this victory Djem began to consolidate his power
W hen D iem rehlsed tJ) par ticipat e in the scheduled na tional election s to reunite the two Vietnams the US supported Il is decis io n to do so effectively ensu ring tb e long term separation between South and Nor th Vietnam The popular ity of the Communist leader Ho Chj Mi nh meant he would have swept these elections causing the US to forego their politi cal beliefs
With Diem established the US proceeded to pour rud in to his regime with $ 1 bill ion spent on economic and m ilitary assistance between 1955-1 961 Diems govshyernment squandered the aid refusshyin g to refo rm the army and governshyment to fit a democratic model
vThilst Diem prud li p service to the Am ericans democratic deshym ands reform vas always an illushyion D iem and rus three brothers
con trolled bot h the exec utive and the legi sla tive branches of govern shym enl - dissenters were immediateshyly pu rged Diems poli cies towards the villages d isregarded centu r ies of tradition and in dependence stirring up deep discon tent Any expression of th is was dealt with as George Herring puts it in a man shyner that would have made J Edgar H oover blanch as thousands of dissidents were incarcerated in reshyeducation centres Such was the USs fear of communism that they turned a bli nd eye to these arroci shyt ies
Alex Thomson explores the ideological sacrifices of Americas Vietnam policy
Better the Diem you know
In 1960 the new Kennedy adshyminis tration inherited the commitshyment to Diem and with Kennedys pledges to get tough itwould have been impossible to withdraw supshyport for Diem and so the governshyUen t increased th e aid to stabilise h im whils t begging him ineffectu shyally to refo rm Most Americans at this time could
not have even located Vietnam on a map but the issue was forced in to the nations consciousness ill May 1963 with th e Buddh ist Cri shysis A devout Catholic Diem had oppressed the Buddhist majority of the countr) Protests in the city of Hue saw government troops fire into the crowd killing a number of protestors sparking widespread reaction around South Vietnam cu lmin ating in the n otorious selfshyim molations of Buddhist monks which h it headlines worldwide
ot only was Diem embarrassshying the American government on the in ternational stage but with the disastrous defeat at Ap Bac in January 1963 it became increasi ngshyly apparent that Diem was also an ineffectual bulwark against comshymunism a fac t compounded by Diems covert attempts to negotiate a settlemen t wi th Ho Chi Min h After the Budd hist Crisis several generals of the South Vietnamese army approached tlle US Ambasshysador in Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge Jr about US reachons to a military coup Convinced that the war against communism in Vietshynam co uld not be won with Diem as leader Lodge replied that wruJs t they would not support a coup they would do nothirlg to oppose it effectively signing Diems death warrant Thus on November 1st 1963 the generals successfully deposed Diem who was then brushytally murdered in the back of a van after seeking sanctuary in a Cathoshylic church
President Kennedy said that ~iem is Diem and hes the best weve go This is an accurate swnshymary of the unlikely alliance beshytween D iem and the US Authorishytarian and despotic Diem was ana thema to the American polit ishycal system but it was ironical]y the USs fear of another foreign politi shycal system on the left that caused them to create so unlikely an allishyance
13
Practical impiety Hamish Kinnear discusses the unthinkshyable Franco-Ottoman Alliance of 1536
IN 1536 an alliance was finalised that was met with disbelief and disgust throughout Europe The union of France and the Ottoman Empire against their mutual enshyemy - Charles V - was the first alshyliance between a major Christian and nnn-Christian power since the crusades
Europe was on the verge of great change at the outset of the sixshyteenth century The introduction of gunpowder was revolutionisshying warfare and the printing press enabled the distribution of mateshyrial opposed to the ruling elite The fiercely anti-derical speeches of Martin Luther and his sympashythisers initiated the Reformation destroying the medieval idea of a united Christendom with the Pope as its nominal head Increasshyingly European states began to act in their own interests and ignored ing the legitimacy of Islam Pracshy common knowledge an alliance the purpose of defence as opposed
the demands of the pope Four ticality however often triumphs with the Great Turk was not only to a specifically offensive crusade
great historical figures also came over ideology unlikely it was unthinkable Henry VIII of England struck a
to the fore in the early 16th centushy Interestingly both Francis I and The alliance however held blow to Christian unity by breakshy
ry Henry VII of England Francis Charles V had argued that if they benefits for both parties France ing away from the papal authorshy
I of France Charles V of Spain and became Holy Roman Emperor for was given an ally that posed a seshy ity and establishing the Church of
Suleiman the Magnificent of the they were both candidates for the rious threat to Charles V for the England allowing his marriage to
Ottoman Empire The stage was elective office they would lead a Ottoman Empire of Suleiman the Anne Boleyn The greatest atrocshy
set for a conflict that involved all Crusade against the Great Turk Magnificent was at the height of ity occurred when the underpaid
the major powers of Europe one This promise invoked a desire to its power Fresh from victory over and mutinous troops of Charles
in which the French were the fi rst return to the perceived Christian the Egyptian Mamluke Sultanate V in the search of plunder sacked
to realise that the days of a united unity of the Middle Ages where Suleiman wished to make himself Rome and imprisoned the Pope
medieval Christendom were over the nations of Europe allied to Caesar of Europe An alliance with This event more than anything take back the Holy Land After the French was in the interests of else signified the demise of medishyCharles V took the title however the Ottomans as it provided them eval Christendom In this atmosshyFrancis wasted no time in declarshy with a military partner and a finshy phere of widespread anti-papal ing war on his fellow Christian ancier to help invade Hapsburg feeling the France-Ottoman allishynation The subsequent invasion lands More importantly for Suleishy ance comes as less of a surprise of Italy ended in disaster for the man the alliance kept the states of The impious alliance of the French at the Battle of Pavia durshy Christian Europe divided French and Ottomans then does ing which Francis I was captured not seem so scandalous when
By 1519 France was in despershy by the forces of Charles V To seshy placed in the context of its time
ate need of allies The domain of cure his release from prison Franshy However it should come as no
the Hapsburg ruler Charles V who cis was forced to sign the humillishy surprise that it was received in
had inherited the rule of both the ating Treaty of Madrid in which this negative fashion There was
Spanish Empire and the Holy Roshy he renounced his claims to Italy evidently a form of European
man Empire almost surrounded Flanders and Burgundy Charles nostalgia for the days of the Crushy
the French Kingdom of Francis I V had risen to unrivalled power in sades in which Christendom was
The French also had to deal with Europe united in a common cause even
Henry VIIIs England whose arshy During Franciss imprisonment though the military expeditions to
mies still remained in Normandy the French court had sent a deleshy Despite the reactions of horror the Holy Land had only been seshy
and coffers funded Charles milishy gation to the court of Suleiman the to the Franco-Ottoman alliance riously pursued centufies before
tary expeditions To the French Magnificent to discuss a treaty of that were evident throughout Eushy Francis Is alliance with the Otshy
advantage a new power was rising friendship These talks resulted in rope the actions of other Christian tomans was a stark indicator that
in the East The Ottoman Empire an alliance that was met with disshy rulers could hardly be considered the Crusader days were long past
of Suleiman the Magnificent was belief and disgust by the other Eushy pious If a pious ruler was one War from then on became comshy
expanding through the Balkans at ropean states Charles V began a who acted for the unity of Chrisshy mon between Christian States as
an alarming rate and posed a great vitriolic campaign of propaganda tendom engaged in crusading a means to maintain the balance
threat to the domains of Charles against the French deeming the activities and respected both the of power or achieve superiority
V Yet an alliance with this major union the sacrilegious union of temporal and spiritual power of in Europe Christendom was finshy
Islamic power was still considered the Lily and the Crescent Indeed the Pope then Charles V and Henshy ished The unlikely Franco-Ottoshy
blasphemous by the kingdoms of given that Francis had strongly ry the VII failed on all these reshy man Alliance however lasted for
Europe as by acknowledging the supported a crusade against the quirements Admittedly Charles V centuries
existence of the Ottoman Empire Ottomans a pretence he mainshy spent much of his life fighting the
the French were in effect accept- tained even after the pact became Ottomans but this was more for
14 Retrospect
c e Old Ship of Zion Catherine Me Gloin examines a widely forgotten aspect of American History THE STRUGGLE for AfricanshyAmerican rights iJl the United States is a long and contested road Ve are repeatedly exposed to narratives that stress key leaders and religious f1 gureshyheads Arguably no discourse would be complete without an analysis of tbe role of MartiQ Luther King Jr the decisions of th e Supreme Court or tbe varying levels of comm itment that each president expressed throughout this tuibulent ruld mythologised peshyriod in Americ1l history
However one element of the strugshygle for bLack dvil rights that has been often underplayed in popular accounts increasingly based on bioshygrap hical and oral testimony is the role of the new labour movement during the 19305 and J94Ds In the
space bern the post-World far red scare a reactionary phenomenon that disabled socialism as a tool for social advancement bl1Ck unjonisID 3Jld potentially the Communist Party ofshyfered African-Ameri cans a wllque opportunity to unite to fight oppresshysion Unionism offered the poorest black workers a political voice one they fel t was [[lUted by elite middleshyclass civil rights organisations such as the NAACP [n this respect the Communist Party can be considered as a viable alternative for some groups within tll euro civil rights movement and as a suitablevehide for civil rights adshyvancemel1t
The h istory of black organh ed lashybour in the South has only begun in the last thirty years to receive du attention in the historiography of American labour movements gainshying increasing recogni tion from lashybour and social historians Perhaps it has traditionally been ampi de-lined because of an ideological aversion to socialism deeply ingrained into the American psyche Alternatively its diminished prominence may be explained by the compl~ities of periodisation It is commonly acshyknowledged by maIl) h istorians who dorninate the field of civil rights that the movement characterised by cross-national di rect action began in the late 19505 Morc specifically the
birth of the movement is often seen as a consequence of the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and the Brown decision of the Supreme Court the plevious year Thus any event which pre-dates tJlis revered trajectory is generally dismissed as a pre-requisite and subsequently garshyners less attention than it perhaps warrants The widening of industrial w1ionism to Southern blacks during the first half of the twentieth century has traditionally been treated as a pre-cursor yet it deserves a more prominent position not only for the wider organ isational implications it held flr the development of the llovement but as acknowledgement afits improbable success
N l an alysis of labour Qrganisation and class structure amongst the varyshying groups active in the civil rights m ovement serves to convey what is often lost til e tight for equality was not solely [ought by biack elites or enlightened whites but poor workshying class African-Americans a1SQ
played a leading role These groups although united in th eir cause did not un iformly a gree at every stage but could be divided by societal catshyegQries other than race
It is important to note that the Southern labour force were distincshytive in their anti-union tradition Even as organised labour became increasingly entrencbed in the North (following the National Labour Relashytions Act 1935) the South as Robert Zieger argues rem ained an anti-lashybour island Much of the historiogshyraphy stresses the traditionally Ilostile relationship between organised lashybour and African-Americans Meier
and Bracey assert that blacks were susp icious of wlions who typically discriminated against them Thus unionism was seen as the tool of white racist workers rather than the site of tenlpered racial Ultagonisms in the hce of a common adversary shyexploitative industries The American Federation of Labour (AFL) supportshyed craft unions that created raCially exd usive iobs often driving blacks from secured employment opportushynities in order to give them to unemshyployed whites A symptom of segreshygateJ society this was lot a qUEstion of education more a simple fUllction of the caste system in operation in the South that largely kept black labour unorgnnised yet was held as a necessishyty for business prosperity Any efforts towards unionisatioJ1 were usuall thwarted by employer intimidation police brutality or deep-rooted susshypicions of unions Moreover a cheap and ready supply of white and black vmrkerswn ited the power of strike action African Americans had been used as strike-breakers ill the heavy industries for decades
However the 19305 heralded the widening of labour organisation in part a response to post-World War I migration to northern industrial cities persistent inequalit ies within some of the New Deal programmes and the devastating financial impact of the Great Depression which was disproportionately felt by black workshyers Therefore it may be argued that the erosion of the distinctive union free character of Southern labour had begun
Attitudes towards labour organ ishysa60n shifted during the 1930s This may havc been a consequence of a more general swing to the left durshying the period as evidenced by the re-alignment of the black vote away from thc RepUblicans tovards the Democrat Party Mkhael Honey main tains that the late 1930s and early 1940$ promised huge change a consegum ce of war industrialisation and unionisation The founding of organisations such as the Congress of Industrial Organ isations (CIO) point
Lo increased co-open t-ion between Souther wh ite and black workers ruld an albeit temporary shift away from the attitudes of the segregation era
he CIO was born out of the hardshyships of the depression years and its inter-racial organising strategy crul be ccn as cridence ofa morc co-operashy
tive approach to labour organisat ion than is tradi tiol)ally given credit in the historiography Ihe CTO sought African -American recruits and fo shycussed its unionisiog efforts on secshytors with large black work forces such as steel and meatln their promotion of inter-racial un ionism such orshyganisatiom acted lts a bridge between the black community and white workers although this function was more successful in the North where African-Americans he1d a limited degree of political and economic power Bi-raciaJ unionism provided the philosophy of equal rights as well as the means to augment ~ocial conditions and alter the relationship between worker and boss a source of daily oppression in the lives of many black workers For African-Amerishycan labour this was a great step toshywards achieving social and economic equality
However no unionising organisashytion was free from tht constraints of racist social customs particularly in the SQuth where ero union leaders would rather capitulate to opposition tJ1an lose members and where white workers continuously strove to asshysert their superiority over their black colleagues In many ways the CI achieved their initial economic goals and succeeded by 1940 in persuadshying whites to join and work alongside African-Americans However they failed to farce white elites to accept black demands for an end to racial wage differences Nonetheless allishyances between black and white workshyers civil r ights groups and left-Wing New Dealers had been established benefitting the African-Anlerican struggle against economic discrimishynation
11le influence of the left was evident
15
in the leading unions thal were also committed to equality like the CIO as well as the United Packinghouse Workers of America who organised meatpackers in Chicago and Texas Whilst these unions engaged a lot of black workers as members they also had a significant communist pres shyence The impact of the Communist Party and its role in intluencing both inter-racial unionism and the civil rights movement is a contentious isshyue Their rhetoric and its evolution
from calls for a separate Black Reshypublic to talk of a more united-front is an area that provokes much conshytroversy Was it conceived in order to subvert labour organisations directly or to control them from behind the scenes Alternatively a cynical iew of the motivations behind Commushynist Part) involvement can be temshypered The Part) recognised the revshyolutionar y potential of industrial and agricultural workers and thereforc called for African- American sclfshydetermination as a strategy whereby white American acceptance of blacks right to self-government was the goal Thus white workers would be able to conquer their raci sm and a united working class would result
Traditional interpretations sugshygest that unionism was treated with
hostility by all blacks we must not be blind to tlle differences amongst the black community and the fact tbat they were far from a homogshyenous group hils the Communist Party becanle the rivals of the black elite arld middle-class organisations such as the NAACI~ the poor black working class were attracted to the ideology and the Party in incrcasing numbers throughout tlle depression and during the New Deal era degThey prOided the black working classes with an alternative vehicle for social protest Furthermore communism introduced many blacks to world politics enabling them to place their own struggle in a global context demonstrating the roots of poverty and ra05m
This educated the non -reading classes and gave them a sense of pride something many fel t was deshynied to them by tlle black eli tes of the
AACP whom it has been argued had unwisely assumed a pastoral poshysition as spokesperson for all blacks Moreover the Party challenged both white supremacy and the bourgeOiS politics of the black mjddle-class A Philip Randolph - considered a sooalist and largely hailed as the spokesman for black workers after his success with the Pullman porshy
ters of the 1920s and thc recogni tion of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters by tbe A FL in 1937 - attacked WE B Du Bois and the NAACP for neglecting the needs of the AfricanshyAmerican in favour of bourgeois inshyterests Fostering an atmosphere of debate and discussion communism helped to educate and empower the black working-classes For the black elites it was an unwelcome SQurce of agitation as communists began to enter into the realm of black bourshygeois politics Thus support for the Communist Party divided civil rights campaigners and highlighted undershylying class antagoni~m
The involvement of the commushynist-led ILD in the trial of the Scottsshyboro boys demonstrates the resentshyments and the growing frustrat ion with the NAACP and other black middle-class organisations Failure to secure Significant federal anti -lynchshying legislation ineffective in helping desperate blacks devastated by the depression and limited by thei r OWll political powerlessness ill the face of economic decline amongst tllCir own elite members the NAACPs imposhytence was made apparent during the 1931 Scottsboro boys trial In Alashybama nine black men aged thirteen to n ineteen were charged with the
rape of two while women travelling on the san1e train as them and were tried convicted and sentenced to death in three days WhcU1C~r or not the IlD simply offered their support and advice or they ID U$cled in with shrill bravado their involvement earned the Com mullist Party black support
They were portrayed as defenders of the race whilst wltites chose to view them as outsiders and defendshyers of rapists
Interpretations of communisms impact on the Qjl rights moveshyment during the 1930s var y II may be maintained tllat membership to the Party and adherence to commushynist ideology was limited ultim ateJy most blacks wanted to work within the American system and reap any benefits accrued hy the programmes of the New Deal Africall-Americaru were comm itted to these me3iur and Similarly to Presiden t Roosevelt fe-clec ting him for a th ird term in 1940 Thus communism was a marshyginal force that many blocks chose to
ignore as a vehid c for social protest However it is important to recognise
its significance in the Lives of many African-Americans who for the first time were organised in to tradeullions on relatively equal terms t() those of their whil-e co-workers and were able to understand their $truggle through the framework of a shared commushynist ideology Communists fo rmed the central pillar to trade un ion acshytivism and 0 0 inter-raciali sm This new socialism in the barber shop a broadened ID1d popular sense off self empowered many black vOrkers to fight against economic and social disshycrimination in a way that seemed to
speak more directly to them and their social s tanding than the rhetoric esshypoused by the black-bourgeoisie
Bibliograpby
Leslie H Fishel Jr The Negro and dle New Deal in Twentieth Ce1ltury America Recent Interpretations ed Bernstein and Matusow (1 972)
Robert H Zieger (eei) Orgal ised Labour in the TWeIIlielh Centw y Soulh (1991)
Robin DG Kelley Hammer and Hoe Alabama Conlllllmists During the Great Depression (l990)
16 Retrospect
OFfEN OVERSHADOWED by the tumultuous events that were to weep Europe in the late 19305 and
194Ds the Spanish Civil War (1936shy1939) remairu a pivotal moment in twentieth century European history TIle conflict divided families towns and polarised political opinion across the continent and beyond It resulted in an estimated 500000
deaths and witnessed the establishshyment of a Fascist dictatorship in Spain under General Franco which ould last for almost forty years
The conflict has been a fruitful jeC of historical scholarship and many explanations as to why the fragile democracy of the Second Reshypublic collapsed have been offered Did the RepublJcaJlS Lose because of a lack of fo reign support given to them but that the Nationalists were lucky to receive or was their defeat a result of the weakness of Republican mili tias oin the face of the discipline of the Spanish army
In order to ascertain which if eishy
ther of the aforementioned suggesshytions WdS most significan t it is imshyportant to examine the patchwork of ideologies that the Popular Front composed of the Marxlst POU1vl (Partido Obrero Unification Marxshyista) Socialist UGT (Union General de Trabajores) Communist PSU (PartitSocialiSta UnificalCatalwlya) and Anardllst CNT (Conf-ederacion
acional del Trabajo) Furthermore the effect of foreign intervention on relations within the National Front and upon the contlict asa whole must be taken into consideration
From the outset it would be fai r to suggest that the Republicans lacked the same opportunities as the Nashytionalists The material support offered by the Soviet Union WJS
ultimately to be a hindrance insofar as it catalysed factionalism within the National Front In the opposite camp Adolf Hitler was in reality not much more supportive of the Nationalists than foseph Stalin had been of the Republicans and it is likeshyly that he like Stalin merely wanted the war to continue as a distraction for the estern democracies Argushyably it was MUSSOWlis support that would be key to the Nationalist side He was adan1ant that the emergence of another Fascist state on the model of Italy could only be to his political advantage As it turns out Italy reshyceived relatively little in return from Franco after the war
Despite the fact that the Repuhlishycans were on the side of the legally elected government they were necr allowed to purchase arms from the major suppliers The United States was pursuing a policy of non-inshytervention after World War I and
Britain and France followed suit re1 uctant to upset the political stashybili) of Europe at the time It was decided that neither side would be given military aid under the NODshyIntervention Pact However this pact was then widely and blatantly flaunted by the dictatorships of Eu shyrope Italy Germany an d the Soviet Union The purchasing of foreign arms was poli tically charged as it was tantamount to subscription to the ideology of the dictatorship that was selling them TIle fact that only the Fascist dictatorships of Europe and the USSR were willing to so brashy
j zenly ignore the Non-Intervention pact was to have an enormous imshypact within the Spanish Left as will be later discussed
The aid of the Soviet Union was useful to the Republican cause insoshyfar that the weapons they provided were far superior to any the Republishycans already Pc)ssessed whilst Soviet aircraft were used for reconnaissance missions which were central to the militias military tactics However the weapons were not given to all parties within the Popular Front but were directed at only a handful Mostly they were given to the Socialists of the UCT and tlle Communists of the PSUC which stirred discontent amongst the other parties who were using old and inferior weaponry to that of their fellow comarades
The Civil War polarised Span isJ political discourse into those who were opposed to Francos regime and those who were not The Republican fOrces therefore contained many disparate political groups from moderate republicans to Anarchists Trotskyites and Stalinists Conseshyquently the Soviet aid exacerbated internal tensions within the Republishycan forces between the loosely assoshyciated left wing political groups The acceptance of Soviet weapons was a dangerous move as it allowed the access of agents of the Couummist Party of Soviet Russia into Spanish affairs someth ing that was to prove decisive in the outcome of the war
The Spanish Civil War was a conflict which could be referred to as a battle between reactionary forces of conshyservativism and progressive revolushytionaries Though many have claim ed that the Nationalists were fasc ists British Titer George Orwell who was fighting in Spain at the time along side the Republicans wrote of the Nationshyalists that their ideology was closer to that of feudalism The Nationalists were composed chiefly of members of the army members of the clergy and leaders of international business all united in their common distrust of the working classes Their victory in the war would certainly jeopardise the livshying conditions and dghts of working class people resulting in the deterIorashytion labour relations a Catholic crackshydown of secularism and the army would suppress any dissent
In contrast to the Nationalists clarshyity oJ goals the Republicans seemed to all be working towards different ends TIle objectives of moderate reshyforming socialists and the Anarchist
NT were very difficult to reconshycUe Furthermore the Soviet belief in a revol utionary vanguard instigatshying and leading the proletariat was at odds with populist movements such as Anarchism that took hold in Spain With such differences in polshyicy it is hard to envisage what could force these parties to work together for any length of time
Part of the problem with compreshyhending the Spanish Civil War comes from the spectrum of ideologies within the broad alliance of the Reshypublican forces The ideologies were further apart than could be counteshynanced and particularly so after the Conununist Party decided to impose itself upon the revolution that the Marxists and Anarchists were trying to fashion themselves in Barcelona In his book Hom age to Catalonia Orwell describes Barcelona Practically eveshyry building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists Every shop md cafe had an inscription saying it had been collectivised even the bootblacks had been collectivised md their boxes painted red and blacK The extent of the social change seems almost hyshyperbolic particularly when O rwell stresses that even the bootblacks were part of a trade union The Comshymunist Party however was to disrupt this workers paradise in May of j 937 with the attempted repossesshysion of a telephone exchange that was under Anarchist control 111is sparked a conflict that lasted several days and threatened the stability of the entire Republic General Franco who said he planned it after the Communists
ran newspaper stories blaming the Marxists for starting the fight used disunity in Barcelona to his own ends Being the largest party with the most well-developed press organisations the Communists managed to direct the aftermath of the situation and use it to discredit a competing party Disunity among the Republican side flourished as the AnarclUsts caught on to the Communist attempts to discredit the ]vIandst faction Though they were not persecuted to the same extent though their collectives were broken up to increase efficiency they realised thal they were fighting for
mebody who was n ot sympathetic of their ideology and who tney could not trust The Republican t~1Ctions
vigour started to deteriorate after the May Days riot of 1937
One might ask the question why did the Conununists try and reposshysess an Anarchist building It would be naive of them to assume they could take it vithout a fight unless they disregarded the fact that all Anarshychist doctrine of the em was against government coercion It bardly seems that there might be any great gains in taking one building even if it did allow Anarchists to eaesdrop on telephone conversations The sudden megaloshymania of the Communists seems to have sprung from advice given by the Communist Party of Soviet Russhysia The tactical value of the telephone exchange was not worth risking the integIity of the Republican coalishytiDn The PSUCs party line that At present nothing matters but vinning the war is especially telling
Arguably it was the fragile alliance of circumstance within the Republishycan movement exacerbated by Soviet Aid that only reached certain fuctions wbicb resulted in the collapse of the Spanish Republic Though the weapshyOIlS helped fOT a while they could not Sllstain an entire nation with the limishytations placed upon their deployment Anarchists did not trust the help of Soviet Russia and neither did they trust the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain or any of its regional counshyterparts Tnere were other culprits howeveJ in the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic
It would be wrong to suggest that disWlity on the part of the Republi shycans was all that preven ted them from victor)l The wider European context of the conflict was also fundamenshytal in the collapse of the Republican Movement Gen11any and Russia nevshyer gave sufficient help to either side to let it decisivel) win at any pace but it appears that both used the war to their own advantage Germany tested out their bombers on Spanish tovms such as Guernica and the Soviet Union
17
used the war as a distraction while it increased its level of militarization
In conclusion then the conmct polarised Spanish political discourse around the two totalitarim cxtrerrtishyties of Fascism and Stalinism This resulted in an internally divided and factionalised Republicm force which struggled to retain its integrity in the fuce ofa destructive internal feud The feud was sparked b) the actions of an externalgovernment hence it ccruld be argued that the collapse of tbe second republic was was more to do vith the international context of the conflict as it provided both the ex1rem e ideolohY and the cause of fTiction vithin the Republican movement
BibUography
Qmell George Orwell hi Spain (Penshyguin London2001)
Thomas Hugh The Spanish Civil War 4th edition (Pellguin London 2003)
Beevor Anthony The Battlefor SpainThe Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (WampN London 2006)
Taylor AJP The OrigirtS of the Second World War (Penguin London 1991)
18 Retrospect
Sh may be the Reason Frances Rromagc explores the often overlooked contribution of female scientists during the Enlightenment
FOR MANY centuries befo re the seventeenth Aristotles concepshytion of the bod y and the mind as insepa rable matte r domin ated Western thinking It was used to justify the subjugation of wom en and their subsequent excl us ion from so -called masculine activi shyties
Anatomical differen ces and hormonal systems provi ded new rationales for keeping women below men in the intellectual hishyerarchy Chauvinism expressed it self in every walk of life from religi on and education to science and medicine Even the common shyest of medical symptoms such as nerVOllsness irritability and loss of appetite for foo d or sex were generally diagnosed in women as the result of female Hysteria - a problem deriving from the hysshytna or uterus Science which explored the worl d outside the domestic sphere remai ned an ex shyclusively masculine discipline up until the eighteenth cent ury
Then came th e Enlightenment Enlightenment philosophers were infl uenced by Descartes theori es on critical thinking and Lock es empir icism and as a conseshyqu ence adopted a new approach to learn ing one which promoted free in te ll ectual inquiry and reshyjecled the influence of the state an d religion Despite the moveshyments vast scope few topics were as vigorously discussed as the subject of female education T he changing conception of the mind as no longer constrained by physical attributes opened a new conception of the mind as a sex shyless entity Therefore wom ens education became the subject of m uch debate in polite society spurring contribut ions from feshymale and male thinkers on both sides of the discu ss ion Womens access to scientific knowlcdge proved particularly controversial as it cha llenged a long-established perception of womens role as lim shyited to the domain of domestic ity
owhere has thi ~ challenge been so eloquently pu t as in words of British poet Elizabeth Toilet in her 1724 her poem Hypatia What cruel Laws depress the female KindTo humble Ca res and servile Ta sks confild That haughty Mall IIllriFald and alone May boast the world or Science all his owwl As barbarous Tyrants to secure their Sway Conclude that ignorallce will best obey
Whilst men may have been harbarous tyrants and attempted to clamp down on womens parshyticipation in scientific disciplines lu ckily th ey were not entirely suc shycessful in doing so History proshyvides LI S with a few precious exshyamples l1f women who refused to bow to blind ignorance and tbus su cceeded in rising above amashyteur status to become serious conshytributors to the field of scient ific knowledge
Of these the only one about whom much contemporary inshyformati o n as well as a substanshytial body of original writings has survived is Emilie Marquise du Chatelet She is most famous for having been Voltaires mistress but in fa ct this does great injusshytice not only to he r independent character but also to her intellecshytual brilliance and considerable sc ientific contribution hilst she remain ed all bu t inv isible to histo rical aCCo wlts before her asshysociation with Voltaire in 1733 during tJ1e next fifteen years of her life she proved herself a worshythy match to the brilliant French philosopher Living mainly in Pa rh or in her country estate at Cirey to where she retreated with Voltaire she wrote and published a book on the metaphysics of natshyural science (institutions de physhysique) an essay on the nature of fire and neat (pisserta tion sur la nature ct propagation du feu) and two short pieces on the problem of melsu ri ng physical force She also co- authored anonymously Voltaires popularisation of Newshytoni an physic s for which she was resp onsi bl e for most of th e mathshyematical calculations an d to top her numerous achievements in 1748 she produced a translation of Newtons PrincipiI mathemati shyca with a commentary which was published posth Wll ously and is sti l1 used as the standard translashy
tion of h is work in France today In 1835 th e Royal Astro nomical
Society in London made a breakshythrough by awarding honorar y m~mbership to a woman Caroshylin e Herschel She became famous for her discove ry o f ncw nebu lae in 1783 (Androme da and Cetus) and for bei ng the fi rst woman to di scover a comet In hOnOltr of Herschel the SOCiety made what was perhaps the fi rst sta temen t on equal opportuuities in science While tests of astronomi cal merit sho uld in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to th ose of a man the sex of the former shou ld no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acshyknowledgement wh ich might be hel d due to the latter But whi lst modem biographers have used these numerous firsts to turn Caroline Herschel in to a female icon of sci ence it is importan t to note that she wa~ rewarded not for her own discoveries but beshycause she recorded compi led and recalc ulated th ose of her brother vVilliam Herschel
The very natu re of he r brothers research concen trated on collectshying and classif)Ti ng large numb ers of stars and in th is Ca rolines cataloguing skills were of ceotral importanc e Lacking her pati en ce and meticul ous att ention to deshytall he became heavily reliant on her sci enti fi c inpu t Therefo re her im portance in her brothers research was far greater than most of their contemporaries realised yet she never theless allowed her efforts to further his reputation
Finally th e faScinating case of Laura Bassi (1711-177S) shows how some rare women were able to forge thems elves a career in scientific fields during the En shylightenm ent Bassi was gifted with a capacity for learning consi d shyered so extraordillar y in a wom an that it just ified a concession for a
university degree in philosophy Thereafter she was awarded an entrance to Bolognas lstituto delle Scicnze later to be admitted as an honorary member of the college and fl naUy assigned the position of lecturer in physics at the presshytigious Universi ta eli Bologna the first of its kin d in Europe Scholshyar~ from aU over Eu rope would attend Bassis lectu res on Newtoshynian physics and sJle became the envy oflearned women across the contin ent
These scientific women came fre)m upper or middle cla ss backshygrounds and whilst th eir ach ieveshyments were not replicated to the same extent by women in the lowshyer echelons of society a degree of sci entific and pract ical k novledge never theless took hold Daughters of clergymen particularly in the dissenters tnldition and certain widows who were made to tak e up their husbands trade after th ei r death became learned women and hi ghly ski lled T he famous case of lIlada me Cliquot who in 1805 took over her husbands company after h is death is a ch arming exshyample Hi s enterprise whi ch had
een variously involved in bankshying wool trading and Champagne producing th ri ved under her di shyrec tion and eventu ally became the brand La Vcuve C liquol She is directly accred ited will) a great breakthro ugh in champagne han shydling that made mass produc tion of th e wine possible an d estabshylished the producers reputation of excellence which continues to the present day
T hese examples demonstrate that women were capable of takshying part in scientific debates and developments but it should be stressed that their contr ibution was li mited Womens access to sci entific knowledge was dependshyent on wealth class and cru cially on an association with men who would encourage scientific en shydeavours This last condition is all the more important when one considers the institutionshyalised chauvinism that women continued to experience during the eighteenth century Throughshyout Europe with the exception of
orthern Italy un i7ersi ties and scientific academi es such as the Roya l In stitution in London were closed to women
19
Furthermore whilst the enliglltshyenmenl undeniably brought an improvement to the female conshydition entrenched conservatism in contemporary attitudes even amongst enlightened th inkers such as Rou sseau meant that feshymale scientists were not only ex shy
tremely rare but also str uggled to be accepted in m al e- d ominated
circles T llere was a general lack or even absence of formal rec()gshynit ion of womens involvement in scientific publications For ex shyample Marie Lavoisier th e gifted wife of Fren ch chemist Antoine
Lavois ie r in now recog-ni sed as having carried out many calculashytions and observations in her husshyband s Elements of Chemistry The original m an uscript of h is work contai ns evid ence of her notes and comments yet the printed version fail s to ackn owledge her contribution entirely Even in be tter-documented cases such as that of Lavois ier it very difficult fo r the modern -day h isto rian to pin -point the individu al accomshypli shments female scientists in coll aborative works
However one can argue quite
confidently the instrumental rol e that women p layed in th e disshysem in ation and subsequent adshy
van cement o f sci ent ific ideas T hey were g rea t m ediators often translating simplifying and illusshytrat ing com plex scienti fic works Their versions of these texts were
generally aimed at a female read shyership a n otable exam ple bein g EmiJie d u Chatelet s translation of Francesco Algarottis Ne wtonishy(Ism for Ladies (1737) These were often read in wid er circles as they were clear illustrated and easier to understand T his helped the sp read of scientific id eas the im shy
plied message being that if science was s imple enough for a woman to unders tand than anyone could understand it Furthermore women facilitated the populari sashytion of science by hosting disc usshy
~ions in salons or holding p rivate exhibitions in their homes where gues ts cou ld appreciate and marshyvel at discoveries such the Leyden jar and static electrici ty These so shycial gatherings were particularly important when one considers science and the En lightenment as a wider social phenomenon
as opposed to a string of isolated discove ries mad e by individual mal e scientists
There is a tragiC element un shyderlying this whole s to ry Recent studies led by historian s such as Patr ic ia Fara have attempted to give a clearer and fairer in terp re shytation of womens contribution to science d uring thi s per iod
However history has b ee n unfair and insensi tive in its representashytion of female scientists Consid shyer ing the wealth of literature on Science and Enlightenment it is quite re markable tha t so little nas b een written about the women who took part Givmiddoten th e sparseshyness of original sources and the strong m ale bias wit h which most existing d ocumentation is writshyten it is very difficult impossible
perhaps to accu rately assess the Signifi cance o f womens contribushytion to the scientific fi eld
Feminists have often rewritshyten the story of these women to underline independen t achieve shyments and contributions mad e in a bid to break down prejudic es again st their sex But when does a shift of emphasis become an exagshy
geration a disto rt iongt Scientific
women have been concealed for so long that it is very tempting to tum them into unsung heroines It would be unju st to retell these wom ens stories in a way which
forces them to conform to the ideal s of m odern day fem inists Alte rna tivey we mll st appreciate their contr ibutions on their own meri t
Bibliograpby
Fara Patricia Pandoras Breeches Women Science amp Power in the Enlightenm ent (Great Britain Pimlico 2004)
Gardiner Linda Wo men ill Scishyetlce From French Women al7d
the Age of El7ligiztenmellt ed S Spencer (USA Indi ana University Press 1984 )
Bragg Melvyn P Fara K O Brian amp j Hawley In Our Time Wo men alld Science ill the E11 ligi7tenll7ellt LondOl (BBC Radio 4 4th vemb er 2010)
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
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The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
8 Retrospect
No stopping E~ burgh bullthe presses mYers ress
Rebecca auk presses Timothy Wright for some history on Edinburgh University Press
FOR STUDENTS and schola rs aJ ike Edinburgh University Press j widel ) regarded as one of the best academ ic publishing offices in th e ountry Having been publishing
and publicising high quali ty acashydemic books for almost fif1) years the Press is celebrating its successes both internationally and at home In the midst (I f this great ~ucccss Chief Executive Timothy Wrigb t taJks t
Retr(lspect about the h istory of the press and what the future holds
Edinburgh Univers ity Press founded over fi fty years ago is a wholly owned subSidiary of the University of Edinbu rgh 1hough the conpan)s main business is the publishing of textbooks and supshyplementary textbooks the roles that the Press plays range across d iffe rent academic areas The pubshylish ing of textbooks senes an edu shycat ional role the p ublica tion of scholarly works and monograph serves to help the advancemen t of knowledge wh ilst the pub]jcalion of works of re fe rence support both
holarly and educational util ity The compmy also boaSL~ a portfolJ or over thirty jou rnals
The Presss chosen fiel ds of pubshylish ing are American Studies Classhyics Film Studies M edia amp Cultural tudies History Islam ic Studies
Language and Linguistics La Litshyerary Stu dj es PhUosophy Politics and Scottish History The Press is well eqlllpped to serve the hu manshyties departmen ts publishing on an xtensive range of subjects and topshy
ics The Presss publishing is recogshy
nised as being of the highest qual shyity It is amonitortd by th e Un ivershy
sitys Press Committee which has to approve a ll titles proposed for publication The sale of its publicashytions is increasingly intern at ional enhancing the Universi tys global image and reflecting well on Scotshyland itsel f In the year ended 31 July 2009 over 50 of the presss revshyenues were outside the UK markshying a Significant profit outside of the University itself
J i I I I ) i I ~
I lit l lll I I I I 1
t
~ ~ j ~ 111shy
L ~ I I gt
i I
upporting its internation al CO ll shy
nections is the Presss close rella shytionship with other acacemic pubshylishersThe press has a nehvork of dis tr ibutors world wide includiJlg pa rtn erships with the University of
ew South Vales in Sydney and most importantly a longstanding relationship with Columbia Uni shyversity Press in the Unitcd States of
merica TIle maiJl objectives of the p ress
are fourfold Firstly it contrlbutes significantly to knowledge tTansfer and the dissemination of the resu lts f scholarly researcht also contribshy
utes Significantly to the education of uni1ersity students and others By Lllaintaining its position as the leading university press in Scotland it contributes to the dissemination of scholarly work in Scottish his shytory md other Scottish subjects and on contemporary Scottish issues Lastl y the presitige of the conpan) nhances the univerSitys reputashy
tion internationally through the acknowledged high quality of its publishing
The key objectiVes se t by the Trusshytees for the year were to increase th e to tal income of the Press through contill uing to publi sh high quality
books and subsequ ently increase the gross and net marg ins These overall objectives are supported by a nUJ11ber of detailed targets which are monitored by the Trustees on a regular basis
In its fifty ycar history Edinburgb Un iversity Press has achieved great
thi ngs From high prestige to high saJes repor ts the intern ationaJ sucshycess that tb e press is now enj oying was only to be expected Its great prestige is an honour for the comshypany and the University alike as the Press was undoubtedly made for success
9
eat Odessa in the middle Varvara Bashkirova reminds us of the personal consequences of history CATHERINE THE Great fou nded the city of Odessa in 1794 when she decided that a port on the Black Sea wouId be a wise in vestshyment She invited architects from all over the world and it resuIted in a beautiful southern citywith an extremely diverse populati on and culture- albeit mostly Russian As a new centre of culture and trade it soon became the fourth largest city in the Russian Empire
I was born here hut nowadays I cannot go to the cinema to watch a film in Russian nor can I listen to the radio in Russ ian and most cershytainly I wouId not be able to study in Russian How did this happen During my fath ers childhood he heard only Russian or Yiddish sposhyken on tbe streets He never spok Ukra inian I only learned it in school There were some Ukrainshyian programmes on television but they were not my favourites so living in the south of the country my contact with the language was lim ited to three hours a week
I rem ember the day a woman came to our school with a lecture about how great Ukraine is In itialshyly we did not pay her much attenshytion but as ber lecture grew more ridiculous my classmates could not help laughing She argued that Ukrainian is m OTe beautifu l than Russian-I still do not know how she measured tb at Wbat we loved the most was her earnest claim that Jesus was Ukrainian It was proved by the studies of a historian who clai med that Buddha was Ukrain shyian too It was the year we stopped learning Russian literature Gogol and Pushkin both of whom created some of their best works in Odessa were now considered to be foreign writers The best part was that we still studied them in our foreign litshyerature course but in translation whicb was much harder to undershystand than the original Russian
After that everythi ng changed quickly Our history teacher was forced to teach in Ukrainian under
th e threat of being fireQ She did n ot speak it having lived all her li fe in Odessa Before education was mostly in Uhtainian anyway but once it was forced we hated it
What happened to the cinemas was even more ridiculous By forcing the Russian population to speak Ukrainian the government made dozens of cinemas bankrupt As Vestern films had never been translated in to Ukrainian before it suddenly came to light that man modern words Simply didnt exshyist in Ukrainian But this did not stopthe patriots-they started inshyventing words It was so contrived that we went to the cinema once and ended up laugh ing all the way through
Additionally in science and techshynology Uk rainian is quite behind 111at is why l11y fr iend who is studshyying programming in Ukraine is always complaining- when writshying essays the words he needs to use simply do not exist t hey can not be found in any of the dictionshyaries
Southeast Ukraine with its proshyRussian attitude contrasts to the western part of th e country 20 per cent of the population in Lvov a western city have a negative opinion of Russia This is a result of history From 1919-1936 westshyern Ukraine was a part of Poland whilst the southeastern was part of Russia Western Ukraine more agricultural and rural than the east is where Ukrainian traditions and language have been strongly mainshytained Many of the southeastern cit ies on the contrary were and always have been Russian Crishy
mea is an obvious example haVing existed as a Russian territory si nce 1794 On 19 February 1954 it was transferred from the Soviet Unshyion to Ukraine as a gi ft I would imagine it was quite a surprise for the local population to move to a different cou ntry without realisshying Ukrainisation was much mor tangible there as 90 per cent of the Crimean populalion was Russian For iJ1stance they were not capashyble of watching Ukrainian films as they didnt kn ow the language In other words western Ukraine feels strong antipathy to the pro-Russian East for bei ng unpatriotic whilst eastern Ukraine feels the same to the anti-Russian West for imposing on them an alien language Most Easterners admit the necessi ty of knowing and do know Ukrainian However they also argue that they should be allowed to choose beshytween the languages
Such a sharpened situation can be partly explained by the constant changes in the government After the 2004 Orange Revolution remiddot lations with Russia significantly worsened thus reviving the bisshytorical confl ic t 111ere were fights on the streets and on the in terneL Friendships broke down over the issue This resonated deeply fo r Ukrain isation which had affected
so many in the east of Ukraine ow that the government has
changed to diametrically opposite sides by strengtl1ening relations with Russia it seems like people can not keep up to date with the number of ideological shifts that they are supposed to accept every four year~ The contlict rontinues to deepen as the government conshytinuously changes its stance havshying only balf of the nations support each time
I still visi t Odessa at least once a yea r Walking along tbe streets I can sense the tension between the t raditional and the in1posed It is felt in quotid ian things such as street Signs TIle em blem has cbanged but tbe beart of the cit) is still the same The city is its people who keep the culture of their anmiddot cestors I know it when I see flowshyers laid in front of the memorial to the Russian poet Alexander Pushshykin on his birthday They say To Pushki ll from the grateful citizens of Odessa as it was constructed in 1889 solely from citizens doshynations I know that Odessa like other southern ci ties can never bemiddot come truly Ukrainian as it retai ns too much of the historical and culshytural heritage it has received from Russia
Retrospect10
th b
THE 1707 Acts of Union have always been sources of great debate and the topics popularity is still present as the dlree hundred year old act continu to have repercussions today AltJlough the union of Scotland and England may seem inevitable wiLh hindsight Lhe lrum is Lhat it was an exLrnordi shynary alJiance Simon Schama could not have been more correct when he described it as one of the most astonshyishing trnnsformat ions in Ew-optan histori
cotland and England possess rich intertwining pasts Competition be it in commerce politics or warfare stemmed from the Mo nations cul shytural differences What could possibl)t give these two separate and tradishytionaUy competing naUons common ground upon which to unify There were three major fac tors involved religion external threats and circulllshylance
The 15005 saw sweeping change throughout Europe as the Reformashytion gained momentum creating an upsurge of turmoil thar would take well over a century to abate By the Uruon of the Crowns in 1603 both Scotland and England were largely Protstant countries though disashygreement over doctrine was fierce The Bishops Van of 1639 and 1640 are merely examples of th~ c()nflict that occurred anlongst Lhe various denominations Lhat considered themshyselves true Proteltants
OtherneSS as explorcd by Linda Colley gives us an inkling into Lhe
nattlrc of the second major factor behind unification Shc states that otllerness was defined as lin aversion to militant Catholicism or a hostile
ontinental European system or at its most basic level external threats
ilh Lhe common ground of religion and a shared monarchy Scotland and England were similar enough by 1707 to tee jOiJldy threatened by foreign powers Traditionally these other were Roman Catholics and seen as the natural enemy l1ljS however is a rather skewed view to take For examshyple tlle League ofAugsburg of which both Scotland and England were a ke part of in 1689 included the staunchly
tholic nations of Austria Portugal and the Holy Roman Empire yet the nations of Britain certainly profited from beiJlg a part of this aliiance
Resistance to foreign threats real or percehmiddoted also fostered idea~ of unitt amongst one very influential faction of society the military Scottish and English Regiments fought side b) side throughout the Low Couotries A1sace and the RhineJand in both the Nine Yeurs War and the War of the Span ish Succession not only earning respect for aile another but laying me founshydatioJlS of a British army years before tlle Union ac tua lly took place Whilst tlle Acts of Union officialI) merged Lhe Scottish and English arnlies they had actuaUy been fighting together [or decades Success of the twin nashytions when allied militarily would doubtless have smootJled tlle road to union especially when tlloughts
of Empire canle to the forefront Full political union can perhaps be seen a the next logical step yct circumstance would first need to take a hand in promiddot ceedings
It did so in the late 1690s Ihe Darshyien Scheme an attempt by Scotland to break into the world market by establishing a small trading colony 0 11
the Isthmus of Panama went hOrribly wrong The nation was left teetering on the brink of bankruptcy Memshybers of the Scots nobility were forced to petition the English Parliament in Westminster for finan cial aid and me whole debacle caused many of the ruling elite to believe that Scotland could never la) imperial foundations without aid [rom its (lId rival Even by tlle early 1700s Scotlands economy was shOWing little signs of recovering from the savage blow wiLh tvtichael Fry pointing out that in 1704 the nashytiOD remaincd backward and with no financial markets of its own
The deaLh of Scotlands global ambishytions and the severe damage dealt to its economy can UJcrefore be cited as among the primary short-term reashysons for the Un ion of 1707 VVilliam Fergusons 1964 paper unearthed tbe grave extent to which bribes had been accepted by Scottish noblemen in orshyder to help push tlle Union through Parliament It is undcniable tllat for some expediency took the place of pride
t Lhe same time it would be a misshytake to believe that only Lhe Scots noshybles were responsible for selling their
country for English gold as Burns would have US believe Christopher A vVhatleys Scots rlrld the Unioll arshygues that this point does not stand up to close scrutiny nor does the argushyment that Scots bargained away their Parliament for free trade The bouts of insurrection throughout Scotland which fi) lImved in the inlmcdiate wake oflhe Union including the infamous exccutions of two English sailors 0 11
trumped up charges of pm cy would have been conSiderably more grievous had there truly been no support fix the move amongst the lower d Many of tlle more fa mous first-hand accounts such as those of Daniel Deshyfoe state d early that the vast majority of the nation was against the idea of Union Yet Whatleys detailed study of numerous smaller primary accounts shows surprising apathy amongst many commentators that proves true or at least militant anti- Un ionist senshytiment was not in the dear majority in Scotland at the time of the Union
The Acts of 1707 therefore can surely be remembered as amongst tile most unusual Union~ to have taken place in European history Scotland and EnghUld though they had many similarities were stiUlargely au tonoshymous nations before May 1707 It took a century of religious and poshylitical upheaval numerous external mreats and misfortune on a national scale to not only pave tlle wa) but acshytually bring about the Union It was a omplex rich and fascinating event
which provides us witll one of the
~
11
RAT HER LI KE th l m arri age of the owl and the pussycat the civil part shynership between Scotlan d and Engshyland seemed an unlikely union at the bme of its inau guration 1n 1707 Lord Bel havells remark - Theres ane end to an c auJd sang - seems to capture the sense of loss o cca shysioned by the termil1ltion of Scotshyti sh indep endence How d id someshything SO unpopular at birth survive for so long The slow evolution of tl11 Union deserves some attention
The Un ited Ki ngdom of 170 7 was augmented in ]SO ] wi th the ad shydition of the island oj Irehu1d In 1922 after over a century of unshyhappy relations Ireland was part ishytioned and only six of th e thi rtyshytwo counties remained as par t of a r(branded Uni ted Kingd om of Great Britain and Northern Ireshyland In its various incarnations the Un ion is now an auld sang and its melo dy may be more dHncult to forget than is ofte11 assumed
If Scotlan d is no t qUite an addishytionaJ county of England there are more similarities and links than Jllany are prepared to contemplate There has been a massive moveshyment of people in both directions
between Scotland and England The English in Scotland and the Scots in Englan d have integrated m ore seamlessly than aDY other min ori ty in either host society There ha ve been outbu rsts of S(Oshytophobia but the) have not proved to be a central fea ture of the Anshyglo-Scotti sh relati onship and the same can be said for Anglophoshybia Scotland bems a greater deshygree of Similarity to England than any ot her comparator Although th is m ay be a partial product of the Union it would not be quickly altered by furth er const itut ional chan ge even ren ew ed Scottish in dependence In deed if Scotshylands eighteenth and ni ncteenth cent ur y history cannot ent ir ely be ex plained by reference to events of l707 the Union has increasingly left its impressjon on the twentieth cen tu ry - the Welfare State might be an even grea te r symbol of the Union th an th e British Empire
Much recent comment about the Union has been peSSimistic and has sought reasons for its apparshyen tly likely demise an event wh ich inconveniently has not ye t taken place Despite d evolut io n perhaps
even despite the advent of an SN P ad ministration in Holyrood this may be the w rong question It is tbe longevity rather than the frashygil ity of th e Anglo-S cottish Un ion which reqUires explanation 1 his is not to say th at the Union m ay nol flo under in tbe [uture perh aps even the ncar future Histor ians are no to riously ba d at peering into th e future but one can confi dently p reshydict the outbreak o f a fierce debate between those who will argue that the inh erent features of the Un ion sowed the seeds of its destruction over a long period an d others who will contend that the sundershying of th e Union can be found in the consequences of the political divergence between Scotlan d and
nglaJ1d since 1979 Vha tever happens to the Union it is vital that we do not fabricate a sense of denjal about deep-sealed and longshys tan ding Scott ish enth usiasm for it
Ewen Cameron is H ead of H istory at Edinb urgh University Hi s book Impaled on a Thistle Scot la nd sil ce 1880 was released earl ier this year
A strange survival As a special feature Ewen Cameron provides a scholars perspecshytive on th e endurance Great Britain and the Acts of the Union
12 Retrospect
THE COLD War caused the worlds superpowers to forge some of h isto rys m ost unlikely of unshyions O ne such union was thaI of the USA with the leader of South Vietnam from ]954 to 1963 Ngo Dinh Diem and one that was arshyguably the first step on the path to full-scale American military in shyvolvement in Vietnam
Following Fr ances withdrawal from Indochina in 1954 Vietnam was divided in two along the 17th Parallel with Ho Chl Minhs C omshymuni sts ruling the North and the French sponsored democracy in the South with nation al elections planned for 1956 to reunite the COUlltry Fearful of communism the Eisenhower administration threw their support behind the staunchly anti -communist Diem in the bope that he would form a strong government that would be sympathetic to America The union would end almost a decade later in t he most ignominious of ways
At fi rs t there seemed to be several good reasons to suppor t Diem he was zealously anti-communist but aho exceedingly nationalistic and anti-French m aking it easier for the Americans to support h im without contradicting the if own an ti-imshyperialist rhetor ic He had travelled widely in the US an d had expressed a desire to work with Americans to build a new Vietnam
However from the start it was eVident that Diems belief in democracy was dubious as he stead fastly refu sed to conform to American political ideals The US
had entered th e two world wars to in President Woodrow Wilsons wor ds make the world safe fo r deshymocracy wh ilst the conflict wi th the Soviet Union was defi ned by Americas beUef in democracy and capitalism The US expounded the ideals of democracy over the tyranshynies o f authori tarian govern ment Diem refused to m ake democratic refo rms in his country
1 hen D iem took power he faced a bar rage of problems an undershydeveloped and antiquated gove rn shymental infras tructu re with staff who lacked experience in adminisshytmtion a country ravaged by war an immat ure agricult ural econoshymy With US help Diem thwarted several attempted coup detats in th e first year of his presidency An even bigger test of Diems leadershyship arrived in 1955 willl the Sec t Crisis where the mllitarised sects the Cao Dru the Hoa Hao and the Vletnamese Mafia the Binh Xu)rshyen joined forces to wage wllr on the government in Saigon Diem looked to be lOsing control and at one point US Ambassador to Vishyetnanl General Coll ins convinced Eisenhower that Diem should be removed A m iraculous and unshyexpected victory agrunst the Binh Xuyen ensured Diem stayed in
power and retained American supshyport Encouraged by the American delight at this victory Djem began to consolidate his power
W hen D iem rehlsed tJ) par ticipat e in the scheduled na tional election s to reunite the two Vietnams the US supported Il is decis io n to do so effectively ensu ring tb e long term separation between South and Nor th Vietnam The popular ity of the Communist leader Ho Chj Mi nh meant he would have swept these elections causing the US to forego their politi cal beliefs
With Diem established the US proceeded to pour rud in to his regime with $ 1 bill ion spent on economic and m ilitary assistance between 1955-1 961 Diems govshyernment squandered the aid refusshyin g to refo rm the army and governshyment to fit a democratic model
vThilst Diem prud li p service to the Am ericans democratic deshym ands reform vas always an illushyion D iem and rus three brothers
con trolled bot h the exec utive and the legi sla tive branches of govern shym enl - dissenters were immediateshyly pu rged Diems poli cies towards the villages d isregarded centu r ies of tradition and in dependence stirring up deep discon tent Any expression of th is was dealt with as George Herring puts it in a man shyner that would have made J Edgar H oover blanch as thousands of dissidents were incarcerated in reshyeducation centres Such was the USs fear of communism that they turned a bli nd eye to these arroci shyt ies
Alex Thomson explores the ideological sacrifices of Americas Vietnam policy
Better the Diem you know
In 1960 the new Kennedy adshyminis tration inherited the commitshyment to Diem and with Kennedys pledges to get tough itwould have been impossible to withdraw supshyport for Diem and so the governshyUen t increased th e aid to stabilise h im whils t begging him ineffectu shyally to refo rm Most Americans at this time could
not have even located Vietnam on a map but the issue was forced in to the nations consciousness ill May 1963 with th e Buddh ist Cri shysis A devout Catholic Diem had oppressed the Buddhist majority of the countr) Protests in the city of Hue saw government troops fire into the crowd killing a number of protestors sparking widespread reaction around South Vietnam cu lmin ating in the n otorious selfshyim molations of Buddhist monks which h it headlines worldwide
ot only was Diem embarrassshying the American government on the in ternational stage but with the disastrous defeat at Ap Bac in January 1963 it became increasi ngshyly apparent that Diem was also an ineffectual bulwark against comshymunism a fac t compounded by Diems covert attempts to negotiate a settlemen t wi th Ho Chi Min h After the Budd hist Crisis several generals of the South Vietnamese army approached tlle US Ambasshysador in Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge Jr about US reachons to a military coup Convinced that the war against communism in Vietshynam co uld not be won with Diem as leader Lodge replied that wruJs t they would not support a coup they would do nothirlg to oppose it effectively signing Diems death warrant Thus on November 1st 1963 the generals successfully deposed Diem who was then brushytally murdered in the back of a van after seeking sanctuary in a Cathoshylic church
President Kennedy said that ~iem is Diem and hes the best weve go This is an accurate swnshymary of the unlikely alliance beshytween D iem and the US Authorishytarian and despotic Diem was ana thema to the American polit ishycal system but it was ironical]y the USs fear of another foreign politi shycal system on the left that caused them to create so unlikely an allishyance
13
Practical impiety Hamish Kinnear discusses the unthinkshyable Franco-Ottoman Alliance of 1536
IN 1536 an alliance was finalised that was met with disbelief and disgust throughout Europe The union of France and the Ottoman Empire against their mutual enshyemy - Charles V - was the first alshyliance between a major Christian and nnn-Christian power since the crusades
Europe was on the verge of great change at the outset of the sixshyteenth century The introduction of gunpowder was revolutionisshying warfare and the printing press enabled the distribution of mateshyrial opposed to the ruling elite The fiercely anti-derical speeches of Martin Luther and his sympashythisers initiated the Reformation destroying the medieval idea of a united Christendom with the Pope as its nominal head Increasshyingly European states began to act in their own interests and ignored ing the legitimacy of Islam Pracshy common knowledge an alliance the purpose of defence as opposed
the demands of the pope Four ticality however often triumphs with the Great Turk was not only to a specifically offensive crusade
great historical figures also came over ideology unlikely it was unthinkable Henry VIII of England struck a
to the fore in the early 16th centushy Interestingly both Francis I and The alliance however held blow to Christian unity by breakshy
ry Henry VII of England Francis Charles V had argued that if they benefits for both parties France ing away from the papal authorshy
I of France Charles V of Spain and became Holy Roman Emperor for was given an ally that posed a seshy ity and establishing the Church of
Suleiman the Magnificent of the they were both candidates for the rious threat to Charles V for the England allowing his marriage to
Ottoman Empire The stage was elective office they would lead a Ottoman Empire of Suleiman the Anne Boleyn The greatest atrocshy
set for a conflict that involved all Crusade against the Great Turk Magnificent was at the height of ity occurred when the underpaid
the major powers of Europe one This promise invoked a desire to its power Fresh from victory over and mutinous troops of Charles
in which the French were the fi rst return to the perceived Christian the Egyptian Mamluke Sultanate V in the search of plunder sacked
to realise that the days of a united unity of the Middle Ages where Suleiman wished to make himself Rome and imprisoned the Pope
medieval Christendom were over the nations of Europe allied to Caesar of Europe An alliance with This event more than anything take back the Holy Land After the French was in the interests of else signified the demise of medishyCharles V took the title however the Ottomans as it provided them eval Christendom In this atmosshyFrancis wasted no time in declarshy with a military partner and a finshy phere of widespread anti-papal ing war on his fellow Christian ancier to help invade Hapsburg feeling the France-Ottoman allishynation The subsequent invasion lands More importantly for Suleishy ance comes as less of a surprise of Italy ended in disaster for the man the alliance kept the states of The impious alliance of the French at the Battle of Pavia durshy Christian Europe divided French and Ottomans then does ing which Francis I was captured not seem so scandalous when
By 1519 France was in despershy by the forces of Charles V To seshy placed in the context of its time
ate need of allies The domain of cure his release from prison Franshy However it should come as no
the Hapsburg ruler Charles V who cis was forced to sign the humillishy surprise that it was received in
had inherited the rule of both the ating Treaty of Madrid in which this negative fashion There was
Spanish Empire and the Holy Roshy he renounced his claims to Italy evidently a form of European
man Empire almost surrounded Flanders and Burgundy Charles nostalgia for the days of the Crushy
the French Kingdom of Francis I V had risen to unrivalled power in sades in which Christendom was
The French also had to deal with Europe united in a common cause even
Henry VIIIs England whose arshy During Franciss imprisonment though the military expeditions to
mies still remained in Normandy the French court had sent a deleshy Despite the reactions of horror the Holy Land had only been seshy
and coffers funded Charles milishy gation to the court of Suleiman the to the Franco-Ottoman alliance riously pursued centufies before
tary expeditions To the French Magnificent to discuss a treaty of that were evident throughout Eushy Francis Is alliance with the Otshy
advantage a new power was rising friendship These talks resulted in rope the actions of other Christian tomans was a stark indicator that
in the East The Ottoman Empire an alliance that was met with disshy rulers could hardly be considered the Crusader days were long past
of Suleiman the Magnificent was belief and disgust by the other Eushy pious If a pious ruler was one War from then on became comshy
expanding through the Balkans at ropean states Charles V began a who acted for the unity of Chrisshy mon between Christian States as
an alarming rate and posed a great vitriolic campaign of propaganda tendom engaged in crusading a means to maintain the balance
threat to the domains of Charles against the French deeming the activities and respected both the of power or achieve superiority
V Yet an alliance with this major union the sacrilegious union of temporal and spiritual power of in Europe Christendom was finshy
Islamic power was still considered the Lily and the Crescent Indeed the Pope then Charles V and Henshy ished The unlikely Franco-Ottoshy
blasphemous by the kingdoms of given that Francis had strongly ry the VII failed on all these reshy man Alliance however lasted for
Europe as by acknowledging the supported a crusade against the quirements Admittedly Charles V centuries
existence of the Ottoman Empire Ottomans a pretence he mainshy spent much of his life fighting the
the French were in effect accept- tained even after the pact became Ottomans but this was more for
14 Retrospect
c e Old Ship of Zion Catherine Me Gloin examines a widely forgotten aspect of American History THE STRUGGLE for AfricanshyAmerican rights iJl the United States is a long and contested road Ve are repeatedly exposed to narratives that stress key leaders and religious f1 gureshyheads Arguably no discourse would be complete without an analysis of tbe role of MartiQ Luther King Jr the decisions of th e Supreme Court or tbe varying levels of comm itment that each president expressed throughout this tuibulent ruld mythologised peshyriod in Americ1l history
However one element of the strugshygle for bLack dvil rights that has been often underplayed in popular accounts increasingly based on bioshygrap hical and oral testimony is the role of the new labour movement during the 19305 and J94Ds In the
space bern the post-World far red scare a reactionary phenomenon that disabled socialism as a tool for social advancement bl1Ck unjonisID 3Jld potentially the Communist Party ofshyfered African-Ameri cans a wllque opportunity to unite to fight oppresshysion Unionism offered the poorest black workers a political voice one they fel t was [[lUted by elite middleshyclass civil rights organisations such as the NAACP [n this respect the Communist Party can be considered as a viable alternative for some groups within tll euro civil rights movement and as a suitablevehide for civil rights adshyvancemel1t
The h istory of black organh ed lashybour in the South has only begun in the last thirty years to receive du attention in the historiography of American labour movements gainshying increasing recogni tion from lashybour and social historians Perhaps it has traditionally been ampi de-lined because of an ideological aversion to socialism deeply ingrained into the American psyche Alternatively its diminished prominence may be explained by the compl~ities of periodisation It is commonly acshyknowledged by maIl) h istorians who dorninate the field of civil rights that the movement characterised by cross-national di rect action began in the late 19505 Morc specifically the
birth of the movement is often seen as a consequence of the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and the Brown decision of the Supreme Court the plevious year Thus any event which pre-dates tJlis revered trajectory is generally dismissed as a pre-requisite and subsequently garshyners less attention than it perhaps warrants The widening of industrial w1ionism to Southern blacks during the first half of the twentieth century has traditionally been treated as a pre-cursor yet it deserves a more prominent position not only for the wider organ isational implications it held flr the development of the llovement but as acknowledgement afits improbable success
N l an alysis of labour Qrganisation and class structure amongst the varyshying groups active in the civil rights m ovement serves to convey what is often lost til e tight for equality was not solely [ought by biack elites or enlightened whites but poor workshying class African-Americans a1SQ
played a leading role These groups although united in th eir cause did not un iformly a gree at every stage but could be divided by societal catshyegQries other than race
It is important to note that the Southern labour force were distincshytive in their anti-union tradition Even as organised labour became increasingly entrencbed in the North (following the National Labour Relashytions Act 1935) the South as Robert Zieger argues rem ained an anti-lashybour island Much of the historiogshyraphy stresses the traditionally Ilostile relationship between organised lashybour and African-Americans Meier
and Bracey assert that blacks were susp icious of wlions who typically discriminated against them Thus unionism was seen as the tool of white racist workers rather than the site of tenlpered racial Ultagonisms in the hce of a common adversary shyexploitative industries The American Federation of Labour (AFL) supportshyed craft unions that created raCially exd usive iobs often driving blacks from secured employment opportushynities in order to give them to unemshyployed whites A symptom of segreshygateJ society this was lot a qUEstion of education more a simple fUllction of the caste system in operation in the South that largely kept black labour unorgnnised yet was held as a necessishyty for business prosperity Any efforts towards unionisatioJ1 were usuall thwarted by employer intimidation police brutality or deep-rooted susshypicions of unions Moreover a cheap and ready supply of white and black vmrkerswn ited the power of strike action African Americans had been used as strike-breakers ill the heavy industries for decades
However the 19305 heralded the widening of labour organisation in part a response to post-World War I migration to northern industrial cities persistent inequalit ies within some of the New Deal programmes and the devastating financial impact of the Great Depression which was disproportionately felt by black workshyers Therefore it may be argued that the erosion of the distinctive union free character of Southern labour had begun
Attitudes towards labour organ ishysa60n shifted during the 1930s This may havc been a consequence of a more general swing to the left durshying the period as evidenced by the re-alignment of the black vote away from thc RepUblicans tovards the Democrat Party Mkhael Honey main tains that the late 1930s and early 1940$ promised huge change a consegum ce of war industrialisation and unionisation The founding of organisations such as the Congress of Industrial Organ isations (CIO) point
Lo increased co-open t-ion between Souther wh ite and black workers ruld an albeit temporary shift away from the attitudes of the segregation era
he CIO was born out of the hardshyships of the depression years and its inter-racial organising strategy crul be ccn as cridence ofa morc co-operashy
tive approach to labour organisat ion than is tradi tiol)ally given credit in the historiography Ihe CTO sought African -American recruits and fo shycussed its unionisiog efforts on secshytors with large black work forces such as steel and meatln their promotion of inter-racial un ionism such orshyganisatiom acted lts a bridge between the black community and white workers although this function was more successful in the North where African-Americans he1d a limited degree of political and economic power Bi-raciaJ unionism provided the philosophy of equal rights as well as the means to augment ~ocial conditions and alter the relationship between worker and boss a source of daily oppression in the lives of many black workers For African-Amerishycan labour this was a great step toshywards achieving social and economic equality
However no unionising organisashytion was free from tht constraints of racist social customs particularly in the SQuth where ero union leaders would rather capitulate to opposition tJ1an lose members and where white workers continuously strove to asshysert their superiority over their black colleagues In many ways the CI achieved their initial economic goals and succeeded by 1940 in persuadshying whites to join and work alongside African-Americans However they failed to farce white elites to accept black demands for an end to racial wage differences Nonetheless allishyances between black and white workshyers civil r ights groups and left-Wing New Dealers had been established benefitting the African-Anlerican struggle against economic discrimishynation
11le influence of the left was evident
15
in the leading unions thal were also committed to equality like the CIO as well as the United Packinghouse Workers of America who organised meatpackers in Chicago and Texas Whilst these unions engaged a lot of black workers as members they also had a significant communist pres shyence The impact of the Communist Party and its role in intluencing both inter-racial unionism and the civil rights movement is a contentious isshyue Their rhetoric and its evolution
from calls for a separate Black Reshypublic to talk of a more united-front is an area that provokes much conshytroversy Was it conceived in order to subvert labour organisations directly or to control them from behind the scenes Alternatively a cynical iew of the motivations behind Commushynist Part) involvement can be temshypered The Part) recognised the revshyolutionar y potential of industrial and agricultural workers and thereforc called for African- American sclfshydetermination as a strategy whereby white American acceptance of blacks right to self-government was the goal Thus white workers would be able to conquer their raci sm and a united working class would result
Traditional interpretations sugshygest that unionism was treated with
hostility by all blacks we must not be blind to tlle differences amongst the black community and the fact tbat they were far from a homogshyenous group hils the Communist Party becanle the rivals of the black elite arld middle-class organisations such as the NAACI~ the poor black working class were attracted to the ideology and the Party in incrcasing numbers throughout tlle depression and during the New Deal era degThey prOided the black working classes with an alternative vehicle for social protest Furthermore communism introduced many blacks to world politics enabling them to place their own struggle in a global context demonstrating the roots of poverty and ra05m
This educated the non -reading classes and gave them a sense of pride something many fel t was deshynied to them by tlle black eli tes of the
AACP whom it has been argued had unwisely assumed a pastoral poshysition as spokesperson for all blacks Moreover the Party challenged both white supremacy and the bourgeOiS politics of the black mjddle-class A Philip Randolph - considered a sooalist and largely hailed as the spokesman for black workers after his success with the Pullman porshy
ters of the 1920s and thc recogni tion of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters by tbe A FL in 1937 - attacked WE B Du Bois and the NAACP for neglecting the needs of the AfricanshyAmerican in favour of bourgeois inshyterests Fostering an atmosphere of debate and discussion communism helped to educate and empower the black working-classes For the black elites it was an unwelcome SQurce of agitation as communists began to enter into the realm of black bourshygeois politics Thus support for the Communist Party divided civil rights campaigners and highlighted undershylying class antagoni~m
The involvement of the commushynist-led ILD in the trial of the Scottsshyboro boys demonstrates the resentshyments and the growing frustrat ion with the NAACP and other black middle-class organisations Failure to secure Significant federal anti -lynchshying legislation ineffective in helping desperate blacks devastated by the depression and limited by thei r OWll political powerlessness ill the face of economic decline amongst tllCir own elite members the NAACPs imposhytence was made apparent during the 1931 Scottsboro boys trial In Alashybama nine black men aged thirteen to n ineteen were charged with the
rape of two while women travelling on the san1e train as them and were tried convicted and sentenced to death in three days WhcU1C~r or not the IlD simply offered their support and advice or they ID U$cled in with shrill bravado their involvement earned the Com mullist Party black support
They were portrayed as defenders of the race whilst wltites chose to view them as outsiders and defendshyers of rapists
Interpretations of communisms impact on the Qjl rights moveshyment during the 1930s var y II may be maintained tllat membership to the Party and adherence to commushynist ideology was limited ultim ateJy most blacks wanted to work within the American system and reap any benefits accrued hy the programmes of the New Deal Africall-Americaru were comm itted to these me3iur and Similarly to Presiden t Roosevelt fe-clec ting him for a th ird term in 1940 Thus communism was a marshyginal force that many blocks chose to
ignore as a vehid c for social protest However it is important to recognise
its significance in the Lives of many African-Americans who for the first time were organised in to tradeullions on relatively equal terms t() those of their whil-e co-workers and were able to understand their $truggle through the framework of a shared commushynist ideology Communists fo rmed the central pillar to trade un ion acshytivism and 0 0 inter-raciali sm This new socialism in the barber shop a broadened ID1d popular sense off self empowered many black vOrkers to fight against economic and social disshycrimination in a way that seemed to
speak more directly to them and their social s tanding than the rhetoric esshypoused by the black-bourgeoisie
Bibliograpby
Leslie H Fishel Jr The Negro and dle New Deal in Twentieth Ce1ltury America Recent Interpretations ed Bernstein and Matusow (1 972)
Robert H Zieger (eei) Orgal ised Labour in the TWeIIlielh Centw y Soulh (1991)
Robin DG Kelley Hammer and Hoe Alabama Conlllllmists During the Great Depression (l990)
16 Retrospect
OFfEN OVERSHADOWED by the tumultuous events that were to weep Europe in the late 19305 and
194Ds the Spanish Civil War (1936shy1939) remairu a pivotal moment in twentieth century European history TIle conflict divided families towns and polarised political opinion across the continent and beyond It resulted in an estimated 500000
deaths and witnessed the establishshyment of a Fascist dictatorship in Spain under General Franco which ould last for almost forty years
The conflict has been a fruitful jeC of historical scholarship and many explanations as to why the fragile democracy of the Second Reshypublic collapsed have been offered Did the RepublJcaJlS Lose because of a lack of fo reign support given to them but that the Nationalists were lucky to receive or was their defeat a result of the weakness of Republican mili tias oin the face of the discipline of the Spanish army
In order to ascertain which if eishy
ther of the aforementioned suggesshytions WdS most significan t it is imshyportant to examine the patchwork of ideologies that the Popular Front composed of the Marxlst POU1vl (Partido Obrero Unification Marxshyista) Socialist UGT (Union General de Trabajores) Communist PSU (PartitSocialiSta UnificalCatalwlya) and Anardllst CNT (Conf-ederacion
acional del Trabajo) Furthermore the effect of foreign intervention on relations within the National Front and upon the contlict asa whole must be taken into consideration
From the outset it would be fai r to suggest that the Republicans lacked the same opportunities as the Nashytionalists The material support offered by the Soviet Union WJS
ultimately to be a hindrance insofar as it catalysed factionalism within the National Front In the opposite camp Adolf Hitler was in reality not much more supportive of the Nationalists than foseph Stalin had been of the Republicans and it is likeshyly that he like Stalin merely wanted the war to continue as a distraction for the estern democracies Argushyably it was MUSSOWlis support that would be key to the Nationalist side He was adan1ant that the emergence of another Fascist state on the model of Italy could only be to his political advantage As it turns out Italy reshyceived relatively little in return from Franco after the war
Despite the fact that the Repuhlishycans were on the side of the legally elected government they were necr allowed to purchase arms from the major suppliers The United States was pursuing a policy of non-inshytervention after World War I and
Britain and France followed suit re1 uctant to upset the political stashybili) of Europe at the time It was decided that neither side would be given military aid under the NODshyIntervention Pact However this pact was then widely and blatantly flaunted by the dictatorships of Eu shyrope Italy Germany an d the Soviet Union The purchasing of foreign arms was poli tically charged as it was tantamount to subscription to the ideology of the dictatorship that was selling them TIle fact that only the Fascist dictatorships of Europe and the USSR were willing to so brashy
j zenly ignore the Non-Intervention pact was to have an enormous imshypact within the Spanish Left as will be later discussed
The aid of the Soviet Union was useful to the Republican cause insoshyfar that the weapons they provided were far superior to any the Republishycans already Pc)ssessed whilst Soviet aircraft were used for reconnaissance missions which were central to the militias military tactics However the weapons were not given to all parties within the Popular Front but were directed at only a handful Mostly they were given to the Socialists of the UCT and tlle Communists of the PSUC which stirred discontent amongst the other parties who were using old and inferior weaponry to that of their fellow comarades
The Civil War polarised Span isJ political discourse into those who were opposed to Francos regime and those who were not The Republican fOrces therefore contained many disparate political groups from moderate republicans to Anarchists Trotskyites and Stalinists Conseshyquently the Soviet aid exacerbated internal tensions within the Republishycan forces between the loosely assoshyciated left wing political groups The acceptance of Soviet weapons was a dangerous move as it allowed the access of agents of the Couummist Party of Soviet Russia into Spanish affairs someth ing that was to prove decisive in the outcome of the war
The Spanish Civil War was a conflict which could be referred to as a battle between reactionary forces of conshyservativism and progressive revolushytionaries Though many have claim ed that the Nationalists were fasc ists British Titer George Orwell who was fighting in Spain at the time along side the Republicans wrote of the Nationshyalists that their ideology was closer to that of feudalism The Nationalists were composed chiefly of members of the army members of the clergy and leaders of international business all united in their common distrust of the working classes Their victory in the war would certainly jeopardise the livshying conditions and dghts of working class people resulting in the deterIorashytion labour relations a Catholic crackshydown of secularism and the army would suppress any dissent
In contrast to the Nationalists clarshyity oJ goals the Republicans seemed to all be working towards different ends TIle objectives of moderate reshyforming socialists and the Anarchist
NT were very difficult to reconshycUe Furthermore the Soviet belief in a revol utionary vanguard instigatshying and leading the proletariat was at odds with populist movements such as Anarchism that took hold in Spain With such differences in polshyicy it is hard to envisage what could force these parties to work together for any length of time
Part of the problem with compreshyhending the Spanish Civil War comes from the spectrum of ideologies within the broad alliance of the Reshypublican forces The ideologies were further apart than could be counteshynanced and particularly so after the Conununist Party decided to impose itself upon the revolution that the Marxists and Anarchists were trying to fashion themselves in Barcelona In his book Hom age to Catalonia Orwell describes Barcelona Practically eveshyry building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists Every shop md cafe had an inscription saying it had been collectivised even the bootblacks had been collectivised md their boxes painted red and blacK The extent of the social change seems almost hyshyperbolic particularly when O rwell stresses that even the bootblacks were part of a trade union The Comshymunist Party however was to disrupt this workers paradise in May of j 937 with the attempted repossesshysion of a telephone exchange that was under Anarchist control 111is sparked a conflict that lasted several days and threatened the stability of the entire Republic General Franco who said he planned it after the Communists
ran newspaper stories blaming the Marxists for starting the fight used disunity in Barcelona to his own ends Being the largest party with the most well-developed press organisations the Communists managed to direct the aftermath of the situation and use it to discredit a competing party Disunity among the Republican side flourished as the AnarclUsts caught on to the Communist attempts to discredit the ]vIandst faction Though they were not persecuted to the same extent though their collectives were broken up to increase efficiency they realised thal they were fighting for
mebody who was n ot sympathetic of their ideology and who tney could not trust The Republican t~1Ctions
vigour started to deteriorate after the May Days riot of 1937
One might ask the question why did the Conununists try and reposshysess an Anarchist building It would be naive of them to assume they could take it vithout a fight unless they disregarded the fact that all Anarshychist doctrine of the em was against government coercion It bardly seems that there might be any great gains in taking one building even if it did allow Anarchists to eaesdrop on telephone conversations The sudden megaloshymania of the Communists seems to have sprung from advice given by the Communist Party of Soviet Russhysia The tactical value of the telephone exchange was not worth risking the integIity of the Republican coalishytiDn The PSUCs party line that At present nothing matters but vinning the war is especially telling
Arguably it was the fragile alliance of circumstance within the Republishycan movement exacerbated by Soviet Aid that only reached certain fuctions wbicb resulted in the collapse of the Spanish Republic Though the weapshyOIlS helped fOT a while they could not Sllstain an entire nation with the limishytations placed upon their deployment Anarchists did not trust the help of Soviet Russia and neither did they trust the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain or any of its regional counshyterparts Tnere were other culprits howeveJ in the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic
It would be wrong to suggest that disWlity on the part of the Republi shycans was all that preven ted them from victor)l The wider European context of the conflict was also fundamenshytal in the collapse of the Republican Movement Gen11any and Russia nevshyer gave sufficient help to either side to let it decisivel) win at any pace but it appears that both used the war to their own advantage Germany tested out their bombers on Spanish tovms such as Guernica and the Soviet Union
17
used the war as a distraction while it increased its level of militarization
In conclusion then the conmct polarised Spanish political discourse around the two totalitarim cxtrerrtishyties of Fascism and Stalinism This resulted in an internally divided and factionalised Republicm force which struggled to retain its integrity in the fuce ofa destructive internal feud The feud was sparked b) the actions of an externalgovernment hence it ccruld be argued that the collapse of tbe second republic was was more to do vith the international context of the conflict as it provided both the ex1rem e ideolohY and the cause of fTiction vithin the Republican movement
BibUography
Qmell George Orwell hi Spain (Penshyguin London2001)
Thomas Hugh The Spanish Civil War 4th edition (Pellguin London 2003)
Beevor Anthony The Battlefor SpainThe Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (WampN London 2006)
Taylor AJP The OrigirtS of the Second World War (Penguin London 1991)
18 Retrospect
Sh may be the Reason Frances Rromagc explores the often overlooked contribution of female scientists during the Enlightenment
FOR MANY centuries befo re the seventeenth Aristotles concepshytion of the bod y and the mind as insepa rable matte r domin ated Western thinking It was used to justify the subjugation of wom en and their subsequent excl us ion from so -called masculine activi shyties
Anatomical differen ces and hormonal systems provi ded new rationales for keeping women below men in the intellectual hishyerarchy Chauvinism expressed it self in every walk of life from religi on and education to science and medicine Even the common shyest of medical symptoms such as nerVOllsness irritability and loss of appetite for foo d or sex were generally diagnosed in women as the result of female Hysteria - a problem deriving from the hysshytna or uterus Science which explored the worl d outside the domestic sphere remai ned an ex shyclusively masculine discipline up until the eighteenth cent ury
Then came th e Enlightenment Enlightenment philosophers were infl uenced by Descartes theori es on critical thinking and Lock es empir icism and as a conseshyqu ence adopted a new approach to learn ing one which promoted free in te ll ectual inquiry and reshyjecled the influence of the state an d religion Despite the moveshyments vast scope few topics were as vigorously discussed as the subject of female education T he changing conception of the mind as no longer constrained by physical attributes opened a new conception of the mind as a sex shyless entity Therefore wom ens education became the subject of m uch debate in polite society spurring contribut ions from feshymale and male thinkers on both sides of the discu ss ion Womens access to scientific knowlcdge proved particularly controversial as it cha llenged a long-established perception of womens role as lim shyited to the domain of domestic ity
owhere has thi ~ challenge been so eloquently pu t as in words of British poet Elizabeth Toilet in her 1724 her poem Hypatia What cruel Laws depress the female KindTo humble Ca res and servile Ta sks confild That haughty Mall IIllriFald and alone May boast the world or Science all his owwl As barbarous Tyrants to secure their Sway Conclude that ignorallce will best obey
Whilst men may have been harbarous tyrants and attempted to clamp down on womens parshyticipation in scientific disciplines lu ckily th ey were not entirely suc shycessful in doing so History proshyvides LI S with a few precious exshyamples l1f women who refused to bow to blind ignorance and tbus su cceeded in rising above amashyteur status to become serious conshytributors to the field of scient ific knowledge
Of these the only one about whom much contemporary inshyformati o n as well as a substanshytial body of original writings has survived is Emilie Marquise du Chatelet She is most famous for having been Voltaires mistress but in fa ct this does great injusshytice not only to he r independent character but also to her intellecshytual brilliance and considerable sc ientific contribution hilst she remain ed all bu t inv isible to histo rical aCCo wlts before her asshysociation with Voltaire in 1733 during tJ1e next fifteen years of her life she proved herself a worshythy match to the brilliant French philosopher Living mainly in Pa rh or in her country estate at Cirey to where she retreated with Voltaire she wrote and published a book on the metaphysics of natshyural science (institutions de physhysique) an essay on the nature of fire and neat (pisserta tion sur la nature ct propagation du feu) and two short pieces on the problem of melsu ri ng physical force She also co- authored anonymously Voltaires popularisation of Newshytoni an physic s for which she was resp onsi bl e for most of th e mathshyematical calculations an d to top her numerous achievements in 1748 she produced a translation of Newtons PrincipiI mathemati shyca with a commentary which was published posth Wll ously and is sti l1 used as the standard translashy
tion of h is work in France today In 1835 th e Royal Astro nomical
Society in London made a breakshythrough by awarding honorar y m~mbership to a woman Caroshylin e Herschel She became famous for her discove ry o f ncw nebu lae in 1783 (Androme da and Cetus) and for bei ng the fi rst woman to di scover a comet In hOnOltr of Herschel the SOCiety made what was perhaps the fi rst sta temen t on equal opportuuities in science While tests of astronomi cal merit sho uld in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to th ose of a man the sex of the former shou ld no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acshyknowledgement wh ich might be hel d due to the latter But whi lst modem biographers have used these numerous firsts to turn Caroline Herschel in to a female icon of sci ence it is importan t to note that she wa~ rewarded not for her own discoveries but beshycause she recorded compi led and recalc ulated th ose of her brother vVilliam Herschel
The very natu re of he r brothers research concen trated on collectshying and classif)Ti ng large numb ers of stars and in th is Ca rolines cataloguing skills were of ceotral importanc e Lacking her pati en ce and meticul ous att ention to deshytall he became heavily reliant on her sci enti fi c inpu t Therefo re her im portance in her brothers research was far greater than most of their contemporaries realised yet she never theless allowed her efforts to further his reputation
Finally th e faScinating case of Laura Bassi (1711-177S) shows how some rare women were able to forge thems elves a career in scientific fields during the En shylightenm ent Bassi was gifted with a capacity for learning consi d shyered so extraordillar y in a wom an that it just ified a concession for a
university degree in philosophy Thereafter she was awarded an entrance to Bolognas lstituto delle Scicnze later to be admitted as an honorary member of the college and fl naUy assigned the position of lecturer in physics at the presshytigious Universi ta eli Bologna the first of its kin d in Europe Scholshyar~ from aU over Eu rope would attend Bassis lectu res on Newtoshynian physics and sJle became the envy oflearned women across the contin ent
These scientific women came fre)m upper or middle cla ss backshygrounds and whilst th eir ach ieveshyments were not replicated to the same extent by women in the lowshyer echelons of society a degree of sci entific and pract ical k novledge never theless took hold Daughters of clergymen particularly in the dissenters tnldition and certain widows who were made to tak e up their husbands trade after th ei r death became learned women and hi ghly ski lled T he famous case of lIlada me Cliquot who in 1805 took over her husbands company after h is death is a ch arming exshyample Hi s enterprise whi ch had
een variously involved in bankshying wool trading and Champagne producing th ri ved under her di shyrec tion and eventu ally became the brand La Vcuve C liquol She is directly accred ited will) a great breakthro ugh in champagne han shydling that made mass produc tion of th e wine possible an d estabshylished the producers reputation of excellence which continues to the present day
T hese examples demonstrate that women were capable of takshying part in scientific debates and developments but it should be stressed that their contr ibution was li mited Womens access to sci entific knowledge was dependshyent on wealth class and cru cially on an association with men who would encourage scientific en shydeavours This last condition is all the more important when one considers the institutionshyalised chauvinism that women continued to experience during the eighteenth century Throughshyout Europe with the exception of
orthern Italy un i7ersi ties and scientific academi es such as the Roya l In stitution in London were closed to women
19
Furthermore whilst the enliglltshyenmenl undeniably brought an improvement to the female conshydition entrenched conservatism in contemporary attitudes even amongst enlightened th inkers such as Rou sseau meant that feshymale scientists were not only ex shy
tremely rare but also str uggled to be accepted in m al e- d ominated
circles T llere was a general lack or even absence of formal rec()gshynit ion of womens involvement in scientific publications For ex shyample Marie Lavoisier th e gifted wife of Fren ch chemist Antoine
Lavois ie r in now recog-ni sed as having carried out many calculashytions and observations in her husshyband s Elements of Chemistry The original m an uscript of h is work contai ns evid ence of her notes and comments yet the printed version fail s to ackn owledge her contribution entirely Even in be tter-documented cases such as that of Lavois ier it very difficult fo r the modern -day h isto rian to pin -point the individu al accomshypli shments female scientists in coll aborative works
However one can argue quite
confidently the instrumental rol e that women p layed in th e disshysem in ation and subsequent adshy
van cement o f sci ent ific ideas T hey were g rea t m ediators often translating simplifying and illusshytrat ing com plex scienti fic works Their versions of these texts were
generally aimed at a female read shyership a n otable exam ple bein g EmiJie d u Chatelet s translation of Francesco Algarottis Ne wtonishy(Ism for Ladies (1737) These were often read in wid er circles as they were clear illustrated and easier to understand T his helped the sp read of scientific id eas the im shy
plied message being that if science was s imple enough for a woman to unders tand than anyone could understand it Furthermore women facilitated the populari sashytion of science by hosting disc usshy
~ions in salons or holding p rivate exhibitions in their homes where gues ts cou ld appreciate and marshyvel at discoveries such the Leyden jar and static electrici ty These so shycial gatherings were particularly important when one considers science and the En lightenment as a wider social phenomenon
as opposed to a string of isolated discove ries mad e by individual mal e scientists
There is a tragiC element un shyderlying this whole s to ry Recent studies led by historian s such as Patr ic ia Fara have attempted to give a clearer and fairer in terp re shytation of womens contribution to science d uring thi s per iod
However history has b ee n unfair and insensi tive in its representashytion of female scientists Consid shyer ing the wealth of literature on Science and Enlightenment it is quite re markable tha t so little nas b een written about the women who took part Givmiddoten th e sparseshyness of original sources and the strong m ale bias wit h which most existing d ocumentation is writshyten it is very difficult impossible
perhaps to accu rately assess the Signifi cance o f womens contribushytion to the scientific fi eld
Feminists have often rewritshyten the story of these women to underline independen t achieve shyments and contributions mad e in a bid to break down prejudic es again st their sex But when does a shift of emphasis become an exagshy
geration a disto rt iongt Scientific
women have been concealed for so long that it is very tempting to tum them into unsung heroines It would be unju st to retell these wom ens stories in a way which
forces them to conform to the ideal s of m odern day fem inists Alte rna tivey we mll st appreciate their contr ibutions on their own meri t
Bibliograpby
Fara Patricia Pandoras Breeches Women Science amp Power in the Enlightenm ent (Great Britain Pimlico 2004)
Gardiner Linda Wo men ill Scishyetlce From French Women al7d
the Age of El7ligiztenmellt ed S Spencer (USA Indi ana University Press 1984 )
Bragg Melvyn P Fara K O Brian amp j Hawley In Our Time Wo men alld Science ill the E11 ligi7tenll7ellt LondOl (BBC Radio 4 4th vemb er 2010)
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
9
eat Odessa in the middle Varvara Bashkirova reminds us of the personal consequences of history CATHERINE THE Great fou nded the city of Odessa in 1794 when she decided that a port on the Black Sea wouId be a wise in vestshyment She invited architects from all over the world and it resuIted in a beautiful southern citywith an extremely diverse populati on and culture- albeit mostly Russian As a new centre of culture and trade it soon became the fourth largest city in the Russian Empire
I was born here hut nowadays I cannot go to the cinema to watch a film in Russian nor can I listen to the radio in Russ ian and most cershytainly I wouId not be able to study in Russian How did this happen During my fath ers childhood he heard only Russian or Yiddish sposhyken on tbe streets He never spok Ukra inian I only learned it in school There were some Ukrainshyian programmes on television but they were not my favourites so living in the south of the country my contact with the language was lim ited to three hours a week
I rem ember the day a woman came to our school with a lecture about how great Ukraine is In itialshyly we did not pay her much attenshytion but as ber lecture grew more ridiculous my classmates could not help laughing She argued that Ukrainian is m OTe beautifu l than Russian-I still do not know how she measured tb at Wbat we loved the most was her earnest claim that Jesus was Ukrainian It was proved by the studies of a historian who clai med that Buddha was Ukrain shyian too It was the year we stopped learning Russian literature Gogol and Pushkin both of whom created some of their best works in Odessa were now considered to be foreign writers The best part was that we still studied them in our foreign litshyerature course but in translation whicb was much harder to undershystand than the original Russian
After that everythi ng changed quickly Our history teacher was forced to teach in Ukrainian under
th e threat of being fireQ She did n ot speak it having lived all her li fe in Odessa Before education was mostly in Uhtainian anyway but once it was forced we hated it
What happened to the cinemas was even more ridiculous By forcing the Russian population to speak Ukrainian the government made dozens of cinemas bankrupt As Vestern films had never been translated in to Ukrainian before it suddenly came to light that man modern words Simply didnt exshyist in Ukrainian But this did not stopthe patriots-they started inshyventing words It was so contrived that we went to the cinema once and ended up laugh ing all the way through
Additionally in science and techshynology Uk rainian is quite behind 111at is why l11y fr iend who is studshyying programming in Ukraine is always complaining- when writshying essays the words he needs to use simply do not exist t hey can not be found in any of the dictionshyaries
Southeast Ukraine with its proshyRussian attitude contrasts to the western part of th e country 20 per cent of the population in Lvov a western city have a negative opinion of Russia This is a result of history From 1919-1936 westshyern Ukraine was a part of Poland whilst the southeastern was part of Russia Western Ukraine more agricultural and rural than the east is where Ukrainian traditions and language have been strongly mainshytained Many of the southeastern cit ies on the contrary were and always have been Russian Crishy
mea is an obvious example haVing existed as a Russian territory si nce 1794 On 19 February 1954 it was transferred from the Soviet Unshyion to Ukraine as a gi ft I would imagine it was quite a surprise for the local population to move to a different cou ntry without realisshying Ukrainisation was much mor tangible there as 90 per cent of the Crimean populalion was Russian For iJ1stance they were not capashyble of watching Ukrainian films as they didnt kn ow the language In other words western Ukraine feels strong antipathy to the pro-Russian East for bei ng unpatriotic whilst eastern Ukraine feels the same to the anti-Russian West for imposing on them an alien language Most Easterners admit the necessi ty of knowing and do know Ukrainian However they also argue that they should be allowed to choose beshytween the languages
Such a sharpened situation can be partly explained by the constant changes in the government After the 2004 Orange Revolution remiddot lations with Russia significantly worsened thus reviving the bisshytorical confl ic t 111ere were fights on the streets and on the in terneL Friendships broke down over the issue This resonated deeply fo r Ukrain isation which had affected
so many in the east of Ukraine ow that the government has
changed to diametrically opposite sides by strengtl1ening relations with Russia it seems like people can not keep up to date with the number of ideological shifts that they are supposed to accept every four year~ The contlict rontinues to deepen as the government conshytinuously changes its stance havshying only balf of the nations support each time
I still visi t Odessa at least once a yea r Walking along tbe streets I can sense the tension between the t raditional and the in1posed It is felt in quotid ian things such as street Signs TIle em blem has cbanged but tbe beart of the cit) is still the same The city is its people who keep the culture of their anmiddot cestors I know it when I see flowshyers laid in front of the memorial to the Russian poet Alexander Pushshykin on his birthday They say To Pushki ll from the grateful citizens of Odessa as it was constructed in 1889 solely from citizens doshynations I know that Odessa like other southern ci ties can never bemiddot come truly Ukrainian as it retai ns too much of the historical and culshytural heritage it has received from Russia
Retrospect10
th b
THE 1707 Acts of Union have always been sources of great debate and the topics popularity is still present as the dlree hundred year old act continu to have repercussions today AltJlough the union of Scotland and England may seem inevitable wiLh hindsight Lhe lrum is Lhat it was an exLrnordi shynary alJiance Simon Schama could not have been more correct when he described it as one of the most astonshyishing trnnsformat ions in Ew-optan histori
cotland and England possess rich intertwining pasts Competition be it in commerce politics or warfare stemmed from the Mo nations cul shytural differences What could possibl)t give these two separate and tradishytionaUy competing naUons common ground upon which to unify There were three major fac tors involved religion external threats and circulllshylance
The 15005 saw sweeping change throughout Europe as the Reformashytion gained momentum creating an upsurge of turmoil thar would take well over a century to abate By the Uruon of the Crowns in 1603 both Scotland and England were largely Protstant countries though disashygreement over doctrine was fierce The Bishops Van of 1639 and 1640 are merely examples of th~ c()nflict that occurred anlongst Lhe various denominations Lhat considered themshyselves true Proteltants
OtherneSS as explorcd by Linda Colley gives us an inkling into Lhe
nattlrc of the second major factor behind unification Shc states that otllerness was defined as lin aversion to militant Catholicism or a hostile
ontinental European system or at its most basic level external threats
ilh Lhe common ground of religion and a shared monarchy Scotland and England were similar enough by 1707 to tee jOiJldy threatened by foreign powers Traditionally these other were Roman Catholics and seen as the natural enemy l1ljS however is a rather skewed view to take For examshyple tlle League ofAugsburg of which both Scotland and England were a ke part of in 1689 included the staunchly
tholic nations of Austria Portugal and the Holy Roman Empire yet the nations of Britain certainly profited from beiJlg a part of this aliiance
Resistance to foreign threats real or percehmiddoted also fostered idea~ of unitt amongst one very influential faction of society the military Scottish and English Regiments fought side b) side throughout the Low Couotries A1sace and the RhineJand in both the Nine Yeurs War and the War of the Span ish Succession not only earning respect for aile another but laying me founshydatioJlS of a British army years before tlle Union ac tua lly took place Whilst tlle Acts of Union officialI) merged Lhe Scottish and English arnlies they had actuaUy been fighting together [or decades Success of the twin nashytions when allied militarily would doubtless have smootJled tlle road to union especially when tlloughts
of Empire canle to the forefront Full political union can perhaps be seen a the next logical step yct circumstance would first need to take a hand in promiddot ceedings
It did so in the late 1690s Ihe Darshyien Scheme an attempt by Scotland to break into the world market by establishing a small trading colony 0 11
the Isthmus of Panama went hOrribly wrong The nation was left teetering on the brink of bankruptcy Memshybers of the Scots nobility were forced to petition the English Parliament in Westminster for finan cial aid and me whole debacle caused many of the ruling elite to believe that Scotland could never la) imperial foundations without aid [rom its (lId rival Even by tlle early 1700s Scotlands economy was shOWing little signs of recovering from the savage blow wiLh tvtichael Fry pointing out that in 1704 the nashytiOD remaincd backward and with no financial markets of its own
The deaLh of Scotlands global ambishytions and the severe damage dealt to its economy can UJcrefore be cited as among the primary short-term reashysons for the Un ion of 1707 VVilliam Fergusons 1964 paper unearthed tbe grave extent to which bribes had been accepted by Scottish noblemen in orshyder to help push tlle Union through Parliament It is undcniable tllat for some expediency took the place of pride
t Lhe same time it would be a misshytake to believe that only Lhe Scots noshybles were responsible for selling their
country for English gold as Burns would have US believe Christopher A vVhatleys Scots rlrld the Unioll arshygues that this point does not stand up to close scrutiny nor does the argushyment that Scots bargained away their Parliament for free trade The bouts of insurrection throughout Scotland which fi) lImved in the inlmcdiate wake oflhe Union including the infamous exccutions of two English sailors 0 11
trumped up charges of pm cy would have been conSiderably more grievous had there truly been no support fix the move amongst the lower d Many of tlle more fa mous first-hand accounts such as those of Daniel Deshyfoe state d early that the vast majority of the nation was against the idea of Union Yet Whatleys detailed study of numerous smaller primary accounts shows surprising apathy amongst many commentators that proves true or at least militant anti- Un ionist senshytiment was not in the dear majority in Scotland at the time of the Union
The Acts of 1707 therefore can surely be remembered as amongst tile most unusual Union~ to have taken place in European history Scotland and EnghUld though they had many similarities were stiUlargely au tonoshymous nations before May 1707 It took a century of religious and poshylitical upheaval numerous external mreats and misfortune on a national scale to not only pave tlle wa) but acshytually bring about the Union It was a omplex rich and fascinating event
which provides us witll one of the
~
11
RAT HER LI KE th l m arri age of the owl and the pussycat the civil part shynership between Scotlan d and Engshyland seemed an unlikely union at the bme of its inau guration 1n 1707 Lord Bel havells remark - Theres ane end to an c auJd sang - seems to capture the sense of loss o cca shysioned by the termil1ltion of Scotshyti sh indep endence How d id someshything SO unpopular at birth survive for so long The slow evolution of tl11 Union deserves some attention
The Un ited Ki ngdom of 170 7 was augmented in ]SO ] wi th the ad shydition of the island oj Irehu1d In 1922 after over a century of unshyhappy relations Ireland was part ishytioned and only six of th e thi rtyshytwo counties remained as par t of a r(branded Uni ted Kingd om of Great Britain and Northern Ireshyland In its various incarnations the Un ion is now an auld sang and its melo dy may be more dHncult to forget than is ofte11 assumed
If Scotlan d is no t qUite an addishytionaJ county of England there are more similarities and links than Jllany are prepared to contemplate There has been a massive moveshyment of people in both directions
between Scotland and England The English in Scotland and the Scots in Englan d have integrated m ore seamlessly than aDY other min ori ty in either host society There ha ve been outbu rsts of S(Oshytophobia but the) have not proved to be a central fea ture of the Anshyglo-Scotti sh relati onship and the same can be said for Anglophoshybia Scotland bems a greater deshygree of Similarity to England than any ot her comparator Although th is m ay be a partial product of the Union it would not be quickly altered by furth er const itut ional chan ge even ren ew ed Scottish in dependence In deed if Scotshylands eighteenth and ni ncteenth cent ur y history cannot ent ir ely be ex plained by reference to events of l707 the Union has increasingly left its impressjon on the twentieth cen tu ry - the Welfare State might be an even grea te r symbol of the Union th an th e British Empire
Much recent comment about the Union has been peSSimistic and has sought reasons for its apparshyen tly likely demise an event wh ich inconveniently has not ye t taken place Despite d evolut io n perhaps
even despite the advent of an SN P ad ministration in Holyrood this may be the w rong question It is tbe longevity rather than the frashygil ity of th e Anglo-S cottish Un ion which reqUires explanation 1 his is not to say th at the Union m ay nol flo under in tbe [uture perh aps even the ncar future Histor ians are no to riously ba d at peering into th e future but one can confi dently p reshydict the outbreak o f a fierce debate between those who will argue that the inh erent features of the Un ion sowed the seeds of its destruction over a long period an d others who will contend that the sundershying of th e Union can be found in the consequences of the political divergence between Scotlan d and
nglaJ1d since 1979 Vha tever happens to the Union it is vital that we do not fabricate a sense of denjal about deep-sealed and longshys tan ding Scott ish enth usiasm for it
Ewen Cameron is H ead of H istory at Edinb urgh University Hi s book Impaled on a Thistle Scot la nd sil ce 1880 was released earl ier this year
A strange survival As a special feature Ewen Cameron provides a scholars perspecshytive on th e endurance Great Britain and the Acts of the Union
12 Retrospect
THE COLD War caused the worlds superpowers to forge some of h isto rys m ost unlikely of unshyions O ne such union was thaI of the USA with the leader of South Vietnam from ]954 to 1963 Ngo Dinh Diem and one that was arshyguably the first step on the path to full-scale American military in shyvolvement in Vietnam
Following Fr ances withdrawal from Indochina in 1954 Vietnam was divided in two along the 17th Parallel with Ho Chl Minhs C omshymuni sts ruling the North and the French sponsored democracy in the South with nation al elections planned for 1956 to reunite the COUlltry Fearful of communism the Eisenhower administration threw their support behind the staunchly anti -communist Diem in the bope that he would form a strong government that would be sympathetic to America The union would end almost a decade later in t he most ignominious of ways
At fi rs t there seemed to be several good reasons to suppor t Diem he was zealously anti-communist but aho exceedingly nationalistic and anti-French m aking it easier for the Americans to support h im without contradicting the if own an ti-imshyperialist rhetor ic He had travelled widely in the US an d had expressed a desire to work with Americans to build a new Vietnam
However from the start it was eVident that Diems belief in democracy was dubious as he stead fastly refu sed to conform to American political ideals The US
had entered th e two world wars to in President Woodrow Wilsons wor ds make the world safe fo r deshymocracy wh ilst the conflict wi th the Soviet Union was defi ned by Americas beUef in democracy and capitalism The US expounded the ideals of democracy over the tyranshynies o f authori tarian govern ment Diem refused to m ake democratic refo rms in his country
1 hen D iem took power he faced a bar rage of problems an undershydeveloped and antiquated gove rn shymental infras tructu re with staff who lacked experience in adminisshytmtion a country ravaged by war an immat ure agricult ural econoshymy With US help Diem thwarted several attempted coup detats in th e first year of his presidency An even bigger test of Diems leadershyship arrived in 1955 willl the Sec t Crisis where the mllitarised sects the Cao Dru the Hoa Hao and the Vletnamese Mafia the Binh Xu)rshyen joined forces to wage wllr on the government in Saigon Diem looked to be lOsing control and at one point US Ambassador to Vishyetnanl General Coll ins convinced Eisenhower that Diem should be removed A m iraculous and unshyexpected victory agrunst the Binh Xuyen ensured Diem stayed in
power and retained American supshyport Encouraged by the American delight at this victory Djem began to consolidate his power
W hen D iem rehlsed tJ) par ticipat e in the scheduled na tional election s to reunite the two Vietnams the US supported Il is decis io n to do so effectively ensu ring tb e long term separation between South and Nor th Vietnam The popular ity of the Communist leader Ho Chj Mi nh meant he would have swept these elections causing the US to forego their politi cal beliefs
With Diem established the US proceeded to pour rud in to his regime with $ 1 bill ion spent on economic and m ilitary assistance between 1955-1 961 Diems govshyernment squandered the aid refusshyin g to refo rm the army and governshyment to fit a democratic model
vThilst Diem prud li p service to the Am ericans democratic deshym ands reform vas always an illushyion D iem and rus three brothers
con trolled bot h the exec utive and the legi sla tive branches of govern shym enl - dissenters were immediateshyly pu rged Diems poli cies towards the villages d isregarded centu r ies of tradition and in dependence stirring up deep discon tent Any expression of th is was dealt with as George Herring puts it in a man shyner that would have made J Edgar H oover blanch as thousands of dissidents were incarcerated in reshyeducation centres Such was the USs fear of communism that they turned a bli nd eye to these arroci shyt ies
Alex Thomson explores the ideological sacrifices of Americas Vietnam policy
Better the Diem you know
In 1960 the new Kennedy adshyminis tration inherited the commitshyment to Diem and with Kennedys pledges to get tough itwould have been impossible to withdraw supshyport for Diem and so the governshyUen t increased th e aid to stabilise h im whils t begging him ineffectu shyally to refo rm Most Americans at this time could
not have even located Vietnam on a map but the issue was forced in to the nations consciousness ill May 1963 with th e Buddh ist Cri shysis A devout Catholic Diem had oppressed the Buddhist majority of the countr) Protests in the city of Hue saw government troops fire into the crowd killing a number of protestors sparking widespread reaction around South Vietnam cu lmin ating in the n otorious selfshyim molations of Buddhist monks which h it headlines worldwide
ot only was Diem embarrassshying the American government on the in ternational stage but with the disastrous defeat at Ap Bac in January 1963 it became increasi ngshyly apparent that Diem was also an ineffectual bulwark against comshymunism a fac t compounded by Diems covert attempts to negotiate a settlemen t wi th Ho Chi Min h After the Budd hist Crisis several generals of the South Vietnamese army approached tlle US Ambasshysador in Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge Jr about US reachons to a military coup Convinced that the war against communism in Vietshynam co uld not be won with Diem as leader Lodge replied that wruJs t they would not support a coup they would do nothirlg to oppose it effectively signing Diems death warrant Thus on November 1st 1963 the generals successfully deposed Diem who was then brushytally murdered in the back of a van after seeking sanctuary in a Cathoshylic church
President Kennedy said that ~iem is Diem and hes the best weve go This is an accurate swnshymary of the unlikely alliance beshytween D iem and the US Authorishytarian and despotic Diem was ana thema to the American polit ishycal system but it was ironical]y the USs fear of another foreign politi shycal system on the left that caused them to create so unlikely an allishyance
13
Practical impiety Hamish Kinnear discusses the unthinkshyable Franco-Ottoman Alliance of 1536
IN 1536 an alliance was finalised that was met with disbelief and disgust throughout Europe The union of France and the Ottoman Empire against their mutual enshyemy - Charles V - was the first alshyliance between a major Christian and nnn-Christian power since the crusades
Europe was on the verge of great change at the outset of the sixshyteenth century The introduction of gunpowder was revolutionisshying warfare and the printing press enabled the distribution of mateshyrial opposed to the ruling elite The fiercely anti-derical speeches of Martin Luther and his sympashythisers initiated the Reformation destroying the medieval idea of a united Christendom with the Pope as its nominal head Increasshyingly European states began to act in their own interests and ignored ing the legitimacy of Islam Pracshy common knowledge an alliance the purpose of defence as opposed
the demands of the pope Four ticality however often triumphs with the Great Turk was not only to a specifically offensive crusade
great historical figures also came over ideology unlikely it was unthinkable Henry VIII of England struck a
to the fore in the early 16th centushy Interestingly both Francis I and The alliance however held blow to Christian unity by breakshy
ry Henry VII of England Francis Charles V had argued that if they benefits for both parties France ing away from the papal authorshy
I of France Charles V of Spain and became Holy Roman Emperor for was given an ally that posed a seshy ity and establishing the Church of
Suleiman the Magnificent of the they were both candidates for the rious threat to Charles V for the England allowing his marriage to
Ottoman Empire The stage was elective office they would lead a Ottoman Empire of Suleiman the Anne Boleyn The greatest atrocshy
set for a conflict that involved all Crusade against the Great Turk Magnificent was at the height of ity occurred when the underpaid
the major powers of Europe one This promise invoked a desire to its power Fresh from victory over and mutinous troops of Charles
in which the French were the fi rst return to the perceived Christian the Egyptian Mamluke Sultanate V in the search of plunder sacked
to realise that the days of a united unity of the Middle Ages where Suleiman wished to make himself Rome and imprisoned the Pope
medieval Christendom were over the nations of Europe allied to Caesar of Europe An alliance with This event more than anything take back the Holy Land After the French was in the interests of else signified the demise of medishyCharles V took the title however the Ottomans as it provided them eval Christendom In this atmosshyFrancis wasted no time in declarshy with a military partner and a finshy phere of widespread anti-papal ing war on his fellow Christian ancier to help invade Hapsburg feeling the France-Ottoman allishynation The subsequent invasion lands More importantly for Suleishy ance comes as less of a surprise of Italy ended in disaster for the man the alliance kept the states of The impious alliance of the French at the Battle of Pavia durshy Christian Europe divided French and Ottomans then does ing which Francis I was captured not seem so scandalous when
By 1519 France was in despershy by the forces of Charles V To seshy placed in the context of its time
ate need of allies The domain of cure his release from prison Franshy However it should come as no
the Hapsburg ruler Charles V who cis was forced to sign the humillishy surprise that it was received in
had inherited the rule of both the ating Treaty of Madrid in which this negative fashion There was
Spanish Empire and the Holy Roshy he renounced his claims to Italy evidently a form of European
man Empire almost surrounded Flanders and Burgundy Charles nostalgia for the days of the Crushy
the French Kingdom of Francis I V had risen to unrivalled power in sades in which Christendom was
The French also had to deal with Europe united in a common cause even
Henry VIIIs England whose arshy During Franciss imprisonment though the military expeditions to
mies still remained in Normandy the French court had sent a deleshy Despite the reactions of horror the Holy Land had only been seshy
and coffers funded Charles milishy gation to the court of Suleiman the to the Franco-Ottoman alliance riously pursued centufies before
tary expeditions To the French Magnificent to discuss a treaty of that were evident throughout Eushy Francis Is alliance with the Otshy
advantage a new power was rising friendship These talks resulted in rope the actions of other Christian tomans was a stark indicator that
in the East The Ottoman Empire an alliance that was met with disshy rulers could hardly be considered the Crusader days were long past
of Suleiman the Magnificent was belief and disgust by the other Eushy pious If a pious ruler was one War from then on became comshy
expanding through the Balkans at ropean states Charles V began a who acted for the unity of Chrisshy mon between Christian States as
an alarming rate and posed a great vitriolic campaign of propaganda tendom engaged in crusading a means to maintain the balance
threat to the domains of Charles against the French deeming the activities and respected both the of power or achieve superiority
V Yet an alliance with this major union the sacrilegious union of temporal and spiritual power of in Europe Christendom was finshy
Islamic power was still considered the Lily and the Crescent Indeed the Pope then Charles V and Henshy ished The unlikely Franco-Ottoshy
blasphemous by the kingdoms of given that Francis had strongly ry the VII failed on all these reshy man Alliance however lasted for
Europe as by acknowledging the supported a crusade against the quirements Admittedly Charles V centuries
existence of the Ottoman Empire Ottomans a pretence he mainshy spent much of his life fighting the
the French were in effect accept- tained even after the pact became Ottomans but this was more for
14 Retrospect
c e Old Ship of Zion Catherine Me Gloin examines a widely forgotten aspect of American History THE STRUGGLE for AfricanshyAmerican rights iJl the United States is a long and contested road Ve are repeatedly exposed to narratives that stress key leaders and religious f1 gureshyheads Arguably no discourse would be complete without an analysis of tbe role of MartiQ Luther King Jr the decisions of th e Supreme Court or tbe varying levels of comm itment that each president expressed throughout this tuibulent ruld mythologised peshyriod in Americ1l history
However one element of the strugshygle for bLack dvil rights that has been often underplayed in popular accounts increasingly based on bioshygrap hical and oral testimony is the role of the new labour movement during the 19305 and J94Ds In the
space bern the post-World far red scare a reactionary phenomenon that disabled socialism as a tool for social advancement bl1Ck unjonisID 3Jld potentially the Communist Party ofshyfered African-Ameri cans a wllque opportunity to unite to fight oppresshysion Unionism offered the poorest black workers a political voice one they fel t was [[lUted by elite middleshyclass civil rights organisations such as the NAACP [n this respect the Communist Party can be considered as a viable alternative for some groups within tll euro civil rights movement and as a suitablevehide for civil rights adshyvancemel1t
The h istory of black organh ed lashybour in the South has only begun in the last thirty years to receive du attention in the historiography of American labour movements gainshying increasing recogni tion from lashybour and social historians Perhaps it has traditionally been ampi de-lined because of an ideological aversion to socialism deeply ingrained into the American psyche Alternatively its diminished prominence may be explained by the compl~ities of periodisation It is commonly acshyknowledged by maIl) h istorians who dorninate the field of civil rights that the movement characterised by cross-national di rect action began in the late 19505 Morc specifically the
birth of the movement is often seen as a consequence of the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and the Brown decision of the Supreme Court the plevious year Thus any event which pre-dates tJlis revered trajectory is generally dismissed as a pre-requisite and subsequently garshyners less attention than it perhaps warrants The widening of industrial w1ionism to Southern blacks during the first half of the twentieth century has traditionally been treated as a pre-cursor yet it deserves a more prominent position not only for the wider organ isational implications it held flr the development of the llovement but as acknowledgement afits improbable success
N l an alysis of labour Qrganisation and class structure amongst the varyshying groups active in the civil rights m ovement serves to convey what is often lost til e tight for equality was not solely [ought by biack elites or enlightened whites but poor workshying class African-Americans a1SQ
played a leading role These groups although united in th eir cause did not un iformly a gree at every stage but could be divided by societal catshyegQries other than race
It is important to note that the Southern labour force were distincshytive in their anti-union tradition Even as organised labour became increasingly entrencbed in the North (following the National Labour Relashytions Act 1935) the South as Robert Zieger argues rem ained an anti-lashybour island Much of the historiogshyraphy stresses the traditionally Ilostile relationship between organised lashybour and African-Americans Meier
and Bracey assert that blacks were susp icious of wlions who typically discriminated against them Thus unionism was seen as the tool of white racist workers rather than the site of tenlpered racial Ultagonisms in the hce of a common adversary shyexploitative industries The American Federation of Labour (AFL) supportshyed craft unions that created raCially exd usive iobs often driving blacks from secured employment opportushynities in order to give them to unemshyployed whites A symptom of segreshygateJ society this was lot a qUEstion of education more a simple fUllction of the caste system in operation in the South that largely kept black labour unorgnnised yet was held as a necessishyty for business prosperity Any efforts towards unionisatioJ1 were usuall thwarted by employer intimidation police brutality or deep-rooted susshypicions of unions Moreover a cheap and ready supply of white and black vmrkerswn ited the power of strike action African Americans had been used as strike-breakers ill the heavy industries for decades
However the 19305 heralded the widening of labour organisation in part a response to post-World War I migration to northern industrial cities persistent inequalit ies within some of the New Deal programmes and the devastating financial impact of the Great Depression which was disproportionately felt by black workshyers Therefore it may be argued that the erosion of the distinctive union free character of Southern labour had begun
Attitudes towards labour organ ishysa60n shifted during the 1930s This may havc been a consequence of a more general swing to the left durshying the period as evidenced by the re-alignment of the black vote away from thc RepUblicans tovards the Democrat Party Mkhael Honey main tains that the late 1930s and early 1940$ promised huge change a consegum ce of war industrialisation and unionisation The founding of organisations such as the Congress of Industrial Organ isations (CIO) point
Lo increased co-open t-ion between Souther wh ite and black workers ruld an albeit temporary shift away from the attitudes of the segregation era
he CIO was born out of the hardshyships of the depression years and its inter-racial organising strategy crul be ccn as cridence ofa morc co-operashy
tive approach to labour organisat ion than is tradi tiol)ally given credit in the historiography Ihe CTO sought African -American recruits and fo shycussed its unionisiog efforts on secshytors with large black work forces such as steel and meatln their promotion of inter-racial un ionism such orshyganisatiom acted lts a bridge between the black community and white workers although this function was more successful in the North where African-Americans he1d a limited degree of political and economic power Bi-raciaJ unionism provided the philosophy of equal rights as well as the means to augment ~ocial conditions and alter the relationship between worker and boss a source of daily oppression in the lives of many black workers For African-Amerishycan labour this was a great step toshywards achieving social and economic equality
However no unionising organisashytion was free from tht constraints of racist social customs particularly in the SQuth where ero union leaders would rather capitulate to opposition tJ1an lose members and where white workers continuously strove to asshysert their superiority over their black colleagues In many ways the CI achieved their initial economic goals and succeeded by 1940 in persuadshying whites to join and work alongside African-Americans However they failed to farce white elites to accept black demands for an end to racial wage differences Nonetheless allishyances between black and white workshyers civil r ights groups and left-Wing New Dealers had been established benefitting the African-Anlerican struggle against economic discrimishynation
11le influence of the left was evident
15
in the leading unions thal were also committed to equality like the CIO as well as the United Packinghouse Workers of America who organised meatpackers in Chicago and Texas Whilst these unions engaged a lot of black workers as members they also had a significant communist pres shyence The impact of the Communist Party and its role in intluencing both inter-racial unionism and the civil rights movement is a contentious isshyue Their rhetoric and its evolution
from calls for a separate Black Reshypublic to talk of a more united-front is an area that provokes much conshytroversy Was it conceived in order to subvert labour organisations directly or to control them from behind the scenes Alternatively a cynical iew of the motivations behind Commushynist Part) involvement can be temshypered The Part) recognised the revshyolutionar y potential of industrial and agricultural workers and thereforc called for African- American sclfshydetermination as a strategy whereby white American acceptance of blacks right to self-government was the goal Thus white workers would be able to conquer their raci sm and a united working class would result
Traditional interpretations sugshygest that unionism was treated with
hostility by all blacks we must not be blind to tlle differences amongst the black community and the fact tbat they were far from a homogshyenous group hils the Communist Party becanle the rivals of the black elite arld middle-class organisations such as the NAACI~ the poor black working class were attracted to the ideology and the Party in incrcasing numbers throughout tlle depression and during the New Deal era degThey prOided the black working classes with an alternative vehicle for social protest Furthermore communism introduced many blacks to world politics enabling them to place their own struggle in a global context demonstrating the roots of poverty and ra05m
This educated the non -reading classes and gave them a sense of pride something many fel t was deshynied to them by tlle black eli tes of the
AACP whom it has been argued had unwisely assumed a pastoral poshysition as spokesperson for all blacks Moreover the Party challenged both white supremacy and the bourgeOiS politics of the black mjddle-class A Philip Randolph - considered a sooalist and largely hailed as the spokesman for black workers after his success with the Pullman porshy
ters of the 1920s and thc recogni tion of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters by tbe A FL in 1937 - attacked WE B Du Bois and the NAACP for neglecting the needs of the AfricanshyAmerican in favour of bourgeois inshyterests Fostering an atmosphere of debate and discussion communism helped to educate and empower the black working-classes For the black elites it was an unwelcome SQurce of agitation as communists began to enter into the realm of black bourshygeois politics Thus support for the Communist Party divided civil rights campaigners and highlighted undershylying class antagoni~m
The involvement of the commushynist-led ILD in the trial of the Scottsshyboro boys demonstrates the resentshyments and the growing frustrat ion with the NAACP and other black middle-class organisations Failure to secure Significant federal anti -lynchshying legislation ineffective in helping desperate blacks devastated by the depression and limited by thei r OWll political powerlessness ill the face of economic decline amongst tllCir own elite members the NAACPs imposhytence was made apparent during the 1931 Scottsboro boys trial In Alashybama nine black men aged thirteen to n ineteen were charged with the
rape of two while women travelling on the san1e train as them and were tried convicted and sentenced to death in three days WhcU1C~r or not the IlD simply offered their support and advice or they ID U$cled in with shrill bravado their involvement earned the Com mullist Party black support
They were portrayed as defenders of the race whilst wltites chose to view them as outsiders and defendshyers of rapists
Interpretations of communisms impact on the Qjl rights moveshyment during the 1930s var y II may be maintained tllat membership to the Party and adherence to commushynist ideology was limited ultim ateJy most blacks wanted to work within the American system and reap any benefits accrued hy the programmes of the New Deal Africall-Americaru were comm itted to these me3iur and Similarly to Presiden t Roosevelt fe-clec ting him for a th ird term in 1940 Thus communism was a marshyginal force that many blocks chose to
ignore as a vehid c for social protest However it is important to recognise
its significance in the Lives of many African-Americans who for the first time were organised in to tradeullions on relatively equal terms t() those of their whil-e co-workers and were able to understand their $truggle through the framework of a shared commushynist ideology Communists fo rmed the central pillar to trade un ion acshytivism and 0 0 inter-raciali sm This new socialism in the barber shop a broadened ID1d popular sense off self empowered many black vOrkers to fight against economic and social disshycrimination in a way that seemed to
speak more directly to them and their social s tanding than the rhetoric esshypoused by the black-bourgeoisie
Bibliograpby
Leslie H Fishel Jr The Negro and dle New Deal in Twentieth Ce1ltury America Recent Interpretations ed Bernstein and Matusow (1 972)
Robert H Zieger (eei) Orgal ised Labour in the TWeIIlielh Centw y Soulh (1991)
Robin DG Kelley Hammer and Hoe Alabama Conlllllmists During the Great Depression (l990)
16 Retrospect
OFfEN OVERSHADOWED by the tumultuous events that were to weep Europe in the late 19305 and
194Ds the Spanish Civil War (1936shy1939) remairu a pivotal moment in twentieth century European history TIle conflict divided families towns and polarised political opinion across the continent and beyond It resulted in an estimated 500000
deaths and witnessed the establishshyment of a Fascist dictatorship in Spain under General Franco which ould last for almost forty years
The conflict has been a fruitful jeC of historical scholarship and many explanations as to why the fragile democracy of the Second Reshypublic collapsed have been offered Did the RepublJcaJlS Lose because of a lack of fo reign support given to them but that the Nationalists were lucky to receive or was their defeat a result of the weakness of Republican mili tias oin the face of the discipline of the Spanish army
In order to ascertain which if eishy
ther of the aforementioned suggesshytions WdS most significan t it is imshyportant to examine the patchwork of ideologies that the Popular Front composed of the Marxlst POU1vl (Partido Obrero Unification Marxshyista) Socialist UGT (Union General de Trabajores) Communist PSU (PartitSocialiSta UnificalCatalwlya) and Anardllst CNT (Conf-ederacion
acional del Trabajo) Furthermore the effect of foreign intervention on relations within the National Front and upon the contlict asa whole must be taken into consideration
From the outset it would be fai r to suggest that the Republicans lacked the same opportunities as the Nashytionalists The material support offered by the Soviet Union WJS
ultimately to be a hindrance insofar as it catalysed factionalism within the National Front In the opposite camp Adolf Hitler was in reality not much more supportive of the Nationalists than foseph Stalin had been of the Republicans and it is likeshyly that he like Stalin merely wanted the war to continue as a distraction for the estern democracies Argushyably it was MUSSOWlis support that would be key to the Nationalist side He was adan1ant that the emergence of another Fascist state on the model of Italy could only be to his political advantage As it turns out Italy reshyceived relatively little in return from Franco after the war
Despite the fact that the Repuhlishycans were on the side of the legally elected government they were necr allowed to purchase arms from the major suppliers The United States was pursuing a policy of non-inshytervention after World War I and
Britain and France followed suit re1 uctant to upset the political stashybili) of Europe at the time It was decided that neither side would be given military aid under the NODshyIntervention Pact However this pact was then widely and blatantly flaunted by the dictatorships of Eu shyrope Italy Germany an d the Soviet Union The purchasing of foreign arms was poli tically charged as it was tantamount to subscription to the ideology of the dictatorship that was selling them TIle fact that only the Fascist dictatorships of Europe and the USSR were willing to so brashy
j zenly ignore the Non-Intervention pact was to have an enormous imshypact within the Spanish Left as will be later discussed
The aid of the Soviet Union was useful to the Republican cause insoshyfar that the weapons they provided were far superior to any the Republishycans already Pc)ssessed whilst Soviet aircraft were used for reconnaissance missions which were central to the militias military tactics However the weapons were not given to all parties within the Popular Front but were directed at only a handful Mostly they were given to the Socialists of the UCT and tlle Communists of the PSUC which stirred discontent amongst the other parties who were using old and inferior weaponry to that of their fellow comarades
The Civil War polarised Span isJ political discourse into those who were opposed to Francos regime and those who were not The Republican fOrces therefore contained many disparate political groups from moderate republicans to Anarchists Trotskyites and Stalinists Conseshyquently the Soviet aid exacerbated internal tensions within the Republishycan forces between the loosely assoshyciated left wing political groups The acceptance of Soviet weapons was a dangerous move as it allowed the access of agents of the Couummist Party of Soviet Russia into Spanish affairs someth ing that was to prove decisive in the outcome of the war
The Spanish Civil War was a conflict which could be referred to as a battle between reactionary forces of conshyservativism and progressive revolushytionaries Though many have claim ed that the Nationalists were fasc ists British Titer George Orwell who was fighting in Spain at the time along side the Republicans wrote of the Nationshyalists that their ideology was closer to that of feudalism The Nationalists were composed chiefly of members of the army members of the clergy and leaders of international business all united in their common distrust of the working classes Their victory in the war would certainly jeopardise the livshying conditions and dghts of working class people resulting in the deterIorashytion labour relations a Catholic crackshydown of secularism and the army would suppress any dissent
In contrast to the Nationalists clarshyity oJ goals the Republicans seemed to all be working towards different ends TIle objectives of moderate reshyforming socialists and the Anarchist
NT were very difficult to reconshycUe Furthermore the Soviet belief in a revol utionary vanguard instigatshying and leading the proletariat was at odds with populist movements such as Anarchism that took hold in Spain With such differences in polshyicy it is hard to envisage what could force these parties to work together for any length of time
Part of the problem with compreshyhending the Spanish Civil War comes from the spectrum of ideologies within the broad alliance of the Reshypublican forces The ideologies were further apart than could be counteshynanced and particularly so after the Conununist Party decided to impose itself upon the revolution that the Marxists and Anarchists were trying to fashion themselves in Barcelona In his book Hom age to Catalonia Orwell describes Barcelona Practically eveshyry building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists Every shop md cafe had an inscription saying it had been collectivised even the bootblacks had been collectivised md their boxes painted red and blacK The extent of the social change seems almost hyshyperbolic particularly when O rwell stresses that even the bootblacks were part of a trade union The Comshymunist Party however was to disrupt this workers paradise in May of j 937 with the attempted repossesshysion of a telephone exchange that was under Anarchist control 111is sparked a conflict that lasted several days and threatened the stability of the entire Republic General Franco who said he planned it after the Communists
ran newspaper stories blaming the Marxists for starting the fight used disunity in Barcelona to his own ends Being the largest party with the most well-developed press organisations the Communists managed to direct the aftermath of the situation and use it to discredit a competing party Disunity among the Republican side flourished as the AnarclUsts caught on to the Communist attempts to discredit the ]vIandst faction Though they were not persecuted to the same extent though their collectives were broken up to increase efficiency they realised thal they were fighting for
mebody who was n ot sympathetic of their ideology and who tney could not trust The Republican t~1Ctions
vigour started to deteriorate after the May Days riot of 1937
One might ask the question why did the Conununists try and reposshysess an Anarchist building It would be naive of them to assume they could take it vithout a fight unless they disregarded the fact that all Anarshychist doctrine of the em was against government coercion It bardly seems that there might be any great gains in taking one building even if it did allow Anarchists to eaesdrop on telephone conversations The sudden megaloshymania of the Communists seems to have sprung from advice given by the Communist Party of Soviet Russhysia The tactical value of the telephone exchange was not worth risking the integIity of the Republican coalishytiDn The PSUCs party line that At present nothing matters but vinning the war is especially telling
Arguably it was the fragile alliance of circumstance within the Republishycan movement exacerbated by Soviet Aid that only reached certain fuctions wbicb resulted in the collapse of the Spanish Republic Though the weapshyOIlS helped fOT a while they could not Sllstain an entire nation with the limishytations placed upon their deployment Anarchists did not trust the help of Soviet Russia and neither did they trust the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain or any of its regional counshyterparts Tnere were other culprits howeveJ in the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic
It would be wrong to suggest that disWlity on the part of the Republi shycans was all that preven ted them from victor)l The wider European context of the conflict was also fundamenshytal in the collapse of the Republican Movement Gen11any and Russia nevshyer gave sufficient help to either side to let it decisivel) win at any pace but it appears that both used the war to their own advantage Germany tested out their bombers on Spanish tovms such as Guernica and the Soviet Union
17
used the war as a distraction while it increased its level of militarization
In conclusion then the conmct polarised Spanish political discourse around the two totalitarim cxtrerrtishyties of Fascism and Stalinism This resulted in an internally divided and factionalised Republicm force which struggled to retain its integrity in the fuce ofa destructive internal feud The feud was sparked b) the actions of an externalgovernment hence it ccruld be argued that the collapse of tbe second republic was was more to do vith the international context of the conflict as it provided both the ex1rem e ideolohY and the cause of fTiction vithin the Republican movement
BibUography
Qmell George Orwell hi Spain (Penshyguin London2001)
Thomas Hugh The Spanish Civil War 4th edition (Pellguin London 2003)
Beevor Anthony The Battlefor SpainThe Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (WampN London 2006)
Taylor AJP The OrigirtS of the Second World War (Penguin London 1991)
18 Retrospect
Sh may be the Reason Frances Rromagc explores the often overlooked contribution of female scientists during the Enlightenment
FOR MANY centuries befo re the seventeenth Aristotles concepshytion of the bod y and the mind as insepa rable matte r domin ated Western thinking It was used to justify the subjugation of wom en and their subsequent excl us ion from so -called masculine activi shyties
Anatomical differen ces and hormonal systems provi ded new rationales for keeping women below men in the intellectual hishyerarchy Chauvinism expressed it self in every walk of life from religi on and education to science and medicine Even the common shyest of medical symptoms such as nerVOllsness irritability and loss of appetite for foo d or sex were generally diagnosed in women as the result of female Hysteria - a problem deriving from the hysshytna or uterus Science which explored the worl d outside the domestic sphere remai ned an ex shyclusively masculine discipline up until the eighteenth cent ury
Then came th e Enlightenment Enlightenment philosophers were infl uenced by Descartes theori es on critical thinking and Lock es empir icism and as a conseshyqu ence adopted a new approach to learn ing one which promoted free in te ll ectual inquiry and reshyjecled the influence of the state an d religion Despite the moveshyments vast scope few topics were as vigorously discussed as the subject of female education T he changing conception of the mind as no longer constrained by physical attributes opened a new conception of the mind as a sex shyless entity Therefore wom ens education became the subject of m uch debate in polite society spurring contribut ions from feshymale and male thinkers on both sides of the discu ss ion Womens access to scientific knowlcdge proved particularly controversial as it cha llenged a long-established perception of womens role as lim shyited to the domain of domestic ity
owhere has thi ~ challenge been so eloquently pu t as in words of British poet Elizabeth Toilet in her 1724 her poem Hypatia What cruel Laws depress the female KindTo humble Ca res and servile Ta sks confild That haughty Mall IIllriFald and alone May boast the world or Science all his owwl As barbarous Tyrants to secure their Sway Conclude that ignorallce will best obey
Whilst men may have been harbarous tyrants and attempted to clamp down on womens parshyticipation in scientific disciplines lu ckily th ey were not entirely suc shycessful in doing so History proshyvides LI S with a few precious exshyamples l1f women who refused to bow to blind ignorance and tbus su cceeded in rising above amashyteur status to become serious conshytributors to the field of scient ific knowledge
Of these the only one about whom much contemporary inshyformati o n as well as a substanshytial body of original writings has survived is Emilie Marquise du Chatelet She is most famous for having been Voltaires mistress but in fa ct this does great injusshytice not only to he r independent character but also to her intellecshytual brilliance and considerable sc ientific contribution hilst she remain ed all bu t inv isible to histo rical aCCo wlts before her asshysociation with Voltaire in 1733 during tJ1e next fifteen years of her life she proved herself a worshythy match to the brilliant French philosopher Living mainly in Pa rh or in her country estate at Cirey to where she retreated with Voltaire she wrote and published a book on the metaphysics of natshyural science (institutions de physhysique) an essay on the nature of fire and neat (pisserta tion sur la nature ct propagation du feu) and two short pieces on the problem of melsu ri ng physical force She also co- authored anonymously Voltaires popularisation of Newshytoni an physic s for which she was resp onsi bl e for most of th e mathshyematical calculations an d to top her numerous achievements in 1748 she produced a translation of Newtons PrincipiI mathemati shyca with a commentary which was published posth Wll ously and is sti l1 used as the standard translashy
tion of h is work in France today In 1835 th e Royal Astro nomical
Society in London made a breakshythrough by awarding honorar y m~mbership to a woman Caroshylin e Herschel She became famous for her discove ry o f ncw nebu lae in 1783 (Androme da and Cetus) and for bei ng the fi rst woman to di scover a comet In hOnOltr of Herschel the SOCiety made what was perhaps the fi rst sta temen t on equal opportuuities in science While tests of astronomi cal merit sho uld in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to th ose of a man the sex of the former shou ld no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acshyknowledgement wh ich might be hel d due to the latter But whi lst modem biographers have used these numerous firsts to turn Caroline Herschel in to a female icon of sci ence it is importan t to note that she wa~ rewarded not for her own discoveries but beshycause she recorded compi led and recalc ulated th ose of her brother vVilliam Herschel
The very natu re of he r brothers research concen trated on collectshying and classif)Ti ng large numb ers of stars and in th is Ca rolines cataloguing skills were of ceotral importanc e Lacking her pati en ce and meticul ous att ention to deshytall he became heavily reliant on her sci enti fi c inpu t Therefo re her im portance in her brothers research was far greater than most of their contemporaries realised yet she never theless allowed her efforts to further his reputation
Finally th e faScinating case of Laura Bassi (1711-177S) shows how some rare women were able to forge thems elves a career in scientific fields during the En shylightenm ent Bassi was gifted with a capacity for learning consi d shyered so extraordillar y in a wom an that it just ified a concession for a
university degree in philosophy Thereafter she was awarded an entrance to Bolognas lstituto delle Scicnze later to be admitted as an honorary member of the college and fl naUy assigned the position of lecturer in physics at the presshytigious Universi ta eli Bologna the first of its kin d in Europe Scholshyar~ from aU over Eu rope would attend Bassis lectu res on Newtoshynian physics and sJle became the envy oflearned women across the contin ent
These scientific women came fre)m upper or middle cla ss backshygrounds and whilst th eir ach ieveshyments were not replicated to the same extent by women in the lowshyer echelons of society a degree of sci entific and pract ical k novledge never theless took hold Daughters of clergymen particularly in the dissenters tnldition and certain widows who were made to tak e up their husbands trade after th ei r death became learned women and hi ghly ski lled T he famous case of lIlada me Cliquot who in 1805 took over her husbands company after h is death is a ch arming exshyample Hi s enterprise whi ch had
een variously involved in bankshying wool trading and Champagne producing th ri ved under her di shyrec tion and eventu ally became the brand La Vcuve C liquol She is directly accred ited will) a great breakthro ugh in champagne han shydling that made mass produc tion of th e wine possible an d estabshylished the producers reputation of excellence which continues to the present day
T hese examples demonstrate that women were capable of takshying part in scientific debates and developments but it should be stressed that their contr ibution was li mited Womens access to sci entific knowledge was dependshyent on wealth class and cru cially on an association with men who would encourage scientific en shydeavours This last condition is all the more important when one considers the institutionshyalised chauvinism that women continued to experience during the eighteenth century Throughshyout Europe with the exception of
orthern Italy un i7ersi ties and scientific academi es such as the Roya l In stitution in London were closed to women
19
Furthermore whilst the enliglltshyenmenl undeniably brought an improvement to the female conshydition entrenched conservatism in contemporary attitudes even amongst enlightened th inkers such as Rou sseau meant that feshymale scientists were not only ex shy
tremely rare but also str uggled to be accepted in m al e- d ominated
circles T llere was a general lack or even absence of formal rec()gshynit ion of womens involvement in scientific publications For ex shyample Marie Lavoisier th e gifted wife of Fren ch chemist Antoine
Lavois ie r in now recog-ni sed as having carried out many calculashytions and observations in her husshyband s Elements of Chemistry The original m an uscript of h is work contai ns evid ence of her notes and comments yet the printed version fail s to ackn owledge her contribution entirely Even in be tter-documented cases such as that of Lavois ier it very difficult fo r the modern -day h isto rian to pin -point the individu al accomshypli shments female scientists in coll aborative works
However one can argue quite
confidently the instrumental rol e that women p layed in th e disshysem in ation and subsequent adshy
van cement o f sci ent ific ideas T hey were g rea t m ediators often translating simplifying and illusshytrat ing com plex scienti fic works Their versions of these texts were
generally aimed at a female read shyership a n otable exam ple bein g EmiJie d u Chatelet s translation of Francesco Algarottis Ne wtonishy(Ism for Ladies (1737) These were often read in wid er circles as they were clear illustrated and easier to understand T his helped the sp read of scientific id eas the im shy
plied message being that if science was s imple enough for a woman to unders tand than anyone could understand it Furthermore women facilitated the populari sashytion of science by hosting disc usshy
~ions in salons or holding p rivate exhibitions in their homes where gues ts cou ld appreciate and marshyvel at discoveries such the Leyden jar and static electrici ty These so shycial gatherings were particularly important when one considers science and the En lightenment as a wider social phenomenon
as opposed to a string of isolated discove ries mad e by individual mal e scientists
There is a tragiC element un shyderlying this whole s to ry Recent studies led by historian s such as Patr ic ia Fara have attempted to give a clearer and fairer in terp re shytation of womens contribution to science d uring thi s per iod
However history has b ee n unfair and insensi tive in its representashytion of female scientists Consid shyer ing the wealth of literature on Science and Enlightenment it is quite re markable tha t so little nas b een written about the women who took part Givmiddoten th e sparseshyness of original sources and the strong m ale bias wit h which most existing d ocumentation is writshyten it is very difficult impossible
perhaps to accu rately assess the Signifi cance o f womens contribushytion to the scientific fi eld
Feminists have often rewritshyten the story of these women to underline independen t achieve shyments and contributions mad e in a bid to break down prejudic es again st their sex But when does a shift of emphasis become an exagshy
geration a disto rt iongt Scientific
women have been concealed for so long that it is very tempting to tum them into unsung heroines It would be unju st to retell these wom ens stories in a way which
forces them to conform to the ideal s of m odern day fem inists Alte rna tivey we mll st appreciate their contr ibutions on their own meri t
Bibliograpby
Fara Patricia Pandoras Breeches Women Science amp Power in the Enlightenm ent (Great Britain Pimlico 2004)
Gardiner Linda Wo men ill Scishyetlce From French Women al7d
the Age of El7ligiztenmellt ed S Spencer (USA Indi ana University Press 1984 )
Bragg Melvyn P Fara K O Brian amp j Hawley In Our Time Wo men alld Science ill the E11 ligi7tenll7ellt LondOl (BBC Radio 4 4th vemb er 2010)
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
Retrospect10
th b
THE 1707 Acts of Union have always been sources of great debate and the topics popularity is still present as the dlree hundred year old act continu to have repercussions today AltJlough the union of Scotland and England may seem inevitable wiLh hindsight Lhe lrum is Lhat it was an exLrnordi shynary alJiance Simon Schama could not have been more correct when he described it as one of the most astonshyishing trnnsformat ions in Ew-optan histori
cotland and England possess rich intertwining pasts Competition be it in commerce politics or warfare stemmed from the Mo nations cul shytural differences What could possibl)t give these two separate and tradishytionaUy competing naUons common ground upon which to unify There were three major fac tors involved religion external threats and circulllshylance
The 15005 saw sweeping change throughout Europe as the Reformashytion gained momentum creating an upsurge of turmoil thar would take well over a century to abate By the Uruon of the Crowns in 1603 both Scotland and England were largely Protstant countries though disashygreement over doctrine was fierce The Bishops Van of 1639 and 1640 are merely examples of th~ c()nflict that occurred anlongst Lhe various denominations Lhat considered themshyselves true Proteltants
OtherneSS as explorcd by Linda Colley gives us an inkling into Lhe
nattlrc of the second major factor behind unification Shc states that otllerness was defined as lin aversion to militant Catholicism or a hostile
ontinental European system or at its most basic level external threats
ilh Lhe common ground of religion and a shared monarchy Scotland and England were similar enough by 1707 to tee jOiJldy threatened by foreign powers Traditionally these other were Roman Catholics and seen as the natural enemy l1ljS however is a rather skewed view to take For examshyple tlle League ofAugsburg of which both Scotland and England were a ke part of in 1689 included the staunchly
tholic nations of Austria Portugal and the Holy Roman Empire yet the nations of Britain certainly profited from beiJlg a part of this aliiance
Resistance to foreign threats real or percehmiddoted also fostered idea~ of unitt amongst one very influential faction of society the military Scottish and English Regiments fought side b) side throughout the Low Couotries A1sace and the RhineJand in both the Nine Yeurs War and the War of the Span ish Succession not only earning respect for aile another but laying me founshydatioJlS of a British army years before tlle Union ac tua lly took place Whilst tlle Acts of Union officialI) merged Lhe Scottish and English arnlies they had actuaUy been fighting together [or decades Success of the twin nashytions when allied militarily would doubtless have smootJled tlle road to union especially when tlloughts
of Empire canle to the forefront Full political union can perhaps be seen a the next logical step yct circumstance would first need to take a hand in promiddot ceedings
It did so in the late 1690s Ihe Darshyien Scheme an attempt by Scotland to break into the world market by establishing a small trading colony 0 11
the Isthmus of Panama went hOrribly wrong The nation was left teetering on the brink of bankruptcy Memshybers of the Scots nobility were forced to petition the English Parliament in Westminster for finan cial aid and me whole debacle caused many of the ruling elite to believe that Scotland could never la) imperial foundations without aid [rom its (lId rival Even by tlle early 1700s Scotlands economy was shOWing little signs of recovering from the savage blow wiLh tvtichael Fry pointing out that in 1704 the nashytiOD remaincd backward and with no financial markets of its own
The deaLh of Scotlands global ambishytions and the severe damage dealt to its economy can UJcrefore be cited as among the primary short-term reashysons for the Un ion of 1707 VVilliam Fergusons 1964 paper unearthed tbe grave extent to which bribes had been accepted by Scottish noblemen in orshyder to help push tlle Union through Parliament It is undcniable tllat for some expediency took the place of pride
t Lhe same time it would be a misshytake to believe that only Lhe Scots noshybles were responsible for selling their
country for English gold as Burns would have US believe Christopher A vVhatleys Scots rlrld the Unioll arshygues that this point does not stand up to close scrutiny nor does the argushyment that Scots bargained away their Parliament for free trade The bouts of insurrection throughout Scotland which fi) lImved in the inlmcdiate wake oflhe Union including the infamous exccutions of two English sailors 0 11
trumped up charges of pm cy would have been conSiderably more grievous had there truly been no support fix the move amongst the lower d Many of tlle more fa mous first-hand accounts such as those of Daniel Deshyfoe state d early that the vast majority of the nation was against the idea of Union Yet Whatleys detailed study of numerous smaller primary accounts shows surprising apathy amongst many commentators that proves true or at least militant anti- Un ionist senshytiment was not in the dear majority in Scotland at the time of the Union
The Acts of 1707 therefore can surely be remembered as amongst tile most unusual Union~ to have taken place in European history Scotland and EnghUld though they had many similarities were stiUlargely au tonoshymous nations before May 1707 It took a century of religious and poshylitical upheaval numerous external mreats and misfortune on a national scale to not only pave tlle wa) but acshytually bring about the Union It was a omplex rich and fascinating event
which provides us witll one of the
~
11
RAT HER LI KE th l m arri age of the owl and the pussycat the civil part shynership between Scotlan d and Engshyland seemed an unlikely union at the bme of its inau guration 1n 1707 Lord Bel havells remark - Theres ane end to an c auJd sang - seems to capture the sense of loss o cca shysioned by the termil1ltion of Scotshyti sh indep endence How d id someshything SO unpopular at birth survive for so long The slow evolution of tl11 Union deserves some attention
The Un ited Ki ngdom of 170 7 was augmented in ]SO ] wi th the ad shydition of the island oj Irehu1d In 1922 after over a century of unshyhappy relations Ireland was part ishytioned and only six of th e thi rtyshytwo counties remained as par t of a r(branded Uni ted Kingd om of Great Britain and Northern Ireshyland In its various incarnations the Un ion is now an auld sang and its melo dy may be more dHncult to forget than is ofte11 assumed
If Scotlan d is no t qUite an addishytionaJ county of England there are more similarities and links than Jllany are prepared to contemplate There has been a massive moveshyment of people in both directions
between Scotland and England The English in Scotland and the Scots in Englan d have integrated m ore seamlessly than aDY other min ori ty in either host society There ha ve been outbu rsts of S(Oshytophobia but the) have not proved to be a central fea ture of the Anshyglo-Scotti sh relati onship and the same can be said for Anglophoshybia Scotland bems a greater deshygree of Similarity to England than any ot her comparator Although th is m ay be a partial product of the Union it would not be quickly altered by furth er const itut ional chan ge even ren ew ed Scottish in dependence In deed if Scotshylands eighteenth and ni ncteenth cent ur y history cannot ent ir ely be ex plained by reference to events of l707 the Union has increasingly left its impressjon on the twentieth cen tu ry - the Welfare State might be an even grea te r symbol of the Union th an th e British Empire
Much recent comment about the Union has been peSSimistic and has sought reasons for its apparshyen tly likely demise an event wh ich inconveniently has not ye t taken place Despite d evolut io n perhaps
even despite the advent of an SN P ad ministration in Holyrood this may be the w rong question It is tbe longevity rather than the frashygil ity of th e Anglo-S cottish Un ion which reqUires explanation 1 his is not to say th at the Union m ay nol flo under in tbe [uture perh aps even the ncar future Histor ians are no to riously ba d at peering into th e future but one can confi dently p reshydict the outbreak o f a fierce debate between those who will argue that the inh erent features of the Un ion sowed the seeds of its destruction over a long period an d others who will contend that the sundershying of th e Union can be found in the consequences of the political divergence between Scotlan d and
nglaJ1d since 1979 Vha tever happens to the Union it is vital that we do not fabricate a sense of denjal about deep-sealed and longshys tan ding Scott ish enth usiasm for it
Ewen Cameron is H ead of H istory at Edinb urgh University Hi s book Impaled on a Thistle Scot la nd sil ce 1880 was released earl ier this year
A strange survival As a special feature Ewen Cameron provides a scholars perspecshytive on th e endurance Great Britain and the Acts of the Union
12 Retrospect
THE COLD War caused the worlds superpowers to forge some of h isto rys m ost unlikely of unshyions O ne such union was thaI of the USA with the leader of South Vietnam from ]954 to 1963 Ngo Dinh Diem and one that was arshyguably the first step on the path to full-scale American military in shyvolvement in Vietnam
Following Fr ances withdrawal from Indochina in 1954 Vietnam was divided in two along the 17th Parallel with Ho Chl Minhs C omshymuni sts ruling the North and the French sponsored democracy in the South with nation al elections planned for 1956 to reunite the COUlltry Fearful of communism the Eisenhower administration threw their support behind the staunchly anti -communist Diem in the bope that he would form a strong government that would be sympathetic to America The union would end almost a decade later in t he most ignominious of ways
At fi rs t there seemed to be several good reasons to suppor t Diem he was zealously anti-communist but aho exceedingly nationalistic and anti-French m aking it easier for the Americans to support h im without contradicting the if own an ti-imshyperialist rhetor ic He had travelled widely in the US an d had expressed a desire to work with Americans to build a new Vietnam
However from the start it was eVident that Diems belief in democracy was dubious as he stead fastly refu sed to conform to American political ideals The US
had entered th e two world wars to in President Woodrow Wilsons wor ds make the world safe fo r deshymocracy wh ilst the conflict wi th the Soviet Union was defi ned by Americas beUef in democracy and capitalism The US expounded the ideals of democracy over the tyranshynies o f authori tarian govern ment Diem refused to m ake democratic refo rms in his country
1 hen D iem took power he faced a bar rage of problems an undershydeveloped and antiquated gove rn shymental infras tructu re with staff who lacked experience in adminisshytmtion a country ravaged by war an immat ure agricult ural econoshymy With US help Diem thwarted several attempted coup detats in th e first year of his presidency An even bigger test of Diems leadershyship arrived in 1955 willl the Sec t Crisis where the mllitarised sects the Cao Dru the Hoa Hao and the Vletnamese Mafia the Binh Xu)rshyen joined forces to wage wllr on the government in Saigon Diem looked to be lOsing control and at one point US Ambassador to Vishyetnanl General Coll ins convinced Eisenhower that Diem should be removed A m iraculous and unshyexpected victory agrunst the Binh Xuyen ensured Diem stayed in
power and retained American supshyport Encouraged by the American delight at this victory Djem began to consolidate his power
W hen D iem rehlsed tJ) par ticipat e in the scheduled na tional election s to reunite the two Vietnams the US supported Il is decis io n to do so effectively ensu ring tb e long term separation between South and Nor th Vietnam The popular ity of the Communist leader Ho Chj Mi nh meant he would have swept these elections causing the US to forego their politi cal beliefs
With Diem established the US proceeded to pour rud in to his regime with $ 1 bill ion spent on economic and m ilitary assistance between 1955-1 961 Diems govshyernment squandered the aid refusshyin g to refo rm the army and governshyment to fit a democratic model
vThilst Diem prud li p service to the Am ericans democratic deshym ands reform vas always an illushyion D iem and rus three brothers
con trolled bot h the exec utive and the legi sla tive branches of govern shym enl - dissenters were immediateshyly pu rged Diems poli cies towards the villages d isregarded centu r ies of tradition and in dependence stirring up deep discon tent Any expression of th is was dealt with as George Herring puts it in a man shyner that would have made J Edgar H oover blanch as thousands of dissidents were incarcerated in reshyeducation centres Such was the USs fear of communism that they turned a bli nd eye to these arroci shyt ies
Alex Thomson explores the ideological sacrifices of Americas Vietnam policy
Better the Diem you know
In 1960 the new Kennedy adshyminis tration inherited the commitshyment to Diem and with Kennedys pledges to get tough itwould have been impossible to withdraw supshyport for Diem and so the governshyUen t increased th e aid to stabilise h im whils t begging him ineffectu shyally to refo rm Most Americans at this time could
not have even located Vietnam on a map but the issue was forced in to the nations consciousness ill May 1963 with th e Buddh ist Cri shysis A devout Catholic Diem had oppressed the Buddhist majority of the countr) Protests in the city of Hue saw government troops fire into the crowd killing a number of protestors sparking widespread reaction around South Vietnam cu lmin ating in the n otorious selfshyim molations of Buddhist monks which h it headlines worldwide
ot only was Diem embarrassshying the American government on the in ternational stage but with the disastrous defeat at Ap Bac in January 1963 it became increasi ngshyly apparent that Diem was also an ineffectual bulwark against comshymunism a fac t compounded by Diems covert attempts to negotiate a settlemen t wi th Ho Chi Min h After the Budd hist Crisis several generals of the South Vietnamese army approached tlle US Ambasshysador in Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge Jr about US reachons to a military coup Convinced that the war against communism in Vietshynam co uld not be won with Diem as leader Lodge replied that wruJs t they would not support a coup they would do nothirlg to oppose it effectively signing Diems death warrant Thus on November 1st 1963 the generals successfully deposed Diem who was then brushytally murdered in the back of a van after seeking sanctuary in a Cathoshylic church
President Kennedy said that ~iem is Diem and hes the best weve go This is an accurate swnshymary of the unlikely alliance beshytween D iem and the US Authorishytarian and despotic Diem was ana thema to the American polit ishycal system but it was ironical]y the USs fear of another foreign politi shycal system on the left that caused them to create so unlikely an allishyance
13
Practical impiety Hamish Kinnear discusses the unthinkshyable Franco-Ottoman Alliance of 1536
IN 1536 an alliance was finalised that was met with disbelief and disgust throughout Europe The union of France and the Ottoman Empire against their mutual enshyemy - Charles V - was the first alshyliance between a major Christian and nnn-Christian power since the crusades
Europe was on the verge of great change at the outset of the sixshyteenth century The introduction of gunpowder was revolutionisshying warfare and the printing press enabled the distribution of mateshyrial opposed to the ruling elite The fiercely anti-derical speeches of Martin Luther and his sympashythisers initiated the Reformation destroying the medieval idea of a united Christendom with the Pope as its nominal head Increasshyingly European states began to act in their own interests and ignored ing the legitimacy of Islam Pracshy common knowledge an alliance the purpose of defence as opposed
the demands of the pope Four ticality however often triumphs with the Great Turk was not only to a specifically offensive crusade
great historical figures also came over ideology unlikely it was unthinkable Henry VIII of England struck a
to the fore in the early 16th centushy Interestingly both Francis I and The alliance however held blow to Christian unity by breakshy
ry Henry VII of England Francis Charles V had argued that if they benefits for both parties France ing away from the papal authorshy
I of France Charles V of Spain and became Holy Roman Emperor for was given an ally that posed a seshy ity and establishing the Church of
Suleiman the Magnificent of the they were both candidates for the rious threat to Charles V for the England allowing his marriage to
Ottoman Empire The stage was elective office they would lead a Ottoman Empire of Suleiman the Anne Boleyn The greatest atrocshy
set for a conflict that involved all Crusade against the Great Turk Magnificent was at the height of ity occurred when the underpaid
the major powers of Europe one This promise invoked a desire to its power Fresh from victory over and mutinous troops of Charles
in which the French were the fi rst return to the perceived Christian the Egyptian Mamluke Sultanate V in the search of plunder sacked
to realise that the days of a united unity of the Middle Ages where Suleiman wished to make himself Rome and imprisoned the Pope
medieval Christendom were over the nations of Europe allied to Caesar of Europe An alliance with This event more than anything take back the Holy Land After the French was in the interests of else signified the demise of medishyCharles V took the title however the Ottomans as it provided them eval Christendom In this atmosshyFrancis wasted no time in declarshy with a military partner and a finshy phere of widespread anti-papal ing war on his fellow Christian ancier to help invade Hapsburg feeling the France-Ottoman allishynation The subsequent invasion lands More importantly for Suleishy ance comes as less of a surprise of Italy ended in disaster for the man the alliance kept the states of The impious alliance of the French at the Battle of Pavia durshy Christian Europe divided French and Ottomans then does ing which Francis I was captured not seem so scandalous when
By 1519 France was in despershy by the forces of Charles V To seshy placed in the context of its time
ate need of allies The domain of cure his release from prison Franshy However it should come as no
the Hapsburg ruler Charles V who cis was forced to sign the humillishy surprise that it was received in
had inherited the rule of both the ating Treaty of Madrid in which this negative fashion There was
Spanish Empire and the Holy Roshy he renounced his claims to Italy evidently a form of European
man Empire almost surrounded Flanders and Burgundy Charles nostalgia for the days of the Crushy
the French Kingdom of Francis I V had risen to unrivalled power in sades in which Christendom was
The French also had to deal with Europe united in a common cause even
Henry VIIIs England whose arshy During Franciss imprisonment though the military expeditions to
mies still remained in Normandy the French court had sent a deleshy Despite the reactions of horror the Holy Land had only been seshy
and coffers funded Charles milishy gation to the court of Suleiman the to the Franco-Ottoman alliance riously pursued centufies before
tary expeditions To the French Magnificent to discuss a treaty of that were evident throughout Eushy Francis Is alliance with the Otshy
advantage a new power was rising friendship These talks resulted in rope the actions of other Christian tomans was a stark indicator that
in the East The Ottoman Empire an alliance that was met with disshy rulers could hardly be considered the Crusader days were long past
of Suleiman the Magnificent was belief and disgust by the other Eushy pious If a pious ruler was one War from then on became comshy
expanding through the Balkans at ropean states Charles V began a who acted for the unity of Chrisshy mon between Christian States as
an alarming rate and posed a great vitriolic campaign of propaganda tendom engaged in crusading a means to maintain the balance
threat to the domains of Charles against the French deeming the activities and respected both the of power or achieve superiority
V Yet an alliance with this major union the sacrilegious union of temporal and spiritual power of in Europe Christendom was finshy
Islamic power was still considered the Lily and the Crescent Indeed the Pope then Charles V and Henshy ished The unlikely Franco-Ottoshy
blasphemous by the kingdoms of given that Francis had strongly ry the VII failed on all these reshy man Alliance however lasted for
Europe as by acknowledging the supported a crusade against the quirements Admittedly Charles V centuries
existence of the Ottoman Empire Ottomans a pretence he mainshy spent much of his life fighting the
the French were in effect accept- tained even after the pact became Ottomans but this was more for
14 Retrospect
c e Old Ship of Zion Catherine Me Gloin examines a widely forgotten aspect of American History THE STRUGGLE for AfricanshyAmerican rights iJl the United States is a long and contested road Ve are repeatedly exposed to narratives that stress key leaders and religious f1 gureshyheads Arguably no discourse would be complete without an analysis of tbe role of MartiQ Luther King Jr the decisions of th e Supreme Court or tbe varying levels of comm itment that each president expressed throughout this tuibulent ruld mythologised peshyriod in Americ1l history
However one element of the strugshygle for bLack dvil rights that has been often underplayed in popular accounts increasingly based on bioshygrap hical and oral testimony is the role of the new labour movement during the 19305 and J94Ds In the
space bern the post-World far red scare a reactionary phenomenon that disabled socialism as a tool for social advancement bl1Ck unjonisID 3Jld potentially the Communist Party ofshyfered African-Ameri cans a wllque opportunity to unite to fight oppresshysion Unionism offered the poorest black workers a political voice one they fel t was [[lUted by elite middleshyclass civil rights organisations such as the NAACP [n this respect the Communist Party can be considered as a viable alternative for some groups within tll euro civil rights movement and as a suitablevehide for civil rights adshyvancemel1t
The h istory of black organh ed lashybour in the South has only begun in the last thirty years to receive du attention in the historiography of American labour movements gainshying increasing recogni tion from lashybour and social historians Perhaps it has traditionally been ampi de-lined because of an ideological aversion to socialism deeply ingrained into the American psyche Alternatively its diminished prominence may be explained by the compl~ities of periodisation It is commonly acshyknowledged by maIl) h istorians who dorninate the field of civil rights that the movement characterised by cross-national di rect action began in the late 19505 Morc specifically the
birth of the movement is often seen as a consequence of the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and the Brown decision of the Supreme Court the plevious year Thus any event which pre-dates tJlis revered trajectory is generally dismissed as a pre-requisite and subsequently garshyners less attention than it perhaps warrants The widening of industrial w1ionism to Southern blacks during the first half of the twentieth century has traditionally been treated as a pre-cursor yet it deserves a more prominent position not only for the wider organ isational implications it held flr the development of the llovement but as acknowledgement afits improbable success
N l an alysis of labour Qrganisation and class structure amongst the varyshying groups active in the civil rights m ovement serves to convey what is often lost til e tight for equality was not solely [ought by biack elites or enlightened whites but poor workshying class African-Americans a1SQ
played a leading role These groups although united in th eir cause did not un iformly a gree at every stage but could be divided by societal catshyegQries other than race
It is important to note that the Southern labour force were distincshytive in their anti-union tradition Even as organised labour became increasingly entrencbed in the North (following the National Labour Relashytions Act 1935) the South as Robert Zieger argues rem ained an anti-lashybour island Much of the historiogshyraphy stresses the traditionally Ilostile relationship between organised lashybour and African-Americans Meier
and Bracey assert that blacks were susp icious of wlions who typically discriminated against them Thus unionism was seen as the tool of white racist workers rather than the site of tenlpered racial Ultagonisms in the hce of a common adversary shyexploitative industries The American Federation of Labour (AFL) supportshyed craft unions that created raCially exd usive iobs often driving blacks from secured employment opportushynities in order to give them to unemshyployed whites A symptom of segreshygateJ society this was lot a qUEstion of education more a simple fUllction of the caste system in operation in the South that largely kept black labour unorgnnised yet was held as a necessishyty for business prosperity Any efforts towards unionisatioJ1 were usuall thwarted by employer intimidation police brutality or deep-rooted susshypicions of unions Moreover a cheap and ready supply of white and black vmrkerswn ited the power of strike action African Americans had been used as strike-breakers ill the heavy industries for decades
However the 19305 heralded the widening of labour organisation in part a response to post-World War I migration to northern industrial cities persistent inequalit ies within some of the New Deal programmes and the devastating financial impact of the Great Depression which was disproportionately felt by black workshyers Therefore it may be argued that the erosion of the distinctive union free character of Southern labour had begun
Attitudes towards labour organ ishysa60n shifted during the 1930s This may havc been a consequence of a more general swing to the left durshying the period as evidenced by the re-alignment of the black vote away from thc RepUblicans tovards the Democrat Party Mkhael Honey main tains that the late 1930s and early 1940$ promised huge change a consegum ce of war industrialisation and unionisation The founding of organisations such as the Congress of Industrial Organ isations (CIO) point
Lo increased co-open t-ion between Souther wh ite and black workers ruld an albeit temporary shift away from the attitudes of the segregation era
he CIO was born out of the hardshyships of the depression years and its inter-racial organising strategy crul be ccn as cridence ofa morc co-operashy
tive approach to labour organisat ion than is tradi tiol)ally given credit in the historiography Ihe CTO sought African -American recruits and fo shycussed its unionisiog efforts on secshytors with large black work forces such as steel and meatln their promotion of inter-racial un ionism such orshyganisatiom acted lts a bridge between the black community and white workers although this function was more successful in the North where African-Americans he1d a limited degree of political and economic power Bi-raciaJ unionism provided the philosophy of equal rights as well as the means to augment ~ocial conditions and alter the relationship between worker and boss a source of daily oppression in the lives of many black workers For African-Amerishycan labour this was a great step toshywards achieving social and economic equality
However no unionising organisashytion was free from tht constraints of racist social customs particularly in the SQuth where ero union leaders would rather capitulate to opposition tJ1an lose members and where white workers continuously strove to asshysert their superiority over their black colleagues In many ways the CI achieved their initial economic goals and succeeded by 1940 in persuadshying whites to join and work alongside African-Americans However they failed to farce white elites to accept black demands for an end to racial wage differences Nonetheless allishyances between black and white workshyers civil r ights groups and left-Wing New Dealers had been established benefitting the African-Anlerican struggle against economic discrimishynation
11le influence of the left was evident
15
in the leading unions thal were also committed to equality like the CIO as well as the United Packinghouse Workers of America who organised meatpackers in Chicago and Texas Whilst these unions engaged a lot of black workers as members they also had a significant communist pres shyence The impact of the Communist Party and its role in intluencing both inter-racial unionism and the civil rights movement is a contentious isshyue Their rhetoric and its evolution
from calls for a separate Black Reshypublic to talk of a more united-front is an area that provokes much conshytroversy Was it conceived in order to subvert labour organisations directly or to control them from behind the scenes Alternatively a cynical iew of the motivations behind Commushynist Part) involvement can be temshypered The Part) recognised the revshyolutionar y potential of industrial and agricultural workers and thereforc called for African- American sclfshydetermination as a strategy whereby white American acceptance of blacks right to self-government was the goal Thus white workers would be able to conquer their raci sm and a united working class would result
Traditional interpretations sugshygest that unionism was treated with
hostility by all blacks we must not be blind to tlle differences amongst the black community and the fact tbat they were far from a homogshyenous group hils the Communist Party becanle the rivals of the black elite arld middle-class organisations such as the NAACI~ the poor black working class were attracted to the ideology and the Party in incrcasing numbers throughout tlle depression and during the New Deal era degThey prOided the black working classes with an alternative vehicle for social protest Furthermore communism introduced many blacks to world politics enabling them to place their own struggle in a global context demonstrating the roots of poverty and ra05m
This educated the non -reading classes and gave them a sense of pride something many fel t was deshynied to them by tlle black eli tes of the
AACP whom it has been argued had unwisely assumed a pastoral poshysition as spokesperson for all blacks Moreover the Party challenged both white supremacy and the bourgeOiS politics of the black mjddle-class A Philip Randolph - considered a sooalist and largely hailed as the spokesman for black workers after his success with the Pullman porshy
ters of the 1920s and thc recogni tion of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters by tbe A FL in 1937 - attacked WE B Du Bois and the NAACP for neglecting the needs of the AfricanshyAmerican in favour of bourgeois inshyterests Fostering an atmosphere of debate and discussion communism helped to educate and empower the black working-classes For the black elites it was an unwelcome SQurce of agitation as communists began to enter into the realm of black bourshygeois politics Thus support for the Communist Party divided civil rights campaigners and highlighted undershylying class antagoni~m
The involvement of the commushynist-led ILD in the trial of the Scottsshyboro boys demonstrates the resentshyments and the growing frustrat ion with the NAACP and other black middle-class organisations Failure to secure Significant federal anti -lynchshying legislation ineffective in helping desperate blacks devastated by the depression and limited by thei r OWll political powerlessness ill the face of economic decline amongst tllCir own elite members the NAACPs imposhytence was made apparent during the 1931 Scottsboro boys trial In Alashybama nine black men aged thirteen to n ineteen were charged with the
rape of two while women travelling on the san1e train as them and were tried convicted and sentenced to death in three days WhcU1C~r or not the IlD simply offered their support and advice or they ID U$cled in with shrill bravado their involvement earned the Com mullist Party black support
They were portrayed as defenders of the race whilst wltites chose to view them as outsiders and defendshyers of rapists
Interpretations of communisms impact on the Qjl rights moveshyment during the 1930s var y II may be maintained tllat membership to the Party and adherence to commushynist ideology was limited ultim ateJy most blacks wanted to work within the American system and reap any benefits accrued hy the programmes of the New Deal Africall-Americaru were comm itted to these me3iur and Similarly to Presiden t Roosevelt fe-clec ting him for a th ird term in 1940 Thus communism was a marshyginal force that many blocks chose to
ignore as a vehid c for social protest However it is important to recognise
its significance in the Lives of many African-Americans who for the first time were organised in to tradeullions on relatively equal terms t() those of their whil-e co-workers and were able to understand their $truggle through the framework of a shared commushynist ideology Communists fo rmed the central pillar to trade un ion acshytivism and 0 0 inter-raciali sm This new socialism in the barber shop a broadened ID1d popular sense off self empowered many black vOrkers to fight against economic and social disshycrimination in a way that seemed to
speak more directly to them and their social s tanding than the rhetoric esshypoused by the black-bourgeoisie
Bibliograpby
Leslie H Fishel Jr The Negro and dle New Deal in Twentieth Ce1ltury America Recent Interpretations ed Bernstein and Matusow (1 972)
Robert H Zieger (eei) Orgal ised Labour in the TWeIIlielh Centw y Soulh (1991)
Robin DG Kelley Hammer and Hoe Alabama Conlllllmists During the Great Depression (l990)
16 Retrospect
OFfEN OVERSHADOWED by the tumultuous events that were to weep Europe in the late 19305 and
194Ds the Spanish Civil War (1936shy1939) remairu a pivotal moment in twentieth century European history TIle conflict divided families towns and polarised political opinion across the continent and beyond It resulted in an estimated 500000
deaths and witnessed the establishshyment of a Fascist dictatorship in Spain under General Franco which ould last for almost forty years
The conflict has been a fruitful jeC of historical scholarship and many explanations as to why the fragile democracy of the Second Reshypublic collapsed have been offered Did the RepublJcaJlS Lose because of a lack of fo reign support given to them but that the Nationalists were lucky to receive or was their defeat a result of the weakness of Republican mili tias oin the face of the discipline of the Spanish army
In order to ascertain which if eishy
ther of the aforementioned suggesshytions WdS most significan t it is imshyportant to examine the patchwork of ideologies that the Popular Front composed of the Marxlst POU1vl (Partido Obrero Unification Marxshyista) Socialist UGT (Union General de Trabajores) Communist PSU (PartitSocialiSta UnificalCatalwlya) and Anardllst CNT (Conf-ederacion
acional del Trabajo) Furthermore the effect of foreign intervention on relations within the National Front and upon the contlict asa whole must be taken into consideration
From the outset it would be fai r to suggest that the Republicans lacked the same opportunities as the Nashytionalists The material support offered by the Soviet Union WJS
ultimately to be a hindrance insofar as it catalysed factionalism within the National Front In the opposite camp Adolf Hitler was in reality not much more supportive of the Nationalists than foseph Stalin had been of the Republicans and it is likeshyly that he like Stalin merely wanted the war to continue as a distraction for the estern democracies Argushyably it was MUSSOWlis support that would be key to the Nationalist side He was adan1ant that the emergence of another Fascist state on the model of Italy could only be to his political advantage As it turns out Italy reshyceived relatively little in return from Franco after the war
Despite the fact that the Repuhlishycans were on the side of the legally elected government they were necr allowed to purchase arms from the major suppliers The United States was pursuing a policy of non-inshytervention after World War I and
Britain and France followed suit re1 uctant to upset the political stashybili) of Europe at the time It was decided that neither side would be given military aid under the NODshyIntervention Pact However this pact was then widely and blatantly flaunted by the dictatorships of Eu shyrope Italy Germany an d the Soviet Union The purchasing of foreign arms was poli tically charged as it was tantamount to subscription to the ideology of the dictatorship that was selling them TIle fact that only the Fascist dictatorships of Europe and the USSR were willing to so brashy
j zenly ignore the Non-Intervention pact was to have an enormous imshypact within the Spanish Left as will be later discussed
The aid of the Soviet Union was useful to the Republican cause insoshyfar that the weapons they provided were far superior to any the Republishycans already Pc)ssessed whilst Soviet aircraft were used for reconnaissance missions which were central to the militias military tactics However the weapons were not given to all parties within the Popular Front but were directed at only a handful Mostly they were given to the Socialists of the UCT and tlle Communists of the PSUC which stirred discontent amongst the other parties who were using old and inferior weaponry to that of their fellow comarades
The Civil War polarised Span isJ political discourse into those who were opposed to Francos regime and those who were not The Republican fOrces therefore contained many disparate political groups from moderate republicans to Anarchists Trotskyites and Stalinists Conseshyquently the Soviet aid exacerbated internal tensions within the Republishycan forces between the loosely assoshyciated left wing political groups The acceptance of Soviet weapons was a dangerous move as it allowed the access of agents of the Couummist Party of Soviet Russia into Spanish affairs someth ing that was to prove decisive in the outcome of the war
The Spanish Civil War was a conflict which could be referred to as a battle between reactionary forces of conshyservativism and progressive revolushytionaries Though many have claim ed that the Nationalists were fasc ists British Titer George Orwell who was fighting in Spain at the time along side the Republicans wrote of the Nationshyalists that their ideology was closer to that of feudalism The Nationalists were composed chiefly of members of the army members of the clergy and leaders of international business all united in their common distrust of the working classes Their victory in the war would certainly jeopardise the livshying conditions and dghts of working class people resulting in the deterIorashytion labour relations a Catholic crackshydown of secularism and the army would suppress any dissent
In contrast to the Nationalists clarshyity oJ goals the Republicans seemed to all be working towards different ends TIle objectives of moderate reshyforming socialists and the Anarchist
NT were very difficult to reconshycUe Furthermore the Soviet belief in a revol utionary vanguard instigatshying and leading the proletariat was at odds with populist movements such as Anarchism that took hold in Spain With such differences in polshyicy it is hard to envisage what could force these parties to work together for any length of time
Part of the problem with compreshyhending the Spanish Civil War comes from the spectrum of ideologies within the broad alliance of the Reshypublican forces The ideologies were further apart than could be counteshynanced and particularly so after the Conununist Party decided to impose itself upon the revolution that the Marxists and Anarchists were trying to fashion themselves in Barcelona In his book Hom age to Catalonia Orwell describes Barcelona Practically eveshyry building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists Every shop md cafe had an inscription saying it had been collectivised even the bootblacks had been collectivised md their boxes painted red and blacK The extent of the social change seems almost hyshyperbolic particularly when O rwell stresses that even the bootblacks were part of a trade union The Comshymunist Party however was to disrupt this workers paradise in May of j 937 with the attempted repossesshysion of a telephone exchange that was under Anarchist control 111is sparked a conflict that lasted several days and threatened the stability of the entire Republic General Franco who said he planned it after the Communists
ran newspaper stories blaming the Marxists for starting the fight used disunity in Barcelona to his own ends Being the largest party with the most well-developed press organisations the Communists managed to direct the aftermath of the situation and use it to discredit a competing party Disunity among the Republican side flourished as the AnarclUsts caught on to the Communist attempts to discredit the ]vIandst faction Though they were not persecuted to the same extent though their collectives were broken up to increase efficiency they realised thal they were fighting for
mebody who was n ot sympathetic of their ideology and who tney could not trust The Republican t~1Ctions
vigour started to deteriorate after the May Days riot of 1937
One might ask the question why did the Conununists try and reposshysess an Anarchist building It would be naive of them to assume they could take it vithout a fight unless they disregarded the fact that all Anarshychist doctrine of the em was against government coercion It bardly seems that there might be any great gains in taking one building even if it did allow Anarchists to eaesdrop on telephone conversations The sudden megaloshymania of the Communists seems to have sprung from advice given by the Communist Party of Soviet Russhysia The tactical value of the telephone exchange was not worth risking the integIity of the Republican coalishytiDn The PSUCs party line that At present nothing matters but vinning the war is especially telling
Arguably it was the fragile alliance of circumstance within the Republishycan movement exacerbated by Soviet Aid that only reached certain fuctions wbicb resulted in the collapse of the Spanish Republic Though the weapshyOIlS helped fOT a while they could not Sllstain an entire nation with the limishytations placed upon their deployment Anarchists did not trust the help of Soviet Russia and neither did they trust the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain or any of its regional counshyterparts Tnere were other culprits howeveJ in the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic
It would be wrong to suggest that disWlity on the part of the Republi shycans was all that preven ted them from victor)l The wider European context of the conflict was also fundamenshytal in the collapse of the Republican Movement Gen11any and Russia nevshyer gave sufficient help to either side to let it decisivel) win at any pace but it appears that both used the war to their own advantage Germany tested out their bombers on Spanish tovms such as Guernica and the Soviet Union
17
used the war as a distraction while it increased its level of militarization
In conclusion then the conmct polarised Spanish political discourse around the two totalitarim cxtrerrtishyties of Fascism and Stalinism This resulted in an internally divided and factionalised Republicm force which struggled to retain its integrity in the fuce ofa destructive internal feud The feud was sparked b) the actions of an externalgovernment hence it ccruld be argued that the collapse of tbe second republic was was more to do vith the international context of the conflict as it provided both the ex1rem e ideolohY and the cause of fTiction vithin the Republican movement
BibUography
Qmell George Orwell hi Spain (Penshyguin London2001)
Thomas Hugh The Spanish Civil War 4th edition (Pellguin London 2003)
Beevor Anthony The Battlefor SpainThe Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (WampN London 2006)
Taylor AJP The OrigirtS of the Second World War (Penguin London 1991)
18 Retrospect
Sh may be the Reason Frances Rromagc explores the often overlooked contribution of female scientists during the Enlightenment
FOR MANY centuries befo re the seventeenth Aristotles concepshytion of the bod y and the mind as insepa rable matte r domin ated Western thinking It was used to justify the subjugation of wom en and their subsequent excl us ion from so -called masculine activi shyties
Anatomical differen ces and hormonal systems provi ded new rationales for keeping women below men in the intellectual hishyerarchy Chauvinism expressed it self in every walk of life from religi on and education to science and medicine Even the common shyest of medical symptoms such as nerVOllsness irritability and loss of appetite for foo d or sex were generally diagnosed in women as the result of female Hysteria - a problem deriving from the hysshytna or uterus Science which explored the worl d outside the domestic sphere remai ned an ex shyclusively masculine discipline up until the eighteenth cent ury
Then came th e Enlightenment Enlightenment philosophers were infl uenced by Descartes theori es on critical thinking and Lock es empir icism and as a conseshyqu ence adopted a new approach to learn ing one which promoted free in te ll ectual inquiry and reshyjecled the influence of the state an d religion Despite the moveshyments vast scope few topics were as vigorously discussed as the subject of female education T he changing conception of the mind as no longer constrained by physical attributes opened a new conception of the mind as a sex shyless entity Therefore wom ens education became the subject of m uch debate in polite society spurring contribut ions from feshymale and male thinkers on both sides of the discu ss ion Womens access to scientific knowlcdge proved particularly controversial as it cha llenged a long-established perception of womens role as lim shyited to the domain of domestic ity
owhere has thi ~ challenge been so eloquently pu t as in words of British poet Elizabeth Toilet in her 1724 her poem Hypatia What cruel Laws depress the female KindTo humble Ca res and servile Ta sks confild That haughty Mall IIllriFald and alone May boast the world or Science all his owwl As barbarous Tyrants to secure their Sway Conclude that ignorallce will best obey
Whilst men may have been harbarous tyrants and attempted to clamp down on womens parshyticipation in scientific disciplines lu ckily th ey were not entirely suc shycessful in doing so History proshyvides LI S with a few precious exshyamples l1f women who refused to bow to blind ignorance and tbus su cceeded in rising above amashyteur status to become serious conshytributors to the field of scient ific knowledge
Of these the only one about whom much contemporary inshyformati o n as well as a substanshytial body of original writings has survived is Emilie Marquise du Chatelet She is most famous for having been Voltaires mistress but in fa ct this does great injusshytice not only to he r independent character but also to her intellecshytual brilliance and considerable sc ientific contribution hilst she remain ed all bu t inv isible to histo rical aCCo wlts before her asshysociation with Voltaire in 1733 during tJ1e next fifteen years of her life she proved herself a worshythy match to the brilliant French philosopher Living mainly in Pa rh or in her country estate at Cirey to where she retreated with Voltaire she wrote and published a book on the metaphysics of natshyural science (institutions de physhysique) an essay on the nature of fire and neat (pisserta tion sur la nature ct propagation du feu) and two short pieces on the problem of melsu ri ng physical force She also co- authored anonymously Voltaires popularisation of Newshytoni an physic s for which she was resp onsi bl e for most of th e mathshyematical calculations an d to top her numerous achievements in 1748 she produced a translation of Newtons PrincipiI mathemati shyca with a commentary which was published posth Wll ously and is sti l1 used as the standard translashy
tion of h is work in France today In 1835 th e Royal Astro nomical
Society in London made a breakshythrough by awarding honorar y m~mbership to a woman Caroshylin e Herschel She became famous for her discove ry o f ncw nebu lae in 1783 (Androme da and Cetus) and for bei ng the fi rst woman to di scover a comet In hOnOltr of Herschel the SOCiety made what was perhaps the fi rst sta temen t on equal opportuuities in science While tests of astronomi cal merit sho uld in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to th ose of a man the sex of the former shou ld no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acshyknowledgement wh ich might be hel d due to the latter But whi lst modem biographers have used these numerous firsts to turn Caroline Herschel in to a female icon of sci ence it is importan t to note that she wa~ rewarded not for her own discoveries but beshycause she recorded compi led and recalc ulated th ose of her brother vVilliam Herschel
The very natu re of he r brothers research concen trated on collectshying and classif)Ti ng large numb ers of stars and in th is Ca rolines cataloguing skills were of ceotral importanc e Lacking her pati en ce and meticul ous att ention to deshytall he became heavily reliant on her sci enti fi c inpu t Therefo re her im portance in her brothers research was far greater than most of their contemporaries realised yet she never theless allowed her efforts to further his reputation
Finally th e faScinating case of Laura Bassi (1711-177S) shows how some rare women were able to forge thems elves a career in scientific fields during the En shylightenm ent Bassi was gifted with a capacity for learning consi d shyered so extraordillar y in a wom an that it just ified a concession for a
university degree in philosophy Thereafter she was awarded an entrance to Bolognas lstituto delle Scicnze later to be admitted as an honorary member of the college and fl naUy assigned the position of lecturer in physics at the presshytigious Universi ta eli Bologna the first of its kin d in Europe Scholshyar~ from aU over Eu rope would attend Bassis lectu res on Newtoshynian physics and sJle became the envy oflearned women across the contin ent
These scientific women came fre)m upper or middle cla ss backshygrounds and whilst th eir ach ieveshyments were not replicated to the same extent by women in the lowshyer echelons of society a degree of sci entific and pract ical k novledge never theless took hold Daughters of clergymen particularly in the dissenters tnldition and certain widows who were made to tak e up their husbands trade after th ei r death became learned women and hi ghly ski lled T he famous case of lIlada me Cliquot who in 1805 took over her husbands company after h is death is a ch arming exshyample Hi s enterprise whi ch had
een variously involved in bankshying wool trading and Champagne producing th ri ved under her di shyrec tion and eventu ally became the brand La Vcuve C liquol She is directly accred ited will) a great breakthro ugh in champagne han shydling that made mass produc tion of th e wine possible an d estabshylished the producers reputation of excellence which continues to the present day
T hese examples demonstrate that women were capable of takshying part in scientific debates and developments but it should be stressed that their contr ibution was li mited Womens access to sci entific knowledge was dependshyent on wealth class and cru cially on an association with men who would encourage scientific en shydeavours This last condition is all the more important when one considers the institutionshyalised chauvinism that women continued to experience during the eighteenth century Throughshyout Europe with the exception of
orthern Italy un i7ersi ties and scientific academi es such as the Roya l In stitution in London were closed to women
19
Furthermore whilst the enliglltshyenmenl undeniably brought an improvement to the female conshydition entrenched conservatism in contemporary attitudes even amongst enlightened th inkers such as Rou sseau meant that feshymale scientists were not only ex shy
tremely rare but also str uggled to be accepted in m al e- d ominated
circles T llere was a general lack or even absence of formal rec()gshynit ion of womens involvement in scientific publications For ex shyample Marie Lavoisier th e gifted wife of Fren ch chemist Antoine
Lavois ie r in now recog-ni sed as having carried out many calculashytions and observations in her husshyband s Elements of Chemistry The original m an uscript of h is work contai ns evid ence of her notes and comments yet the printed version fail s to ackn owledge her contribution entirely Even in be tter-documented cases such as that of Lavois ier it very difficult fo r the modern -day h isto rian to pin -point the individu al accomshypli shments female scientists in coll aborative works
However one can argue quite
confidently the instrumental rol e that women p layed in th e disshysem in ation and subsequent adshy
van cement o f sci ent ific ideas T hey were g rea t m ediators often translating simplifying and illusshytrat ing com plex scienti fic works Their versions of these texts were
generally aimed at a female read shyership a n otable exam ple bein g EmiJie d u Chatelet s translation of Francesco Algarottis Ne wtonishy(Ism for Ladies (1737) These were often read in wid er circles as they were clear illustrated and easier to understand T his helped the sp read of scientific id eas the im shy
plied message being that if science was s imple enough for a woman to unders tand than anyone could understand it Furthermore women facilitated the populari sashytion of science by hosting disc usshy
~ions in salons or holding p rivate exhibitions in their homes where gues ts cou ld appreciate and marshyvel at discoveries such the Leyden jar and static electrici ty These so shycial gatherings were particularly important when one considers science and the En lightenment as a wider social phenomenon
as opposed to a string of isolated discove ries mad e by individual mal e scientists
There is a tragiC element un shyderlying this whole s to ry Recent studies led by historian s such as Patr ic ia Fara have attempted to give a clearer and fairer in terp re shytation of womens contribution to science d uring thi s per iod
However history has b ee n unfair and insensi tive in its representashytion of female scientists Consid shyer ing the wealth of literature on Science and Enlightenment it is quite re markable tha t so little nas b een written about the women who took part Givmiddoten th e sparseshyness of original sources and the strong m ale bias wit h which most existing d ocumentation is writshyten it is very difficult impossible
perhaps to accu rately assess the Signifi cance o f womens contribushytion to the scientific fi eld
Feminists have often rewritshyten the story of these women to underline independen t achieve shyments and contributions mad e in a bid to break down prejudic es again st their sex But when does a shift of emphasis become an exagshy
geration a disto rt iongt Scientific
women have been concealed for so long that it is very tempting to tum them into unsung heroines It would be unju st to retell these wom ens stories in a way which
forces them to conform to the ideal s of m odern day fem inists Alte rna tivey we mll st appreciate their contr ibutions on their own meri t
Bibliograpby
Fara Patricia Pandoras Breeches Women Science amp Power in the Enlightenm ent (Great Britain Pimlico 2004)
Gardiner Linda Wo men ill Scishyetlce From French Women al7d
the Age of El7ligiztenmellt ed S Spencer (USA Indi ana University Press 1984 )
Bragg Melvyn P Fara K O Brian amp j Hawley In Our Time Wo men alld Science ill the E11 ligi7tenll7ellt LondOl (BBC Radio 4 4th vemb er 2010)
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
11
RAT HER LI KE th l m arri age of the owl and the pussycat the civil part shynership between Scotlan d and Engshyland seemed an unlikely union at the bme of its inau guration 1n 1707 Lord Bel havells remark - Theres ane end to an c auJd sang - seems to capture the sense of loss o cca shysioned by the termil1ltion of Scotshyti sh indep endence How d id someshything SO unpopular at birth survive for so long The slow evolution of tl11 Union deserves some attention
The Un ited Ki ngdom of 170 7 was augmented in ]SO ] wi th the ad shydition of the island oj Irehu1d In 1922 after over a century of unshyhappy relations Ireland was part ishytioned and only six of th e thi rtyshytwo counties remained as par t of a r(branded Uni ted Kingd om of Great Britain and Northern Ireshyland In its various incarnations the Un ion is now an auld sang and its melo dy may be more dHncult to forget than is ofte11 assumed
If Scotlan d is no t qUite an addishytionaJ county of England there are more similarities and links than Jllany are prepared to contemplate There has been a massive moveshyment of people in both directions
between Scotland and England The English in Scotland and the Scots in Englan d have integrated m ore seamlessly than aDY other min ori ty in either host society There ha ve been outbu rsts of S(Oshytophobia but the) have not proved to be a central fea ture of the Anshyglo-Scotti sh relati onship and the same can be said for Anglophoshybia Scotland bems a greater deshygree of Similarity to England than any ot her comparator Although th is m ay be a partial product of the Union it would not be quickly altered by furth er const itut ional chan ge even ren ew ed Scottish in dependence In deed if Scotshylands eighteenth and ni ncteenth cent ur y history cannot ent ir ely be ex plained by reference to events of l707 the Union has increasingly left its impressjon on the twentieth cen tu ry - the Welfare State might be an even grea te r symbol of the Union th an th e British Empire
Much recent comment about the Union has been peSSimistic and has sought reasons for its apparshyen tly likely demise an event wh ich inconveniently has not ye t taken place Despite d evolut io n perhaps
even despite the advent of an SN P ad ministration in Holyrood this may be the w rong question It is tbe longevity rather than the frashygil ity of th e Anglo-S cottish Un ion which reqUires explanation 1 his is not to say th at the Union m ay nol flo under in tbe [uture perh aps even the ncar future Histor ians are no to riously ba d at peering into th e future but one can confi dently p reshydict the outbreak o f a fierce debate between those who will argue that the inh erent features of the Un ion sowed the seeds of its destruction over a long period an d others who will contend that the sundershying of th e Union can be found in the consequences of the political divergence between Scotlan d and
nglaJ1d since 1979 Vha tever happens to the Union it is vital that we do not fabricate a sense of denjal about deep-sealed and longshys tan ding Scott ish enth usiasm for it
Ewen Cameron is H ead of H istory at Edinb urgh University Hi s book Impaled on a Thistle Scot la nd sil ce 1880 was released earl ier this year
A strange survival As a special feature Ewen Cameron provides a scholars perspecshytive on th e endurance Great Britain and the Acts of the Union
12 Retrospect
THE COLD War caused the worlds superpowers to forge some of h isto rys m ost unlikely of unshyions O ne such union was thaI of the USA with the leader of South Vietnam from ]954 to 1963 Ngo Dinh Diem and one that was arshyguably the first step on the path to full-scale American military in shyvolvement in Vietnam
Following Fr ances withdrawal from Indochina in 1954 Vietnam was divided in two along the 17th Parallel with Ho Chl Minhs C omshymuni sts ruling the North and the French sponsored democracy in the South with nation al elections planned for 1956 to reunite the COUlltry Fearful of communism the Eisenhower administration threw their support behind the staunchly anti -communist Diem in the bope that he would form a strong government that would be sympathetic to America The union would end almost a decade later in t he most ignominious of ways
At fi rs t there seemed to be several good reasons to suppor t Diem he was zealously anti-communist but aho exceedingly nationalistic and anti-French m aking it easier for the Americans to support h im without contradicting the if own an ti-imshyperialist rhetor ic He had travelled widely in the US an d had expressed a desire to work with Americans to build a new Vietnam
However from the start it was eVident that Diems belief in democracy was dubious as he stead fastly refu sed to conform to American political ideals The US
had entered th e two world wars to in President Woodrow Wilsons wor ds make the world safe fo r deshymocracy wh ilst the conflict wi th the Soviet Union was defi ned by Americas beUef in democracy and capitalism The US expounded the ideals of democracy over the tyranshynies o f authori tarian govern ment Diem refused to m ake democratic refo rms in his country
1 hen D iem took power he faced a bar rage of problems an undershydeveloped and antiquated gove rn shymental infras tructu re with staff who lacked experience in adminisshytmtion a country ravaged by war an immat ure agricult ural econoshymy With US help Diem thwarted several attempted coup detats in th e first year of his presidency An even bigger test of Diems leadershyship arrived in 1955 willl the Sec t Crisis where the mllitarised sects the Cao Dru the Hoa Hao and the Vletnamese Mafia the Binh Xu)rshyen joined forces to wage wllr on the government in Saigon Diem looked to be lOsing control and at one point US Ambassador to Vishyetnanl General Coll ins convinced Eisenhower that Diem should be removed A m iraculous and unshyexpected victory agrunst the Binh Xuyen ensured Diem stayed in
power and retained American supshyport Encouraged by the American delight at this victory Djem began to consolidate his power
W hen D iem rehlsed tJ) par ticipat e in the scheduled na tional election s to reunite the two Vietnams the US supported Il is decis io n to do so effectively ensu ring tb e long term separation between South and Nor th Vietnam The popular ity of the Communist leader Ho Chj Mi nh meant he would have swept these elections causing the US to forego their politi cal beliefs
With Diem established the US proceeded to pour rud in to his regime with $ 1 bill ion spent on economic and m ilitary assistance between 1955-1 961 Diems govshyernment squandered the aid refusshyin g to refo rm the army and governshyment to fit a democratic model
vThilst Diem prud li p service to the Am ericans democratic deshym ands reform vas always an illushyion D iem and rus three brothers
con trolled bot h the exec utive and the legi sla tive branches of govern shym enl - dissenters were immediateshyly pu rged Diems poli cies towards the villages d isregarded centu r ies of tradition and in dependence stirring up deep discon tent Any expression of th is was dealt with as George Herring puts it in a man shyner that would have made J Edgar H oover blanch as thousands of dissidents were incarcerated in reshyeducation centres Such was the USs fear of communism that they turned a bli nd eye to these arroci shyt ies
Alex Thomson explores the ideological sacrifices of Americas Vietnam policy
Better the Diem you know
In 1960 the new Kennedy adshyminis tration inherited the commitshyment to Diem and with Kennedys pledges to get tough itwould have been impossible to withdraw supshyport for Diem and so the governshyUen t increased th e aid to stabilise h im whils t begging him ineffectu shyally to refo rm Most Americans at this time could
not have even located Vietnam on a map but the issue was forced in to the nations consciousness ill May 1963 with th e Buddh ist Cri shysis A devout Catholic Diem had oppressed the Buddhist majority of the countr) Protests in the city of Hue saw government troops fire into the crowd killing a number of protestors sparking widespread reaction around South Vietnam cu lmin ating in the n otorious selfshyim molations of Buddhist monks which h it headlines worldwide
ot only was Diem embarrassshying the American government on the in ternational stage but with the disastrous defeat at Ap Bac in January 1963 it became increasi ngshyly apparent that Diem was also an ineffectual bulwark against comshymunism a fac t compounded by Diems covert attempts to negotiate a settlemen t wi th Ho Chi Min h After the Budd hist Crisis several generals of the South Vietnamese army approached tlle US Ambasshysador in Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge Jr about US reachons to a military coup Convinced that the war against communism in Vietshynam co uld not be won with Diem as leader Lodge replied that wruJs t they would not support a coup they would do nothirlg to oppose it effectively signing Diems death warrant Thus on November 1st 1963 the generals successfully deposed Diem who was then brushytally murdered in the back of a van after seeking sanctuary in a Cathoshylic church
President Kennedy said that ~iem is Diem and hes the best weve go This is an accurate swnshymary of the unlikely alliance beshytween D iem and the US Authorishytarian and despotic Diem was ana thema to the American polit ishycal system but it was ironical]y the USs fear of another foreign politi shycal system on the left that caused them to create so unlikely an allishyance
13
Practical impiety Hamish Kinnear discusses the unthinkshyable Franco-Ottoman Alliance of 1536
IN 1536 an alliance was finalised that was met with disbelief and disgust throughout Europe The union of France and the Ottoman Empire against their mutual enshyemy - Charles V - was the first alshyliance between a major Christian and nnn-Christian power since the crusades
Europe was on the verge of great change at the outset of the sixshyteenth century The introduction of gunpowder was revolutionisshying warfare and the printing press enabled the distribution of mateshyrial opposed to the ruling elite The fiercely anti-derical speeches of Martin Luther and his sympashythisers initiated the Reformation destroying the medieval idea of a united Christendom with the Pope as its nominal head Increasshyingly European states began to act in their own interests and ignored ing the legitimacy of Islam Pracshy common knowledge an alliance the purpose of defence as opposed
the demands of the pope Four ticality however often triumphs with the Great Turk was not only to a specifically offensive crusade
great historical figures also came over ideology unlikely it was unthinkable Henry VIII of England struck a
to the fore in the early 16th centushy Interestingly both Francis I and The alliance however held blow to Christian unity by breakshy
ry Henry VII of England Francis Charles V had argued that if they benefits for both parties France ing away from the papal authorshy
I of France Charles V of Spain and became Holy Roman Emperor for was given an ally that posed a seshy ity and establishing the Church of
Suleiman the Magnificent of the they were both candidates for the rious threat to Charles V for the England allowing his marriage to
Ottoman Empire The stage was elective office they would lead a Ottoman Empire of Suleiman the Anne Boleyn The greatest atrocshy
set for a conflict that involved all Crusade against the Great Turk Magnificent was at the height of ity occurred when the underpaid
the major powers of Europe one This promise invoked a desire to its power Fresh from victory over and mutinous troops of Charles
in which the French were the fi rst return to the perceived Christian the Egyptian Mamluke Sultanate V in the search of plunder sacked
to realise that the days of a united unity of the Middle Ages where Suleiman wished to make himself Rome and imprisoned the Pope
medieval Christendom were over the nations of Europe allied to Caesar of Europe An alliance with This event more than anything take back the Holy Land After the French was in the interests of else signified the demise of medishyCharles V took the title however the Ottomans as it provided them eval Christendom In this atmosshyFrancis wasted no time in declarshy with a military partner and a finshy phere of widespread anti-papal ing war on his fellow Christian ancier to help invade Hapsburg feeling the France-Ottoman allishynation The subsequent invasion lands More importantly for Suleishy ance comes as less of a surprise of Italy ended in disaster for the man the alliance kept the states of The impious alliance of the French at the Battle of Pavia durshy Christian Europe divided French and Ottomans then does ing which Francis I was captured not seem so scandalous when
By 1519 France was in despershy by the forces of Charles V To seshy placed in the context of its time
ate need of allies The domain of cure his release from prison Franshy However it should come as no
the Hapsburg ruler Charles V who cis was forced to sign the humillishy surprise that it was received in
had inherited the rule of both the ating Treaty of Madrid in which this negative fashion There was
Spanish Empire and the Holy Roshy he renounced his claims to Italy evidently a form of European
man Empire almost surrounded Flanders and Burgundy Charles nostalgia for the days of the Crushy
the French Kingdom of Francis I V had risen to unrivalled power in sades in which Christendom was
The French also had to deal with Europe united in a common cause even
Henry VIIIs England whose arshy During Franciss imprisonment though the military expeditions to
mies still remained in Normandy the French court had sent a deleshy Despite the reactions of horror the Holy Land had only been seshy
and coffers funded Charles milishy gation to the court of Suleiman the to the Franco-Ottoman alliance riously pursued centufies before
tary expeditions To the French Magnificent to discuss a treaty of that were evident throughout Eushy Francis Is alliance with the Otshy
advantage a new power was rising friendship These talks resulted in rope the actions of other Christian tomans was a stark indicator that
in the East The Ottoman Empire an alliance that was met with disshy rulers could hardly be considered the Crusader days were long past
of Suleiman the Magnificent was belief and disgust by the other Eushy pious If a pious ruler was one War from then on became comshy
expanding through the Balkans at ropean states Charles V began a who acted for the unity of Chrisshy mon between Christian States as
an alarming rate and posed a great vitriolic campaign of propaganda tendom engaged in crusading a means to maintain the balance
threat to the domains of Charles against the French deeming the activities and respected both the of power or achieve superiority
V Yet an alliance with this major union the sacrilegious union of temporal and spiritual power of in Europe Christendom was finshy
Islamic power was still considered the Lily and the Crescent Indeed the Pope then Charles V and Henshy ished The unlikely Franco-Ottoshy
blasphemous by the kingdoms of given that Francis had strongly ry the VII failed on all these reshy man Alliance however lasted for
Europe as by acknowledging the supported a crusade against the quirements Admittedly Charles V centuries
existence of the Ottoman Empire Ottomans a pretence he mainshy spent much of his life fighting the
the French were in effect accept- tained even after the pact became Ottomans but this was more for
14 Retrospect
c e Old Ship of Zion Catherine Me Gloin examines a widely forgotten aspect of American History THE STRUGGLE for AfricanshyAmerican rights iJl the United States is a long and contested road Ve are repeatedly exposed to narratives that stress key leaders and religious f1 gureshyheads Arguably no discourse would be complete without an analysis of tbe role of MartiQ Luther King Jr the decisions of th e Supreme Court or tbe varying levels of comm itment that each president expressed throughout this tuibulent ruld mythologised peshyriod in Americ1l history
However one element of the strugshygle for bLack dvil rights that has been often underplayed in popular accounts increasingly based on bioshygrap hical and oral testimony is the role of the new labour movement during the 19305 and J94Ds In the
space bern the post-World far red scare a reactionary phenomenon that disabled socialism as a tool for social advancement bl1Ck unjonisID 3Jld potentially the Communist Party ofshyfered African-Ameri cans a wllque opportunity to unite to fight oppresshysion Unionism offered the poorest black workers a political voice one they fel t was [[lUted by elite middleshyclass civil rights organisations such as the NAACP [n this respect the Communist Party can be considered as a viable alternative for some groups within tll euro civil rights movement and as a suitablevehide for civil rights adshyvancemel1t
The h istory of black organh ed lashybour in the South has only begun in the last thirty years to receive du attention in the historiography of American labour movements gainshying increasing recogni tion from lashybour and social historians Perhaps it has traditionally been ampi de-lined because of an ideological aversion to socialism deeply ingrained into the American psyche Alternatively its diminished prominence may be explained by the compl~ities of periodisation It is commonly acshyknowledged by maIl) h istorians who dorninate the field of civil rights that the movement characterised by cross-national di rect action began in the late 19505 Morc specifically the
birth of the movement is often seen as a consequence of the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and the Brown decision of the Supreme Court the plevious year Thus any event which pre-dates tJlis revered trajectory is generally dismissed as a pre-requisite and subsequently garshyners less attention than it perhaps warrants The widening of industrial w1ionism to Southern blacks during the first half of the twentieth century has traditionally been treated as a pre-cursor yet it deserves a more prominent position not only for the wider organ isational implications it held flr the development of the llovement but as acknowledgement afits improbable success
N l an alysis of labour Qrganisation and class structure amongst the varyshying groups active in the civil rights m ovement serves to convey what is often lost til e tight for equality was not solely [ought by biack elites or enlightened whites but poor workshying class African-Americans a1SQ
played a leading role These groups although united in th eir cause did not un iformly a gree at every stage but could be divided by societal catshyegQries other than race
It is important to note that the Southern labour force were distincshytive in their anti-union tradition Even as organised labour became increasingly entrencbed in the North (following the National Labour Relashytions Act 1935) the South as Robert Zieger argues rem ained an anti-lashybour island Much of the historiogshyraphy stresses the traditionally Ilostile relationship between organised lashybour and African-Americans Meier
and Bracey assert that blacks were susp icious of wlions who typically discriminated against them Thus unionism was seen as the tool of white racist workers rather than the site of tenlpered racial Ultagonisms in the hce of a common adversary shyexploitative industries The American Federation of Labour (AFL) supportshyed craft unions that created raCially exd usive iobs often driving blacks from secured employment opportushynities in order to give them to unemshyployed whites A symptom of segreshygateJ society this was lot a qUEstion of education more a simple fUllction of the caste system in operation in the South that largely kept black labour unorgnnised yet was held as a necessishyty for business prosperity Any efforts towards unionisatioJ1 were usuall thwarted by employer intimidation police brutality or deep-rooted susshypicions of unions Moreover a cheap and ready supply of white and black vmrkerswn ited the power of strike action African Americans had been used as strike-breakers ill the heavy industries for decades
However the 19305 heralded the widening of labour organisation in part a response to post-World War I migration to northern industrial cities persistent inequalit ies within some of the New Deal programmes and the devastating financial impact of the Great Depression which was disproportionately felt by black workshyers Therefore it may be argued that the erosion of the distinctive union free character of Southern labour had begun
Attitudes towards labour organ ishysa60n shifted during the 1930s This may havc been a consequence of a more general swing to the left durshying the period as evidenced by the re-alignment of the black vote away from thc RepUblicans tovards the Democrat Party Mkhael Honey main tains that the late 1930s and early 1940$ promised huge change a consegum ce of war industrialisation and unionisation The founding of organisations such as the Congress of Industrial Organ isations (CIO) point
Lo increased co-open t-ion between Souther wh ite and black workers ruld an albeit temporary shift away from the attitudes of the segregation era
he CIO was born out of the hardshyships of the depression years and its inter-racial organising strategy crul be ccn as cridence ofa morc co-operashy
tive approach to labour organisat ion than is tradi tiol)ally given credit in the historiography Ihe CTO sought African -American recruits and fo shycussed its unionisiog efforts on secshytors with large black work forces such as steel and meatln their promotion of inter-racial un ionism such orshyganisatiom acted lts a bridge between the black community and white workers although this function was more successful in the North where African-Americans he1d a limited degree of political and economic power Bi-raciaJ unionism provided the philosophy of equal rights as well as the means to augment ~ocial conditions and alter the relationship between worker and boss a source of daily oppression in the lives of many black workers For African-Amerishycan labour this was a great step toshywards achieving social and economic equality
However no unionising organisashytion was free from tht constraints of racist social customs particularly in the SQuth where ero union leaders would rather capitulate to opposition tJ1an lose members and where white workers continuously strove to asshysert their superiority over their black colleagues In many ways the CI achieved their initial economic goals and succeeded by 1940 in persuadshying whites to join and work alongside African-Americans However they failed to farce white elites to accept black demands for an end to racial wage differences Nonetheless allishyances between black and white workshyers civil r ights groups and left-Wing New Dealers had been established benefitting the African-Anlerican struggle against economic discrimishynation
11le influence of the left was evident
15
in the leading unions thal were also committed to equality like the CIO as well as the United Packinghouse Workers of America who organised meatpackers in Chicago and Texas Whilst these unions engaged a lot of black workers as members they also had a significant communist pres shyence The impact of the Communist Party and its role in intluencing both inter-racial unionism and the civil rights movement is a contentious isshyue Their rhetoric and its evolution
from calls for a separate Black Reshypublic to talk of a more united-front is an area that provokes much conshytroversy Was it conceived in order to subvert labour organisations directly or to control them from behind the scenes Alternatively a cynical iew of the motivations behind Commushynist Part) involvement can be temshypered The Part) recognised the revshyolutionar y potential of industrial and agricultural workers and thereforc called for African- American sclfshydetermination as a strategy whereby white American acceptance of blacks right to self-government was the goal Thus white workers would be able to conquer their raci sm and a united working class would result
Traditional interpretations sugshygest that unionism was treated with
hostility by all blacks we must not be blind to tlle differences amongst the black community and the fact tbat they were far from a homogshyenous group hils the Communist Party becanle the rivals of the black elite arld middle-class organisations such as the NAACI~ the poor black working class were attracted to the ideology and the Party in incrcasing numbers throughout tlle depression and during the New Deal era degThey prOided the black working classes with an alternative vehicle for social protest Furthermore communism introduced many blacks to world politics enabling them to place their own struggle in a global context demonstrating the roots of poverty and ra05m
This educated the non -reading classes and gave them a sense of pride something many fel t was deshynied to them by tlle black eli tes of the
AACP whom it has been argued had unwisely assumed a pastoral poshysition as spokesperson for all blacks Moreover the Party challenged both white supremacy and the bourgeOiS politics of the black mjddle-class A Philip Randolph - considered a sooalist and largely hailed as the spokesman for black workers after his success with the Pullman porshy
ters of the 1920s and thc recogni tion of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters by tbe A FL in 1937 - attacked WE B Du Bois and the NAACP for neglecting the needs of the AfricanshyAmerican in favour of bourgeois inshyterests Fostering an atmosphere of debate and discussion communism helped to educate and empower the black working-classes For the black elites it was an unwelcome SQurce of agitation as communists began to enter into the realm of black bourshygeois politics Thus support for the Communist Party divided civil rights campaigners and highlighted undershylying class antagoni~m
The involvement of the commushynist-led ILD in the trial of the Scottsshyboro boys demonstrates the resentshyments and the growing frustrat ion with the NAACP and other black middle-class organisations Failure to secure Significant federal anti -lynchshying legislation ineffective in helping desperate blacks devastated by the depression and limited by thei r OWll political powerlessness ill the face of economic decline amongst tllCir own elite members the NAACPs imposhytence was made apparent during the 1931 Scottsboro boys trial In Alashybama nine black men aged thirteen to n ineteen were charged with the
rape of two while women travelling on the san1e train as them and were tried convicted and sentenced to death in three days WhcU1C~r or not the IlD simply offered their support and advice or they ID U$cled in with shrill bravado their involvement earned the Com mullist Party black support
They were portrayed as defenders of the race whilst wltites chose to view them as outsiders and defendshyers of rapists
Interpretations of communisms impact on the Qjl rights moveshyment during the 1930s var y II may be maintained tllat membership to the Party and adherence to commushynist ideology was limited ultim ateJy most blacks wanted to work within the American system and reap any benefits accrued hy the programmes of the New Deal Africall-Americaru were comm itted to these me3iur and Similarly to Presiden t Roosevelt fe-clec ting him for a th ird term in 1940 Thus communism was a marshyginal force that many blocks chose to
ignore as a vehid c for social protest However it is important to recognise
its significance in the Lives of many African-Americans who for the first time were organised in to tradeullions on relatively equal terms t() those of their whil-e co-workers and were able to understand their $truggle through the framework of a shared commushynist ideology Communists fo rmed the central pillar to trade un ion acshytivism and 0 0 inter-raciali sm This new socialism in the barber shop a broadened ID1d popular sense off self empowered many black vOrkers to fight against economic and social disshycrimination in a way that seemed to
speak more directly to them and their social s tanding than the rhetoric esshypoused by the black-bourgeoisie
Bibliograpby
Leslie H Fishel Jr The Negro and dle New Deal in Twentieth Ce1ltury America Recent Interpretations ed Bernstein and Matusow (1 972)
Robert H Zieger (eei) Orgal ised Labour in the TWeIIlielh Centw y Soulh (1991)
Robin DG Kelley Hammer and Hoe Alabama Conlllllmists During the Great Depression (l990)
16 Retrospect
OFfEN OVERSHADOWED by the tumultuous events that were to weep Europe in the late 19305 and
194Ds the Spanish Civil War (1936shy1939) remairu a pivotal moment in twentieth century European history TIle conflict divided families towns and polarised political opinion across the continent and beyond It resulted in an estimated 500000
deaths and witnessed the establishshyment of a Fascist dictatorship in Spain under General Franco which ould last for almost forty years
The conflict has been a fruitful jeC of historical scholarship and many explanations as to why the fragile democracy of the Second Reshypublic collapsed have been offered Did the RepublJcaJlS Lose because of a lack of fo reign support given to them but that the Nationalists were lucky to receive or was their defeat a result of the weakness of Republican mili tias oin the face of the discipline of the Spanish army
In order to ascertain which if eishy
ther of the aforementioned suggesshytions WdS most significan t it is imshyportant to examine the patchwork of ideologies that the Popular Front composed of the Marxlst POU1vl (Partido Obrero Unification Marxshyista) Socialist UGT (Union General de Trabajores) Communist PSU (PartitSocialiSta UnificalCatalwlya) and Anardllst CNT (Conf-ederacion
acional del Trabajo) Furthermore the effect of foreign intervention on relations within the National Front and upon the contlict asa whole must be taken into consideration
From the outset it would be fai r to suggest that the Republicans lacked the same opportunities as the Nashytionalists The material support offered by the Soviet Union WJS
ultimately to be a hindrance insofar as it catalysed factionalism within the National Front In the opposite camp Adolf Hitler was in reality not much more supportive of the Nationalists than foseph Stalin had been of the Republicans and it is likeshyly that he like Stalin merely wanted the war to continue as a distraction for the estern democracies Argushyably it was MUSSOWlis support that would be key to the Nationalist side He was adan1ant that the emergence of another Fascist state on the model of Italy could only be to his political advantage As it turns out Italy reshyceived relatively little in return from Franco after the war
Despite the fact that the Repuhlishycans were on the side of the legally elected government they were necr allowed to purchase arms from the major suppliers The United States was pursuing a policy of non-inshytervention after World War I and
Britain and France followed suit re1 uctant to upset the political stashybili) of Europe at the time It was decided that neither side would be given military aid under the NODshyIntervention Pact However this pact was then widely and blatantly flaunted by the dictatorships of Eu shyrope Italy Germany an d the Soviet Union The purchasing of foreign arms was poli tically charged as it was tantamount to subscription to the ideology of the dictatorship that was selling them TIle fact that only the Fascist dictatorships of Europe and the USSR were willing to so brashy
j zenly ignore the Non-Intervention pact was to have an enormous imshypact within the Spanish Left as will be later discussed
The aid of the Soviet Union was useful to the Republican cause insoshyfar that the weapons they provided were far superior to any the Republishycans already Pc)ssessed whilst Soviet aircraft were used for reconnaissance missions which were central to the militias military tactics However the weapons were not given to all parties within the Popular Front but were directed at only a handful Mostly they were given to the Socialists of the UCT and tlle Communists of the PSUC which stirred discontent amongst the other parties who were using old and inferior weaponry to that of their fellow comarades
The Civil War polarised Span isJ political discourse into those who were opposed to Francos regime and those who were not The Republican fOrces therefore contained many disparate political groups from moderate republicans to Anarchists Trotskyites and Stalinists Conseshyquently the Soviet aid exacerbated internal tensions within the Republishycan forces between the loosely assoshyciated left wing political groups The acceptance of Soviet weapons was a dangerous move as it allowed the access of agents of the Couummist Party of Soviet Russia into Spanish affairs someth ing that was to prove decisive in the outcome of the war
The Spanish Civil War was a conflict which could be referred to as a battle between reactionary forces of conshyservativism and progressive revolushytionaries Though many have claim ed that the Nationalists were fasc ists British Titer George Orwell who was fighting in Spain at the time along side the Republicans wrote of the Nationshyalists that their ideology was closer to that of feudalism The Nationalists were composed chiefly of members of the army members of the clergy and leaders of international business all united in their common distrust of the working classes Their victory in the war would certainly jeopardise the livshying conditions and dghts of working class people resulting in the deterIorashytion labour relations a Catholic crackshydown of secularism and the army would suppress any dissent
In contrast to the Nationalists clarshyity oJ goals the Republicans seemed to all be working towards different ends TIle objectives of moderate reshyforming socialists and the Anarchist
NT were very difficult to reconshycUe Furthermore the Soviet belief in a revol utionary vanguard instigatshying and leading the proletariat was at odds with populist movements such as Anarchism that took hold in Spain With such differences in polshyicy it is hard to envisage what could force these parties to work together for any length of time
Part of the problem with compreshyhending the Spanish Civil War comes from the spectrum of ideologies within the broad alliance of the Reshypublican forces The ideologies were further apart than could be counteshynanced and particularly so after the Conununist Party decided to impose itself upon the revolution that the Marxists and Anarchists were trying to fashion themselves in Barcelona In his book Hom age to Catalonia Orwell describes Barcelona Practically eveshyry building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists Every shop md cafe had an inscription saying it had been collectivised even the bootblacks had been collectivised md their boxes painted red and blacK The extent of the social change seems almost hyshyperbolic particularly when O rwell stresses that even the bootblacks were part of a trade union The Comshymunist Party however was to disrupt this workers paradise in May of j 937 with the attempted repossesshysion of a telephone exchange that was under Anarchist control 111is sparked a conflict that lasted several days and threatened the stability of the entire Republic General Franco who said he planned it after the Communists
ran newspaper stories blaming the Marxists for starting the fight used disunity in Barcelona to his own ends Being the largest party with the most well-developed press organisations the Communists managed to direct the aftermath of the situation and use it to discredit a competing party Disunity among the Republican side flourished as the AnarclUsts caught on to the Communist attempts to discredit the ]vIandst faction Though they were not persecuted to the same extent though their collectives were broken up to increase efficiency they realised thal they were fighting for
mebody who was n ot sympathetic of their ideology and who tney could not trust The Republican t~1Ctions
vigour started to deteriorate after the May Days riot of 1937
One might ask the question why did the Conununists try and reposshysess an Anarchist building It would be naive of them to assume they could take it vithout a fight unless they disregarded the fact that all Anarshychist doctrine of the em was against government coercion It bardly seems that there might be any great gains in taking one building even if it did allow Anarchists to eaesdrop on telephone conversations The sudden megaloshymania of the Communists seems to have sprung from advice given by the Communist Party of Soviet Russhysia The tactical value of the telephone exchange was not worth risking the integIity of the Republican coalishytiDn The PSUCs party line that At present nothing matters but vinning the war is especially telling
Arguably it was the fragile alliance of circumstance within the Republishycan movement exacerbated by Soviet Aid that only reached certain fuctions wbicb resulted in the collapse of the Spanish Republic Though the weapshyOIlS helped fOT a while they could not Sllstain an entire nation with the limishytations placed upon their deployment Anarchists did not trust the help of Soviet Russia and neither did they trust the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain or any of its regional counshyterparts Tnere were other culprits howeveJ in the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic
It would be wrong to suggest that disWlity on the part of the Republi shycans was all that preven ted them from victor)l The wider European context of the conflict was also fundamenshytal in the collapse of the Republican Movement Gen11any and Russia nevshyer gave sufficient help to either side to let it decisivel) win at any pace but it appears that both used the war to their own advantage Germany tested out their bombers on Spanish tovms such as Guernica and the Soviet Union
17
used the war as a distraction while it increased its level of militarization
In conclusion then the conmct polarised Spanish political discourse around the two totalitarim cxtrerrtishyties of Fascism and Stalinism This resulted in an internally divided and factionalised Republicm force which struggled to retain its integrity in the fuce ofa destructive internal feud The feud was sparked b) the actions of an externalgovernment hence it ccruld be argued that the collapse of tbe second republic was was more to do vith the international context of the conflict as it provided both the ex1rem e ideolohY and the cause of fTiction vithin the Republican movement
BibUography
Qmell George Orwell hi Spain (Penshyguin London2001)
Thomas Hugh The Spanish Civil War 4th edition (Pellguin London 2003)
Beevor Anthony The Battlefor SpainThe Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (WampN London 2006)
Taylor AJP The OrigirtS of the Second World War (Penguin London 1991)
18 Retrospect
Sh may be the Reason Frances Rromagc explores the often overlooked contribution of female scientists during the Enlightenment
FOR MANY centuries befo re the seventeenth Aristotles concepshytion of the bod y and the mind as insepa rable matte r domin ated Western thinking It was used to justify the subjugation of wom en and their subsequent excl us ion from so -called masculine activi shyties
Anatomical differen ces and hormonal systems provi ded new rationales for keeping women below men in the intellectual hishyerarchy Chauvinism expressed it self in every walk of life from religi on and education to science and medicine Even the common shyest of medical symptoms such as nerVOllsness irritability and loss of appetite for foo d or sex were generally diagnosed in women as the result of female Hysteria - a problem deriving from the hysshytna or uterus Science which explored the worl d outside the domestic sphere remai ned an ex shyclusively masculine discipline up until the eighteenth cent ury
Then came th e Enlightenment Enlightenment philosophers were infl uenced by Descartes theori es on critical thinking and Lock es empir icism and as a conseshyqu ence adopted a new approach to learn ing one which promoted free in te ll ectual inquiry and reshyjecled the influence of the state an d religion Despite the moveshyments vast scope few topics were as vigorously discussed as the subject of female education T he changing conception of the mind as no longer constrained by physical attributes opened a new conception of the mind as a sex shyless entity Therefore wom ens education became the subject of m uch debate in polite society spurring contribut ions from feshymale and male thinkers on both sides of the discu ss ion Womens access to scientific knowlcdge proved particularly controversial as it cha llenged a long-established perception of womens role as lim shyited to the domain of domestic ity
owhere has thi ~ challenge been so eloquently pu t as in words of British poet Elizabeth Toilet in her 1724 her poem Hypatia What cruel Laws depress the female KindTo humble Ca res and servile Ta sks confild That haughty Mall IIllriFald and alone May boast the world or Science all his owwl As barbarous Tyrants to secure their Sway Conclude that ignorallce will best obey
Whilst men may have been harbarous tyrants and attempted to clamp down on womens parshyticipation in scientific disciplines lu ckily th ey were not entirely suc shycessful in doing so History proshyvides LI S with a few precious exshyamples l1f women who refused to bow to blind ignorance and tbus su cceeded in rising above amashyteur status to become serious conshytributors to the field of scient ific knowledge
Of these the only one about whom much contemporary inshyformati o n as well as a substanshytial body of original writings has survived is Emilie Marquise du Chatelet She is most famous for having been Voltaires mistress but in fa ct this does great injusshytice not only to he r independent character but also to her intellecshytual brilliance and considerable sc ientific contribution hilst she remain ed all bu t inv isible to histo rical aCCo wlts before her asshysociation with Voltaire in 1733 during tJ1e next fifteen years of her life she proved herself a worshythy match to the brilliant French philosopher Living mainly in Pa rh or in her country estate at Cirey to where she retreated with Voltaire she wrote and published a book on the metaphysics of natshyural science (institutions de physhysique) an essay on the nature of fire and neat (pisserta tion sur la nature ct propagation du feu) and two short pieces on the problem of melsu ri ng physical force She also co- authored anonymously Voltaires popularisation of Newshytoni an physic s for which she was resp onsi bl e for most of th e mathshyematical calculations an d to top her numerous achievements in 1748 she produced a translation of Newtons PrincipiI mathemati shyca with a commentary which was published posth Wll ously and is sti l1 used as the standard translashy
tion of h is work in France today In 1835 th e Royal Astro nomical
Society in London made a breakshythrough by awarding honorar y m~mbership to a woman Caroshylin e Herschel She became famous for her discove ry o f ncw nebu lae in 1783 (Androme da and Cetus) and for bei ng the fi rst woman to di scover a comet In hOnOltr of Herschel the SOCiety made what was perhaps the fi rst sta temen t on equal opportuuities in science While tests of astronomi cal merit sho uld in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to th ose of a man the sex of the former shou ld no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acshyknowledgement wh ich might be hel d due to the latter But whi lst modem biographers have used these numerous firsts to turn Caroline Herschel in to a female icon of sci ence it is importan t to note that she wa~ rewarded not for her own discoveries but beshycause she recorded compi led and recalc ulated th ose of her brother vVilliam Herschel
The very natu re of he r brothers research concen trated on collectshying and classif)Ti ng large numb ers of stars and in th is Ca rolines cataloguing skills were of ceotral importanc e Lacking her pati en ce and meticul ous att ention to deshytall he became heavily reliant on her sci enti fi c inpu t Therefo re her im portance in her brothers research was far greater than most of their contemporaries realised yet she never theless allowed her efforts to further his reputation
Finally th e faScinating case of Laura Bassi (1711-177S) shows how some rare women were able to forge thems elves a career in scientific fields during the En shylightenm ent Bassi was gifted with a capacity for learning consi d shyered so extraordillar y in a wom an that it just ified a concession for a
university degree in philosophy Thereafter she was awarded an entrance to Bolognas lstituto delle Scicnze later to be admitted as an honorary member of the college and fl naUy assigned the position of lecturer in physics at the presshytigious Universi ta eli Bologna the first of its kin d in Europe Scholshyar~ from aU over Eu rope would attend Bassis lectu res on Newtoshynian physics and sJle became the envy oflearned women across the contin ent
These scientific women came fre)m upper or middle cla ss backshygrounds and whilst th eir ach ieveshyments were not replicated to the same extent by women in the lowshyer echelons of society a degree of sci entific and pract ical k novledge never theless took hold Daughters of clergymen particularly in the dissenters tnldition and certain widows who were made to tak e up their husbands trade after th ei r death became learned women and hi ghly ski lled T he famous case of lIlada me Cliquot who in 1805 took over her husbands company after h is death is a ch arming exshyample Hi s enterprise whi ch had
een variously involved in bankshying wool trading and Champagne producing th ri ved under her di shyrec tion and eventu ally became the brand La Vcuve C liquol She is directly accred ited will) a great breakthro ugh in champagne han shydling that made mass produc tion of th e wine possible an d estabshylished the producers reputation of excellence which continues to the present day
T hese examples demonstrate that women were capable of takshying part in scientific debates and developments but it should be stressed that their contr ibution was li mited Womens access to sci entific knowledge was dependshyent on wealth class and cru cially on an association with men who would encourage scientific en shydeavours This last condition is all the more important when one considers the institutionshyalised chauvinism that women continued to experience during the eighteenth century Throughshyout Europe with the exception of
orthern Italy un i7ersi ties and scientific academi es such as the Roya l In stitution in London were closed to women
19
Furthermore whilst the enliglltshyenmenl undeniably brought an improvement to the female conshydition entrenched conservatism in contemporary attitudes even amongst enlightened th inkers such as Rou sseau meant that feshymale scientists were not only ex shy
tremely rare but also str uggled to be accepted in m al e- d ominated
circles T llere was a general lack or even absence of formal rec()gshynit ion of womens involvement in scientific publications For ex shyample Marie Lavoisier th e gifted wife of Fren ch chemist Antoine
Lavois ie r in now recog-ni sed as having carried out many calculashytions and observations in her husshyband s Elements of Chemistry The original m an uscript of h is work contai ns evid ence of her notes and comments yet the printed version fail s to ackn owledge her contribution entirely Even in be tter-documented cases such as that of Lavois ier it very difficult fo r the modern -day h isto rian to pin -point the individu al accomshypli shments female scientists in coll aborative works
However one can argue quite
confidently the instrumental rol e that women p layed in th e disshysem in ation and subsequent adshy
van cement o f sci ent ific ideas T hey were g rea t m ediators often translating simplifying and illusshytrat ing com plex scienti fic works Their versions of these texts were
generally aimed at a female read shyership a n otable exam ple bein g EmiJie d u Chatelet s translation of Francesco Algarottis Ne wtonishy(Ism for Ladies (1737) These were often read in wid er circles as they were clear illustrated and easier to understand T his helped the sp read of scientific id eas the im shy
plied message being that if science was s imple enough for a woman to unders tand than anyone could understand it Furthermore women facilitated the populari sashytion of science by hosting disc usshy
~ions in salons or holding p rivate exhibitions in their homes where gues ts cou ld appreciate and marshyvel at discoveries such the Leyden jar and static electrici ty These so shycial gatherings were particularly important when one considers science and the En lightenment as a wider social phenomenon
as opposed to a string of isolated discove ries mad e by individual mal e scientists
There is a tragiC element un shyderlying this whole s to ry Recent studies led by historian s such as Patr ic ia Fara have attempted to give a clearer and fairer in terp re shytation of womens contribution to science d uring thi s per iod
However history has b ee n unfair and insensi tive in its representashytion of female scientists Consid shyer ing the wealth of literature on Science and Enlightenment it is quite re markable tha t so little nas b een written about the women who took part Givmiddoten th e sparseshyness of original sources and the strong m ale bias wit h which most existing d ocumentation is writshyten it is very difficult impossible
perhaps to accu rately assess the Signifi cance o f womens contribushytion to the scientific fi eld
Feminists have often rewritshyten the story of these women to underline independen t achieve shyments and contributions mad e in a bid to break down prejudic es again st their sex But when does a shift of emphasis become an exagshy
geration a disto rt iongt Scientific
women have been concealed for so long that it is very tempting to tum them into unsung heroines It would be unju st to retell these wom ens stories in a way which
forces them to conform to the ideal s of m odern day fem inists Alte rna tivey we mll st appreciate their contr ibutions on their own meri t
Bibliograpby
Fara Patricia Pandoras Breeches Women Science amp Power in the Enlightenm ent (Great Britain Pimlico 2004)
Gardiner Linda Wo men ill Scishyetlce From French Women al7d
the Age of El7ligiztenmellt ed S Spencer (USA Indi ana University Press 1984 )
Bragg Melvyn P Fara K O Brian amp j Hawley In Our Time Wo men alld Science ill the E11 ligi7tenll7ellt LondOl (BBC Radio 4 4th vemb er 2010)
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
12 Retrospect
THE COLD War caused the worlds superpowers to forge some of h isto rys m ost unlikely of unshyions O ne such union was thaI of the USA with the leader of South Vietnam from ]954 to 1963 Ngo Dinh Diem and one that was arshyguably the first step on the path to full-scale American military in shyvolvement in Vietnam
Following Fr ances withdrawal from Indochina in 1954 Vietnam was divided in two along the 17th Parallel with Ho Chl Minhs C omshymuni sts ruling the North and the French sponsored democracy in the South with nation al elections planned for 1956 to reunite the COUlltry Fearful of communism the Eisenhower administration threw their support behind the staunchly anti -communist Diem in the bope that he would form a strong government that would be sympathetic to America The union would end almost a decade later in t he most ignominious of ways
At fi rs t there seemed to be several good reasons to suppor t Diem he was zealously anti-communist but aho exceedingly nationalistic and anti-French m aking it easier for the Americans to support h im without contradicting the if own an ti-imshyperialist rhetor ic He had travelled widely in the US an d had expressed a desire to work with Americans to build a new Vietnam
However from the start it was eVident that Diems belief in democracy was dubious as he stead fastly refu sed to conform to American political ideals The US
had entered th e two world wars to in President Woodrow Wilsons wor ds make the world safe fo r deshymocracy wh ilst the conflict wi th the Soviet Union was defi ned by Americas beUef in democracy and capitalism The US expounded the ideals of democracy over the tyranshynies o f authori tarian govern ment Diem refused to m ake democratic refo rms in his country
1 hen D iem took power he faced a bar rage of problems an undershydeveloped and antiquated gove rn shymental infras tructu re with staff who lacked experience in adminisshytmtion a country ravaged by war an immat ure agricult ural econoshymy With US help Diem thwarted several attempted coup detats in th e first year of his presidency An even bigger test of Diems leadershyship arrived in 1955 willl the Sec t Crisis where the mllitarised sects the Cao Dru the Hoa Hao and the Vletnamese Mafia the Binh Xu)rshyen joined forces to wage wllr on the government in Saigon Diem looked to be lOsing control and at one point US Ambassador to Vishyetnanl General Coll ins convinced Eisenhower that Diem should be removed A m iraculous and unshyexpected victory agrunst the Binh Xuyen ensured Diem stayed in
power and retained American supshyport Encouraged by the American delight at this victory Djem began to consolidate his power
W hen D iem rehlsed tJ) par ticipat e in the scheduled na tional election s to reunite the two Vietnams the US supported Il is decis io n to do so effectively ensu ring tb e long term separation between South and Nor th Vietnam The popular ity of the Communist leader Ho Chj Mi nh meant he would have swept these elections causing the US to forego their politi cal beliefs
With Diem established the US proceeded to pour rud in to his regime with $ 1 bill ion spent on economic and m ilitary assistance between 1955-1 961 Diems govshyernment squandered the aid refusshyin g to refo rm the army and governshyment to fit a democratic model
vThilst Diem prud li p service to the Am ericans democratic deshym ands reform vas always an illushyion D iem and rus three brothers
con trolled bot h the exec utive and the legi sla tive branches of govern shym enl - dissenters were immediateshyly pu rged Diems poli cies towards the villages d isregarded centu r ies of tradition and in dependence stirring up deep discon tent Any expression of th is was dealt with as George Herring puts it in a man shyner that would have made J Edgar H oover blanch as thousands of dissidents were incarcerated in reshyeducation centres Such was the USs fear of communism that they turned a bli nd eye to these arroci shyt ies
Alex Thomson explores the ideological sacrifices of Americas Vietnam policy
Better the Diem you know
In 1960 the new Kennedy adshyminis tration inherited the commitshyment to Diem and with Kennedys pledges to get tough itwould have been impossible to withdraw supshyport for Diem and so the governshyUen t increased th e aid to stabilise h im whils t begging him ineffectu shyally to refo rm Most Americans at this time could
not have even located Vietnam on a map but the issue was forced in to the nations consciousness ill May 1963 with th e Buddh ist Cri shysis A devout Catholic Diem had oppressed the Buddhist majority of the countr) Protests in the city of Hue saw government troops fire into the crowd killing a number of protestors sparking widespread reaction around South Vietnam cu lmin ating in the n otorious selfshyim molations of Buddhist monks which h it headlines worldwide
ot only was Diem embarrassshying the American government on the in ternational stage but with the disastrous defeat at Ap Bac in January 1963 it became increasi ngshyly apparent that Diem was also an ineffectual bulwark against comshymunism a fac t compounded by Diems covert attempts to negotiate a settlemen t wi th Ho Chi Min h After the Budd hist Crisis several generals of the South Vietnamese army approached tlle US Ambasshysador in Vietnam Henry Cabot Lodge Jr about US reachons to a military coup Convinced that the war against communism in Vietshynam co uld not be won with Diem as leader Lodge replied that wruJs t they would not support a coup they would do nothirlg to oppose it effectively signing Diems death warrant Thus on November 1st 1963 the generals successfully deposed Diem who was then brushytally murdered in the back of a van after seeking sanctuary in a Cathoshylic church
President Kennedy said that ~iem is Diem and hes the best weve go This is an accurate swnshymary of the unlikely alliance beshytween D iem and the US Authorishytarian and despotic Diem was ana thema to the American polit ishycal system but it was ironical]y the USs fear of another foreign politi shycal system on the left that caused them to create so unlikely an allishyance
13
Practical impiety Hamish Kinnear discusses the unthinkshyable Franco-Ottoman Alliance of 1536
IN 1536 an alliance was finalised that was met with disbelief and disgust throughout Europe The union of France and the Ottoman Empire against their mutual enshyemy - Charles V - was the first alshyliance between a major Christian and nnn-Christian power since the crusades
Europe was on the verge of great change at the outset of the sixshyteenth century The introduction of gunpowder was revolutionisshying warfare and the printing press enabled the distribution of mateshyrial opposed to the ruling elite The fiercely anti-derical speeches of Martin Luther and his sympashythisers initiated the Reformation destroying the medieval idea of a united Christendom with the Pope as its nominal head Increasshyingly European states began to act in their own interests and ignored ing the legitimacy of Islam Pracshy common knowledge an alliance the purpose of defence as opposed
the demands of the pope Four ticality however often triumphs with the Great Turk was not only to a specifically offensive crusade
great historical figures also came over ideology unlikely it was unthinkable Henry VIII of England struck a
to the fore in the early 16th centushy Interestingly both Francis I and The alliance however held blow to Christian unity by breakshy
ry Henry VII of England Francis Charles V had argued that if they benefits for both parties France ing away from the papal authorshy
I of France Charles V of Spain and became Holy Roman Emperor for was given an ally that posed a seshy ity and establishing the Church of
Suleiman the Magnificent of the they were both candidates for the rious threat to Charles V for the England allowing his marriage to
Ottoman Empire The stage was elective office they would lead a Ottoman Empire of Suleiman the Anne Boleyn The greatest atrocshy
set for a conflict that involved all Crusade against the Great Turk Magnificent was at the height of ity occurred when the underpaid
the major powers of Europe one This promise invoked a desire to its power Fresh from victory over and mutinous troops of Charles
in which the French were the fi rst return to the perceived Christian the Egyptian Mamluke Sultanate V in the search of plunder sacked
to realise that the days of a united unity of the Middle Ages where Suleiman wished to make himself Rome and imprisoned the Pope
medieval Christendom were over the nations of Europe allied to Caesar of Europe An alliance with This event more than anything take back the Holy Land After the French was in the interests of else signified the demise of medishyCharles V took the title however the Ottomans as it provided them eval Christendom In this atmosshyFrancis wasted no time in declarshy with a military partner and a finshy phere of widespread anti-papal ing war on his fellow Christian ancier to help invade Hapsburg feeling the France-Ottoman allishynation The subsequent invasion lands More importantly for Suleishy ance comes as less of a surprise of Italy ended in disaster for the man the alliance kept the states of The impious alliance of the French at the Battle of Pavia durshy Christian Europe divided French and Ottomans then does ing which Francis I was captured not seem so scandalous when
By 1519 France was in despershy by the forces of Charles V To seshy placed in the context of its time
ate need of allies The domain of cure his release from prison Franshy However it should come as no
the Hapsburg ruler Charles V who cis was forced to sign the humillishy surprise that it was received in
had inherited the rule of both the ating Treaty of Madrid in which this negative fashion There was
Spanish Empire and the Holy Roshy he renounced his claims to Italy evidently a form of European
man Empire almost surrounded Flanders and Burgundy Charles nostalgia for the days of the Crushy
the French Kingdom of Francis I V had risen to unrivalled power in sades in which Christendom was
The French also had to deal with Europe united in a common cause even
Henry VIIIs England whose arshy During Franciss imprisonment though the military expeditions to
mies still remained in Normandy the French court had sent a deleshy Despite the reactions of horror the Holy Land had only been seshy
and coffers funded Charles milishy gation to the court of Suleiman the to the Franco-Ottoman alliance riously pursued centufies before
tary expeditions To the French Magnificent to discuss a treaty of that were evident throughout Eushy Francis Is alliance with the Otshy
advantage a new power was rising friendship These talks resulted in rope the actions of other Christian tomans was a stark indicator that
in the East The Ottoman Empire an alliance that was met with disshy rulers could hardly be considered the Crusader days were long past
of Suleiman the Magnificent was belief and disgust by the other Eushy pious If a pious ruler was one War from then on became comshy
expanding through the Balkans at ropean states Charles V began a who acted for the unity of Chrisshy mon between Christian States as
an alarming rate and posed a great vitriolic campaign of propaganda tendom engaged in crusading a means to maintain the balance
threat to the domains of Charles against the French deeming the activities and respected both the of power or achieve superiority
V Yet an alliance with this major union the sacrilegious union of temporal and spiritual power of in Europe Christendom was finshy
Islamic power was still considered the Lily and the Crescent Indeed the Pope then Charles V and Henshy ished The unlikely Franco-Ottoshy
blasphemous by the kingdoms of given that Francis had strongly ry the VII failed on all these reshy man Alliance however lasted for
Europe as by acknowledging the supported a crusade against the quirements Admittedly Charles V centuries
existence of the Ottoman Empire Ottomans a pretence he mainshy spent much of his life fighting the
the French were in effect accept- tained even after the pact became Ottomans but this was more for
14 Retrospect
c e Old Ship of Zion Catherine Me Gloin examines a widely forgotten aspect of American History THE STRUGGLE for AfricanshyAmerican rights iJl the United States is a long and contested road Ve are repeatedly exposed to narratives that stress key leaders and religious f1 gureshyheads Arguably no discourse would be complete without an analysis of tbe role of MartiQ Luther King Jr the decisions of th e Supreme Court or tbe varying levels of comm itment that each president expressed throughout this tuibulent ruld mythologised peshyriod in Americ1l history
However one element of the strugshygle for bLack dvil rights that has been often underplayed in popular accounts increasingly based on bioshygrap hical and oral testimony is the role of the new labour movement during the 19305 and J94Ds In the
space bern the post-World far red scare a reactionary phenomenon that disabled socialism as a tool for social advancement bl1Ck unjonisID 3Jld potentially the Communist Party ofshyfered African-Ameri cans a wllque opportunity to unite to fight oppresshysion Unionism offered the poorest black workers a political voice one they fel t was [[lUted by elite middleshyclass civil rights organisations such as the NAACP [n this respect the Communist Party can be considered as a viable alternative for some groups within tll euro civil rights movement and as a suitablevehide for civil rights adshyvancemel1t
The h istory of black organh ed lashybour in the South has only begun in the last thirty years to receive du attention in the historiography of American labour movements gainshying increasing recogni tion from lashybour and social historians Perhaps it has traditionally been ampi de-lined because of an ideological aversion to socialism deeply ingrained into the American psyche Alternatively its diminished prominence may be explained by the compl~ities of periodisation It is commonly acshyknowledged by maIl) h istorians who dorninate the field of civil rights that the movement characterised by cross-national di rect action began in the late 19505 Morc specifically the
birth of the movement is often seen as a consequence of the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and the Brown decision of the Supreme Court the plevious year Thus any event which pre-dates tJlis revered trajectory is generally dismissed as a pre-requisite and subsequently garshyners less attention than it perhaps warrants The widening of industrial w1ionism to Southern blacks during the first half of the twentieth century has traditionally been treated as a pre-cursor yet it deserves a more prominent position not only for the wider organ isational implications it held flr the development of the llovement but as acknowledgement afits improbable success
N l an alysis of labour Qrganisation and class structure amongst the varyshying groups active in the civil rights m ovement serves to convey what is often lost til e tight for equality was not solely [ought by biack elites or enlightened whites but poor workshying class African-Americans a1SQ
played a leading role These groups although united in th eir cause did not un iformly a gree at every stage but could be divided by societal catshyegQries other than race
It is important to note that the Southern labour force were distincshytive in their anti-union tradition Even as organised labour became increasingly entrencbed in the North (following the National Labour Relashytions Act 1935) the South as Robert Zieger argues rem ained an anti-lashybour island Much of the historiogshyraphy stresses the traditionally Ilostile relationship between organised lashybour and African-Americans Meier
and Bracey assert that blacks were susp icious of wlions who typically discriminated against them Thus unionism was seen as the tool of white racist workers rather than the site of tenlpered racial Ultagonisms in the hce of a common adversary shyexploitative industries The American Federation of Labour (AFL) supportshyed craft unions that created raCially exd usive iobs often driving blacks from secured employment opportushynities in order to give them to unemshyployed whites A symptom of segreshygateJ society this was lot a qUEstion of education more a simple fUllction of the caste system in operation in the South that largely kept black labour unorgnnised yet was held as a necessishyty for business prosperity Any efforts towards unionisatioJ1 were usuall thwarted by employer intimidation police brutality or deep-rooted susshypicions of unions Moreover a cheap and ready supply of white and black vmrkerswn ited the power of strike action African Americans had been used as strike-breakers ill the heavy industries for decades
However the 19305 heralded the widening of labour organisation in part a response to post-World War I migration to northern industrial cities persistent inequalit ies within some of the New Deal programmes and the devastating financial impact of the Great Depression which was disproportionately felt by black workshyers Therefore it may be argued that the erosion of the distinctive union free character of Southern labour had begun
Attitudes towards labour organ ishysa60n shifted during the 1930s This may havc been a consequence of a more general swing to the left durshying the period as evidenced by the re-alignment of the black vote away from thc RepUblicans tovards the Democrat Party Mkhael Honey main tains that the late 1930s and early 1940$ promised huge change a consegum ce of war industrialisation and unionisation The founding of organisations such as the Congress of Industrial Organ isations (CIO) point
Lo increased co-open t-ion between Souther wh ite and black workers ruld an albeit temporary shift away from the attitudes of the segregation era
he CIO was born out of the hardshyships of the depression years and its inter-racial organising strategy crul be ccn as cridence ofa morc co-operashy
tive approach to labour organisat ion than is tradi tiol)ally given credit in the historiography Ihe CTO sought African -American recruits and fo shycussed its unionisiog efforts on secshytors with large black work forces such as steel and meatln their promotion of inter-racial un ionism such orshyganisatiom acted lts a bridge between the black community and white workers although this function was more successful in the North where African-Americans he1d a limited degree of political and economic power Bi-raciaJ unionism provided the philosophy of equal rights as well as the means to augment ~ocial conditions and alter the relationship between worker and boss a source of daily oppression in the lives of many black workers For African-Amerishycan labour this was a great step toshywards achieving social and economic equality
However no unionising organisashytion was free from tht constraints of racist social customs particularly in the SQuth where ero union leaders would rather capitulate to opposition tJ1an lose members and where white workers continuously strove to asshysert their superiority over their black colleagues In many ways the CI achieved their initial economic goals and succeeded by 1940 in persuadshying whites to join and work alongside African-Americans However they failed to farce white elites to accept black demands for an end to racial wage differences Nonetheless allishyances between black and white workshyers civil r ights groups and left-Wing New Dealers had been established benefitting the African-Anlerican struggle against economic discrimishynation
11le influence of the left was evident
15
in the leading unions thal were also committed to equality like the CIO as well as the United Packinghouse Workers of America who organised meatpackers in Chicago and Texas Whilst these unions engaged a lot of black workers as members they also had a significant communist pres shyence The impact of the Communist Party and its role in intluencing both inter-racial unionism and the civil rights movement is a contentious isshyue Their rhetoric and its evolution
from calls for a separate Black Reshypublic to talk of a more united-front is an area that provokes much conshytroversy Was it conceived in order to subvert labour organisations directly or to control them from behind the scenes Alternatively a cynical iew of the motivations behind Commushynist Part) involvement can be temshypered The Part) recognised the revshyolutionar y potential of industrial and agricultural workers and thereforc called for African- American sclfshydetermination as a strategy whereby white American acceptance of blacks right to self-government was the goal Thus white workers would be able to conquer their raci sm and a united working class would result
Traditional interpretations sugshygest that unionism was treated with
hostility by all blacks we must not be blind to tlle differences amongst the black community and the fact tbat they were far from a homogshyenous group hils the Communist Party becanle the rivals of the black elite arld middle-class organisations such as the NAACI~ the poor black working class were attracted to the ideology and the Party in incrcasing numbers throughout tlle depression and during the New Deal era degThey prOided the black working classes with an alternative vehicle for social protest Furthermore communism introduced many blacks to world politics enabling them to place their own struggle in a global context demonstrating the roots of poverty and ra05m
This educated the non -reading classes and gave them a sense of pride something many fel t was deshynied to them by tlle black eli tes of the
AACP whom it has been argued had unwisely assumed a pastoral poshysition as spokesperson for all blacks Moreover the Party challenged both white supremacy and the bourgeOiS politics of the black mjddle-class A Philip Randolph - considered a sooalist and largely hailed as the spokesman for black workers after his success with the Pullman porshy
ters of the 1920s and thc recogni tion of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters by tbe A FL in 1937 - attacked WE B Du Bois and the NAACP for neglecting the needs of the AfricanshyAmerican in favour of bourgeois inshyterests Fostering an atmosphere of debate and discussion communism helped to educate and empower the black working-classes For the black elites it was an unwelcome SQurce of agitation as communists began to enter into the realm of black bourshygeois politics Thus support for the Communist Party divided civil rights campaigners and highlighted undershylying class antagoni~m
The involvement of the commushynist-led ILD in the trial of the Scottsshyboro boys demonstrates the resentshyments and the growing frustrat ion with the NAACP and other black middle-class organisations Failure to secure Significant federal anti -lynchshying legislation ineffective in helping desperate blacks devastated by the depression and limited by thei r OWll political powerlessness ill the face of economic decline amongst tllCir own elite members the NAACPs imposhytence was made apparent during the 1931 Scottsboro boys trial In Alashybama nine black men aged thirteen to n ineteen were charged with the
rape of two while women travelling on the san1e train as them and were tried convicted and sentenced to death in three days WhcU1C~r or not the IlD simply offered their support and advice or they ID U$cled in with shrill bravado their involvement earned the Com mullist Party black support
They were portrayed as defenders of the race whilst wltites chose to view them as outsiders and defendshyers of rapists
Interpretations of communisms impact on the Qjl rights moveshyment during the 1930s var y II may be maintained tllat membership to the Party and adherence to commushynist ideology was limited ultim ateJy most blacks wanted to work within the American system and reap any benefits accrued hy the programmes of the New Deal Africall-Americaru were comm itted to these me3iur and Similarly to Presiden t Roosevelt fe-clec ting him for a th ird term in 1940 Thus communism was a marshyginal force that many blocks chose to
ignore as a vehid c for social protest However it is important to recognise
its significance in the Lives of many African-Americans who for the first time were organised in to tradeullions on relatively equal terms t() those of their whil-e co-workers and were able to understand their $truggle through the framework of a shared commushynist ideology Communists fo rmed the central pillar to trade un ion acshytivism and 0 0 inter-raciali sm This new socialism in the barber shop a broadened ID1d popular sense off self empowered many black vOrkers to fight against economic and social disshycrimination in a way that seemed to
speak more directly to them and their social s tanding than the rhetoric esshypoused by the black-bourgeoisie
Bibliograpby
Leslie H Fishel Jr The Negro and dle New Deal in Twentieth Ce1ltury America Recent Interpretations ed Bernstein and Matusow (1 972)
Robert H Zieger (eei) Orgal ised Labour in the TWeIIlielh Centw y Soulh (1991)
Robin DG Kelley Hammer and Hoe Alabama Conlllllmists During the Great Depression (l990)
16 Retrospect
OFfEN OVERSHADOWED by the tumultuous events that were to weep Europe in the late 19305 and
194Ds the Spanish Civil War (1936shy1939) remairu a pivotal moment in twentieth century European history TIle conflict divided families towns and polarised political opinion across the continent and beyond It resulted in an estimated 500000
deaths and witnessed the establishshyment of a Fascist dictatorship in Spain under General Franco which ould last for almost forty years
The conflict has been a fruitful jeC of historical scholarship and many explanations as to why the fragile democracy of the Second Reshypublic collapsed have been offered Did the RepublJcaJlS Lose because of a lack of fo reign support given to them but that the Nationalists were lucky to receive or was their defeat a result of the weakness of Republican mili tias oin the face of the discipline of the Spanish army
In order to ascertain which if eishy
ther of the aforementioned suggesshytions WdS most significan t it is imshyportant to examine the patchwork of ideologies that the Popular Front composed of the Marxlst POU1vl (Partido Obrero Unification Marxshyista) Socialist UGT (Union General de Trabajores) Communist PSU (PartitSocialiSta UnificalCatalwlya) and Anardllst CNT (Conf-ederacion
acional del Trabajo) Furthermore the effect of foreign intervention on relations within the National Front and upon the contlict asa whole must be taken into consideration
From the outset it would be fai r to suggest that the Republicans lacked the same opportunities as the Nashytionalists The material support offered by the Soviet Union WJS
ultimately to be a hindrance insofar as it catalysed factionalism within the National Front In the opposite camp Adolf Hitler was in reality not much more supportive of the Nationalists than foseph Stalin had been of the Republicans and it is likeshyly that he like Stalin merely wanted the war to continue as a distraction for the estern democracies Argushyably it was MUSSOWlis support that would be key to the Nationalist side He was adan1ant that the emergence of another Fascist state on the model of Italy could only be to his political advantage As it turns out Italy reshyceived relatively little in return from Franco after the war
Despite the fact that the Repuhlishycans were on the side of the legally elected government they were necr allowed to purchase arms from the major suppliers The United States was pursuing a policy of non-inshytervention after World War I and
Britain and France followed suit re1 uctant to upset the political stashybili) of Europe at the time It was decided that neither side would be given military aid under the NODshyIntervention Pact However this pact was then widely and blatantly flaunted by the dictatorships of Eu shyrope Italy Germany an d the Soviet Union The purchasing of foreign arms was poli tically charged as it was tantamount to subscription to the ideology of the dictatorship that was selling them TIle fact that only the Fascist dictatorships of Europe and the USSR were willing to so brashy
j zenly ignore the Non-Intervention pact was to have an enormous imshypact within the Spanish Left as will be later discussed
The aid of the Soviet Union was useful to the Republican cause insoshyfar that the weapons they provided were far superior to any the Republishycans already Pc)ssessed whilst Soviet aircraft were used for reconnaissance missions which were central to the militias military tactics However the weapons were not given to all parties within the Popular Front but were directed at only a handful Mostly they were given to the Socialists of the UCT and tlle Communists of the PSUC which stirred discontent amongst the other parties who were using old and inferior weaponry to that of their fellow comarades
The Civil War polarised Span isJ political discourse into those who were opposed to Francos regime and those who were not The Republican fOrces therefore contained many disparate political groups from moderate republicans to Anarchists Trotskyites and Stalinists Conseshyquently the Soviet aid exacerbated internal tensions within the Republishycan forces between the loosely assoshyciated left wing political groups The acceptance of Soviet weapons was a dangerous move as it allowed the access of agents of the Couummist Party of Soviet Russia into Spanish affairs someth ing that was to prove decisive in the outcome of the war
The Spanish Civil War was a conflict which could be referred to as a battle between reactionary forces of conshyservativism and progressive revolushytionaries Though many have claim ed that the Nationalists were fasc ists British Titer George Orwell who was fighting in Spain at the time along side the Republicans wrote of the Nationshyalists that their ideology was closer to that of feudalism The Nationalists were composed chiefly of members of the army members of the clergy and leaders of international business all united in their common distrust of the working classes Their victory in the war would certainly jeopardise the livshying conditions and dghts of working class people resulting in the deterIorashytion labour relations a Catholic crackshydown of secularism and the army would suppress any dissent
In contrast to the Nationalists clarshyity oJ goals the Republicans seemed to all be working towards different ends TIle objectives of moderate reshyforming socialists and the Anarchist
NT were very difficult to reconshycUe Furthermore the Soviet belief in a revol utionary vanguard instigatshying and leading the proletariat was at odds with populist movements such as Anarchism that took hold in Spain With such differences in polshyicy it is hard to envisage what could force these parties to work together for any length of time
Part of the problem with compreshyhending the Spanish Civil War comes from the spectrum of ideologies within the broad alliance of the Reshypublican forces The ideologies were further apart than could be counteshynanced and particularly so after the Conununist Party decided to impose itself upon the revolution that the Marxists and Anarchists were trying to fashion themselves in Barcelona In his book Hom age to Catalonia Orwell describes Barcelona Practically eveshyry building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists Every shop md cafe had an inscription saying it had been collectivised even the bootblacks had been collectivised md their boxes painted red and blacK The extent of the social change seems almost hyshyperbolic particularly when O rwell stresses that even the bootblacks were part of a trade union The Comshymunist Party however was to disrupt this workers paradise in May of j 937 with the attempted repossesshysion of a telephone exchange that was under Anarchist control 111is sparked a conflict that lasted several days and threatened the stability of the entire Republic General Franco who said he planned it after the Communists
ran newspaper stories blaming the Marxists for starting the fight used disunity in Barcelona to his own ends Being the largest party with the most well-developed press organisations the Communists managed to direct the aftermath of the situation and use it to discredit a competing party Disunity among the Republican side flourished as the AnarclUsts caught on to the Communist attempts to discredit the ]vIandst faction Though they were not persecuted to the same extent though their collectives were broken up to increase efficiency they realised thal they were fighting for
mebody who was n ot sympathetic of their ideology and who tney could not trust The Republican t~1Ctions
vigour started to deteriorate after the May Days riot of 1937
One might ask the question why did the Conununists try and reposshysess an Anarchist building It would be naive of them to assume they could take it vithout a fight unless they disregarded the fact that all Anarshychist doctrine of the em was against government coercion It bardly seems that there might be any great gains in taking one building even if it did allow Anarchists to eaesdrop on telephone conversations The sudden megaloshymania of the Communists seems to have sprung from advice given by the Communist Party of Soviet Russhysia The tactical value of the telephone exchange was not worth risking the integIity of the Republican coalishytiDn The PSUCs party line that At present nothing matters but vinning the war is especially telling
Arguably it was the fragile alliance of circumstance within the Republishycan movement exacerbated by Soviet Aid that only reached certain fuctions wbicb resulted in the collapse of the Spanish Republic Though the weapshyOIlS helped fOT a while they could not Sllstain an entire nation with the limishytations placed upon their deployment Anarchists did not trust the help of Soviet Russia and neither did they trust the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain or any of its regional counshyterparts Tnere were other culprits howeveJ in the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic
It would be wrong to suggest that disWlity on the part of the Republi shycans was all that preven ted them from victor)l The wider European context of the conflict was also fundamenshytal in the collapse of the Republican Movement Gen11any and Russia nevshyer gave sufficient help to either side to let it decisivel) win at any pace but it appears that both used the war to their own advantage Germany tested out their bombers on Spanish tovms such as Guernica and the Soviet Union
17
used the war as a distraction while it increased its level of militarization
In conclusion then the conmct polarised Spanish political discourse around the two totalitarim cxtrerrtishyties of Fascism and Stalinism This resulted in an internally divided and factionalised Republicm force which struggled to retain its integrity in the fuce ofa destructive internal feud The feud was sparked b) the actions of an externalgovernment hence it ccruld be argued that the collapse of tbe second republic was was more to do vith the international context of the conflict as it provided both the ex1rem e ideolohY and the cause of fTiction vithin the Republican movement
BibUography
Qmell George Orwell hi Spain (Penshyguin London2001)
Thomas Hugh The Spanish Civil War 4th edition (Pellguin London 2003)
Beevor Anthony The Battlefor SpainThe Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (WampN London 2006)
Taylor AJP The OrigirtS of the Second World War (Penguin London 1991)
18 Retrospect
Sh may be the Reason Frances Rromagc explores the often overlooked contribution of female scientists during the Enlightenment
FOR MANY centuries befo re the seventeenth Aristotles concepshytion of the bod y and the mind as insepa rable matte r domin ated Western thinking It was used to justify the subjugation of wom en and their subsequent excl us ion from so -called masculine activi shyties
Anatomical differen ces and hormonal systems provi ded new rationales for keeping women below men in the intellectual hishyerarchy Chauvinism expressed it self in every walk of life from religi on and education to science and medicine Even the common shyest of medical symptoms such as nerVOllsness irritability and loss of appetite for foo d or sex were generally diagnosed in women as the result of female Hysteria - a problem deriving from the hysshytna or uterus Science which explored the worl d outside the domestic sphere remai ned an ex shyclusively masculine discipline up until the eighteenth cent ury
Then came th e Enlightenment Enlightenment philosophers were infl uenced by Descartes theori es on critical thinking and Lock es empir icism and as a conseshyqu ence adopted a new approach to learn ing one which promoted free in te ll ectual inquiry and reshyjecled the influence of the state an d religion Despite the moveshyments vast scope few topics were as vigorously discussed as the subject of female education T he changing conception of the mind as no longer constrained by physical attributes opened a new conception of the mind as a sex shyless entity Therefore wom ens education became the subject of m uch debate in polite society spurring contribut ions from feshymale and male thinkers on both sides of the discu ss ion Womens access to scientific knowlcdge proved particularly controversial as it cha llenged a long-established perception of womens role as lim shyited to the domain of domestic ity
owhere has thi ~ challenge been so eloquently pu t as in words of British poet Elizabeth Toilet in her 1724 her poem Hypatia What cruel Laws depress the female KindTo humble Ca res and servile Ta sks confild That haughty Mall IIllriFald and alone May boast the world or Science all his owwl As barbarous Tyrants to secure their Sway Conclude that ignorallce will best obey
Whilst men may have been harbarous tyrants and attempted to clamp down on womens parshyticipation in scientific disciplines lu ckily th ey were not entirely suc shycessful in doing so History proshyvides LI S with a few precious exshyamples l1f women who refused to bow to blind ignorance and tbus su cceeded in rising above amashyteur status to become serious conshytributors to the field of scient ific knowledge
Of these the only one about whom much contemporary inshyformati o n as well as a substanshytial body of original writings has survived is Emilie Marquise du Chatelet She is most famous for having been Voltaires mistress but in fa ct this does great injusshytice not only to he r independent character but also to her intellecshytual brilliance and considerable sc ientific contribution hilst she remain ed all bu t inv isible to histo rical aCCo wlts before her asshysociation with Voltaire in 1733 during tJ1e next fifteen years of her life she proved herself a worshythy match to the brilliant French philosopher Living mainly in Pa rh or in her country estate at Cirey to where she retreated with Voltaire she wrote and published a book on the metaphysics of natshyural science (institutions de physhysique) an essay on the nature of fire and neat (pisserta tion sur la nature ct propagation du feu) and two short pieces on the problem of melsu ri ng physical force She also co- authored anonymously Voltaires popularisation of Newshytoni an physic s for which she was resp onsi bl e for most of th e mathshyematical calculations an d to top her numerous achievements in 1748 she produced a translation of Newtons PrincipiI mathemati shyca with a commentary which was published posth Wll ously and is sti l1 used as the standard translashy
tion of h is work in France today In 1835 th e Royal Astro nomical
Society in London made a breakshythrough by awarding honorar y m~mbership to a woman Caroshylin e Herschel She became famous for her discove ry o f ncw nebu lae in 1783 (Androme da and Cetus) and for bei ng the fi rst woman to di scover a comet In hOnOltr of Herschel the SOCiety made what was perhaps the fi rst sta temen t on equal opportuuities in science While tests of astronomi cal merit sho uld in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to th ose of a man the sex of the former shou ld no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acshyknowledgement wh ich might be hel d due to the latter But whi lst modem biographers have used these numerous firsts to turn Caroline Herschel in to a female icon of sci ence it is importan t to note that she wa~ rewarded not for her own discoveries but beshycause she recorded compi led and recalc ulated th ose of her brother vVilliam Herschel
The very natu re of he r brothers research concen trated on collectshying and classif)Ti ng large numb ers of stars and in th is Ca rolines cataloguing skills were of ceotral importanc e Lacking her pati en ce and meticul ous att ention to deshytall he became heavily reliant on her sci enti fi c inpu t Therefo re her im portance in her brothers research was far greater than most of their contemporaries realised yet she never theless allowed her efforts to further his reputation
Finally th e faScinating case of Laura Bassi (1711-177S) shows how some rare women were able to forge thems elves a career in scientific fields during the En shylightenm ent Bassi was gifted with a capacity for learning consi d shyered so extraordillar y in a wom an that it just ified a concession for a
university degree in philosophy Thereafter she was awarded an entrance to Bolognas lstituto delle Scicnze later to be admitted as an honorary member of the college and fl naUy assigned the position of lecturer in physics at the presshytigious Universi ta eli Bologna the first of its kin d in Europe Scholshyar~ from aU over Eu rope would attend Bassis lectu res on Newtoshynian physics and sJle became the envy oflearned women across the contin ent
These scientific women came fre)m upper or middle cla ss backshygrounds and whilst th eir ach ieveshyments were not replicated to the same extent by women in the lowshyer echelons of society a degree of sci entific and pract ical k novledge never theless took hold Daughters of clergymen particularly in the dissenters tnldition and certain widows who were made to tak e up their husbands trade after th ei r death became learned women and hi ghly ski lled T he famous case of lIlada me Cliquot who in 1805 took over her husbands company after h is death is a ch arming exshyample Hi s enterprise whi ch had
een variously involved in bankshying wool trading and Champagne producing th ri ved under her di shyrec tion and eventu ally became the brand La Vcuve C liquol She is directly accred ited will) a great breakthro ugh in champagne han shydling that made mass produc tion of th e wine possible an d estabshylished the producers reputation of excellence which continues to the present day
T hese examples demonstrate that women were capable of takshying part in scientific debates and developments but it should be stressed that their contr ibution was li mited Womens access to sci entific knowledge was dependshyent on wealth class and cru cially on an association with men who would encourage scientific en shydeavours This last condition is all the more important when one considers the institutionshyalised chauvinism that women continued to experience during the eighteenth century Throughshyout Europe with the exception of
orthern Italy un i7ersi ties and scientific academi es such as the Roya l In stitution in London were closed to women
19
Furthermore whilst the enliglltshyenmenl undeniably brought an improvement to the female conshydition entrenched conservatism in contemporary attitudes even amongst enlightened th inkers such as Rou sseau meant that feshymale scientists were not only ex shy
tremely rare but also str uggled to be accepted in m al e- d ominated
circles T llere was a general lack or even absence of formal rec()gshynit ion of womens involvement in scientific publications For ex shyample Marie Lavoisier th e gifted wife of Fren ch chemist Antoine
Lavois ie r in now recog-ni sed as having carried out many calculashytions and observations in her husshyband s Elements of Chemistry The original m an uscript of h is work contai ns evid ence of her notes and comments yet the printed version fail s to ackn owledge her contribution entirely Even in be tter-documented cases such as that of Lavois ier it very difficult fo r the modern -day h isto rian to pin -point the individu al accomshypli shments female scientists in coll aborative works
However one can argue quite
confidently the instrumental rol e that women p layed in th e disshysem in ation and subsequent adshy
van cement o f sci ent ific ideas T hey were g rea t m ediators often translating simplifying and illusshytrat ing com plex scienti fic works Their versions of these texts were
generally aimed at a female read shyership a n otable exam ple bein g EmiJie d u Chatelet s translation of Francesco Algarottis Ne wtonishy(Ism for Ladies (1737) These were often read in wid er circles as they were clear illustrated and easier to understand T his helped the sp read of scientific id eas the im shy
plied message being that if science was s imple enough for a woman to unders tand than anyone could understand it Furthermore women facilitated the populari sashytion of science by hosting disc usshy
~ions in salons or holding p rivate exhibitions in their homes where gues ts cou ld appreciate and marshyvel at discoveries such the Leyden jar and static electrici ty These so shycial gatherings were particularly important when one considers science and the En lightenment as a wider social phenomenon
as opposed to a string of isolated discove ries mad e by individual mal e scientists
There is a tragiC element un shyderlying this whole s to ry Recent studies led by historian s such as Patr ic ia Fara have attempted to give a clearer and fairer in terp re shytation of womens contribution to science d uring thi s per iod
However history has b ee n unfair and insensi tive in its representashytion of female scientists Consid shyer ing the wealth of literature on Science and Enlightenment it is quite re markable tha t so little nas b een written about the women who took part Givmiddoten th e sparseshyness of original sources and the strong m ale bias wit h which most existing d ocumentation is writshyten it is very difficult impossible
perhaps to accu rately assess the Signifi cance o f womens contribushytion to the scientific fi eld
Feminists have often rewritshyten the story of these women to underline independen t achieve shyments and contributions mad e in a bid to break down prejudic es again st their sex But when does a shift of emphasis become an exagshy
geration a disto rt iongt Scientific
women have been concealed for so long that it is very tempting to tum them into unsung heroines It would be unju st to retell these wom ens stories in a way which
forces them to conform to the ideal s of m odern day fem inists Alte rna tivey we mll st appreciate their contr ibutions on their own meri t
Bibliograpby
Fara Patricia Pandoras Breeches Women Science amp Power in the Enlightenm ent (Great Britain Pimlico 2004)
Gardiner Linda Wo men ill Scishyetlce From French Women al7d
the Age of El7ligiztenmellt ed S Spencer (USA Indi ana University Press 1984 )
Bragg Melvyn P Fara K O Brian amp j Hawley In Our Time Wo men alld Science ill the E11 ligi7tenll7ellt LondOl (BBC Radio 4 4th vemb er 2010)
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
13
Practical impiety Hamish Kinnear discusses the unthinkshyable Franco-Ottoman Alliance of 1536
IN 1536 an alliance was finalised that was met with disbelief and disgust throughout Europe The union of France and the Ottoman Empire against their mutual enshyemy - Charles V - was the first alshyliance between a major Christian and nnn-Christian power since the crusades
Europe was on the verge of great change at the outset of the sixshyteenth century The introduction of gunpowder was revolutionisshying warfare and the printing press enabled the distribution of mateshyrial opposed to the ruling elite The fiercely anti-derical speeches of Martin Luther and his sympashythisers initiated the Reformation destroying the medieval idea of a united Christendom with the Pope as its nominal head Increasshyingly European states began to act in their own interests and ignored ing the legitimacy of Islam Pracshy common knowledge an alliance the purpose of defence as opposed
the demands of the pope Four ticality however often triumphs with the Great Turk was not only to a specifically offensive crusade
great historical figures also came over ideology unlikely it was unthinkable Henry VIII of England struck a
to the fore in the early 16th centushy Interestingly both Francis I and The alliance however held blow to Christian unity by breakshy
ry Henry VII of England Francis Charles V had argued that if they benefits for both parties France ing away from the papal authorshy
I of France Charles V of Spain and became Holy Roman Emperor for was given an ally that posed a seshy ity and establishing the Church of
Suleiman the Magnificent of the they were both candidates for the rious threat to Charles V for the England allowing his marriage to
Ottoman Empire The stage was elective office they would lead a Ottoman Empire of Suleiman the Anne Boleyn The greatest atrocshy
set for a conflict that involved all Crusade against the Great Turk Magnificent was at the height of ity occurred when the underpaid
the major powers of Europe one This promise invoked a desire to its power Fresh from victory over and mutinous troops of Charles
in which the French were the fi rst return to the perceived Christian the Egyptian Mamluke Sultanate V in the search of plunder sacked
to realise that the days of a united unity of the Middle Ages where Suleiman wished to make himself Rome and imprisoned the Pope
medieval Christendom were over the nations of Europe allied to Caesar of Europe An alliance with This event more than anything take back the Holy Land After the French was in the interests of else signified the demise of medishyCharles V took the title however the Ottomans as it provided them eval Christendom In this atmosshyFrancis wasted no time in declarshy with a military partner and a finshy phere of widespread anti-papal ing war on his fellow Christian ancier to help invade Hapsburg feeling the France-Ottoman allishynation The subsequent invasion lands More importantly for Suleishy ance comes as less of a surprise of Italy ended in disaster for the man the alliance kept the states of The impious alliance of the French at the Battle of Pavia durshy Christian Europe divided French and Ottomans then does ing which Francis I was captured not seem so scandalous when
By 1519 France was in despershy by the forces of Charles V To seshy placed in the context of its time
ate need of allies The domain of cure his release from prison Franshy However it should come as no
the Hapsburg ruler Charles V who cis was forced to sign the humillishy surprise that it was received in
had inherited the rule of both the ating Treaty of Madrid in which this negative fashion There was
Spanish Empire and the Holy Roshy he renounced his claims to Italy evidently a form of European
man Empire almost surrounded Flanders and Burgundy Charles nostalgia for the days of the Crushy
the French Kingdom of Francis I V had risen to unrivalled power in sades in which Christendom was
The French also had to deal with Europe united in a common cause even
Henry VIIIs England whose arshy During Franciss imprisonment though the military expeditions to
mies still remained in Normandy the French court had sent a deleshy Despite the reactions of horror the Holy Land had only been seshy
and coffers funded Charles milishy gation to the court of Suleiman the to the Franco-Ottoman alliance riously pursued centufies before
tary expeditions To the French Magnificent to discuss a treaty of that were evident throughout Eushy Francis Is alliance with the Otshy
advantage a new power was rising friendship These talks resulted in rope the actions of other Christian tomans was a stark indicator that
in the East The Ottoman Empire an alliance that was met with disshy rulers could hardly be considered the Crusader days were long past
of Suleiman the Magnificent was belief and disgust by the other Eushy pious If a pious ruler was one War from then on became comshy
expanding through the Balkans at ropean states Charles V began a who acted for the unity of Chrisshy mon between Christian States as
an alarming rate and posed a great vitriolic campaign of propaganda tendom engaged in crusading a means to maintain the balance
threat to the domains of Charles against the French deeming the activities and respected both the of power or achieve superiority
V Yet an alliance with this major union the sacrilegious union of temporal and spiritual power of in Europe Christendom was finshy
Islamic power was still considered the Lily and the Crescent Indeed the Pope then Charles V and Henshy ished The unlikely Franco-Ottoshy
blasphemous by the kingdoms of given that Francis had strongly ry the VII failed on all these reshy man Alliance however lasted for
Europe as by acknowledging the supported a crusade against the quirements Admittedly Charles V centuries
existence of the Ottoman Empire Ottomans a pretence he mainshy spent much of his life fighting the
the French were in effect accept- tained even after the pact became Ottomans but this was more for
14 Retrospect
c e Old Ship of Zion Catherine Me Gloin examines a widely forgotten aspect of American History THE STRUGGLE for AfricanshyAmerican rights iJl the United States is a long and contested road Ve are repeatedly exposed to narratives that stress key leaders and religious f1 gureshyheads Arguably no discourse would be complete without an analysis of tbe role of MartiQ Luther King Jr the decisions of th e Supreme Court or tbe varying levels of comm itment that each president expressed throughout this tuibulent ruld mythologised peshyriod in Americ1l history
However one element of the strugshygle for bLack dvil rights that has been often underplayed in popular accounts increasingly based on bioshygrap hical and oral testimony is the role of the new labour movement during the 19305 and J94Ds In the
space bern the post-World far red scare a reactionary phenomenon that disabled socialism as a tool for social advancement bl1Ck unjonisID 3Jld potentially the Communist Party ofshyfered African-Ameri cans a wllque opportunity to unite to fight oppresshysion Unionism offered the poorest black workers a political voice one they fel t was [[lUted by elite middleshyclass civil rights organisations such as the NAACP [n this respect the Communist Party can be considered as a viable alternative for some groups within tll euro civil rights movement and as a suitablevehide for civil rights adshyvancemel1t
The h istory of black organh ed lashybour in the South has only begun in the last thirty years to receive du attention in the historiography of American labour movements gainshying increasing recogni tion from lashybour and social historians Perhaps it has traditionally been ampi de-lined because of an ideological aversion to socialism deeply ingrained into the American psyche Alternatively its diminished prominence may be explained by the compl~ities of periodisation It is commonly acshyknowledged by maIl) h istorians who dorninate the field of civil rights that the movement characterised by cross-national di rect action began in the late 19505 Morc specifically the
birth of the movement is often seen as a consequence of the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and the Brown decision of the Supreme Court the plevious year Thus any event which pre-dates tJlis revered trajectory is generally dismissed as a pre-requisite and subsequently garshyners less attention than it perhaps warrants The widening of industrial w1ionism to Southern blacks during the first half of the twentieth century has traditionally been treated as a pre-cursor yet it deserves a more prominent position not only for the wider organ isational implications it held flr the development of the llovement but as acknowledgement afits improbable success
N l an alysis of labour Qrganisation and class structure amongst the varyshying groups active in the civil rights m ovement serves to convey what is often lost til e tight for equality was not solely [ought by biack elites or enlightened whites but poor workshying class African-Americans a1SQ
played a leading role These groups although united in th eir cause did not un iformly a gree at every stage but could be divided by societal catshyegQries other than race
It is important to note that the Southern labour force were distincshytive in their anti-union tradition Even as organised labour became increasingly entrencbed in the North (following the National Labour Relashytions Act 1935) the South as Robert Zieger argues rem ained an anti-lashybour island Much of the historiogshyraphy stresses the traditionally Ilostile relationship between organised lashybour and African-Americans Meier
and Bracey assert that blacks were susp icious of wlions who typically discriminated against them Thus unionism was seen as the tool of white racist workers rather than the site of tenlpered racial Ultagonisms in the hce of a common adversary shyexploitative industries The American Federation of Labour (AFL) supportshyed craft unions that created raCially exd usive iobs often driving blacks from secured employment opportushynities in order to give them to unemshyployed whites A symptom of segreshygateJ society this was lot a qUEstion of education more a simple fUllction of the caste system in operation in the South that largely kept black labour unorgnnised yet was held as a necessishyty for business prosperity Any efforts towards unionisatioJ1 were usuall thwarted by employer intimidation police brutality or deep-rooted susshypicions of unions Moreover a cheap and ready supply of white and black vmrkerswn ited the power of strike action African Americans had been used as strike-breakers ill the heavy industries for decades
However the 19305 heralded the widening of labour organisation in part a response to post-World War I migration to northern industrial cities persistent inequalit ies within some of the New Deal programmes and the devastating financial impact of the Great Depression which was disproportionately felt by black workshyers Therefore it may be argued that the erosion of the distinctive union free character of Southern labour had begun
Attitudes towards labour organ ishysa60n shifted during the 1930s This may havc been a consequence of a more general swing to the left durshying the period as evidenced by the re-alignment of the black vote away from thc RepUblicans tovards the Democrat Party Mkhael Honey main tains that the late 1930s and early 1940$ promised huge change a consegum ce of war industrialisation and unionisation The founding of organisations such as the Congress of Industrial Organ isations (CIO) point
Lo increased co-open t-ion between Souther wh ite and black workers ruld an albeit temporary shift away from the attitudes of the segregation era
he CIO was born out of the hardshyships of the depression years and its inter-racial organising strategy crul be ccn as cridence ofa morc co-operashy
tive approach to labour organisat ion than is tradi tiol)ally given credit in the historiography Ihe CTO sought African -American recruits and fo shycussed its unionisiog efforts on secshytors with large black work forces such as steel and meatln their promotion of inter-racial un ionism such orshyganisatiom acted lts a bridge between the black community and white workers although this function was more successful in the North where African-Americans he1d a limited degree of political and economic power Bi-raciaJ unionism provided the philosophy of equal rights as well as the means to augment ~ocial conditions and alter the relationship between worker and boss a source of daily oppression in the lives of many black workers For African-Amerishycan labour this was a great step toshywards achieving social and economic equality
However no unionising organisashytion was free from tht constraints of racist social customs particularly in the SQuth where ero union leaders would rather capitulate to opposition tJ1an lose members and where white workers continuously strove to asshysert their superiority over their black colleagues In many ways the CI achieved their initial economic goals and succeeded by 1940 in persuadshying whites to join and work alongside African-Americans However they failed to farce white elites to accept black demands for an end to racial wage differences Nonetheless allishyances between black and white workshyers civil r ights groups and left-Wing New Dealers had been established benefitting the African-Anlerican struggle against economic discrimishynation
11le influence of the left was evident
15
in the leading unions thal were also committed to equality like the CIO as well as the United Packinghouse Workers of America who organised meatpackers in Chicago and Texas Whilst these unions engaged a lot of black workers as members they also had a significant communist pres shyence The impact of the Communist Party and its role in intluencing both inter-racial unionism and the civil rights movement is a contentious isshyue Their rhetoric and its evolution
from calls for a separate Black Reshypublic to talk of a more united-front is an area that provokes much conshytroversy Was it conceived in order to subvert labour organisations directly or to control them from behind the scenes Alternatively a cynical iew of the motivations behind Commushynist Part) involvement can be temshypered The Part) recognised the revshyolutionar y potential of industrial and agricultural workers and thereforc called for African- American sclfshydetermination as a strategy whereby white American acceptance of blacks right to self-government was the goal Thus white workers would be able to conquer their raci sm and a united working class would result
Traditional interpretations sugshygest that unionism was treated with
hostility by all blacks we must not be blind to tlle differences amongst the black community and the fact tbat they were far from a homogshyenous group hils the Communist Party becanle the rivals of the black elite arld middle-class organisations such as the NAACI~ the poor black working class were attracted to the ideology and the Party in incrcasing numbers throughout tlle depression and during the New Deal era degThey prOided the black working classes with an alternative vehicle for social protest Furthermore communism introduced many blacks to world politics enabling them to place their own struggle in a global context demonstrating the roots of poverty and ra05m
This educated the non -reading classes and gave them a sense of pride something many fel t was deshynied to them by tlle black eli tes of the
AACP whom it has been argued had unwisely assumed a pastoral poshysition as spokesperson for all blacks Moreover the Party challenged both white supremacy and the bourgeOiS politics of the black mjddle-class A Philip Randolph - considered a sooalist and largely hailed as the spokesman for black workers after his success with the Pullman porshy
ters of the 1920s and thc recogni tion of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters by tbe A FL in 1937 - attacked WE B Du Bois and the NAACP for neglecting the needs of the AfricanshyAmerican in favour of bourgeois inshyterests Fostering an atmosphere of debate and discussion communism helped to educate and empower the black working-classes For the black elites it was an unwelcome SQurce of agitation as communists began to enter into the realm of black bourshygeois politics Thus support for the Communist Party divided civil rights campaigners and highlighted undershylying class antagoni~m
The involvement of the commushynist-led ILD in the trial of the Scottsshyboro boys demonstrates the resentshyments and the growing frustrat ion with the NAACP and other black middle-class organisations Failure to secure Significant federal anti -lynchshying legislation ineffective in helping desperate blacks devastated by the depression and limited by thei r OWll political powerlessness ill the face of economic decline amongst tllCir own elite members the NAACPs imposhytence was made apparent during the 1931 Scottsboro boys trial In Alashybama nine black men aged thirteen to n ineteen were charged with the
rape of two while women travelling on the san1e train as them and were tried convicted and sentenced to death in three days WhcU1C~r or not the IlD simply offered their support and advice or they ID U$cled in with shrill bravado their involvement earned the Com mullist Party black support
They were portrayed as defenders of the race whilst wltites chose to view them as outsiders and defendshyers of rapists
Interpretations of communisms impact on the Qjl rights moveshyment during the 1930s var y II may be maintained tllat membership to the Party and adherence to commushynist ideology was limited ultim ateJy most blacks wanted to work within the American system and reap any benefits accrued hy the programmes of the New Deal Africall-Americaru were comm itted to these me3iur and Similarly to Presiden t Roosevelt fe-clec ting him for a th ird term in 1940 Thus communism was a marshyginal force that many blocks chose to
ignore as a vehid c for social protest However it is important to recognise
its significance in the Lives of many African-Americans who for the first time were organised in to tradeullions on relatively equal terms t() those of their whil-e co-workers and were able to understand their $truggle through the framework of a shared commushynist ideology Communists fo rmed the central pillar to trade un ion acshytivism and 0 0 inter-raciali sm This new socialism in the barber shop a broadened ID1d popular sense off self empowered many black vOrkers to fight against economic and social disshycrimination in a way that seemed to
speak more directly to them and their social s tanding than the rhetoric esshypoused by the black-bourgeoisie
Bibliograpby
Leslie H Fishel Jr The Negro and dle New Deal in Twentieth Ce1ltury America Recent Interpretations ed Bernstein and Matusow (1 972)
Robert H Zieger (eei) Orgal ised Labour in the TWeIIlielh Centw y Soulh (1991)
Robin DG Kelley Hammer and Hoe Alabama Conlllllmists During the Great Depression (l990)
16 Retrospect
OFfEN OVERSHADOWED by the tumultuous events that were to weep Europe in the late 19305 and
194Ds the Spanish Civil War (1936shy1939) remairu a pivotal moment in twentieth century European history TIle conflict divided families towns and polarised political opinion across the continent and beyond It resulted in an estimated 500000
deaths and witnessed the establishshyment of a Fascist dictatorship in Spain under General Franco which ould last for almost forty years
The conflict has been a fruitful jeC of historical scholarship and many explanations as to why the fragile democracy of the Second Reshypublic collapsed have been offered Did the RepublJcaJlS Lose because of a lack of fo reign support given to them but that the Nationalists were lucky to receive or was their defeat a result of the weakness of Republican mili tias oin the face of the discipline of the Spanish army
In order to ascertain which if eishy
ther of the aforementioned suggesshytions WdS most significan t it is imshyportant to examine the patchwork of ideologies that the Popular Front composed of the Marxlst POU1vl (Partido Obrero Unification Marxshyista) Socialist UGT (Union General de Trabajores) Communist PSU (PartitSocialiSta UnificalCatalwlya) and Anardllst CNT (Conf-ederacion
acional del Trabajo) Furthermore the effect of foreign intervention on relations within the National Front and upon the contlict asa whole must be taken into consideration
From the outset it would be fai r to suggest that the Republicans lacked the same opportunities as the Nashytionalists The material support offered by the Soviet Union WJS
ultimately to be a hindrance insofar as it catalysed factionalism within the National Front In the opposite camp Adolf Hitler was in reality not much more supportive of the Nationalists than foseph Stalin had been of the Republicans and it is likeshyly that he like Stalin merely wanted the war to continue as a distraction for the estern democracies Argushyably it was MUSSOWlis support that would be key to the Nationalist side He was adan1ant that the emergence of another Fascist state on the model of Italy could only be to his political advantage As it turns out Italy reshyceived relatively little in return from Franco after the war
Despite the fact that the Repuhlishycans were on the side of the legally elected government they were necr allowed to purchase arms from the major suppliers The United States was pursuing a policy of non-inshytervention after World War I and
Britain and France followed suit re1 uctant to upset the political stashybili) of Europe at the time It was decided that neither side would be given military aid under the NODshyIntervention Pact However this pact was then widely and blatantly flaunted by the dictatorships of Eu shyrope Italy Germany an d the Soviet Union The purchasing of foreign arms was poli tically charged as it was tantamount to subscription to the ideology of the dictatorship that was selling them TIle fact that only the Fascist dictatorships of Europe and the USSR were willing to so brashy
j zenly ignore the Non-Intervention pact was to have an enormous imshypact within the Spanish Left as will be later discussed
The aid of the Soviet Union was useful to the Republican cause insoshyfar that the weapons they provided were far superior to any the Republishycans already Pc)ssessed whilst Soviet aircraft were used for reconnaissance missions which were central to the militias military tactics However the weapons were not given to all parties within the Popular Front but were directed at only a handful Mostly they were given to the Socialists of the UCT and tlle Communists of the PSUC which stirred discontent amongst the other parties who were using old and inferior weaponry to that of their fellow comarades
The Civil War polarised Span isJ political discourse into those who were opposed to Francos regime and those who were not The Republican fOrces therefore contained many disparate political groups from moderate republicans to Anarchists Trotskyites and Stalinists Conseshyquently the Soviet aid exacerbated internal tensions within the Republishycan forces between the loosely assoshyciated left wing political groups The acceptance of Soviet weapons was a dangerous move as it allowed the access of agents of the Couummist Party of Soviet Russia into Spanish affairs someth ing that was to prove decisive in the outcome of the war
The Spanish Civil War was a conflict which could be referred to as a battle between reactionary forces of conshyservativism and progressive revolushytionaries Though many have claim ed that the Nationalists were fasc ists British Titer George Orwell who was fighting in Spain at the time along side the Republicans wrote of the Nationshyalists that their ideology was closer to that of feudalism The Nationalists were composed chiefly of members of the army members of the clergy and leaders of international business all united in their common distrust of the working classes Their victory in the war would certainly jeopardise the livshying conditions and dghts of working class people resulting in the deterIorashytion labour relations a Catholic crackshydown of secularism and the army would suppress any dissent
In contrast to the Nationalists clarshyity oJ goals the Republicans seemed to all be working towards different ends TIle objectives of moderate reshyforming socialists and the Anarchist
NT were very difficult to reconshycUe Furthermore the Soviet belief in a revol utionary vanguard instigatshying and leading the proletariat was at odds with populist movements such as Anarchism that took hold in Spain With such differences in polshyicy it is hard to envisage what could force these parties to work together for any length of time
Part of the problem with compreshyhending the Spanish Civil War comes from the spectrum of ideologies within the broad alliance of the Reshypublican forces The ideologies were further apart than could be counteshynanced and particularly so after the Conununist Party decided to impose itself upon the revolution that the Marxists and Anarchists were trying to fashion themselves in Barcelona In his book Hom age to Catalonia Orwell describes Barcelona Practically eveshyry building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists Every shop md cafe had an inscription saying it had been collectivised even the bootblacks had been collectivised md their boxes painted red and blacK The extent of the social change seems almost hyshyperbolic particularly when O rwell stresses that even the bootblacks were part of a trade union The Comshymunist Party however was to disrupt this workers paradise in May of j 937 with the attempted repossesshysion of a telephone exchange that was under Anarchist control 111is sparked a conflict that lasted several days and threatened the stability of the entire Republic General Franco who said he planned it after the Communists
ran newspaper stories blaming the Marxists for starting the fight used disunity in Barcelona to his own ends Being the largest party with the most well-developed press organisations the Communists managed to direct the aftermath of the situation and use it to discredit a competing party Disunity among the Republican side flourished as the AnarclUsts caught on to the Communist attempts to discredit the ]vIandst faction Though they were not persecuted to the same extent though their collectives were broken up to increase efficiency they realised thal they were fighting for
mebody who was n ot sympathetic of their ideology and who tney could not trust The Republican t~1Ctions
vigour started to deteriorate after the May Days riot of 1937
One might ask the question why did the Conununists try and reposshysess an Anarchist building It would be naive of them to assume they could take it vithout a fight unless they disregarded the fact that all Anarshychist doctrine of the em was against government coercion It bardly seems that there might be any great gains in taking one building even if it did allow Anarchists to eaesdrop on telephone conversations The sudden megaloshymania of the Communists seems to have sprung from advice given by the Communist Party of Soviet Russhysia The tactical value of the telephone exchange was not worth risking the integIity of the Republican coalishytiDn The PSUCs party line that At present nothing matters but vinning the war is especially telling
Arguably it was the fragile alliance of circumstance within the Republishycan movement exacerbated by Soviet Aid that only reached certain fuctions wbicb resulted in the collapse of the Spanish Republic Though the weapshyOIlS helped fOT a while they could not Sllstain an entire nation with the limishytations placed upon their deployment Anarchists did not trust the help of Soviet Russia and neither did they trust the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain or any of its regional counshyterparts Tnere were other culprits howeveJ in the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic
It would be wrong to suggest that disWlity on the part of the Republi shycans was all that preven ted them from victor)l The wider European context of the conflict was also fundamenshytal in the collapse of the Republican Movement Gen11any and Russia nevshyer gave sufficient help to either side to let it decisivel) win at any pace but it appears that both used the war to their own advantage Germany tested out their bombers on Spanish tovms such as Guernica and the Soviet Union
17
used the war as a distraction while it increased its level of militarization
In conclusion then the conmct polarised Spanish political discourse around the two totalitarim cxtrerrtishyties of Fascism and Stalinism This resulted in an internally divided and factionalised Republicm force which struggled to retain its integrity in the fuce ofa destructive internal feud The feud was sparked b) the actions of an externalgovernment hence it ccruld be argued that the collapse of tbe second republic was was more to do vith the international context of the conflict as it provided both the ex1rem e ideolohY and the cause of fTiction vithin the Republican movement
BibUography
Qmell George Orwell hi Spain (Penshyguin London2001)
Thomas Hugh The Spanish Civil War 4th edition (Pellguin London 2003)
Beevor Anthony The Battlefor SpainThe Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (WampN London 2006)
Taylor AJP The OrigirtS of the Second World War (Penguin London 1991)
18 Retrospect
Sh may be the Reason Frances Rromagc explores the often overlooked contribution of female scientists during the Enlightenment
FOR MANY centuries befo re the seventeenth Aristotles concepshytion of the bod y and the mind as insepa rable matte r domin ated Western thinking It was used to justify the subjugation of wom en and their subsequent excl us ion from so -called masculine activi shyties
Anatomical differen ces and hormonal systems provi ded new rationales for keeping women below men in the intellectual hishyerarchy Chauvinism expressed it self in every walk of life from religi on and education to science and medicine Even the common shyest of medical symptoms such as nerVOllsness irritability and loss of appetite for foo d or sex were generally diagnosed in women as the result of female Hysteria - a problem deriving from the hysshytna or uterus Science which explored the worl d outside the domestic sphere remai ned an ex shyclusively masculine discipline up until the eighteenth cent ury
Then came th e Enlightenment Enlightenment philosophers were infl uenced by Descartes theori es on critical thinking and Lock es empir icism and as a conseshyqu ence adopted a new approach to learn ing one which promoted free in te ll ectual inquiry and reshyjecled the influence of the state an d religion Despite the moveshyments vast scope few topics were as vigorously discussed as the subject of female education T he changing conception of the mind as no longer constrained by physical attributes opened a new conception of the mind as a sex shyless entity Therefore wom ens education became the subject of m uch debate in polite society spurring contribut ions from feshymale and male thinkers on both sides of the discu ss ion Womens access to scientific knowlcdge proved particularly controversial as it cha llenged a long-established perception of womens role as lim shyited to the domain of domestic ity
owhere has thi ~ challenge been so eloquently pu t as in words of British poet Elizabeth Toilet in her 1724 her poem Hypatia What cruel Laws depress the female KindTo humble Ca res and servile Ta sks confild That haughty Mall IIllriFald and alone May boast the world or Science all his owwl As barbarous Tyrants to secure their Sway Conclude that ignorallce will best obey
Whilst men may have been harbarous tyrants and attempted to clamp down on womens parshyticipation in scientific disciplines lu ckily th ey were not entirely suc shycessful in doing so History proshyvides LI S with a few precious exshyamples l1f women who refused to bow to blind ignorance and tbus su cceeded in rising above amashyteur status to become serious conshytributors to the field of scient ific knowledge
Of these the only one about whom much contemporary inshyformati o n as well as a substanshytial body of original writings has survived is Emilie Marquise du Chatelet She is most famous for having been Voltaires mistress but in fa ct this does great injusshytice not only to he r independent character but also to her intellecshytual brilliance and considerable sc ientific contribution hilst she remain ed all bu t inv isible to histo rical aCCo wlts before her asshysociation with Voltaire in 1733 during tJ1e next fifteen years of her life she proved herself a worshythy match to the brilliant French philosopher Living mainly in Pa rh or in her country estate at Cirey to where she retreated with Voltaire she wrote and published a book on the metaphysics of natshyural science (institutions de physhysique) an essay on the nature of fire and neat (pisserta tion sur la nature ct propagation du feu) and two short pieces on the problem of melsu ri ng physical force She also co- authored anonymously Voltaires popularisation of Newshytoni an physic s for which she was resp onsi bl e for most of th e mathshyematical calculations an d to top her numerous achievements in 1748 she produced a translation of Newtons PrincipiI mathemati shyca with a commentary which was published posth Wll ously and is sti l1 used as the standard translashy
tion of h is work in France today In 1835 th e Royal Astro nomical
Society in London made a breakshythrough by awarding honorar y m~mbership to a woman Caroshylin e Herschel She became famous for her discove ry o f ncw nebu lae in 1783 (Androme da and Cetus) and for bei ng the fi rst woman to di scover a comet In hOnOltr of Herschel the SOCiety made what was perhaps the fi rst sta temen t on equal opportuuities in science While tests of astronomi cal merit sho uld in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to th ose of a man the sex of the former shou ld no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acshyknowledgement wh ich might be hel d due to the latter But whi lst modem biographers have used these numerous firsts to turn Caroline Herschel in to a female icon of sci ence it is importan t to note that she wa~ rewarded not for her own discoveries but beshycause she recorded compi led and recalc ulated th ose of her brother vVilliam Herschel
The very natu re of he r brothers research concen trated on collectshying and classif)Ti ng large numb ers of stars and in th is Ca rolines cataloguing skills were of ceotral importanc e Lacking her pati en ce and meticul ous att ention to deshytall he became heavily reliant on her sci enti fi c inpu t Therefo re her im portance in her brothers research was far greater than most of their contemporaries realised yet she never theless allowed her efforts to further his reputation
Finally th e faScinating case of Laura Bassi (1711-177S) shows how some rare women were able to forge thems elves a career in scientific fields during the En shylightenm ent Bassi was gifted with a capacity for learning consi d shyered so extraordillar y in a wom an that it just ified a concession for a
university degree in philosophy Thereafter she was awarded an entrance to Bolognas lstituto delle Scicnze later to be admitted as an honorary member of the college and fl naUy assigned the position of lecturer in physics at the presshytigious Universi ta eli Bologna the first of its kin d in Europe Scholshyar~ from aU over Eu rope would attend Bassis lectu res on Newtoshynian physics and sJle became the envy oflearned women across the contin ent
These scientific women came fre)m upper or middle cla ss backshygrounds and whilst th eir ach ieveshyments were not replicated to the same extent by women in the lowshyer echelons of society a degree of sci entific and pract ical k novledge never theless took hold Daughters of clergymen particularly in the dissenters tnldition and certain widows who were made to tak e up their husbands trade after th ei r death became learned women and hi ghly ski lled T he famous case of lIlada me Cliquot who in 1805 took over her husbands company after h is death is a ch arming exshyample Hi s enterprise whi ch had
een variously involved in bankshying wool trading and Champagne producing th ri ved under her di shyrec tion and eventu ally became the brand La Vcuve C liquol She is directly accred ited will) a great breakthro ugh in champagne han shydling that made mass produc tion of th e wine possible an d estabshylished the producers reputation of excellence which continues to the present day
T hese examples demonstrate that women were capable of takshying part in scientific debates and developments but it should be stressed that their contr ibution was li mited Womens access to sci entific knowledge was dependshyent on wealth class and cru cially on an association with men who would encourage scientific en shydeavours This last condition is all the more important when one considers the institutionshyalised chauvinism that women continued to experience during the eighteenth century Throughshyout Europe with the exception of
orthern Italy un i7ersi ties and scientific academi es such as the Roya l In stitution in London were closed to women
19
Furthermore whilst the enliglltshyenmenl undeniably brought an improvement to the female conshydition entrenched conservatism in contemporary attitudes even amongst enlightened th inkers such as Rou sseau meant that feshymale scientists were not only ex shy
tremely rare but also str uggled to be accepted in m al e- d ominated
circles T llere was a general lack or even absence of formal rec()gshynit ion of womens involvement in scientific publications For ex shyample Marie Lavoisier th e gifted wife of Fren ch chemist Antoine
Lavois ie r in now recog-ni sed as having carried out many calculashytions and observations in her husshyband s Elements of Chemistry The original m an uscript of h is work contai ns evid ence of her notes and comments yet the printed version fail s to ackn owledge her contribution entirely Even in be tter-documented cases such as that of Lavois ier it very difficult fo r the modern -day h isto rian to pin -point the individu al accomshypli shments female scientists in coll aborative works
However one can argue quite
confidently the instrumental rol e that women p layed in th e disshysem in ation and subsequent adshy
van cement o f sci ent ific ideas T hey were g rea t m ediators often translating simplifying and illusshytrat ing com plex scienti fic works Their versions of these texts were
generally aimed at a female read shyership a n otable exam ple bein g EmiJie d u Chatelet s translation of Francesco Algarottis Ne wtonishy(Ism for Ladies (1737) These were often read in wid er circles as they were clear illustrated and easier to understand T his helped the sp read of scientific id eas the im shy
plied message being that if science was s imple enough for a woman to unders tand than anyone could understand it Furthermore women facilitated the populari sashytion of science by hosting disc usshy
~ions in salons or holding p rivate exhibitions in their homes where gues ts cou ld appreciate and marshyvel at discoveries such the Leyden jar and static electrici ty These so shycial gatherings were particularly important when one considers science and the En lightenment as a wider social phenomenon
as opposed to a string of isolated discove ries mad e by individual mal e scientists
There is a tragiC element un shyderlying this whole s to ry Recent studies led by historian s such as Patr ic ia Fara have attempted to give a clearer and fairer in terp re shytation of womens contribution to science d uring thi s per iod
However history has b ee n unfair and insensi tive in its representashytion of female scientists Consid shyer ing the wealth of literature on Science and Enlightenment it is quite re markable tha t so little nas b een written about the women who took part Givmiddoten th e sparseshyness of original sources and the strong m ale bias wit h which most existing d ocumentation is writshyten it is very difficult impossible
perhaps to accu rately assess the Signifi cance o f womens contribushytion to the scientific fi eld
Feminists have often rewritshyten the story of these women to underline independen t achieve shyments and contributions mad e in a bid to break down prejudic es again st their sex But when does a shift of emphasis become an exagshy
geration a disto rt iongt Scientific
women have been concealed for so long that it is very tempting to tum them into unsung heroines It would be unju st to retell these wom ens stories in a way which
forces them to conform to the ideal s of m odern day fem inists Alte rna tivey we mll st appreciate their contr ibutions on their own meri t
Bibliograpby
Fara Patricia Pandoras Breeches Women Science amp Power in the Enlightenm ent (Great Britain Pimlico 2004)
Gardiner Linda Wo men ill Scishyetlce From French Women al7d
the Age of El7ligiztenmellt ed S Spencer (USA Indi ana University Press 1984 )
Bragg Melvyn P Fara K O Brian amp j Hawley In Our Time Wo men alld Science ill the E11 ligi7tenll7ellt LondOl (BBC Radio 4 4th vemb er 2010)
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
14 Retrospect
c e Old Ship of Zion Catherine Me Gloin examines a widely forgotten aspect of American History THE STRUGGLE for AfricanshyAmerican rights iJl the United States is a long and contested road Ve are repeatedly exposed to narratives that stress key leaders and religious f1 gureshyheads Arguably no discourse would be complete without an analysis of tbe role of MartiQ Luther King Jr the decisions of th e Supreme Court or tbe varying levels of comm itment that each president expressed throughout this tuibulent ruld mythologised peshyriod in Americ1l history
However one element of the strugshygle for bLack dvil rights that has been often underplayed in popular accounts increasingly based on bioshygrap hical and oral testimony is the role of the new labour movement during the 19305 and J94Ds In the
space bern the post-World far red scare a reactionary phenomenon that disabled socialism as a tool for social advancement bl1Ck unjonisID 3Jld potentially the Communist Party ofshyfered African-Ameri cans a wllque opportunity to unite to fight oppresshysion Unionism offered the poorest black workers a political voice one they fel t was [[lUted by elite middleshyclass civil rights organisations such as the NAACP [n this respect the Communist Party can be considered as a viable alternative for some groups within tll euro civil rights movement and as a suitablevehide for civil rights adshyvancemel1t
The h istory of black organh ed lashybour in the South has only begun in the last thirty years to receive du attention in the historiography of American labour movements gainshying increasing recogni tion from lashybour and social historians Perhaps it has traditionally been ampi de-lined because of an ideological aversion to socialism deeply ingrained into the American psyche Alternatively its diminished prominence may be explained by the compl~ities of periodisation It is commonly acshyknowledged by maIl) h istorians who dorninate the field of civil rights that the movement characterised by cross-national di rect action began in the late 19505 Morc specifically the
birth of the movement is often seen as a consequence of the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 and the Brown decision of the Supreme Court the plevious year Thus any event which pre-dates tJlis revered trajectory is generally dismissed as a pre-requisite and subsequently garshyners less attention than it perhaps warrants The widening of industrial w1ionism to Southern blacks during the first half of the twentieth century has traditionally been treated as a pre-cursor yet it deserves a more prominent position not only for the wider organ isational implications it held flr the development of the llovement but as acknowledgement afits improbable success
N l an alysis of labour Qrganisation and class structure amongst the varyshying groups active in the civil rights m ovement serves to convey what is often lost til e tight for equality was not solely [ought by biack elites or enlightened whites but poor workshying class African-Americans a1SQ
played a leading role These groups although united in th eir cause did not un iformly a gree at every stage but could be divided by societal catshyegQries other than race
It is important to note that the Southern labour force were distincshytive in their anti-union tradition Even as organised labour became increasingly entrencbed in the North (following the National Labour Relashytions Act 1935) the South as Robert Zieger argues rem ained an anti-lashybour island Much of the historiogshyraphy stresses the traditionally Ilostile relationship between organised lashybour and African-Americans Meier
and Bracey assert that blacks were susp icious of wlions who typically discriminated against them Thus unionism was seen as the tool of white racist workers rather than the site of tenlpered racial Ultagonisms in the hce of a common adversary shyexploitative industries The American Federation of Labour (AFL) supportshyed craft unions that created raCially exd usive iobs often driving blacks from secured employment opportushynities in order to give them to unemshyployed whites A symptom of segreshygateJ society this was lot a qUEstion of education more a simple fUllction of the caste system in operation in the South that largely kept black labour unorgnnised yet was held as a necessishyty for business prosperity Any efforts towards unionisatioJ1 were usuall thwarted by employer intimidation police brutality or deep-rooted susshypicions of unions Moreover a cheap and ready supply of white and black vmrkerswn ited the power of strike action African Americans had been used as strike-breakers ill the heavy industries for decades
However the 19305 heralded the widening of labour organisation in part a response to post-World War I migration to northern industrial cities persistent inequalit ies within some of the New Deal programmes and the devastating financial impact of the Great Depression which was disproportionately felt by black workshyers Therefore it may be argued that the erosion of the distinctive union free character of Southern labour had begun
Attitudes towards labour organ ishysa60n shifted during the 1930s This may havc been a consequence of a more general swing to the left durshying the period as evidenced by the re-alignment of the black vote away from thc RepUblicans tovards the Democrat Party Mkhael Honey main tains that the late 1930s and early 1940$ promised huge change a consegum ce of war industrialisation and unionisation The founding of organisations such as the Congress of Industrial Organ isations (CIO) point
Lo increased co-open t-ion between Souther wh ite and black workers ruld an albeit temporary shift away from the attitudes of the segregation era
he CIO was born out of the hardshyships of the depression years and its inter-racial organising strategy crul be ccn as cridence ofa morc co-operashy
tive approach to labour organisat ion than is tradi tiol)ally given credit in the historiography Ihe CTO sought African -American recruits and fo shycussed its unionisiog efforts on secshytors with large black work forces such as steel and meatln their promotion of inter-racial un ionism such orshyganisatiom acted lts a bridge between the black community and white workers although this function was more successful in the North where African-Americans he1d a limited degree of political and economic power Bi-raciaJ unionism provided the philosophy of equal rights as well as the means to augment ~ocial conditions and alter the relationship between worker and boss a source of daily oppression in the lives of many black workers For African-Amerishycan labour this was a great step toshywards achieving social and economic equality
However no unionising organisashytion was free from tht constraints of racist social customs particularly in the SQuth where ero union leaders would rather capitulate to opposition tJ1an lose members and where white workers continuously strove to asshysert their superiority over their black colleagues In many ways the CI achieved their initial economic goals and succeeded by 1940 in persuadshying whites to join and work alongside African-Americans However they failed to farce white elites to accept black demands for an end to racial wage differences Nonetheless allishyances between black and white workshyers civil r ights groups and left-Wing New Dealers had been established benefitting the African-Anlerican struggle against economic discrimishynation
11le influence of the left was evident
15
in the leading unions thal were also committed to equality like the CIO as well as the United Packinghouse Workers of America who organised meatpackers in Chicago and Texas Whilst these unions engaged a lot of black workers as members they also had a significant communist pres shyence The impact of the Communist Party and its role in intluencing both inter-racial unionism and the civil rights movement is a contentious isshyue Their rhetoric and its evolution
from calls for a separate Black Reshypublic to talk of a more united-front is an area that provokes much conshytroversy Was it conceived in order to subvert labour organisations directly or to control them from behind the scenes Alternatively a cynical iew of the motivations behind Commushynist Part) involvement can be temshypered The Part) recognised the revshyolutionar y potential of industrial and agricultural workers and thereforc called for African- American sclfshydetermination as a strategy whereby white American acceptance of blacks right to self-government was the goal Thus white workers would be able to conquer their raci sm and a united working class would result
Traditional interpretations sugshygest that unionism was treated with
hostility by all blacks we must not be blind to tlle differences amongst the black community and the fact tbat they were far from a homogshyenous group hils the Communist Party becanle the rivals of the black elite arld middle-class organisations such as the NAACI~ the poor black working class were attracted to the ideology and the Party in incrcasing numbers throughout tlle depression and during the New Deal era degThey prOided the black working classes with an alternative vehicle for social protest Furthermore communism introduced many blacks to world politics enabling them to place their own struggle in a global context demonstrating the roots of poverty and ra05m
This educated the non -reading classes and gave them a sense of pride something many fel t was deshynied to them by tlle black eli tes of the
AACP whom it has been argued had unwisely assumed a pastoral poshysition as spokesperson for all blacks Moreover the Party challenged both white supremacy and the bourgeOiS politics of the black mjddle-class A Philip Randolph - considered a sooalist and largely hailed as the spokesman for black workers after his success with the Pullman porshy
ters of the 1920s and thc recogni tion of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters by tbe A FL in 1937 - attacked WE B Du Bois and the NAACP for neglecting the needs of the AfricanshyAmerican in favour of bourgeois inshyterests Fostering an atmosphere of debate and discussion communism helped to educate and empower the black working-classes For the black elites it was an unwelcome SQurce of agitation as communists began to enter into the realm of black bourshygeois politics Thus support for the Communist Party divided civil rights campaigners and highlighted undershylying class antagoni~m
The involvement of the commushynist-led ILD in the trial of the Scottsshyboro boys demonstrates the resentshyments and the growing frustrat ion with the NAACP and other black middle-class organisations Failure to secure Significant federal anti -lynchshying legislation ineffective in helping desperate blacks devastated by the depression and limited by thei r OWll political powerlessness ill the face of economic decline amongst tllCir own elite members the NAACPs imposhytence was made apparent during the 1931 Scottsboro boys trial In Alashybama nine black men aged thirteen to n ineteen were charged with the
rape of two while women travelling on the san1e train as them and were tried convicted and sentenced to death in three days WhcU1C~r or not the IlD simply offered their support and advice or they ID U$cled in with shrill bravado their involvement earned the Com mullist Party black support
They were portrayed as defenders of the race whilst wltites chose to view them as outsiders and defendshyers of rapists
Interpretations of communisms impact on the Qjl rights moveshyment during the 1930s var y II may be maintained tllat membership to the Party and adherence to commushynist ideology was limited ultim ateJy most blacks wanted to work within the American system and reap any benefits accrued hy the programmes of the New Deal Africall-Americaru were comm itted to these me3iur and Similarly to Presiden t Roosevelt fe-clec ting him for a th ird term in 1940 Thus communism was a marshyginal force that many blocks chose to
ignore as a vehid c for social protest However it is important to recognise
its significance in the Lives of many African-Americans who for the first time were organised in to tradeullions on relatively equal terms t() those of their whil-e co-workers and were able to understand their $truggle through the framework of a shared commushynist ideology Communists fo rmed the central pillar to trade un ion acshytivism and 0 0 inter-raciali sm This new socialism in the barber shop a broadened ID1d popular sense off self empowered many black vOrkers to fight against economic and social disshycrimination in a way that seemed to
speak more directly to them and their social s tanding than the rhetoric esshypoused by the black-bourgeoisie
Bibliograpby
Leslie H Fishel Jr The Negro and dle New Deal in Twentieth Ce1ltury America Recent Interpretations ed Bernstein and Matusow (1 972)
Robert H Zieger (eei) Orgal ised Labour in the TWeIIlielh Centw y Soulh (1991)
Robin DG Kelley Hammer and Hoe Alabama Conlllllmists During the Great Depression (l990)
16 Retrospect
OFfEN OVERSHADOWED by the tumultuous events that were to weep Europe in the late 19305 and
194Ds the Spanish Civil War (1936shy1939) remairu a pivotal moment in twentieth century European history TIle conflict divided families towns and polarised political opinion across the continent and beyond It resulted in an estimated 500000
deaths and witnessed the establishshyment of a Fascist dictatorship in Spain under General Franco which ould last for almost forty years
The conflict has been a fruitful jeC of historical scholarship and many explanations as to why the fragile democracy of the Second Reshypublic collapsed have been offered Did the RepublJcaJlS Lose because of a lack of fo reign support given to them but that the Nationalists were lucky to receive or was their defeat a result of the weakness of Republican mili tias oin the face of the discipline of the Spanish army
In order to ascertain which if eishy
ther of the aforementioned suggesshytions WdS most significan t it is imshyportant to examine the patchwork of ideologies that the Popular Front composed of the Marxlst POU1vl (Partido Obrero Unification Marxshyista) Socialist UGT (Union General de Trabajores) Communist PSU (PartitSocialiSta UnificalCatalwlya) and Anardllst CNT (Conf-ederacion
acional del Trabajo) Furthermore the effect of foreign intervention on relations within the National Front and upon the contlict asa whole must be taken into consideration
From the outset it would be fai r to suggest that the Republicans lacked the same opportunities as the Nashytionalists The material support offered by the Soviet Union WJS
ultimately to be a hindrance insofar as it catalysed factionalism within the National Front In the opposite camp Adolf Hitler was in reality not much more supportive of the Nationalists than foseph Stalin had been of the Republicans and it is likeshyly that he like Stalin merely wanted the war to continue as a distraction for the estern democracies Argushyably it was MUSSOWlis support that would be key to the Nationalist side He was adan1ant that the emergence of another Fascist state on the model of Italy could only be to his political advantage As it turns out Italy reshyceived relatively little in return from Franco after the war
Despite the fact that the Repuhlishycans were on the side of the legally elected government they were necr allowed to purchase arms from the major suppliers The United States was pursuing a policy of non-inshytervention after World War I and
Britain and France followed suit re1 uctant to upset the political stashybili) of Europe at the time It was decided that neither side would be given military aid under the NODshyIntervention Pact However this pact was then widely and blatantly flaunted by the dictatorships of Eu shyrope Italy Germany an d the Soviet Union The purchasing of foreign arms was poli tically charged as it was tantamount to subscription to the ideology of the dictatorship that was selling them TIle fact that only the Fascist dictatorships of Europe and the USSR were willing to so brashy
j zenly ignore the Non-Intervention pact was to have an enormous imshypact within the Spanish Left as will be later discussed
The aid of the Soviet Union was useful to the Republican cause insoshyfar that the weapons they provided were far superior to any the Republishycans already Pc)ssessed whilst Soviet aircraft were used for reconnaissance missions which were central to the militias military tactics However the weapons were not given to all parties within the Popular Front but were directed at only a handful Mostly they were given to the Socialists of the UCT and tlle Communists of the PSUC which stirred discontent amongst the other parties who were using old and inferior weaponry to that of their fellow comarades
The Civil War polarised Span isJ political discourse into those who were opposed to Francos regime and those who were not The Republican fOrces therefore contained many disparate political groups from moderate republicans to Anarchists Trotskyites and Stalinists Conseshyquently the Soviet aid exacerbated internal tensions within the Republishycan forces between the loosely assoshyciated left wing political groups The acceptance of Soviet weapons was a dangerous move as it allowed the access of agents of the Couummist Party of Soviet Russia into Spanish affairs someth ing that was to prove decisive in the outcome of the war
The Spanish Civil War was a conflict which could be referred to as a battle between reactionary forces of conshyservativism and progressive revolushytionaries Though many have claim ed that the Nationalists were fasc ists British Titer George Orwell who was fighting in Spain at the time along side the Republicans wrote of the Nationshyalists that their ideology was closer to that of feudalism The Nationalists were composed chiefly of members of the army members of the clergy and leaders of international business all united in their common distrust of the working classes Their victory in the war would certainly jeopardise the livshying conditions and dghts of working class people resulting in the deterIorashytion labour relations a Catholic crackshydown of secularism and the army would suppress any dissent
In contrast to the Nationalists clarshyity oJ goals the Republicans seemed to all be working towards different ends TIle objectives of moderate reshyforming socialists and the Anarchist
NT were very difficult to reconshycUe Furthermore the Soviet belief in a revol utionary vanguard instigatshying and leading the proletariat was at odds with populist movements such as Anarchism that took hold in Spain With such differences in polshyicy it is hard to envisage what could force these parties to work together for any length of time
Part of the problem with compreshyhending the Spanish Civil War comes from the spectrum of ideologies within the broad alliance of the Reshypublican forces The ideologies were further apart than could be counteshynanced and particularly so after the Conununist Party decided to impose itself upon the revolution that the Marxists and Anarchists were trying to fashion themselves in Barcelona In his book Hom age to Catalonia Orwell describes Barcelona Practically eveshyry building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists Every shop md cafe had an inscription saying it had been collectivised even the bootblacks had been collectivised md their boxes painted red and blacK The extent of the social change seems almost hyshyperbolic particularly when O rwell stresses that even the bootblacks were part of a trade union The Comshymunist Party however was to disrupt this workers paradise in May of j 937 with the attempted repossesshysion of a telephone exchange that was under Anarchist control 111is sparked a conflict that lasted several days and threatened the stability of the entire Republic General Franco who said he planned it after the Communists
ran newspaper stories blaming the Marxists for starting the fight used disunity in Barcelona to his own ends Being the largest party with the most well-developed press organisations the Communists managed to direct the aftermath of the situation and use it to discredit a competing party Disunity among the Republican side flourished as the AnarclUsts caught on to the Communist attempts to discredit the ]vIandst faction Though they were not persecuted to the same extent though their collectives were broken up to increase efficiency they realised thal they were fighting for
mebody who was n ot sympathetic of their ideology and who tney could not trust The Republican t~1Ctions
vigour started to deteriorate after the May Days riot of 1937
One might ask the question why did the Conununists try and reposshysess an Anarchist building It would be naive of them to assume they could take it vithout a fight unless they disregarded the fact that all Anarshychist doctrine of the em was against government coercion It bardly seems that there might be any great gains in taking one building even if it did allow Anarchists to eaesdrop on telephone conversations The sudden megaloshymania of the Communists seems to have sprung from advice given by the Communist Party of Soviet Russhysia The tactical value of the telephone exchange was not worth risking the integIity of the Republican coalishytiDn The PSUCs party line that At present nothing matters but vinning the war is especially telling
Arguably it was the fragile alliance of circumstance within the Republishycan movement exacerbated by Soviet Aid that only reached certain fuctions wbicb resulted in the collapse of the Spanish Republic Though the weapshyOIlS helped fOT a while they could not Sllstain an entire nation with the limishytations placed upon their deployment Anarchists did not trust the help of Soviet Russia and neither did they trust the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain or any of its regional counshyterparts Tnere were other culprits howeveJ in the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic
It would be wrong to suggest that disWlity on the part of the Republi shycans was all that preven ted them from victor)l The wider European context of the conflict was also fundamenshytal in the collapse of the Republican Movement Gen11any and Russia nevshyer gave sufficient help to either side to let it decisivel) win at any pace but it appears that both used the war to their own advantage Germany tested out their bombers on Spanish tovms such as Guernica and the Soviet Union
17
used the war as a distraction while it increased its level of militarization
In conclusion then the conmct polarised Spanish political discourse around the two totalitarim cxtrerrtishyties of Fascism and Stalinism This resulted in an internally divided and factionalised Republicm force which struggled to retain its integrity in the fuce ofa destructive internal feud The feud was sparked b) the actions of an externalgovernment hence it ccruld be argued that the collapse of tbe second republic was was more to do vith the international context of the conflict as it provided both the ex1rem e ideolohY and the cause of fTiction vithin the Republican movement
BibUography
Qmell George Orwell hi Spain (Penshyguin London2001)
Thomas Hugh The Spanish Civil War 4th edition (Pellguin London 2003)
Beevor Anthony The Battlefor SpainThe Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (WampN London 2006)
Taylor AJP The OrigirtS of the Second World War (Penguin London 1991)
18 Retrospect
Sh may be the Reason Frances Rromagc explores the often overlooked contribution of female scientists during the Enlightenment
FOR MANY centuries befo re the seventeenth Aristotles concepshytion of the bod y and the mind as insepa rable matte r domin ated Western thinking It was used to justify the subjugation of wom en and their subsequent excl us ion from so -called masculine activi shyties
Anatomical differen ces and hormonal systems provi ded new rationales for keeping women below men in the intellectual hishyerarchy Chauvinism expressed it self in every walk of life from religi on and education to science and medicine Even the common shyest of medical symptoms such as nerVOllsness irritability and loss of appetite for foo d or sex were generally diagnosed in women as the result of female Hysteria - a problem deriving from the hysshytna or uterus Science which explored the worl d outside the domestic sphere remai ned an ex shyclusively masculine discipline up until the eighteenth cent ury
Then came th e Enlightenment Enlightenment philosophers were infl uenced by Descartes theori es on critical thinking and Lock es empir icism and as a conseshyqu ence adopted a new approach to learn ing one which promoted free in te ll ectual inquiry and reshyjecled the influence of the state an d religion Despite the moveshyments vast scope few topics were as vigorously discussed as the subject of female education T he changing conception of the mind as no longer constrained by physical attributes opened a new conception of the mind as a sex shyless entity Therefore wom ens education became the subject of m uch debate in polite society spurring contribut ions from feshymale and male thinkers on both sides of the discu ss ion Womens access to scientific knowlcdge proved particularly controversial as it cha llenged a long-established perception of womens role as lim shyited to the domain of domestic ity
owhere has thi ~ challenge been so eloquently pu t as in words of British poet Elizabeth Toilet in her 1724 her poem Hypatia What cruel Laws depress the female KindTo humble Ca res and servile Ta sks confild That haughty Mall IIllriFald and alone May boast the world or Science all his owwl As barbarous Tyrants to secure their Sway Conclude that ignorallce will best obey
Whilst men may have been harbarous tyrants and attempted to clamp down on womens parshyticipation in scientific disciplines lu ckily th ey were not entirely suc shycessful in doing so History proshyvides LI S with a few precious exshyamples l1f women who refused to bow to blind ignorance and tbus su cceeded in rising above amashyteur status to become serious conshytributors to the field of scient ific knowledge
Of these the only one about whom much contemporary inshyformati o n as well as a substanshytial body of original writings has survived is Emilie Marquise du Chatelet She is most famous for having been Voltaires mistress but in fa ct this does great injusshytice not only to he r independent character but also to her intellecshytual brilliance and considerable sc ientific contribution hilst she remain ed all bu t inv isible to histo rical aCCo wlts before her asshysociation with Voltaire in 1733 during tJ1e next fifteen years of her life she proved herself a worshythy match to the brilliant French philosopher Living mainly in Pa rh or in her country estate at Cirey to where she retreated with Voltaire she wrote and published a book on the metaphysics of natshyural science (institutions de physhysique) an essay on the nature of fire and neat (pisserta tion sur la nature ct propagation du feu) and two short pieces on the problem of melsu ri ng physical force She also co- authored anonymously Voltaires popularisation of Newshytoni an physic s for which she was resp onsi bl e for most of th e mathshyematical calculations an d to top her numerous achievements in 1748 she produced a translation of Newtons PrincipiI mathemati shyca with a commentary which was published posth Wll ously and is sti l1 used as the standard translashy
tion of h is work in France today In 1835 th e Royal Astro nomical
Society in London made a breakshythrough by awarding honorar y m~mbership to a woman Caroshylin e Herschel She became famous for her discove ry o f ncw nebu lae in 1783 (Androme da and Cetus) and for bei ng the fi rst woman to di scover a comet In hOnOltr of Herschel the SOCiety made what was perhaps the fi rst sta temen t on equal opportuuities in science While tests of astronomi cal merit sho uld in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to th ose of a man the sex of the former shou ld no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acshyknowledgement wh ich might be hel d due to the latter But whi lst modem biographers have used these numerous firsts to turn Caroline Herschel in to a female icon of sci ence it is importan t to note that she wa~ rewarded not for her own discoveries but beshycause she recorded compi led and recalc ulated th ose of her brother vVilliam Herschel
The very natu re of he r brothers research concen trated on collectshying and classif)Ti ng large numb ers of stars and in th is Ca rolines cataloguing skills were of ceotral importanc e Lacking her pati en ce and meticul ous att ention to deshytall he became heavily reliant on her sci enti fi c inpu t Therefo re her im portance in her brothers research was far greater than most of their contemporaries realised yet she never theless allowed her efforts to further his reputation
Finally th e faScinating case of Laura Bassi (1711-177S) shows how some rare women were able to forge thems elves a career in scientific fields during the En shylightenm ent Bassi was gifted with a capacity for learning consi d shyered so extraordillar y in a wom an that it just ified a concession for a
university degree in philosophy Thereafter she was awarded an entrance to Bolognas lstituto delle Scicnze later to be admitted as an honorary member of the college and fl naUy assigned the position of lecturer in physics at the presshytigious Universi ta eli Bologna the first of its kin d in Europe Scholshyar~ from aU over Eu rope would attend Bassis lectu res on Newtoshynian physics and sJle became the envy oflearned women across the contin ent
These scientific women came fre)m upper or middle cla ss backshygrounds and whilst th eir ach ieveshyments were not replicated to the same extent by women in the lowshyer echelons of society a degree of sci entific and pract ical k novledge never theless took hold Daughters of clergymen particularly in the dissenters tnldition and certain widows who were made to tak e up their husbands trade after th ei r death became learned women and hi ghly ski lled T he famous case of lIlada me Cliquot who in 1805 took over her husbands company after h is death is a ch arming exshyample Hi s enterprise whi ch had
een variously involved in bankshying wool trading and Champagne producing th ri ved under her di shyrec tion and eventu ally became the brand La Vcuve C liquol She is directly accred ited will) a great breakthro ugh in champagne han shydling that made mass produc tion of th e wine possible an d estabshylished the producers reputation of excellence which continues to the present day
T hese examples demonstrate that women were capable of takshying part in scientific debates and developments but it should be stressed that their contr ibution was li mited Womens access to sci entific knowledge was dependshyent on wealth class and cru cially on an association with men who would encourage scientific en shydeavours This last condition is all the more important when one considers the institutionshyalised chauvinism that women continued to experience during the eighteenth century Throughshyout Europe with the exception of
orthern Italy un i7ersi ties and scientific academi es such as the Roya l In stitution in London were closed to women
19
Furthermore whilst the enliglltshyenmenl undeniably brought an improvement to the female conshydition entrenched conservatism in contemporary attitudes even amongst enlightened th inkers such as Rou sseau meant that feshymale scientists were not only ex shy
tremely rare but also str uggled to be accepted in m al e- d ominated
circles T llere was a general lack or even absence of formal rec()gshynit ion of womens involvement in scientific publications For ex shyample Marie Lavoisier th e gifted wife of Fren ch chemist Antoine
Lavois ie r in now recog-ni sed as having carried out many calculashytions and observations in her husshyband s Elements of Chemistry The original m an uscript of h is work contai ns evid ence of her notes and comments yet the printed version fail s to ackn owledge her contribution entirely Even in be tter-documented cases such as that of Lavois ier it very difficult fo r the modern -day h isto rian to pin -point the individu al accomshypli shments female scientists in coll aborative works
However one can argue quite
confidently the instrumental rol e that women p layed in th e disshysem in ation and subsequent adshy
van cement o f sci ent ific ideas T hey were g rea t m ediators often translating simplifying and illusshytrat ing com plex scienti fic works Their versions of these texts were
generally aimed at a female read shyership a n otable exam ple bein g EmiJie d u Chatelet s translation of Francesco Algarottis Ne wtonishy(Ism for Ladies (1737) These were often read in wid er circles as they were clear illustrated and easier to understand T his helped the sp read of scientific id eas the im shy
plied message being that if science was s imple enough for a woman to unders tand than anyone could understand it Furthermore women facilitated the populari sashytion of science by hosting disc usshy
~ions in salons or holding p rivate exhibitions in their homes where gues ts cou ld appreciate and marshyvel at discoveries such the Leyden jar and static electrici ty These so shycial gatherings were particularly important when one considers science and the En lightenment as a wider social phenomenon
as opposed to a string of isolated discove ries mad e by individual mal e scientists
There is a tragiC element un shyderlying this whole s to ry Recent studies led by historian s such as Patr ic ia Fara have attempted to give a clearer and fairer in terp re shytation of womens contribution to science d uring thi s per iod
However history has b ee n unfair and insensi tive in its representashytion of female scientists Consid shyer ing the wealth of literature on Science and Enlightenment it is quite re markable tha t so little nas b een written about the women who took part Givmiddoten th e sparseshyness of original sources and the strong m ale bias wit h which most existing d ocumentation is writshyten it is very difficult impossible
perhaps to accu rately assess the Signifi cance o f womens contribushytion to the scientific fi eld
Feminists have often rewritshyten the story of these women to underline independen t achieve shyments and contributions mad e in a bid to break down prejudic es again st their sex But when does a shift of emphasis become an exagshy
geration a disto rt iongt Scientific
women have been concealed for so long that it is very tempting to tum them into unsung heroines It would be unju st to retell these wom ens stories in a way which
forces them to conform to the ideal s of m odern day fem inists Alte rna tivey we mll st appreciate their contr ibutions on their own meri t
Bibliograpby
Fara Patricia Pandoras Breeches Women Science amp Power in the Enlightenm ent (Great Britain Pimlico 2004)
Gardiner Linda Wo men ill Scishyetlce From French Women al7d
the Age of El7ligiztenmellt ed S Spencer (USA Indi ana University Press 1984 )
Bragg Melvyn P Fara K O Brian amp j Hawley In Our Time Wo men alld Science ill the E11 ligi7tenll7ellt LondOl (BBC Radio 4 4th vemb er 2010)
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
15
in the leading unions thal were also committed to equality like the CIO as well as the United Packinghouse Workers of America who organised meatpackers in Chicago and Texas Whilst these unions engaged a lot of black workers as members they also had a significant communist pres shyence The impact of the Communist Party and its role in intluencing both inter-racial unionism and the civil rights movement is a contentious isshyue Their rhetoric and its evolution
from calls for a separate Black Reshypublic to talk of a more united-front is an area that provokes much conshytroversy Was it conceived in order to subvert labour organisations directly or to control them from behind the scenes Alternatively a cynical iew of the motivations behind Commushynist Part) involvement can be temshypered The Part) recognised the revshyolutionar y potential of industrial and agricultural workers and thereforc called for African- American sclfshydetermination as a strategy whereby white American acceptance of blacks right to self-government was the goal Thus white workers would be able to conquer their raci sm and a united working class would result
Traditional interpretations sugshygest that unionism was treated with
hostility by all blacks we must not be blind to tlle differences amongst the black community and the fact tbat they were far from a homogshyenous group hils the Communist Party becanle the rivals of the black elite arld middle-class organisations such as the NAACI~ the poor black working class were attracted to the ideology and the Party in incrcasing numbers throughout tlle depression and during the New Deal era degThey prOided the black working classes with an alternative vehicle for social protest Furthermore communism introduced many blacks to world politics enabling them to place their own struggle in a global context demonstrating the roots of poverty and ra05m
This educated the non -reading classes and gave them a sense of pride something many fel t was deshynied to them by tlle black eli tes of the
AACP whom it has been argued had unwisely assumed a pastoral poshysition as spokesperson for all blacks Moreover the Party challenged both white supremacy and the bourgeOiS politics of the black mjddle-class A Philip Randolph - considered a sooalist and largely hailed as the spokesman for black workers after his success with the Pullman porshy
ters of the 1920s and thc recogni tion of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters by tbe A FL in 1937 - attacked WE B Du Bois and the NAACP for neglecting the needs of the AfricanshyAmerican in favour of bourgeois inshyterests Fostering an atmosphere of debate and discussion communism helped to educate and empower the black working-classes For the black elites it was an unwelcome SQurce of agitation as communists began to enter into the realm of black bourshygeois politics Thus support for the Communist Party divided civil rights campaigners and highlighted undershylying class antagoni~m
The involvement of the commushynist-led ILD in the trial of the Scottsshyboro boys demonstrates the resentshyments and the growing frustrat ion with the NAACP and other black middle-class organisations Failure to secure Significant federal anti -lynchshying legislation ineffective in helping desperate blacks devastated by the depression and limited by thei r OWll political powerlessness ill the face of economic decline amongst tllCir own elite members the NAACPs imposhytence was made apparent during the 1931 Scottsboro boys trial In Alashybama nine black men aged thirteen to n ineteen were charged with the
rape of two while women travelling on the san1e train as them and were tried convicted and sentenced to death in three days WhcU1C~r or not the IlD simply offered their support and advice or they ID U$cled in with shrill bravado their involvement earned the Com mullist Party black support
They were portrayed as defenders of the race whilst wltites chose to view them as outsiders and defendshyers of rapists
Interpretations of communisms impact on the Qjl rights moveshyment during the 1930s var y II may be maintained tllat membership to the Party and adherence to commushynist ideology was limited ultim ateJy most blacks wanted to work within the American system and reap any benefits accrued hy the programmes of the New Deal Africall-Americaru were comm itted to these me3iur and Similarly to Presiden t Roosevelt fe-clec ting him for a th ird term in 1940 Thus communism was a marshyginal force that many blocks chose to
ignore as a vehid c for social protest However it is important to recognise
its significance in the Lives of many African-Americans who for the first time were organised in to tradeullions on relatively equal terms t() those of their whil-e co-workers and were able to understand their $truggle through the framework of a shared commushynist ideology Communists fo rmed the central pillar to trade un ion acshytivism and 0 0 inter-raciali sm This new socialism in the barber shop a broadened ID1d popular sense off self empowered many black vOrkers to fight against economic and social disshycrimination in a way that seemed to
speak more directly to them and their social s tanding than the rhetoric esshypoused by the black-bourgeoisie
Bibliograpby
Leslie H Fishel Jr The Negro and dle New Deal in Twentieth Ce1ltury America Recent Interpretations ed Bernstein and Matusow (1 972)
Robert H Zieger (eei) Orgal ised Labour in the TWeIIlielh Centw y Soulh (1991)
Robin DG Kelley Hammer and Hoe Alabama Conlllllmists During the Great Depression (l990)
16 Retrospect
OFfEN OVERSHADOWED by the tumultuous events that were to weep Europe in the late 19305 and
194Ds the Spanish Civil War (1936shy1939) remairu a pivotal moment in twentieth century European history TIle conflict divided families towns and polarised political opinion across the continent and beyond It resulted in an estimated 500000
deaths and witnessed the establishshyment of a Fascist dictatorship in Spain under General Franco which ould last for almost forty years
The conflict has been a fruitful jeC of historical scholarship and many explanations as to why the fragile democracy of the Second Reshypublic collapsed have been offered Did the RepublJcaJlS Lose because of a lack of fo reign support given to them but that the Nationalists were lucky to receive or was their defeat a result of the weakness of Republican mili tias oin the face of the discipline of the Spanish army
In order to ascertain which if eishy
ther of the aforementioned suggesshytions WdS most significan t it is imshyportant to examine the patchwork of ideologies that the Popular Front composed of the Marxlst POU1vl (Partido Obrero Unification Marxshyista) Socialist UGT (Union General de Trabajores) Communist PSU (PartitSocialiSta UnificalCatalwlya) and Anardllst CNT (Conf-ederacion
acional del Trabajo) Furthermore the effect of foreign intervention on relations within the National Front and upon the contlict asa whole must be taken into consideration
From the outset it would be fai r to suggest that the Republicans lacked the same opportunities as the Nashytionalists The material support offered by the Soviet Union WJS
ultimately to be a hindrance insofar as it catalysed factionalism within the National Front In the opposite camp Adolf Hitler was in reality not much more supportive of the Nationalists than foseph Stalin had been of the Republicans and it is likeshyly that he like Stalin merely wanted the war to continue as a distraction for the estern democracies Argushyably it was MUSSOWlis support that would be key to the Nationalist side He was adan1ant that the emergence of another Fascist state on the model of Italy could only be to his political advantage As it turns out Italy reshyceived relatively little in return from Franco after the war
Despite the fact that the Repuhlishycans were on the side of the legally elected government they were necr allowed to purchase arms from the major suppliers The United States was pursuing a policy of non-inshytervention after World War I and
Britain and France followed suit re1 uctant to upset the political stashybili) of Europe at the time It was decided that neither side would be given military aid under the NODshyIntervention Pact However this pact was then widely and blatantly flaunted by the dictatorships of Eu shyrope Italy Germany an d the Soviet Union The purchasing of foreign arms was poli tically charged as it was tantamount to subscription to the ideology of the dictatorship that was selling them TIle fact that only the Fascist dictatorships of Europe and the USSR were willing to so brashy
j zenly ignore the Non-Intervention pact was to have an enormous imshypact within the Spanish Left as will be later discussed
The aid of the Soviet Union was useful to the Republican cause insoshyfar that the weapons they provided were far superior to any the Republishycans already Pc)ssessed whilst Soviet aircraft were used for reconnaissance missions which were central to the militias military tactics However the weapons were not given to all parties within the Popular Front but were directed at only a handful Mostly they were given to the Socialists of the UCT and tlle Communists of the PSUC which stirred discontent amongst the other parties who were using old and inferior weaponry to that of their fellow comarades
The Civil War polarised Span isJ political discourse into those who were opposed to Francos regime and those who were not The Republican fOrces therefore contained many disparate political groups from moderate republicans to Anarchists Trotskyites and Stalinists Conseshyquently the Soviet aid exacerbated internal tensions within the Republishycan forces between the loosely assoshyciated left wing political groups The acceptance of Soviet weapons was a dangerous move as it allowed the access of agents of the Couummist Party of Soviet Russia into Spanish affairs someth ing that was to prove decisive in the outcome of the war
The Spanish Civil War was a conflict which could be referred to as a battle between reactionary forces of conshyservativism and progressive revolushytionaries Though many have claim ed that the Nationalists were fasc ists British Titer George Orwell who was fighting in Spain at the time along side the Republicans wrote of the Nationshyalists that their ideology was closer to that of feudalism The Nationalists were composed chiefly of members of the army members of the clergy and leaders of international business all united in their common distrust of the working classes Their victory in the war would certainly jeopardise the livshying conditions and dghts of working class people resulting in the deterIorashytion labour relations a Catholic crackshydown of secularism and the army would suppress any dissent
In contrast to the Nationalists clarshyity oJ goals the Republicans seemed to all be working towards different ends TIle objectives of moderate reshyforming socialists and the Anarchist
NT were very difficult to reconshycUe Furthermore the Soviet belief in a revol utionary vanguard instigatshying and leading the proletariat was at odds with populist movements such as Anarchism that took hold in Spain With such differences in polshyicy it is hard to envisage what could force these parties to work together for any length of time
Part of the problem with compreshyhending the Spanish Civil War comes from the spectrum of ideologies within the broad alliance of the Reshypublican forces The ideologies were further apart than could be counteshynanced and particularly so after the Conununist Party decided to impose itself upon the revolution that the Marxists and Anarchists were trying to fashion themselves in Barcelona In his book Hom age to Catalonia Orwell describes Barcelona Practically eveshyry building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists Every shop md cafe had an inscription saying it had been collectivised even the bootblacks had been collectivised md their boxes painted red and blacK The extent of the social change seems almost hyshyperbolic particularly when O rwell stresses that even the bootblacks were part of a trade union The Comshymunist Party however was to disrupt this workers paradise in May of j 937 with the attempted repossesshysion of a telephone exchange that was under Anarchist control 111is sparked a conflict that lasted several days and threatened the stability of the entire Republic General Franco who said he planned it after the Communists
ran newspaper stories blaming the Marxists for starting the fight used disunity in Barcelona to his own ends Being the largest party with the most well-developed press organisations the Communists managed to direct the aftermath of the situation and use it to discredit a competing party Disunity among the Republican side flourished as the AnarclUsts caught on to the Communist attempts to discredit the ]vIandst faction Though they were not persecuted to the same extent though their collectives were broken up to increase efficiency they realised thal they were fighting for
mebody who was n ot sympathetic of their ideology and who tney could not trust The Republican t~1Ctions
vigour started to deteriorate after the May Days riot of 1937
One might ask the question why did the Conununists try and reposshysess an Anarchist building It would be naive of them to assume they could take it vithout a fight unless they disregarded the fact that all Anarshychist doctrine of the em was against government coercion It bardly seems that there might be any great gains in taking one building even if it did allow Anarchists to eaesdrop on telephone conversations The sudden megaloshymania of the Communists seems to have sprung from advice given by the Communist Party of Soviet Russhysia The tactical value of the telephone exchange was not worth risking the integIity of the Republican coalishytiDn The PSUCs party line that At present nothing matters but vinning the war is especially telling
Arguably it was the fragile alliance of circumstance within the Republishycan movement exacerbated by Soviet Aid that only reached certain fuctions wbicb resulted in the collapse of the Spanish Republic Though the weapshyOIlS helped fOT a while they could not Sllstain an entire nation with the limishytations placed upon their deployment Anarchists did not trust the help of Soviet Russia and neither did they trust the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain or any of its regional counshyterparts Tnere were other culprits howeveJ in the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic
It would be wrong to suggest that disWlity on the part of the Republi shycans was all that preven ted them from victor)l The wider European context of the conflict was also fundamenshytal in the collapse of the Republican Movement Gen11any and Russia nevshyer gave sufficient help to either side to let it decisivel) win at any pace but it appears that both used the war to their own advantage Germany tested out their bombers on Spanish tovms such as Guernica and the Soviet Union
17
used the war as a distraction while it increased its level of militarization
In conclusion then the conmct polarised Spanish political discourse around the two totalitarim cxtrerrtishyties of Fascism and Stalinism This resulted in an internally divided and factionalised Republicm force which struggled to retain its integrity in the fuce ofa destructive internal feud The feud was sparked b) the actions of an externalgovernment hence it ccruld be argued that the collapse of tbe second republic was was more to do vith the international context of the conflict as it provided both the ex1rem e ideolohY and the cause of fTiction vithin the Republican movement
BibUography
Qmell George Orwell hi Spain (Penshyguin London2001)
Thomas Hugh The Spanish Civil War 4th edition (Pellguin London 2003)
Beevor Anthony The Battlefor SpainThe Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (WampN London 2006)
Taylor AJP The OrigirtS of the Second World War (Penguin London 1991)
18 Retrospect
Sh may be the Reason Frances Rromagc explores the often overlooked contribution of female scientists during the Enlightenment
FOR MANY centuries befo re the seventeenth Aristotles concepshytion of the bod y and the mind as insepa rable matte r domin ated Western thinking It was used to justify the subjugation of wom en and their subsequent excl us ion from so -called masculine activi shyties
Anatomical differen ces and hormonal systems provi ded new rationales for keeping women below men in the intellectual hishyerarchy Chauvinism expressed it self in every walk of life from religi on and education to science and medicine Even the common shyest of medical symptoms such as nerVOllsness irritability and loss of appetite for foo d or sex were generally diagnosed in women as the result of female Hysteria - a problem deriving from the hysshytna or uterus Science which explored the worl d outside the domestic sphere remai ned an ex shyclusively masculine discipline up until the eighteenth cent ury
Then came th e Enlightenment Enlightenment philosophers were infl uenced by Descartes theori es on critical thinking and Lock es empir icism and as a conseshyqu ence adopted a new approach to learn ing one which promoted free in te ll ectual inquiry and reshyjecled the influence of the state an d religion Despite the moveshyments vast scope few topics were as vigorously discussed as the subject of female education T he changing conception of the mind as no longer constrained by physical attributes opened a new conception of the mind as a sex shyless entity Therefore wom ens education became the subject of m uch debate in polite society spurring contribut ions from feshymale and male thinkers on both sides of the discu ss ion Womens access to scientific knowlcdge proved particularly controversial as it cha llenged a long-established perception of womens role as lim shyited to the domain of domestic ity
owhere has thi ~ challenge been so eloquently pu t as in words of British poet Elizabeth Toilet in her 1724 her poem Hypatia What cruel Laws depress the female KindTo humble Ca res and servile Ta sks confild That haughty Mall IIllriFald and alone May boast the world or Science all his owwl As barbarous Tyrants to secure their Sway Conclude that ignorallce will best obey
Whilst men may have been harbarous tyrants and attempted to clamp down on womens parshyticipation in scientific disciplines lu ckily th ey were not entirely suc shycessful in doing so History proshyvides LI S with a few precious exshyamples l1f women who refused to bow to blind ignorance and tbus su cceeded in rising above amashyteur status to become serious conshytributors to the field of scient ific knowledge
Of these the only one about whom much contemporary inshyformati o n as well as a substanshytial body of original writings has survived is Emilie Marquise du Chatelet She is most famous for having been Voltaires mistress but in fa ct this does great injusshytice not only to he r independent character but also to her intellecshytual brilliance and considerable sc ientific contribution hilst she remain ed all bu t inv isible to histo rical aCCo wlts before her asshysociation with Voltaire in 1733 during tJ1e next fifteen years of her life she proved herself a worshythy match to the brilliant French philosopher Living mainly in Pa rh or in her country estate at Cirey to where she retreated with Voltaire she wrote and published a book on the metaphysics of natshyural science (institutions de physhysique) an essay on the nature of fire and neat (pisserta tion sur la nature ct propagation du feu) and two short pieces on the problem of melsu ri ng physical force She also co- authored anonymously Voltaires popularisation of Newshytoni an physic s for which she was resp onsi bl e for most of th e mathshyematical calculations an d to top her numerous achievements in 1748 she produced a translation of Newtons PrincipiI mathemati shyca with a commentary which was published posth Wll ously and is sti l1 used as the standard translashy
tion of h is work in France today In 1835 th e Royal Astro nomical
Society in London made a breakshythrough by awarding honorar y m~mbership to a woman Caroshylin e Herschel She became famous for her discove ry o f ncw nebu lae in 1783 (Androme da and Cetus) and for bei ng the fi rst woman to di scover a comet In hOnOltr of Herschel the SOCiety made what was perhaps the fi rst sta temen t on equal opportuuities in science While tests of astronomi cal merit sho uld in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to th ose of a man the sex of the former shou ld no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acshyknowledgement wh ich might be hel d due to the latter But whi lst modem biographers have used these numerous firsts to turn Caroline Herschel in to a female icon of sci ence it is importan t to note that she wa~ rewarded not for her own discoveries but beshycause she recorded compi led and recalc ulated th ose of her brother vVilliam Herschel
The very natu re of he r brothers research concen trated on collectshying and classif)Ti ng large numb ers of stars and in th is Ca rolines cataloguing skills were of ceotral importanc e Lacking her pati en ce and meticul ous att ention to deshytall he became heavily reliant on her sci enti fi c inpu t Therefo re her im portance in her brothers research was far greater than most of their contemporaries realised yet she never theless allowed her efforts to further his reputation
Finally th e faScinating case of Laura Bassi (1711-177S) shows how some rare women were able to forge thems elves a career in scientific fields during the En shylightenm ent Bassi was gifted with a capacity for learning consi d shyered so extraordillar y in a wom an that it just ified a concession for a
university degree in philosophy Thereafter she was awarded an entrance to Bolognas lstituto delle Scicnze later to be admitted as an honorary member of the college and fl naUy assigned the position of lecturer in physics at the presshytigious Universi ta eli Bologna the first of its kin d in Europe Scholshyar~ from aU over Eu rope would attend Bassis lectu res on Newtoshynian physics and sJle became the envy oflearned women across the contin ent
These scientific women came fre)m upper or middle cla ss backshygrounds and whilst th eir ach ieveshyments were not replicated to the same extent by women in the lowshyer echelons of society a degree of sci entific and pract ical k novledge never theless took hold Daughters of clergymen particularly in the dissenters tnldition and certain widows who were made to tak e up their husbands trade after th ei r death became learned women and hi ghly ski lled T he famous case of lIlada me Cliquot who in 1805 took over her husbands company after h is death is a ch arming exshyample Hi s enterprise whi ch had
een variously involved in bankshying wool trading and Champagne producing th ri ved under her di shyrec tion and eventu ally became the brand La Vcuve C liquol She is directly accred ited will) a great breakthro ugh in champagne han shydling that made mass produc tion of th e wine possible an d estabshylished the producers reputation of excellence which continues to the present day
T hese examples demonstrate that women were capable of takshying part in scientific debates and developments but it should be stressed that their contr ibution was li mited Womens access to sci entific knowledge was dependshyent on wealth class and cru cially on an association with men who would encourage scientific en shydeavours This last condition is all the more important when one considers the institutionshyalised chauvinism that women continued to experience during the eighteenth century Throughshyout Europe with the exception of
orthern Italy un i7ersi ties and scientific academi es such as the Roya l In stitution in London were closed to women
19
Furthermore whilst the enliglltshyenmenl undeniably brought an improvement to the female conshydition entrenched conservatism in contemporary attitudes even amongst enlightened th inkers such as Rou sseau meant that feshymale scientists were not only ex shy
tremely rare but also str uggled to be accepted in m al e- d ominated
circles T llere was a general lack or even absence of formal rec()gshynit ion of womens involvement in scientific publications For ex shyample Marie Lavoisier th e gifted wife of Fren ch chemist Antoine
Lavois ie r in now recog-ni sed as having carried out many calculashytions and observations in her husshyband s Elements of Chemistry The original m an uscript of h is work contai ns evid ence of her notes and comments yet the printed version fail s to ackn owledge her contribution entirely Even in be tter-documented cases such as that of Lavois ier it very difficult fo r the modern -day h isto rian to pin -point the individu al accomshypli shments female scientists in coll aborative works
However one can argue quite
confidently the instrumental rol e that women p layed in th e disshysem in ation and subsequent adshy
van cement o f sci ent ific ideas T hey were g rea t m ediators often translating simplifying and illusshytrat ing com plex scienti fic works Their versions of these texts were
generally aimed at a female read shyership a n otable exam ple bein g EmiJie d u Chatelet s translation of Francesco Algarottis Ne wtonishy(Ism for Ladies (1737) These were often read in wid er circles as they were clear illustrated and easier to understand T his helped the sp read of scientific id eas the im shy
plied message being that if science was s imple enough for a woman to unders tand than anyone could understand it Furthermore women facilitated the populari sashytion of science by hosting disc usshy
~ions in salons or holding p rivate exhibitions in their homes where gues ts cou ld appreciate and marshyvel at discoveries such the Leyden jar and static electrici ty These so shycial gatherings were particularly important when one considers science and the En lightenment as a wider social phenomenon
as opposed to a string of isolated discove ries mad e by individual mal e scientists
There is a tragiC element un shyderlying this whole s to ry Recent studies led by historian s such as Patr ic ia Fara have attempted to give a clearer and fairer in terp re shytation of womens contribution to science d uring thi s per iod
However history has b ee n unfair and insensi tive in its representashytion of female scientists Consid shyer ing the wealth of literature on Science and Enlightenment it is quite re markable tha t so little nas b een written about the women who took part Givmiddoten th e sparseshyness of original sources and the strong m ale bias wit h which most existing d ocumentation is writshyten it is very difficult impossible
perhaps to accu rately assess the Signifi cance o f womens contribushytion to the scientific fi eld
Feminists have often rewritshyten the story of these women to underline independen t achieve shyments and contributions mad e in a bid to break down prejudic es again st their sex But when does a shift of emphasis become an exagshy
geration a disto rt iongt Scientific
women have been concealed for so long that it is very tempting to tum them into unsung heroines It would be unju st to retell these wom ens stories in a way which
forces them to conform to the ideal s of m odern day fem inists Alte rna tivey we mll st appreciate their contr ibutions on their own meri t
Bibliograpby
Fara Patricia Pandoras Breeches Women Science amp Power in the Enlightenm ent (Great Britain Pimlico 2004)
Gardiner Linda Wo men ill Scishyetlce From French Women al7d
the Age of El7ligiztenmellt ed S Spencer (USA Indi ana University Press 1984 )
Bragg Melvyn P Fara K O Brian amp j Hawley In Our Time Wo men alld Science ill the E11 ligi7tenll7ellt LondOl (BBC Radio 4 4th vemb er 2010)
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
16 Retrospect
OFfEN OVERSHADOWED by the tumultuous events that were to weep Europe in the late 19305 and
194Ds the Spanish Civil War (1936shy1939) remairu a pivotal moment in twentieth century European history TIle conflict divided families towns and polarised political opinion across the continent and beyond It resulted in an estimated 500000
deaths and witnessed the establishshyment of a Fascist dictatorship in Spain under General Franco which ould last for almost forty years
The conflict has been a fruitful jeC of historical scholarship and many explanations as to why the fragile democracy of the Second Reshypublic collapsed have been offered Did the RepublJcaJlS Lose because of a lack of fo reign support given to them but that the Nationalists were lucky to receive or was their defeat a result of the weakness of Republican mili tias oin the face of the discipline of the Spanish army
In order to ascertain which if eishy
ther of the aforementioned suggesshytions WdS most significan t it is imshyportant to examine the patchwork of ideologies that the Popular Front composed of the Marxlst POU1vl (Partido Obrero Unification Marxshyista) Socialist UGT (Union General de Trabajores) Communist PSU (PartitSocialiSta UnificalCatalwlya) and Anardllst CNT (Conf-ederacion
acional del Trabajo) Furthermore the effect of foreign intervention on relations within the National Front and upon the contlict asa whole must be taken into consideration
From the outset it would be fai r to suggest that the Republicans lacked the same opportunities as the Nashytionalists The material support offered by the Soviet Union WJS
ultimately to be a hindrance insofar as it catalysed factionalism within the National Front In the opposite camp Adolf Hitler was in reality not much more supportive of the Nationalists than foseph Stalin had been of the Republicans and it is likeshyly that he like Stalin merely wanted the war to continue as a distraction for the estern democracies Argushyably it was MUSSOWlis support that would be key to the Nationalist side He was adan1ant that the emergence of another Fascist state on the model of Italy could only be to his political advantage As it turns out Italy reshyceived relatively little in return from Franco after the war
Despite the fact that the Repuhlishycans were on the side of the legally elected government they were necr allowed to purchase arms from the major suppliers The United States was pursuing a policy of non-inshytervention after World War I and
Britain and France followed suit re1 uctant to upset the political stashybili) of Europe at the time It was decided that neither side would be given military aid under the NODshyIntervention Pact However this pact was then widely and blatantly flaunted by the dictatorships of Eu shyrope Italy Germany an d the Soviet Union The purchasing of foreign arms was poli tically charged as it was tantamount to subscription to the ideology of the dictatorship that was selling them TIle fact that only the Fascist dictatorships of Europe and the USSR were willing to so brashy
j zenly ignore the Non-Intervention pact was to have an enormous imshypact within the Spanish Left as will be later discussed
The aid of the Soviet Union was useful to the Republican cause insoshyfar that the weapons they provided were far superior to any the Republishycans already Pc)ssessed whilst Soviet aircraft were used for reconnaissance missions which were central to the militias military tactics However the weapons were not given to all parties within the Popular Front but were directed at only a handful Mostly they were given to the Socialists of the UCT and tlle Communists of the PSUC which stirred discontent amongst the other parties who were using old and inferior weaponry to that of their fellow comarades
The Civil War polarised Span isJ political discourse into those who were opposed to Francos regime and those who were not The Republican fOrces therefore contained many disparate political groups from moderate republicans to Anarchists Trotskyites and Stalinists Conseshyquently the Soviet aid exacerbated internal tensions within the Republishycan forces between the loosely assoshyciated left wing political groups The acceptance of Soviet weapons was a dangerous move as it allowed the access of agents of the Couummist Party of Soviet Russia into Spanish affairs someth ing that was to prove decisive in the outcome of the war
The Spanish Civil War was a conflict which could be referred to as a battle between reactionary forces of conshyservativism and progressive revolushytionaries Though many have claim ed that the Nationalists were fasc ists British Titer George Orwell who was fighting in Spain at the time along side the Republicans wrote of the Nationshyalists that their ideology was closer to that of feudalism The Nationalists were composed chiefly of members of the army members of the clergy and leaders of international business all united in their common distrust of the working classes Their victory in the war would certainly jeopardise the livshying conditions and dghts of working class people resulting in the deterIorashytion labour relations a Catholic crackshydown of secularism and the army would suppress any dissent
In contrast to the Nationalists clarshyity oJ goals the Republicans seemed to all be working towards different ends TIle objectives of moderate reshyforming socialists and the Anarchist
NT were very difficult to reconshycUe Furthermore the Soviet belief in a revol utionary vanguard instigatshying and leading the proletariat was at odds with populist movements such as Anarchism that took hold in Spain With such differences in polshyicy it is hard to envisage what could force these parties to work together for any length of time
Part of the problem with compreshyhending the Spanish Civil War comes from the spectrum of ideologies within the broad alliance of the Reshypublican forces The ideologies were further apart than could be counteshynanced and particularly so after the Conununist Party decided to impose itself upon the revolution that the Marxists and Anarchists were trying to fashion themselves in Barcelona In his book Hom age to Catalonia Orwell describes Barcelona Practically eveshyry building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists Every shop md cafe had an inscription saying it had been collectivised even the bootblacks had been collectivised md their boxes painted red and blacK The extent of the social change seems almost hyshyperbolic particularly when O rwell stresses that even the bootblacks were part of a trade union The Comshymunist Party however was to disrupt this workers paradise in May of j 937 with the attempted repossesshysion of a telephone exchange that was under Anarchist control 111is sparked a conflict that lasted several days and threatened the stability of the entire Republic General Franco who said he planned it after the Communists
ran newspaper stories blaming the Marxists for starting the fight used disunity in Barcelona to his own ends Being the largest party with the most well-developed press organisations the Communists managed to direct the aftermath of the situation and use it to discredit a competing party Disunity among the Republican side flourished as the AnarclUsts caught on to the Communist attempts to discredit the ]vIandst faction Though they were not persecuted to the same extent though their collectives were broken up to increase efficiency they realised thal they were fighting for
mebody who was n ot sympathetic of their ideology and who tney could not trust The Republican t~1Ctions
vigour started to deteriorate after the May Days riot of 1937
One might ask the question why did the Conununists try and reposshysess an Anarchist building It would be naive of them to assume they could take it vithout a fight unless they disregarded the fact that all Anarshychist doctrine of the em was against government coercion It bardly seems that there might be any great gains in taking one building even if it did allow Anarchists to eaesdrop on telephone conversations The sudden megaloshymania of the Communists seems to have sprung from advice given by the Communist Party of Soviet Russhysia The tactical value of the telephone exchange was not worth risking the integIity of the Republican coalishytiDn The PSUCs party line that At present nothing matters but vinning the war is especially telling
Arguably it was the fragile alliance of circumstance within the Republishycan movement exacerbated by Soviet Aid that only reached certain fuctions wbicb resulted in the collapse of the Spanish Republic Though the weapshyOIlS helped fOT a while they could not Sllstain an entire nation with the limishytations placed upon their deployment Anarchists did not trust the help of Soviet Russia and neither did they trust the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain or any of its regional counshyterparts Tnere were other culprits howeveJ in the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic
It would be wrong to suggest that disWlity on the part of the Republi shycans was all that preven ted them from victor)l The wider European context of the conflict was also fundamenshytal in the collapse of the Republican Movement Gen11any and Russia nevshyer gave sufficient help to either side to let it decisivel) win at any pace but it appears that both used the war to their own advantage Germany tested out their bombers on Spanish tovms such as Guernica and the Soviet Union
17
used the war as a distraction while it increased its level of militarization
In conclusion then the conmct polarised Spanish political discourse around the two totalitarim cxtrerrtishyties of Fascism and Stalinism This resulted in an internally divided and factionalised Republicm force which struggled to retain its integrity in the fuce ofa destructive internal feud The feud was sparked b) the actions of an externalgovernment hence it ccruld be argued that the collapse of tbe second republic was was more to do vith the international context of the conflict as it provided both the ex1rem e ideolohY and the cause of fTiction vithin the Republican movement
BibUography
Qmell George Orwell hi Spain (Penshyguin London2001)
Thomas Hugh The Spanish Civil War 4th edition (Pellguin London 2003)
Beevor Anthony The Battlefor SpainThe Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (WampN London 2006)
Taylor AJP The OrigirtS of the Second World War (Penguin London 1991)
18 Retrospect
Sh may be the Reason Frances Rromagc explores the often overlooked contribution of female scientists during the Enlightenment
FOR MANY centuries befo re the seventeenth Aristotles concepshytion of the bod y and the mind as insepa rable matte r domin ated Western thinking It was used to justify the subjugation of wom en and their subsequent excl us ion from so -called masculine activi shyties
Anatomical differen ces and hormonal systems provi ded new rationales for keeping women below men in the intellectual hishyerarchy Chauvinism expressed it self in every walk of life from religi on and education to science and medicine Even the common shyest of medical symptoms such as nerVOllsness irritability and loss of appetite for foo d or sex were generally diagnosed in women as the result of female Hysteria - a problem deriving from the hysshytna or uterus Science which explored the worl d outside the domestic sphere remai ned an ex shyclusively masculine discipline up until the eighteenth cent ury
Then came th e Enlightenment Enlightenment philosophers were infl uenced by Descartes theori es on critical thinking and Lock es empir icism and as a conseshyqu ence adopted a new approach to learn ing one which promoted free in te ll ectual inquiry and reshyjecled the influence of the state an d religion Despite the moveshyments vast scope few topics were as vigorously discussed as the subject of female education T he changing conception of the mind as no longer constrained by physical attributes opened a new conception of the mind as a sex shyless entity Therefore wom ens education became the subject of m uch debate in polite society spurring contribut ions from feshymale and male thinkers on both sides of the discu ss ion Womens access to scientific knowlcdge proved particularly controversial as it cha llenged a long-established perception of womens role as lim shyited to the domain of domestic ity
owhere has thi ~ challenge been so eloquently pu t as in words of British poet Elizabeth Toilet in her 1724 her poem Hypatia What cruel Laws depress the female KindTo humble Ca res and servile Ta sks confild That haughty Mall IIllriFald and alone May boast the world or Science all his owwl As barbarous Tyrants to secure their Sway Conclude that ignorallce will best obey
Whilst men may have been harbarous tyrants and attempted to clamp down on womens parshyticipation in scientific disciplines lu ckily th ey were not entirely suc shycessful in doing so History proshyvides LI S with a few precious exshyamples l1f women who refused to bow to blind ignorance and tbus su cceeded in rising above amashyteur status to become serious conshytributors to the field of scient ific knowledge
Of these the only one about whom much contemporary inshyformati o n as well as a substanshytial body of original writings has survived is Emilie Marquise du Chatelet She is most famous for having been Voltaires mistress but in fa ct this does great injusshytice not only to he r independent character but also to her intellecshytual brilliance and considerable sc ientific contribution hilst she remain ed all bu t inv isible to histo rical aCCo wlts before her asshysociation with Voltaire in 1733 during tJ1e next fifteen years of her life she proved herself a worshythy match to the brilliant French philosopher Living mainly in Pa rh or in her country estate at Cirey to where she retreated with Voltaire she wrote and published a book on the metaphysics of natshyural science (institutions de physhysique) an essay on the nature of fire and neat (pisserta tion sur la nature ct propagation du feu) and two short pieces on the problem of melsu ri ng physical force She also co- authored anonymously Voltaires popularisation of Newshytoni an physic s for which she was resp onsi bl e for most of th e mathshyematical calculations an d to top her numerous achievements in 1748 she produced a translation of Newtons PrincipiI mathemati shyca with a commentary which was published posth Wll ously and is sti l1 used as the standard translashy
tion of h is work in France today In 1835 th e Royal Astro nomical
Society in London made a breakshythrough by awarding honorar y m~mbership to a woman Caroshylin e Herschel She became famous for her discove ry o f ncw nebu lae in 1783 (Androme da and Cetus) and for bei ng the fi rst woman to di scover a comet In hOnOltr of Herschel the SOCiety made what was perhaps the fi rst sta temen t on equal opportuuities in science While tests of astronomi cal merit sho uld in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to th ose of a man the sex of the former shou ld no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acshyknowledgement wh ich might be hel d due to the latter But whi lst modem biographers have used these numerous firsts to turn Caroline Herschel in to a female icon of sci ence it is importan t to note that she wa~ rewarded not for her own discoveries but beshycause she recorded compi led and recalc ulated th ose of her brother vVilliam Herschel
The very natu re of he r brothers research concen trated on collectshying and classif)Ti ng large numb ers of stars and in th is Ca rolines cataloguing skills were of ceotral importanc e Lacking her pati en ce and meticul ous att ention to deshytall he became heavily reliant on her sci enti fi c inpu t Therefo re her im portance in her brothers research was far greater than most of their contemporaries realised yet she never theless allowed her efforts to further his reputation
Finally th e faScinating case of Laura Bassi (1711-177S) shows how some rare women were able to forge thems elves a career in scientific fields during the En shylightenm ent Bassi was gifted with a capacity for learning consi d shyered so extraordillar y in a wom an that it just ified a concession for a
university degree in philosophy Thereafter she was awarded an entrance to Bolognas lstituto delle Scicnze later to be admitted as an honorary member of the college and fl naUy assigned the position of lecturer in physics at the presshytigious Universi ta eli Bologna the first of its kin d in Europe Scholshyar~ from aU over Eu rope would attend Bassis lectu res on Newtoshynian physics and sJle became the envy oflearned women across the contin ent
These scientific women came fre)m upper or middle cla ss backshygrounds and whilst th eir ach ieveshyments were not replicated to the same extent by women in the lowshyer echelons of society a degree of sci entific and pract ical k novledge never theless took hold Daughters of clergymen particularly in the dissenters tnldition and certain widows who were made to tak e up their husbands trade after th ei r death became learned women and hi ghly ski lled T he famous case of lIlada me Cliquot who in 1805 took over her husbands company after h is death is a ch arming exshyample Hi s enterprise whi ch had
een variously involved in bankshying wool trading and Champagne producing th ri ved under her di shyrec tion and eventu ally became the brand La Vcuve C liquol She is directly accred ited will) a great breakthro ugh in champagne han shydling that made mass produc tion of th e wine possible an d estabshylished the producers reputation of excellence which continues to the present day
T hese examples demonstrate that women were capable of takshying part in scientific debates and developments but it should be stressed that their contr ibution was li mited Womens access to sci entific knowledge was dependshyent on wealth class and cru cially on an association with men who would encourage scientific en shydeavours This last condition is all the more important when one considers the institutionshyalised chauvinism that women continued to experience during the eighteenth century Throughshyout Europe with the exception of
orthern Italy un i7ersi ties and scientific academi es such as the Roya l In stitution in London were closed to women
19
Furthermore whilst the enliglltshyenmenl undeniably brought an improvement to the female conshydition entrenched conservatism in contemporary attitudes even amongst enlightened th inkers such as Rou sseau meant that feshymale scientists were not only ex shy
tremely rare but also str uggled to be accepted in m al e- d ominated
circles T llere was a general lack or even absence of formal rec()gshynit ion of womens involvement in scientific publications For ex shyample Marie Lavoisier th e gifted wife of Fren ch chemist Antoine
Lavois ie r in now recog-ni sed as having carried out many calculashytions and observations in her husshyband s Elements of Chemistry The original m an uscript of h is work contai ns evid ence of her notes and comments yet the printed version fail s to ackn owledge her contribution entirely Even in be tter-documented cases such as that of Lavois ier it very difficult fo r the modern -day h isto rian to pin -point the individu al accomshypli shments female scientists in coll aborative works
However one can argue quite
confidently the instrumental rol e that women p layed in th e disshysem in ation and subsequent adshy
van cement o f sci ent ific ideas T hey were g rea t m ediators often translating simplifying and illusshytrat ing com plex scienti fic works Their versions of these texts were
generally aimed at a female read shyership a n otable exam ple bein g EmiJie d u Chatelet s translation of Francesco Algarottis Ne wtonishy(Ism for Ladies (1737) These were often read in wid er circles as they were clear illustrated and easier to understand T his helped the sp read of scientific id eas the im shy
plied message being that if science was s imple enough for a woman to unders tand than anyone could understand it Furthermore women facilitated the populari sashytion of science by hosting disc usshy
~ions in salons or holding p rivate exhibitions in their homes where gues ts cou ld appreciate and marshyvel at discoveries such the Leyden jar and static electrici ty These so shycial gatherings were particularly important when one considers science and the En lightenment as a wider social phenomenon
as opposed to a string of isolated discove ries mad e by individual mal e scientists
There is a tragiC element un shyderlying this whole s to ry Recent studies led by historian s such as Patr ic ia Fara have attempted to give a clearer and fairer in terp re shytation of womens contribution to science d uring thi s per iod
However history has b ee n unfair and insensi tive in its representashytion of female scientists Consid shyer ing the wealth of literature on Science and Enlightenment it is quite re markable tha t so little nas b een written about the women who took part Givmiddoten th e sparseshyness of original sources and the strong m ale bias wit h which most existing d ocumentation is writshyten it is very difficult impossible
perhaps to accu rately assess the Signifi cance o f womens contribushytion to the scientific fi eld
Feminists have often rewritshyten the story of these women to underline independen t achieve shyments and contributions mad e in a bid to break down prejudic es again st their sex But when does a shift of emphasis become an exagshy
geration a disto rt iongt Scientific
women have been concealed for so long that it is very tempting to tum them into unsung heroines It would be unju st to retell these wom ens stories in a way which
forces them to conform to the ideal s of m odern day fem inists Alte rna tivey we mll st appreciate their contr ibutions on their own meri t
Bibliograpby
Fara Patricia Pandoras Breeches Women Science amp Power in the Enlightenm ent (Great Britain Pimlico 2004)
Gardiner Linda Wo men ill Scishyetlce From French Women al7d
the Age of El7ligiztenmellt ed S Spencer (USA Indi ana University Press 1984 )
Bragg Melvyn P Fara K O Brian amp j Hawley In Our Time Wo men alld Science ill the E11 ligi7tenll7ellt LondOl (BBC Radio 4 4th vemb er 2010)
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
The Spanish Civil War was a conflict which could be referred to as a battle between reactionary forces of conshyservativism and progressive revolushytionaries Though many have claim ed that the Nationalists were fasc ists British Titer George Orwell who was fighting in Spain at the time along side the Republicans wrote of the Nationshyalists that their ideology was closer to that of feudalism The Nationalists were composed chiefly of members of the army members of the clergy and leaders of international business all united in their common distrust of the working classes Their victory in the war would certainly jeopardise the livshying conditions and dghts of working class people resulting in the deterIorashytion labour relations a Catholic crackshydown of secularism and the army would suppress any dissent
In contrast to the Nationalists clarshyity oJ goals the Republicans seemed to all be working towards different ends TIle objectives of moderate reshyforming socialists and the Anarchist
NT were very difficult to reconshycUe Furthermore the Soviet belief in a revol utionary vanguard instigatshying and leading the proletariat was at odds with populist movements such as Anarchism that took hold in Spain With such differences in polshyicy it is hard to envisage what could force these parties to work together for any length of time
Part of the problem with compreshyhending the Spanish Civil War comes from the spectrum of ideologies within the broad alliance of the Reshypublican forces The ideologies were further apart than could be counteshynanced and particularly so after the Conununist Party decided to impose itself upon the revolution that the Marxists and Anarchists were trying to fashion themselves in Barcelona In his book Hom age to Catalonia Orwell describes Barcelona Practically eveshyry building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists Every shop md cafe had an inscription saying it had been collectivised even the bootblacks had been collectivised md their boxes painted red and blacK The extent of the social change seems almost hyshyperbolic particularly when O rwell stresses that even the bootblacks were part of a trade union The Comshymunist Party however was to disrupt this workers paradise in May of j 937 with the attempted repossesshysion of a telephone exchange that was under Anarchist control 111is sparked a conflict that lasted several days and threatened the stability of the entire Republic General Franco who said he planned it after the Communists
ran newspaper stories blaming the Marxists for starting the fight used disunity in Barcelona to his own ends Being the largest party with the most well-developed press organisations the Communists managed to direct the aftermath of the situation and use it to discredit a competing party Disunity among the Republican side flourished as the AnarclUsts caught on to the Communist attempts to discredit the ]vIandst faction Though they were not persecuted to the same extent though their collectives were broken up to increase efficiency they realised thal they were fighting for
mebody who was n ot sympathetic of their ideology and who tney could not trust The Republican t~1Ctions
vigour started to deteriorate after the May Days riot of 1937
One might ask the question why did the Conununists try and reposshysess an Anarchist building It would be naive of them to assume they could take it vithout a fight unless they disregarded the fact that all Anarshychist doctrine of the em was against government coercion It bardly seems that there might be any great gains in taking one building even if it did allow Anarchists to eaesdrop on telephone conversations The sudden megaloshymania of the Communists seems to have sprung from advice given by the Communist Party of Soviet Russhysia The tactical value of the telephone exchange was not worth risking the integIity of the Republican coalishytiDn The PSUCs party line that At present nothing matters but vinning the war is especially telling
Arguably it was the fragile alliance of circumstance within the Republishycan movement exacerbated by Soviet Aid that only reached certain fuctions wbicb resulted in the collapse of the Spanish Republic Though the weapshyOIlS helped fOT a while they could not Sllstain an entire nation with the limishytations placed upon their deployment Anarchists did not trust the help of Soviet Russia and neither did they trust the Stalinist Communist Party of Spain or any of its regional counshyterparts Tnere were other culprits howeveJ in the defeat of the Second Spanish Republic
It would be wrong to suggest that disWlity on the part of the Republi shycans was all that preven ted them from victor)l The wider European context of the conflict was also fundamenshytal in the collapse of the Republican Movement Gen11any and Russia nevshyer gave sufficient help to either side to let it decisivel) win at any pace but it appears that both used the war to their own advantage Germany tested out their bombers on Spanish tovms such as Guernica and the Soviet Union
17
used the war as a distraction while it increased its level of militarization
In conclusion then the conmct polarised Spanish political discourse around the two totalitarim cxtrerrtishyties of Fascism and Stalinism This resulted in an internally divided and factionalised Republicm force which struggled to retain its integrity in the fuce ofa destructive internal feud The feud was sparked b) the actions of an externalgovernment hence it ccruld be argued that the collapse of tbe second republic was was more to do vith the international context of the conflict as it provided both the ex1rem e ideolohY and the cause of fTiction vithin the Republican movement
BibUography
Qmell George Orwell hi Spain (Penshyguin London2001)
Thomas Hugh The Spanish Civil War 4th edition (Pellguin London 2003)
Beevor Anthony The Battlefor SpainThe Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (WampN London 2006)
Taylor AJP The OrigirtS of the Second World War (Penguin London 1991)
18 Retrospect
Sh may be the Reason Frances Rromagc explores the often overlooked contribution of female scientists during the Enlightenment
FOR MANY centuries befo re the seventeenth Aristotles concepshytion of the bod y and the mind as insepa rable matte r domin ated Western thinking It was used to justify the subjugation of wom en and their subsequent excl us ion from so -called masculine activi shyties
Anatomical differen ces and hormonal systems provi ded new rationales for keeping women below men in the intellectual hishyerarchy Chauvinism expressed it self in every walk of life from religi on and education to science and medicine Even the common shyest of medical symptoms such as nerVOllsness irritability and loss of appetite for foo d or sex were generally diagnosed in women as the result of female Hysteria - a problem deriving from the hysshytna or uterus Science which explored the worl d outside the domestic sphere remai ned an ex shyclusively masculine discipline up until the eighteenth cent ury
Then came th e Enlightenment Enlightenment philosophers were infl uenced by Descartes theori es on critical thinking and Lock es empir icism and as a conseshyqu ence adopted a new approach to learn ing one which promoted free in te ll ectual inquiry and reshyjecled the influence of the state an d religion Despite the moveshyments vast scope few topics were as vigorously discussed as the subject of female education T he changing conception of the mind as no longer constrained by physical attributes opened a new conception of the mind as a sex shyless entity Therefore wom ens education became the subject of m uch debate in polite society spurring contribut ions from feshymale and male thinkers on both sides of the discu ss ion Womens access to scientific knowlcdge proved particularly controversial as it cha llenged a long-established perception of womens role as lim shyited to the domain of domestic ity
owhere has thi ~ challenge been so eloquently pu t as in words of British poet Elizabeth Toilet in her 1724 her poem Hypatia What cruel Laws depress the female KindTo humble Ca res and servile Ta sks confild That haughty Mall IIllriFald and alone May boast the world or Science all his owwl As barbarous Tyrants to secure their Sway Conclude that ignorallce will best obey
Whilst men may have been harbarous tyrants and attempted to clamp down on womens parshyticipation in scientific disciplines lu ckily th ey were not entirely suc shycessful in doing so History proshyvides LI S with a few precious exshyamples l1f women who refused to bow to blind ignorance and tbus su cceeded in rising above amashyteur status to become serious conshytributors to the field of scient ific knowledge
Of these the only one about whom much contemporary inshyformati o n as well as a substanshytial body of original writings has survived is Emilie Marquise du Chatelet She is most famous for having been Voltaires mistress but in fa ct this does great injusshytice not only to he r independent character but also to her intellecshytual brilliance and considerable sc ientific contribution hilst she remain ed all bu t inv isible to histo rical aCCo wlts before her asshysociation with Voltaire in 1733 during tJ1e next fifteen years of her life she proved herself a worshythy match to the brilliant French philosopher Living mainly in Pa rh or in her country estate at Cirey to where she retreated with Voltaire she wrote and published a book on the metaphysics of natshyural science (institutions de physhysique) an essay on the nature of fire and neat (pisserta tion sur la nature ct propagation du feu) and two short pieces on the problem of melsu ri ng physical force She also co- authored anonymously Voltaires popularisation of Newshytoni an physic s for which she was resp onsi bl e for most of th e mathshyematical calculations an d to top her numerous achievements in 1748 she produced a translation of Newtons PrincipiI mathemati shyca with a commentary which was published posth Wll ously and is sti l1 used as the standard translashy
tion of h is work in France today In 1835 th e Royal Astro nomical
Society in London made a breakshythrough by awarding honorar y m~mbership to a woman Caroshylin e Herschel She became famous for her discove ry o f ncw nebu lae in 1783 (Androme da and Cetus) and for bei ng the fi rst woman to di scover a comet In hOnOltr of Herschel the SOCiety made what was perhaps the fi rst sta temen t on equal opportuuities in science While tests of astronomi cal merit sho uld in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to th ose of a man the sex of the former shou ld no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acshyknowledgement wh ich might be hel d due to the latter But whi lst modem biographers have used these numerous firsts to turn Caroline Herschel in to a female icon of sci ence it is importan t to note that she wa~ rewarded not for her own discoveries but beshycause she recorded compi led and recalc ulated th ose of her brother vVilliam Herschel
The very natu re of he r brothers research concen trated on collectshying and classif)Ti ng large numb ers of stars and in th is Ca rolines cataloguing skills were of ceotral importanc e Lacking her pati en ce and meticul ous att ention to deshytall he became heavily reliant on her sci enti fi c inpu t Therefo re her im portance in her brothers research was far greater than most of their contemporaries realised yet she never theless allowed her efforts to further his reputation
Finally th e faScinating case of Laura Bassi (1711-177S) shows how some rare women were able to forge thems elves a career in scientific fields during the En shylightenm ent Bassi was gifted with a capacity for learning consi d shyered so extraordillar y in a wom an that it just ified a concession for a
university degree in philosophy Thereafter she was awarded an entrance to Bolognas lstituto delle Scicnze later to be admitted as an honorary member of the college and fl naUy assigned the position of lecturer in physics at the presshytigious Universi ta eli Bologna the first of its kin d in Europe Scholshyar~ from aU over Eu rope would attend Bassis lectu res on Newtoshynian physics and sJle became the envy oflearned women across the contin ent
These scientific women came fre)m upper or middle cla ss backshygrounds and whilst th eir ach ieveshyments were not replicated to the same extent by women in the lowshyer echelons of society a degree of sci entific and pract ical k novledge never theless took hold Daughters of clergymen particularly in the dissenters tnldition and certain widows who were made to tak e up their husbands trade after th ei r death became learned women and hi ghly ski lled T he famous case of lIlada me Cliquot who in 1805 took over her husbands company after h is death is a ch arming exshyample Hi s enterprise whi ch had
een variously involved in bankshying wool trading and Champagne producing th ri ved under her di shyrec tion and eventu ally became the brand La Vcuve C liquol She is directly accred ited will) a great breakthro ugh in champagne han shydling that made mass produc tion of th e wine possible an d estabshylished the producers reputation of excellence which continues to the present day
T hese examples demonstrate that women were capable of takshying part in scientific debates and developments but it should be stressed that their contr ibution was li mited Womens access to sci entific knowledge was dependshyent on wealth class and cru cially on an association with men who would encourage scientific en shydeavours This last condition is all the more important when one considers the institutionshyalised chauvinism that women continued to experience during the eighteenth century Throughshyout Europe with the exception of
orthern Italy un i7ersi ties and scientific academi es such as the Roya l In stitution in London were closed to women
19
Furthermore whilst the enliglltshyenmenl undeniably brought an improvement to the female conshydition entrenched conservatism in contemporary attitudes even amongst enlightened th inkers such as Rou sseau meant that feshymale scientists were not only ex shy
tremely rare but also str uggled to be accepted in m al e- d ominated
circles T llere was a general lack or even absence of formal rec()gshynit ion of womens involvement in scientific publications For ex shyample Marie Lavoisier th e gifted wife of Fren ch chemist Antoine
Lavois ie r in now recog-ni sed as having carried out many calculashytions and observations in her husshyband s Elements of Chemistry The original m an uscript of h is work contai ns evid ence of her notes and comments yet the printed version fail s to ackn owledge her contribution entirely Even in be tter-documented cases such as that of Lavois ier it very difficult fo r the modern -day h isto rian to pin -point the individu al accomshypli shments female scientists in coll aborative works
However one can argue quite
confidently the instrumental rol e that women p layed in th e disshysem in ation and subsequent adshy
van cement o f sci ent ific ideas T hey were g rea t m ediators often translating simplifying and illusshytrat ing com plex scienti fic works Their versions of these texts were
generally aimed at a female read shyership a n otable exam ple bein g EmiJie d u Chatelet s translation of Francesco Algarottis Ne wtonishy(Ism for Ladies (1737) These were often read in wid er circles as they were clear illustrated and easier to understand T his helped the sp read of scientific id eas the im shy
plied message being that if science was s imple enough for a woman to unders tand than anyone could understand it Furthermore women facilitated the populari sashytion of science by hosting disc usshy
~ions in salons or holding p rivate exhibitions in their homes where gues ts cou ld appreciate and marshyvel at discoveries such the Leyden jar and static electrici ty These so shycial gatherings were particularly important when one considers science and the En lightenment as a wider social phenomenon
as opposed to a string of isolated discove ries mad e by individual mal e scientists
There is a tragiC element un shyderlying this whole s to ry Recent studies led by historian s such as Patr ic ia Fara have attempted to give a clearer and fairer in terp re shytation of womens contribution to science d uring thi s per iod
However history has b ee n unfair and insensi tive in its representashytion of female scientists Consid shyer ing the wealth of literature on Science and Enlightenment it is quite re markable tha t so little nas b een written about the women who took part Givmiddoten th e sparseshyness of original sources and the strong m ale bias wit h which most existing d ocumentation is writshyten it is very difficult impossible
perhaps to accu rately assess the Signifi cance o f womens contribushytion to the scientific fi eld
Feminists have often rewritshyten the story of these women to underline independen t achieve shyments and contributions mad e in a bid to break down prejudic es again st their sex But when does a shift of emphasis become an exagshy
geration a disto rt iongt Scientific
women have been concealed for so long that it is very tempting to tum them into unsung heroines It would be unju st to retell these wom ens stories in a way which
forces them to conform to the ideal s of m odern day fem inists Alte rna tivey we mll st appreciate their contr ibutions on their own meri t
Bibliograpby
Fara Patricia Pandoras Breeches Women Science amp Power in the Enlightenm ent (Great Britain Pimlico 2004)
Gardiner Linda Wo men ill Scishyetlce From French Women al7d
the Age of El7ligiztenmellt ed S Spencer (USA Indi ana University Press 1984 )
Bragg Melvyn P Fara K O Brian amp j Hawley In Our Time Wo men alld Science ill the E11 ligi7tenll7ellt LondOl (BBC Radio 4 4th vemb er 2010)
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
18 Retrospect
Sh may be the Reason Frances Rromagc explores the often overlooked contribution of female scientists during the Enlightenment
FOR MANY centuries befo re the seventeenth Aristotles concepshytion of the bod y and the mind as insepa rable matte r domin ated Western thinking It was used to justify the subjugation of wom en and their subsequent excl us ion from so -called masculine activi shyties
Anatomical differen ces and hormonal systems provi ded new rationales for keeping women below men in the intellectual hishyerarchy Chauvinism expressed it self in every walk of life from religi on and education to science and medicine Even the common shyest of medical symptoms such as nerVOllsness irritability and loss of appetite for foo d or sex were generally diagnosed in women as the result of female Hysteria - a problem deriving from the hysshytna or uterus Science which explored the worl d outside the domestic sphere remai ned an ex shyclusively masculine discipline up until the eighteenth cent ury
Then came th e Enlightenment Enlightenment philosophers were infl uenced by Descartes theori es on critical thinking and Lock es empir icism and as a conseshyqu ence adopted a new approach to learn ing one which promoted free in te ll ectual inquiry and reshyjecled the influence of the state an d religion Despite the moveshyments vast scope few topics were as vigorously discussed as the subject of female education T he changing conception of the mind as no longer constrained by physical attributes opened a new conception of the mind as a sex shyless entity Therefore wom ens education became the subject of m uch debate in polite society spurring contribut ions from feshymale and male thinkers on both sides of the discu ss ion Womens access to scientific knowlcdge proved particularly controversial as it cha llenged a long-established perception of womens role as lim shyited to the domain of domestic ity
owhere has thi ~ challenge been so eloquently pu t as in words of British poet Elizabeth Toilet in her 1724 her poem Hypatia What cruel Laws depress the female KindTo humble Ca res and servile Ta sks confild That haughty Mall IIllriFald and alone May boast the world or Science all his owwl As barbarous Tyrants to secure their Sway Conclude that ignorallce will best obey
Whilst men may have been harbarous tyrants and attempted to clamp down on womens parshyticipation in scientific disciplines lu ckily th ey were not entirely suc shycessful in doing so History proshyvides LI S with a few precious exshyamples l1f women who refused to bow to blind ignorance and tbus su cceeded in rising above amashyteur status to become serious conshytributors to the field of scient ific knowledge
Of these the only one about whom much contemporary inshyformati o n as well as a substanshytial body of original writings has survived is Emilie Marquise du Chatelet She is most famous for having been Voltaires mistress but in fa ct this does great injusshytice not only to he r independent character but also to her intellecshytual brilliance and considerable sc ientific contribution hilst she remain ed all bu t inv isible to histo rical aCCo wlts before her asshysociation with Voltaire in 1733 during tJ1e next fifteen years of her life she proved herself a worshythy match to the brilliant French philosopher Living mainly in Pa rh or in her country estate at Cirey to where she retreated with Voltaire she wrote and published a book on the metaphysics of natshyural science (institutions de physhysique) an essay on the nature of fire and neat (pisserta tion sur la nature ct propagation du feu) and two short pieces on the problem of melsu ri ng physical force She also co- authored anonymously Voltaires popularisation of Newshytoni an physic s for which she was resp onsi bl e for most of th e mathshyematical calculations an d to top her numerous achievements in 1748 she produced a translation of Newtons PrincipiI mathemati shyca with a commentary which was published posth Wll ously and is sti l1 used as the standard translashy
tion of h is work in France today In 1835 th e Royal Astro nomical
Society in London made a breakshythrough by awarding honorar y m~mbership to a woman Caroshylin e Herschel She became famous for her discove ry o f ncw nebu lae in 1783 (Androme da and Cetus) and for bei ng the fi rst woman to di scover a comet In hOnOltr of Herschel the SOCiety made what was perhaps the fi rst sta temen t on equal opportuuities in science While tests of astronomi cal merit sho uld in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to th ose of a man the sex of the former shou ld no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any acshyknowledgement wh ich might be hel d due to the latter But whi lst modem biographers have used these numerous firsts to turn Caroline Herschel in to a female icon of sci ence it is importan t to note that she wa~ rewarded not for her own discoveries but beshycause she recorded compi led and recalc ulated th ose of her brother vVilliam Herschel
The very natu re of he r brothers research concen trated on collectshying and classif)Ti ng large numb ers of stars and in th is Ca rolines cataloguing skills were of ceotral importanc e Lacking her pati en ce and meticul ous att ention to deshytall he became heavily reliant on her sci enti fi c inpu t Therefo re her im portance in her brothers research was far greater than most of their contemporaries realised yet she never theless allowed her efforts to further his reputation
Finally th e faScinating case of Laura Bassi (1711-177S) shows how some rare women were able to forge thems elves a career in scientific fields during the En shylightenm ent Bassi was gifted with a capacity for learning consi d shyered so extraordillar y in a wom an that it just ified a concession for a
university degree in philosophy Thereafter she was awarded an entrance to Bolognas lstituto delle Scicnze later to be admitted as an honorary member of the college and fl naUy assigned the position of lecturer in physics at the presshytigious Universi ta eli Bologna the first of its kin d in Europe Scholshyar~ from aU over Eu rope would attend Bassis lectu res on Newtoshynian physics and sJle became the envy oflearned women across the contin ent
These scientific women came fre)m upper or middle cla ss backshygrounds and whilst th eir ach ieveshyments were not replicated to the same extent by women in the lowshyer echelons of society a degree of sci entific and pract ical k novledge never theless took hold Daughters of clergymen particularly in the dissenters tnldition and certain widows who were made to tak e up their husbands trade after th ei r death became learned women and hi ghly ski lled T he famous case of lIlada me Cliquot who in 1805 took over her husbands company after h is death is a ch arming exshyample Hi s enterprise whi ch had
een variously involved in bankshying wool trading and Champagne producing th ri ved under her di shyrec tion and eventu ally became the brand La Vcuve C liquol She is directly accred ited will) a great breakthro ugh in champagne han shydling that made mass produc tion of th e wine possible an d estabshylished the producers reputation of excellence which continues to the present day
T hese examples demonstrate that women were capable of takshying part in scientific debates and developments but it should be stressed that their contr ibution was li mited Womens access to sci entific knowledge was dependshyent on wealth class and cru cially on an association with men who would encourage scientific en shydeavours This last condition is all the more important when one considers the institutionshyalised chauvinism that women continued to experience during the eighteenth century Throughshyout Europe with the exception of
orthern Italy un i7ersi ties and scientific academi es such as the Roya l In stitution in London were closed to women
19
Furthermore whilst the enliglltshyenmenl undeniably brought an improvement to the female conshydition entrenched conservatism in contemporary attitudes even amongst enlightened th inkers such as Rou sseau meant that feshymale scientists were not only ex shy
tremely rare but also str uggled to be accepted in m al e- d ominated
circles T llere was a general lack or even absence of formal rec()gshynit ion of womens involvement in scientific publications For ex shyample Marie Lavoisier th e gifted wife of Fren ch chemist Antoine
Lavois ie r in now recog-ni sed as having carried out many calculashytions and observations in her husshyband s Elements of Chemistry The original m an uscript of h is work contai ns evid ence of her notes and comments yet the printed version fail s to ackn owledge her contribution entirely Even in be tter-documented cases such as that of Lavois ier it very difficult fo r the modern -day h isto rian to pin -point the individu al accomshypli shments female scientists in coll aborative works
However one can argue quite
confidently the instrumental rol e that women p layed in th e disshysem in ation and subsequent adshy
van cement o f sci ent ific ideas T hey were g rea t m ediators often translating simplifying and illusshytrat ing com plex scienti fic works Their versions of these texts were
generally aimed at a female read shyership a n otable exam ple bein g EmiJie d u Chatelet s translation of Francesco Algarottis Ne wtonishy(Ism for Ladies (1737) These were often read in wid er circles as they were clear illustrated and easier to understand T his helped the sp read of scientific id eas the im shy
plied message being that if science was s imple enough for a woman to unders tand than anyone could understand it Furthermore women facilitated the populari sashytion of science by hosting disc usshy
~ions in salons or holding p rivate exhibitions in their homes where gues ts cou ld appreciate and marshyvel at discoveries such the Leyden jar and static electrici ty These so shycial gatherings were particularly important when one considers science and the En lightenment as a wider social phenomenon
as opposed to a string of isolated discove ries mad e by individual mal e scientists
There is a tragiC element un shyderlying this whole s to ry Recent studies led by historian s such as Patr ic ia Fara have attempted to give a clearer and fairer in terp re shytation of womens contribution to science d uring thi s per iod
However history has b ee n unfair and insensi tive in its representashytion of female scientists Consid shyer ing the wealth of literature on Science and Enlightenment it is quite re markable tha t so little nas b een written about the women who took part Givmiddoten th e sparseshyness of original sources and the strong m ale bias wit h which most existing d ocumentation is writshyten it is very difficult impossible
perhaps to accu rately assess the Signifi cance o f womens contribushytion to the scientific fi eld
Feminists have often rewritshyten the story of these women to underline independen t achieve shyments and contributions mad e in a bid to break down prejudic es again st their sex But when does a shift of emphasis become an exagshy
geration a disto rt iongt Scientific
women have been concealed for so long that it is very tempting to tum them into unsung heroines It would be unju st to retell these wom ens stories in a way which
forces them to conform to the ideal s of m odern day fem inists Alte rna tivey we mll st appreciate their contr ibutions on their own meri t
Bibliograpby
Fara Patricia Pandoras Breeches Women Science amp Power in the Enlightenm ent (Great Britain Pimlico 2004)
Gardiner Linda Wo men ill Scishyetlce From French Women al7d
the Age of El7ligiztenmellt ed S Spencer (USA Indi ana University Press 1984 )
Bragg Melvyn P Fara K O Brian amp j Hawley In Our Time Wo men alld Science ill the E11 ligi7tenll7ellt LondOl (BBC Radio 4 4th vemb er 2010)
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
19
Furthermore whilst the enliglltshyenmenl undeniably brought an improvement to the female conshydition entrenched conservatism in contemporary attitudes even amongst enlightened th inkers such as Rou sseau meant that feshymale scientists were not only ex shy
tremely rare but also str uggled to be accepted in m al e- d ominated
circles T llere was a general lack or even absence of formal rec()gshynit ion of womens involvement in scientific publications For ex shyample Marie Lavoisier th e gifted wife of Fren ch chemist Antoine
Lavois ie r in now recog-ni sed as having carried out many calculashytions and observations in her husshyband s Elements of Chemistry The original m an uscript of h is work contai ns evid ence of her notes and comments yet the printed version fail s to ackn owledge her contribution entirely Even in be tter-documented cases such as that of Lavois ier it very difficult fo r the modern -day h isto rian to pin -point the individu al accomshypli shments female scientists in coll aborative works
However one can argue quite
confidently the instrumental rol e that women p layed in th e disshysem in ation and subsequent adshy
van cement o f sci ent ific ideas T hey were g rea t m ediators often translating simplifying and illusshytrat ing com plex scienti fic works Their versions of these texts were
generally aimed at a female read shyership a n otable exam ple bein g EmiJie d u Chatelet s translation of Francesco Algarottis Ne wtonishy(Ism for Ladies (1737) These were often read in wid er circles as they were clear illustrated and easier to understand T his helped the sp read of scientific id eas the im shy
plied message being that if science was s imple enough for a woman to unders tand than anyone could understand it Furthermore women facilitated the populari sashytion of science by hosting disc usshy
~ions in salons or holding p rivate exhibitions in their homes where gues ts cou ld appreciate and marshyvel at discoveries such the Leyden jar and static electrici ty These so shycial gatherings were particularly important when one considers science and the En lightenment as a wider social phenomenon
as opposed to a string of isolated discove ries mad e by individual mal e scientists
There is a tragiC element un shyderlying this whole s to ry Recent studies led by historian s such as Patr ic ia Fara have attempted to give a clearer and fairer in terp re shytation of womens contribution to science d uring thi s per iod
However history has b ee n unfair and insensi tive in its representashytion of female scientists Consid shyer ing the wealth of literature on Science and Enlightenment it is quite re markable tha t so little nas b een written about the women who took part Givmiddoten th e sparseshyness of original sources and the strong m ale bias wit h which most existing d ocumentation is writshyten it is very difficult impossible
perhaps to accu rately assess the Signifi cance o f womens contribushytion to the scientific fi eld
Feminists have often rewritshyten the story of these women to underline independen t achieve shyments and contributions mad e in a bid to break down prejudic es again st their sex But when does a shift of emphasis become an exagshy
geration a disto rt iongt Scientific
women have been concealed for so long that it is very tempting to tum them into unsung heroines It would be unju st to retell these wom ens stories in a way which
forces them to conform to the ideal s of m odern day fem inists Alte rna tivey we mll st appreciate their contr ibutions on their own meri t
Bibliograpby
Fara Patricia Pandoras Breeches Women Science amp Power in the Enlightenm ent (Great Britain Pimlico 2004)
Gardiner Linda Wo men ill Scishyetlce From French Women al7d
the Age of El7ligiztenmellt ed S Spencer (USA Indi ana University Press 1984 )
Bragg Melvyn P Fara K O Brian amp j Hawley In Our Time Wo men alld Science ill the E11 ligi7tenll7ellt LondOl (BBC Radio 4 4th vemb er 2010)
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
20 Retrospect
THE CURRENT involvement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Afghmistan is the latest in a long series of attempts by various foreign powers to subjugate pacify and govern the area effectiely Rather thall the clear-cut contlict between the forces of liberal democracy and backward theocratic autocracy as portrayed by some media news outshylets the reality is tbat there are several regional and in ternational powers that have a stake in tile outcome of this situation These include but are not limited to the NATO-led Internationshyal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) the current Afghan government the Taliban a1-Qaeda various warlords with tribal and ethnic differences the government of Pakistan and its IntershyServices Intelligence (lSI) Each of these organisations has different obshyjectives concerning tile result of the Afghan conflict Consequently they eam have unique and complex relashytionships with one another and these are often prone to change depending on the advantages that alliances and treaties can provide
NATO involvement in his contlict may be called into question as a result of judging its complexities through a lens of moral relativism Some people may doubt whyNATO invaded in the first place what the reasons are for the continuing occupation and whether these motivations are congruellt with the initial invasion Additionally the relationship between tile leaders of the Taliban and al-Qaeda are sometimes less than transparent due to the nashyture of tl1ese clandestine organisations and the difficulty in obtaining current valid data on eilheL Perhaps the most Significant as well as the most fickle of all the players in this Great Game is Pakistan Officially designated in 2004 by Presidellt Bush as a major non-NATO al ly but also frequently accused of harbouring and funding members of the current an ti-governshyment Afghan insurgency including members of tile Taliban the interests of tl1C Pakistani government and it military establishment can be espe~ cially difficult Lo pinpoint In this part of the world it can be very difficult to know who ones allies are and how long they will reIl1ain so In a region shaped by confl jct the saying the enshyen1Y of my enemy is my friend only beginS to describe the intertwined reshylationships between the various forces at work
A great deal of tI1e interaction beshytween tI1e aforell1entioned nations and organisations that ve see in Afshyghanistan today was catalysed by the Afghan-Soviet War (1979 1989) The Soviet invasion in 1979 was prompted by a request from the President of the tben-communist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to help quell unrest and maintain
their grip on power amidst a growing insurrection The Soviets responded by invading murdering the President ofAfghanistan as well as his son and installing a new quasi-puppet head of government ill Kabul In the context of the Cold War thjs can be seen as an effort on the Soviet Unions part to protect their regional interests by retaining a friendly government in the region ll1e US administration aw an opportunIty to destabilise the
Soviet Union by drawing them into a protracted contlict by aiding the anti-government forces Most notashyble amongst these insurgents were the muiallideen or those engaged in jihad President Reagan called th men freedom fighters engaged in a fight against an evil empire in what was portrayed as a black and white conflict Under Operation Cyclone lTlMly militant Islamic groups were ftUlded trained and armed by the CIA with the intent of unleashing them against the Soviets and their supportshyers The consequences of aiding these fighters are still being felt today by everyone in Afghanistan and indeed around the world
The appeal to jOin the mujahideen drew many fro m across the Muslim world to fight against the atlleist Soshyviets Perhaps the most notorious of these men was Osama bin-Laden who is also controversially alleged to have received US weapons in the fight against the Soviets The manner in which these insurgent groups were supported was a major factor in their subsequent evolution throughout the 1 980s Direct US involvement in the Afghan-Soviet War vas not an option thus third parties were often used
to train and equip the mujahideen Most important was tbe Pakistani lSI whicll received aid from the United States as well as other Islamic states most notably Saudi Arabia who were fearful of Soviet expansion as well as anti -communist The Pakistani lSI redistributed funds to the insurgents who most closely fit the ideological mold of the Pakistani leader General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
Zia-ul-Haq criticised and accused of being a Sunni dictator diverted fun ds and weapons to insurgent groups who were more religiOUsly extremist He was able to exploit his pOSition in excl1ange for substantial American economic and military aid A heavy reliance on Pakistan to decide where to mete out aid strengthened hard-line elements of the mujahideen For example Pakistan routed a disshyproportionate amount of aid to a man called Gulbuddio Hekmatyar who has been critiCISed for killing other muja shyhideen and attacking civilian populashytions including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons causing around 2000 casualties According to journalist Robert Kaplan Pakistan chose to support Hekmatyar because he would be almost totally dependent on Zia-u1-Hags patron age due of his lack of widespread popular support in Afghanistan itself and he would theoretically be easier to control Aushythor Peter Bergen wrote b) the most conservative estimates US$600 milshylion in American aid passed through Pakistan went to Hekmatyars party [which] had tI1e dubious distinction of never winning a significant batshytic during the war training a variety of militant lslamists from around the world killing significant numbers of mujal1ideen from other parties and taking a virulently anti-Western line In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid Hekmatshyyar also received the lions share of aid from the Saudis
Conversely Ahmad Shall Massoud another anti-Soviet fighter would later go on to lead tile Northern Alliance against the Tal iban in tbe 1990s reshyceived virtually no aid from the Unitshyed States through Pakistan because he wa~ deemed Ctoo independent TIus
was despite the fact that the was by far the most successful mujahideen camshymander in battle against the Soviets he did not resort to the drug trade in order to ftmd his movement like Hekshymatyar did and was less religiously egttremisL Consequently Massoud is almost universally regarded as the most morally upright mujal1ideen commander He was even nominated posthumously for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002
After the withdrawal of the Soviets from Afghanistan Massoud a5 ofshyfe red pmver whim he used to help broker a peace accord between the various factions who had fought the Sm~ets The anly fighter to refuse vas Hekmatyar who bombarded Kabul with rockets in an attempt to seize total power for himself and establish a fundamentalist rslarnic state He told one New York TImes journalist [Afghanistan] already had one and a half million martyrs We are ready to offer as many to establish a true Islamic Republic He was eventually ousted from Afghanistan by Massoud and the Pakistanj government had to look elsewhere to fin d a warlord who would further their regional interests lbey found this in the Taliban Critshyics of Americas dependence on Pashykistan to redistribute financial aid to anti-communist forces have said that it contributed to radical Islarnisation of Afghanistan as well as the weakshyening and near-diSintegration of the Atghan state It is ironic to think that American aid to independence fightshyers probably played a part in the Talishybans takeover of most of Afghanistan in 1996
Due to the inability of the new Afshyghan government to provide any real security to the Afghan people chaos largely ensued and a civil war broke out in 1992 Hekmat)ar and other warlords supported by countries who saw a chance to furtl1er tI1eir 011
strategiC interests during tills time of instability sum as Saudi Arabia Iran Uzbekistan and Pakistan as well as the subsequent v~thdrawal of American aid and attention precipitated this conflict These various fonner mujashyhideen factions failed to establish any kind of coherent unified government
Great Game tactics
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
21
Instead they dissolved into petty tribal warlords who used their previmiddot ous training and experience fighting the Soviets to carve out their own fiefdoms Along the PakistanimiddotAfmiddot ghal1 border the Taliban movement emerged led by a mullah called Mushyhammad Omar
Mullah Omar is a quasi-legendary figure of whom very little is actu shyally known No official photos exist of him but he is said to be about 2 metres tall and missing an eye reported to have been extracted by Soviet shrapshynel Backed militarily by the lSI and students from several madrasas in northwest Pakistan and financially by Saudi Arabia and Osama bin-Laden the Taliban was able to capture Kabul in 1996 and establish a fundamentalshyist Islamic regime over most of Afshyghani~tan and providing a haven for other similarly minded Islamic funshydamentalist groups such as al-Qaeda However despite a great deal of ideoshylogical similarity between these two organisations they vere not always so dosely aligned Journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave interviewed Mullah Omar in early 2001 and was surprised by the hostility he expressed for bin-Laden He goes on to say there is strong evidence that in the late 1990$ Mullah Omar tried 10 crack dovm on Mr binshyLadens activities - confiscating his cell phone putting him under house arrest and forbidding him to talk to the press or issue fatwas But then as the Taliban were deliberating about how to disinvite their troublesome guest after 9 J1 the United States inshyvaded bombing them into a closer alshyliance with al-Qaeda This assertion is reflected by former National Secushyrity Advisor to President Carter Zbigshyniew BI7Czinski when he said of the Afghan people theyre fighters and
they prefer to be independent They just happen to have a curious complex - they dont like foreigners ~th guns in their country
Meanwhile still without western aid or a Significant alnOwlt of attention Massoud was resisting the spread of Taliban power an d the influel)ce ofPashykistan on Afghan politics In the area controlled by Massouds Northern Alshyliance women were able to work and go to school they did not have to wear the burqa and while he resisted the Thliban he also tried to convince them to engage in the democratic political process Despite his sterling credenshyti al~ and the nobility of his cause not much was done to attempt to amelioshyrate the lot of the AfglW1 people llntil the terrorist attacks of September 11 200 ) forced the yenest to intervene Inshyterestingly during the spring of 200 I Massoud had warnelt the United tates that he had intelligence regardshy
ing all impending attack by al-Qaeda He also told the European Parliament that without aid from Pakistan the Talshyiban was bound to collapse because of discontent amongst the Afghans with the heav)-hal1ded authoritarian rule that they were living under He was murdered on September 9 2001 by suspected al-Qaeda operatives
As most will know the ISAF invaded Afghanistan in October 200 I to appreshyhend Osama bin-Laden and remove
the Taliban from power One cannot help but imagine that ifMassoud were still alive or had been heeded and aidshyed in the decades past when he warned the west of the evils of men like Hekshymatyar bin-Laden and Muhammad Omar the Taliban might no longer he the insurgent force that it remains today Strangely the ISAF seems to be doing its best to recreate the very conditions that brought the 1hlib311 to power in 1996 by courting various former mujahjdeen leaders to police theiI home districts thereby comproshymising the central governments power and legitimacy Also the ISAFs stratshyegy depends very heavily on Pakistani co-operation whidl again eflectively allows the government of Pakistan to dictate a great deal of how successful the west is in defeating the Taliban deshyspite the fact that members of the Talishyban aImiddote operating out of Pakistan with relative impunity Interestingly US ecretary of State Hilary ClintoD has
stated that one of Washingtons goals in Afghanistan is to reintegrate the ~moderate clements of the Taliban into the Afghal1 government despite journalist Thomas Barnetts assertion that negotiating with the very people the US set out to remove will effectiveshyly allow a repeat of the latter half of the 19905 al1d usher in another civil war with Pakistan backing the Taliban
The recent past of Afghanistan leaves many qlestions fur historians and strategists Is the West repeating the same mistakes that the Soviet Union made Ifso is Afghanistan dOODled to undergo the same degree of upheaval and ar that it did in the 1980s and 1990s7 Why did NATO fail to supshyport Massoud in his efforts against the Taliban in the 1990s or at Jeas heed his advice If the Talibans existence in AfghanistaJ1 was so unpalatable why
is it tolerated in Pakistan a theoretical ally in the war on terror In one sense things have changed in Afghanistan since in the 19805 in that many former allies are now toes and former foes have come together to fight common enemies But in another they have stayed the same contlicting nations and organisations are fighting one another to r influence in Afghanistan with very destructive results So much depends on the friends that NATO hooses and supports during its limshy
ited time in Afghanistan Let us hope for the sake of the Afghans that they are not the same ones that the US supshyported throughout the) 9805 In this part of the world odd couples Call lead to confljct with global cansequences
Bibliography
Kaplall Robert SoldieTs ofGod With 15lamic Warriors ill Afghallistall and Pakistan (New York 200 1)
Bergen Peter L Holy war Inc imide tlte secret world of Osama bill Lndim (New York200 I)
http new~bbccouk
httpwwwtimecom
httpwwweconomistcol11
hltpllwwwactivistmagazinecom
leiner Tim (13 March 1994) Blowshyback from the Afghan Battlefield The New York Times
httpwwwnytimescom
httpwwwcfrorg
jj
~
~ gt
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
22 Retrospect
YUGOSLAVtA IS often viewed as an anachronism a state without a nat ional basis which suppressed its constituent nat ions who have hisshy
tOrically hated each other This atti shytude inevitably is fostered with retshyrospect however in th is article we intend to view whether or not there is a case for it Vle aim to acJlieve this by spot lighting two periods of Yugoslav history th e in itial Yugoshyslav slates conception in 1917 and the break-up of Yugoslav p olitical unity in the 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslashyvia in 1990
Ale must first say something on unions in general before looking at Yugoslavia in particular Ve argue that there are two cri teria which any successful union must fulfi l in order to create a workable state llle ability of the constituent nations to identi fy with the supra-state is required This en ta ils a common perception that the supra-state exists for the benshy
elit of its constituents and defends all members interestsSecondly a p erceived economic and pol ilicaJ adv~ntage to maintaining the lInshyion i ~ desirable In essence that the nations are stronger together than they are apart and there is thought to be a clear mate rial advantage to being economically in tegrated
There are many other case-speci fic fac tors which will have an implicashytion on a unions success or failure
however we argue that o ther factors are Signific ant because ot how they impact on one or both of these two points
It is worth rem inding ourselves of the Europe in wh ich the first Yushygoslav state existed The Balkans was emerging from the dom inance oJ two empires Austria-H ungarian and the Ottoman In this world imshyperialism was stil l politically acceptshyable to promote and the idea that a nation was not ready for statehood an d should exist as a veiled vassal under the term protectorate was common Of th e Yugoslav nations Serbia had an independent history tretching back less than a century
and with the exception of Monshy
tenegro no other futlue state had experienced modern independshyence At this time nationalism wa only very tentatively m oving from the prescrve of the li terate ed lIcated
elite no more than 20 of the popshyulation in Dalmatia to the masses llie primary objective fo r Croat and Sloven e nationalists was the throwshy
ing o ff of Habsburg rule and they looked to Serb ia fresh of the back of two m ajor m ilitary victories in the Balkan Wars (1912 amp 1913) to achieve this Serbian foreign policy had been djctated for nearly a censhytury hy the desire to have all Serbs within their state It is therefore unsurprising that during the First World War triggered by a Serbian nationalist in the Habsburg Emshypire the Corfu D eclaration (1917) should be made by a gro up nam ing itself the Yugoslav Committee
Key points of the declaration inshycluded I The State of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes who are also known by the name Yugoslavs will be a free indivisible territory with the Karagorgevich ISerbian royal family] dynasty which has always shared the ideals of tbe nation in placing the national liberty and will at its head
3 This State will have one coat-ofshyUIl1S only one Hag and ont crown 4 111e four different flags of the Serbs Croa ts and Slovenes will have equal righ ts 5 The three national denominashy
tions are all equal before the law
6 111e two Cyrillic and Latin alphashybets also have tbe sam e rights 7The Or thodox Roman Cathoshylic and Mussulman IMuslim] reli shygions will be equal 9 The terri tory of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes wi ll comprise aU the territory where our nation lives 13 Thus the united nation of Serbs Croations and Slovenes will form a state of twelve million inhabshyitants This State will be a guarantee of tJleir national independen ce an d a powerful rampart against the pressure of the Germans
The di$tinction made between nation and nationa1 denomination
implies that the Yugoslavs are one nation of three con stituent pa rts as opposed to three nations hut one state Therefore the declaration
s tates as fact a contentious issue It promotes essentially the standpoint of classic n inteentb century nationshyalism that peoples of shared lanshyguage culture and history have the righ t to form distinct and eth nically homogenous nation stales Howshyever whilst promot ing this idea it tacitly recogn ises tbe di fficu lty of this in respect to Yugoslavia
It is debatable to what extent a people who officially had three ethshynic names fOllr flags and th ree relishy
gions CaIl be considered one people There is even conside rable debate as to wh at ex tent the territory of Yushygoslavia was linguistically similar at this time When one considers that m any late nineteenth cenhlTY thinkshyers envisaged Bulgaria as a memshyher of a future South Slav statc the declaration becomcs more fraught with dilti culties Again context is paramowlt The document comes from Corfu afte r the Central Powmiddot ers invasion of Serbia ended in Serb evacuatioll and Austrian and Bu lgarian occupation Those who made the declaration could not have anticipated the emasculation of the Habsburg Monarchy a fter the First World War and in this context it is clearly explicable wby South Slavs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire should identify with Serbia and attempt union 1hcy equally could not have anticipated a Europe largely free from fear of invasion and therefore did not think much for the prospects ot an independent Croatia or Sloven ia
In an imperialistic climate the tendency wa~ toward larger states and an aspirational nationalism flourished in territories which had known no independence for cen shyturies Therefore the admiration and desire for union with Serbia is entirely understandable and could
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
23
eyen be considered the most geo-poshyliticalJy sound move to make
Furthermore the fourteenth Conshygress of the League of1ugos]av Camshy
mllnists raised two key issues he Eu shyropean Community ~oon 10 be tlle
European Union and the fall of Eushyropean C(lmmunism The breakup of the Warsaw Pact helped to speed up an al ready apparent process of democratisat ion However the EC is arguably th e m ore important facshytor 1l1e EC carried an a5SlU1lIlCe that W3] at least in Western and Centra l
Europe was extremely unlikely as was the th reat of domination lnstead
there was the prosp ect of joining one of the largest single markets in the world and the promise of developshyment aid -rhe EC offered an alternashy
tive to economic union with the rest of Yugosla~a This allure should not
be underestimated for the debt-laden Yugoslavia oftlle 19808 and referring back to om criteria for a successfu l union our second point is of parashy
mOLlnt importance here Slovenia in 1989 provided 25 peT
cent of tbe federal government of YushygosJl~as budget whilst containing
ouly 8 per cent of tbe tot al p opulashytion 1his inevitably begged the quesshy
tion did Sloenia need Yugoslavia There were now genuin e arguments
to question the economic or political necessity of union
However it is debatable whether an economic a rgument will ever be a conclusive one as the majority of
the population will not know the statistics What is significant is the manner ill which economic factors
interplay with others Th e identity of the Yugoslavs post-World War Two is a di fficul t issue wi th no conclusions Yugoslav censu~es show that m ore
people in 1989 identified themselves as Yugoslav than at any other lime but this still only made up less than 10 per cent of the tot-al population It is likely that the experience of World War Two destroyed any chance of a unitary Yugoslav state The Nazishybacked Independent State of Croatia cast a shadow across the decades reshyemerging in the Serb media of the early 90s whkh often cast the nashytionalist C roats as Fascists Equally Croats did nor enjoy the memory of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of1ushy
goslavia viewing tlle ltlttempts of the monarchy to replace all the nationali shyties with Yugoslav as Serb national shyi~srn In this context a federal system of the typ e created by Tito was argushyably the only option although it has often been commented t hat Tito may have been the only one who could have beld it together
It seems odd that out of a statt originally called The TG ngdom of tb e Serbs Croats and Slovenes six sepashy
rate successor states have emerged but this is a clear inheritan ce ofTitos policy toward tbe Yugoslav nationalishyties Unlike the monarchist attempt at a un itary state Tito created a fedshyeration of five republics In order to make the Serb majority m ore manshyageable he split Serbia from what had been known as South Serbia now th e FYR of Macedonia and created two autonomous regions Vojvodina with its H ungarian m inority and the mashyjority Albanian Kosovo Titos policy included how ethnic expression was
to be regulated promoting smaller nationalities whilst suppressing the larger ones For instance in his supshyport of a separate Slavic Macedonian identi ty he offset Bulgarian and Serb nationalism whilst snubbing Greek territorial claims What is today the Macedonian language is mutually inshytel ligible with that of western Bulgarshyian and variou nationalist groups have portrayed the people as Weste rn Bulgarians Southern Serbs Slavishycized Greek~ or Slavic Macedonians separate from all three 1l1ere are no conclusive answers
By January 1990 tbe Yugoslav
Communist League knew that it had to cope with a period of reform but there was 110 consensus on the solushytion By this time the one people
man) tribes concept of the fi rst Yushygoslavia wa~ so heaVily discredited as to be defunct even TitQs brothershy
hood and unity catchphrase had lost m y truth it may have had Since Titos
death ethnic politics steadily began to dominate the Yugoslav political scene and phrases sllch as Greater Serbia re-emerged The three key delegations at the congress were the Slovenians the Croatians and the erbians Slovenia was more afilushy
ent and more liberal than the rest or Yugoslavia and had come with a li st of constitutional amendments deshysigned to make Yugoslavia a looser confederation The Slovene commushynist party had already changed its name to the ZKS - Party of Demo shycratic Refonn in the month before the congress only keeping the token acronym (or League of Com m unists of Slovenia Croatia was tbe second largest republic and contained a sizeshyable Serb minority however in the
years and months leading to the conshygress C roat nationalisIll was la rgely muted This has been seen as evishydence of the effectiveness of T itoist repression However it also shows that tbe break-up of Yugoslavia was
not ~1 foregone conclus ion vVe should not fall into th e trap
of anachronism expect ing extreme nationalisms even at this date just because of what developed later It was not until the month after the Congress that the first meeting of the Croat nationalist Croatian Demoshycratic Union took place Serbia had been going thwugh a period of in shy
tense nationalism since Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in 1987 on the back of crisis in Kosovo Milosevic is a di fficult character to understand va riously cast as an exshy
treme nationalist or a power bungry pragmatist Regardles5 be successshyfully used national ism took conl101 of the Kosovan Vojvodin and Monshytenegrin parties and then changed
the constitution ofSerbia This meant that Milosevic could guarantee their votes as well as Serbias and came to the congress with constitutional
amendments designed to strengthen the Yugoslav central government In the event the congress did n ot lasl
long Each Slovenian proposal was voted down to cheers from the Sershybian representalives eventually leadshying to the Slovenes walking out to
more applause The Serb attitude and voting mljority without the Slovenes prompted the Croats to leave as weli opeJling th e door to Yugoslavias colshy
lapse As iJlevitable as Yugoslavias dis~
integration looks in retrospect we should never view it as such It is a poignant illustration of the mistakes
not to make when building a wlion shystate The Kingdom of Yugoslavia launched itself on the wrong foot roshy
mantic nationalism created a uni tary state with a weak constitutional modshy
elthat proved unable to cope with its constituent nationaliti e~ Even the horrors o( the Second World War did not destroy Yugoslavia it is interestshying to Dote that lhis period is often referred to as a civil war The Yugoshyslav Federation was much more likely to succeed but failed to understand its own ethnic make-up For all Titos ahility to control the state his supshypression of the larger nationalities directly led to the Serb nationalist resurgence of the 19805 Communist states have historically been weak at providing long term financial seshycuri ly and whatever Brotherhood and Unit) may have existed proved unable to weather the dire financial straits of the late 19805 O ne C3J1I10t isolate a pOint of no return or a key guilty party but it is diffiClllt not to
ee the 14th Congress and MlJosevics actions as of paramoLlnt importance However these are both results of a reality rather than explicit causes
Yugoslavia failed because of its handling of identities not because of the identiti _ themselves If a na shy
tion is unable to express itself pubshylid) within a union-state th en one
can expect they would be unlikely to subscribe to the supra-identity In the financially secure Tilo era bolshystered by hLlt personality th is did not mean the end of the state but when
financial hardship ~et ill long dorshynant nationalisms rose the stronger
Milosevic himself is something of an enigma but the fact he was able to
dominate the ethnicaUy Serb repubshylics an d provinces signalled the realshyity of the situation
In the end it can be argued that YugoslaVia did not fail because it
was made up of suppressed nations that historically hated each other but
because there was no clear definition of what it meant to be a Yugoslav Underpinning national identities are shared myths of origin and a convicshytion ofa shared experience ofhistory The words myth aDd conviction are all important as perception is ultishymately what will win out and in Yushy
goslavia any thoughts of shared idenshytit) ultimately did not as opposed to could not emerge
Bibliography
Bennett Christopber Yugoslavias Bloody Colape Callses COllrse and COlsequences (I 995 Hurst)
Benson L YugoslaVia A COllcise History (2001 Palgrave)
Dragnich A N The Fir1 Yugoslavia (1983 Hoover)
lsakovic Z Jdentity alld Security ill Former Yllgosiavia (2000 Ashgate)
jovic D Yugoslavia a State thai lVithered Away (2009 Purdue)
Lampe J R Yugoslavia as History Twice there was a Coulltry (2nd eein 2000 Cambridge)
Sekulic Massey amp Hodsoll Who Were the Yugoslavs Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia in American Sociological RclIiew VoL59 (Feb 1994) ppS3middot 97
Silber L amp Little A Tile Death (( Yugoslavia (1 1)95 Penguin)
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
24 Retrospect
assesses the value of Clifford Geertzs theory of culture in historical scholarship
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
25
AS DiE scope of what is deemed a valid fi eld of h istori cal study expands the boun daries between history and anthropology have become more porous and increasshyingly overlapping Both discipli nes have benefited eno rmousl from frui tful intellec tu al cross-pollinashytion Whilst the importati on of anthropological techn iques an d methodologies has proved usefu l especi al ly in th e fie ld of cultural history the meth odologies and concepts sb oul d be utili sed ginshygerl y and self-consciously in the process of historical scholarship vh ilst all owing anth ropology to dictate what is stu d ied certainly i dangerous incorp orating theoret shyical methodologies an d concepts of culture to reform the means by wh ich we study hi story can prove if modified very useful O ne of the most si gni fic ant cross fe r til isashytion from an anthropologist iJlto hi tory is tlle cLlllt r ibu tion mad e by Clifford Geertz to the extent where he has been desc r ibed by some as so mething of an ambasshysador from anthropo logy to an understanding of culture as a semiotic system By limit in g what is imp() rted from anthrop ology to cultu ra l theor y of Geertz we ca n onl ) speak of a par tnership beshytween History and Ant hropol ogy if we aSS llme th at Anthropology retains its monopoly of the con shycept of cul ture and its Tole with in a given society
This is not to suggest that Geertzs theories should not he imported in to h istor ica l study unshymod ified nor that e ve ryt hi ng he had to S3Y on the subject of in te rshydisciplinary study is w ithout fau lt Many of h is theories need exten shysive reworking to be fa ctored into modern histo ricism and for th at matter modern an thr opology For example the task of the ethDogrnshypher as envisaged by Geertz is to confront the same grand reali ties that oLhers- Histo ri ans econoshymists political scientist$ socishyologists- co nfron t in more fatefu l sett ings If the ethnogr apher is defin ed by his study of extremely small matters and the histor ian by what in the past is grand any atshytempt to base an in terd isciplin ary approach on such rigid and dated di scipli nary boundaries of anthroshypology and hi stor y can tr ivia ise t11 e obj ect of study if we chose to defi ne anthropologically aware h isto ry as the h istory of what Geertz terms obsc ure cul tures we run the ri sk of creat ing h ierarchies of bis toricaJ stud y by deem ing the hi story of these communit ies as no t worth y of inclus ion within h is grand realities oEmore t rad iti onal schools of histor ical th ought This
understand ing of ethnographi ca lshyly-influenced h istory is extremely dated the journal Ethn ohistory proclaimed its devot ion to tl e documentar y his to ry of the culshytu re and movements of prinlitive peopl es in its fi rst issue in 1955 Thi s concept of a useful partnershyship between h isto ry and anthroshypology sho uld be considered an anacbronism and duly relegated to tbe pas t PlaCin g a society or culture as inferior or un de rd evelshyoped when co mpared to another is an h ighly poli ticized term an d by defi n ing the history of marginshyalised or peripheral groups previshyously tlought to be beyon d the pale of emp irical histoq in th is manner we run the risk of crea ting a sense of hi sto r icaJ o tllerness which is ill herently infer ior as it is expliCitly defined as ou twith the normal traditional hi sto r ica l n arshyrat ive Th is epistemological conshydem nati on of a cultu re reinforces m isconcep tions concernin g hi ershyarch ies of cu ltu re It places regushylar histor y the history of grand rea lities to paraph rase Gee rtz upon a h igher t ier tban the history of margi nalized or geographically d ista nt triba l ~ocieti es the sort of grou ps that Eth nohistory deemed p rimitive ill the introduction to the fi rst iss ue of the journal ill 1955 By extension the nati ons and poli ti cal or socia bodies that are the p roducts of grand his tory are p laced above the marginali zed groups in the present
O f co urse th is argument rests 0 11 a conception of what a fm itful interdiSCiplin ary stud y bet ween hi story an d anthropology could achieve and an especially anach shyron istic view of ant hropology as exdusively concerned with isoshylated and tr iba l societ ies Perhaps as a respo nse to tlcse concerns of writ ing from such a polit ic ized perspective anth ropologists have since greatly expanded thei r scope of wh at const itutes legi timate
study Thi s perh aps can be con shytributed to the d langi ng p olit ical and intellectual landscape that Gellner alluded to when he sngshygests that Positivism is a fo rm of imperial ism that objective fac ts and generaliza tions aTe the tools of domination The concept of an id ea li st obj ective und erst nnd ing of a culture and lhe wes tern cla im fo r this objective understand shyin g can be seen as in extricably li nked to Imp eriaJjstic di alogue res tin g as it does on th e assum pshyti on that the western mode of comprehenSion and consc iousshyness is the mind s defa ult sett ing rather th an a continge ncy TIle contin ge nt nature of modes of human understanding is all ud ed to by Geertz and is impli cit in hi theori es of meaning Hence th e narrow topical scope of history and antllropology an d th e impos ishytion of a singular an d supposedly obj ective reality is fo r Gelln er a tool of oppression RealiSi ng th at t hi ~ criticisms arc based upon an outd ated understa nding of what histo ri ans and anth ropologists stu dy and to envisage an inle rdisshyciplin ary mean s of investigation bu ilt on th e bas is of a th eoretical framework imported from culturshyal ant h ropology for investigating a cul ture ra th er th all allmving an archaic model of anthropol ogy to di ctate what is to be studi ed As suggested previously an th roshypology can prove to he a use ful partner to hi sto rical scholarship is n ot through what is to be stud ied but how Bro ad ly speaking Geer tz advocates a new understanding of culture as a symboli c system of meanin g thereby facilitating an exam ina tion of th e symbolic di shymension of social ac t ion to aJlow the h isto rian a greater understandshying into th e Sign ificance of certain ac ts Whilst thi s partn ership beshytween h istor y and anthropology has produced insightful works such as Natalie Zemon Oa iss 1] l e Return of Mar ti n Guerre an d Robert O ar ntons The Great Cat Massacre it too is not without its dangers However unlike a union between histor y an d an thropolshyogy th at st ip ulates what is to be studi ed tbe dangers ar e m erely in shygrained rath er than in trinsic and can be overcome Gccrtzs un shyderstanding of culture is semiotic and attempt to understand cu ltu re is all interpret ive rat her than an anaJ ytical ac t A cultu ra l symbol or an aspc t of a cultural symbol is defin ed by Geertz as tan gible formatio ns of n otions ltIb stracshytion s from ex peri ence fi xed in perceptibl e fo rm s and condi ti on our meallS of experience Cultu ral mean ing for Geertz is embodi ed
within pu bli cally available symshybols Therefore aD attempt to ga in an understandin g of the system of meaning or even an understandshying of the operat ion of Geertzs symbols fithin th c system would a llow deeper inSight into the Sigshynificance of cert aLn hi storica l acts which invoke or pertain to th e aforementioned system of meanshying Cu lture in this und erstandshying becomes the means tillough which mankind und erstands the world around them by establishshying metaphorical relations beshytween signifiefs and utilising signs and metaphors to medi ate the world around them
There ar c probl cms with Geertzs theory which has implicati ons for how it can be successfully importshyed into hi storical st udy Cultural signilie ls are present ed as having fixed meaning for example h is semin al essIy Notes on a Balinese
ockfi ght sugges ts the cockfight is a means of expression of Balshyinese soc ial hi erarchy and status It is from the assertion of a fi xed and d irec t rel ati onship between signi fier and signiti ed tha t the problems ar ise The impli cation of the assertion of the stabil ity of symbol ic meaning is that culture is static an d unchanging How can a cult ural system change if it s constit uent sym bols are fixed in mea ning It is exceedingly d iffic ult to reconcile Geertzs presentation of culture as an abistorical entity and cultural signifiers as lllonoseshymous with the implicat ion th at cultural systems are the pri mary determin ant of all reali ty histori shycalo r otherwise and thus are the engine of hi stori cal change
Pur therm ore Geertzs repre shysentat ion of Bali nese culture in
otes on a Balinese Cockfight cannot claim as Geertz doesthat the cockfigh t is a metaphor for
ali nese culture as a whole 111 cockfi gh t cannot be as Geert7 suggests a symbol which fo rms and discovers Ba li nese societys tem per wh en by hi s own admitshytance only men of cer tai n social stand ing are all owed to engage in cockfighting which Geertz beshylieves holds litt le fU Il cti ona] value an d operates pri marily on the
)TTlbolic level Women children and
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
26 Retrospect
other marginalised groups are treated as peripheral or insignificant They have little or no involvement with the cockshyfight and so are denied incorporation ~thin the cultural system a~ imagined by Geertz As well as painting an overly simplified picture of Balinese rulture and denying the subaltern partidpation ~thin rills overly simplified picture the belief in a single unitary cultural system for a single society Creating an artifishydal sense of a singular unltary culture associated ~ a given society homogshyenizes intemal rultural difiircncc and can become a means of enforcing orshythodoxy espedall) ifthe singular culture created in rills case formed around the Iombolic value of the cockfight is that of the social elite as in the case of Balinese village life Sewell goes as far to suggest that the reason that many contemporary anthropologists are uncomfortable with the teon culture as it is often employed in efforts to impose a certain coherence upon rultural practice In explaining cultural diiference at an inter-sociallevcl Gccrtz can be accused of pla)ing down the intra-sodal cultural cliffercnces
However both of these problems when trying to fushlon a means of unshyderstanding past cultures can be overshycome by deco~tructing Geert7s overly rigid symbolic system of culture B) recognising the multifaceted poJyserrUc and highly contextual meaning of cershytain symbols we create the possibility of nwnerous cultures within an indMdual society competing overlapping and when scrutinized by anthropologists and historians allowing tbe recovery or creation ofa more democratic picture of the past than would have been possible if the past cultural system was understood to have been singular furthennore an understanding of cultural systems as fluid and plural alJows us to examine systems which exist on a trans-societal and sub-societal level not only freeing us from an understanding of a single culture relating to a single sociel) but allo~ng theexarrUnation of
As William H Sewell noted the conshycept of multiplefluid cultural structures is capable of explaining the existence of subjects m th a jde variety of interests capabilities and knowledge on the asshysumption that subjects are formed by structures CoUapsing the binary opposhysition of symbol and concept into chains of subjective meaning can also allow us to recondle the idea of culLural systems as the primary deteJminant of reality and allow tor that system to change and develop over time rultum systems are created and recreated through human action In fact use of the word creation in this context is suggestive of a sense of causation and is misleading Perhaps it would be more constructive to describe the relationship between material and conceptual realityas simultaneous Since the meaning of the constituent symbols ~thin the encompassing system is subshy
jective and contextual recreations or enshyactments ofaUturaJ systems in differing chronological contegtts result in a fluid and dynamic cultural system or pluralshyit) ofsystems mthin a given society
partnership behveerl anthropology and history is perhaps too loose a term to describe the utilisation of a concept ofculture as plural fluid and competing structures whidJ act as the primary deshyterminant of our reality and our ability to conprehend the world around us What constitutes history and anthropology now encompasses so much that to quesshytion the extent one discipline can prltrve useful in partnership lo the other seems aredundant question The answer I have suggested thatahea~modified system of cultural understanding based loosely upon the theories of Oifford Geertz ~ upon the assumption that anthroshypo]ogy has a monopoly on theories of cuIrure GeertU theory of culture is of value in as much as it stipulates that our means of undemanding the world is fashydlitated through rultural symbols This has value not only in historical scholarshyship emphasising the significance ofacts thatpertain to thesecultural symbols but impliciJ in this stateJnent is the assertion that our own means of comprehension isas William H Sewell su~ted not necessary but a contingency This is of enormous value of historians when inshyvestigating the past an awareness of the impossibility of a positivist and objecshytive understanding In fact it denies the very existence of such an wlderstanding rather than imagirung it as some W)shy
reachable ideal wbich although it canshynot be achieved should nonetheless be strived towards Some may argue that the lesson of subjective modes compreshyhension is as much a contingency and a product of a specifie mindscape as an)
other means of comprehension yet this does not undennine thevalidityn of the statement this criticism of the coolinshygene) of means ofunderstanding based upon fluid and plural rultural systems relies upon the very assertion it attacks to validate ilselpound
Bibliography
William Ii SewelL Logics ofHistory S0shycial TIJeOry and Social Transformation Chicago University Press (2005)
IctoriaEBonneJ and Lynn Hunt (eds) Be)umi the OJitural 7iun New Dirccshytions i ll the Study ofSociety and Culture University ofCalifornia Press (1 999)
Clifford Geertz TIle Interpremtion ofCulshylures Basic Books (2000)
Ernest Gellner Pasmodemism Reason and Religion Routledge (1992)
Kirsten Hastrup Other Histories Routledge (1992)
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
27
bulleVleW
THE FOCUS on the mammoth figshyures of Hitler and Stalin in history frequently overshadows the men women and children who lived beshytween their empires Their domestic policies have been analysed countshyless times but we rarely hear the hisshytory of the geographical intersection ravaged by their ambitions nor do we consider the individuals affected
In his book Bloodlands Europe between Hitler and Stalin Timothy Snyder aims to redress the balance as he identifies todays Ukraine Belarus Poland and eastern Balshytic coast as the forgotten battleshyground of conflicting ideology
World War Il took a disproporshytionate amount of victims from these bloodlands and the new anshy
gle from which Snyder attempts to approach his topic is reflected in the startling statistics he presents During the years that both Stashylin and Hitler were in power more people were killed in Ukraine than anywhere else ill the blood lands or in Europe or in the world~
In this book Snyder argues that the symbiotic relationship between Hitler and Stalin was played out in the region he is focusing on When domestic poliCies for either dictator went awry the bloodlands took the blow These countries were either purged as convenient scapegoats or drained od their natural resources to supplement shortfalls in the mothshyer-countries Germany or Russia
Vhen Russia experienced famines due to the failures ofcollectivisation half of Ukraines harvest was forCibly requisitioned This led to the greatshy
est artificial famine in the history of the world in Ukraine during 1933 Snyder notes that this great Ukrainshyian famine was used by Hitler in h is election campaign to illustrate the failures of MaLXism to great effect
SnyderS book is undoubtedly riveting fast-paced and well-reshysearched He is particularly adept at explaining vast chunks of hisshytory in an authoritative and conshycise manner the introduction beshying a superbly succinct summary of the lead-up to World War II which sets the scene for the analyshysis of the bloodlands excellently
The book is extremely rich as complex ideological theory alld broad contextual overviews are interspersed with quotes diary acshycounts of victims and even verses from traditional peasants laments We also learn about culture specific reactions to the policies of Hitler and Stalin for example Ukrainshyian peasants feared joining the colshylectives as they believed that the) would be making a pact with devil
However Snyders book seems to primarily focus on Ukraine and Poland neglecting the rest of the countries defined as being part of the investigation at the outset such as Belarus and the Eastern
Baltic states At times the focus on the blood lands themselves is lost in the contextualisation At times the book feels ILke an acshycount of Hitler and Stalins domesshytic policies - debatably topics that have been exhausted historically
To the reader it seems that the sellshying point of this book was identified wrongl) its unique interest lies not in the examination of the bloodshylands but in the vivid portrayal of the trials and tribulations of indishyvidual victims Snyders work is an interesting new approach to the history of a region caught between two ideologically opposed dictators united for a short while by both an unlikely strategic alliance and a toshytal disregard for the lives of those who lived between their domains
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
Retrospect28
RESET lUN rtu0
AMurCAS FUTURE
MERICAN POLlCYin th e i1 id shydIe Enst is d oomed to failure lln shyless paradigms are sh ifted at least in the view of The New York T imes former bureau chief i n Turkey Germany and N ica ragu a Stephen Kinzer III his new work Reset hall 1ilrkey llnd Americas Fu ture Kinzer addresses tbe las t century of Turkish an d Iranian hi story whilst focasing espeda Il ) on American involvement in the region argu shying that a hegemony established by these three states would not be as u nlikely as some might th ink
In a refreshingl) clear mid strucshytu red work Kim~e r fir~ l se ts out his view of the modern histor ies of Iran and Turkey foc usi ng on the ir democratic movements u ld historic t ies with the West The democratic societies that flourshyislwd at certa in periods in Iran and Turkeys histories were th e au thor argues an internal project rather than imposed h y Western idealists
Ind eed America and Britain were sh own to have dDne m ore to stille democracy in Jran than any other fo rce at least before 1979
Th e outcry and open revolt at th e Iranian election results in June 2009 is touched upon as an exampl e of th e strengtb of democratic feelshying in a nation ofte n ca ricatu red as conscrvati e and closed whiLst exshyamples of progressive movement in both nati ons are o utlined with pass ion The s tories of individ uals such as H oward Baskervill e th e
ebraska-bo rn teacher who di ed leading local schoolboys into batshytle against forces t rying to crush the emerging Iran ia n democracy in 1909
J l 111 I 1 L r~ t L I r ~i 11
TurLl 111L1 111erkJ
()rki1~ tULthcr tll rcn It Lorn mi n 1shy
LlC~
The autbor later exp lores the old relationships between the United Stales and Israel and the Uni ted Stales and Saudi Arab ia which have dominated the region and American policy in recen t decades conclud ing th at they were formed around short - te rm policy and more likely to hold back progress than promote it
Finally Kinzer reaches a conshyclusion th at wou ld have been su rshyprising if he hadnt led the reader bi the hand so methodical ly a tab ilising coalition of a dell) oshy
cratic Iran Tmkey and Ameri ca working together to resolve the isshysues causcd by th e shor t- term and selfish policies of the last hundred years
In h is own words the au th ors argumen t sum mons the logiC of history to address the futu re plainly showing that three socieshyties that seem so dissi m ilar are jn his view united by deep- runuing democratic passions and are thereshyfore pertec t partners fo r a stabilisshying power-t riangle in the region One cr iticism th at might h owever be levell ed at the author is th at al shyth ough his vision is rnade st rong and clear the methods by wh ich he beLieves it might be realised are no t
Kin zer brin gs fresh if slightl fanci ful ideas to an old problem drawn from his deep knowledge of 1iddle Eastern history and p oli shy
tics as well as yea rs of experienc in this vibrant region A region thJt in his view need not be ravshyaged by contlict if on l) twentishyeth-century policy mi ght be re adshydressed and potentially cven rese t allowing hitherto u nlikely rela shytionships to fl ourish
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
29
THE ART c-Ch ibition Mirrors sees an unusual collaboration between the
alional Galleries of Scotland and prisoners in fi ve Scottish jails Par
a project called ]mpiringChangi this p rogramme of ar t intervention aims to prove the beneficial impact of arts on offen ders and on the procshyess of the ir rehabilitation Taking inspiration from portrait coll ections in the National Galleries the project forced the in mates to take a frank look at themselves and helped them to understand the effect that com shymitting crimes had on themselves and their victims The ()utcome is M irrors a powerful exJlibit ion conshyGlining surprisingly high-quality artworks
ach jail took part in a di ffe rent project under the gu idance of a proshyfessional artist to produce portraits in di fferent mediums Prisoners neariIlg the end of their $cntences wer e asked to take photos of what they felt expressed home to them wbilst on leave from the prison Many of the ph otos were modest images of a c()mforting lounge or bedroom which rem inds the viewer the simple thing~ that are lost when imprisoned However some were tainted with sadness as some prisshyoners felt like str angers in their own homes due to the long ti me that had passed whiht t hey were lt1W3) The theme of time appeared through many of the pieces in the appearshyance of clocks obviously someth ing th at plas hewily on inmates minds
whilst stuck inside In a video disshyplayed in the exllibition that docushymented the artist ic process the prisshyoners went through one ex-prisoner commented on how time Slops in prison ins tead of progressing you miss out on things like getting marshyr ied and having chil dren For those inside indefinitely it is sometimes a case of forgetting the outside as if it no longer exists which seems like an incomprehensible task for those outside
Female prisoners produced screen portraits in which they created a fictional character to (-press their current situation or their hopes and regrets One piece that stood out called Freedom showed a woman truggli ng to wrench a chain from
around her neck symbolic of being im prisoned literally and mentally Anolher project saw priso ners conshystructing life-size graphic characters of themselves wh ich enabled them to face themselves on a one to one scale encouraging discussion about thei r past actions A task th at some prisoners found difficult choosing instead ID cover the faces of thei r characters Paintings by long-term prisoners also contained faceless portraits perhaps reflective of a sense of loss of identity and isolat ion Fishynally through a graphic novel project prisoners p roduced short narratives dealing with crime or their escapist visions within cells or boxes mirshyroriJ1g prison life
ivfinos is an insight into the lue of a prisoner This unlikely union was undoubtedly a success as many Df
the prisoner saw future prospects in the field of art after taking part Ihe cxhibition challenges you to reassess your opinions on people in prison as their art uncovers tbeu vulnerable side and remind~ us that these peDshypIe have numerous talents and are more than just criminals
POLITICAl HISTORY has seen a vast array Df unlikely unions the WNil allied rat pack of Churchshyill Roosevelt and Stalin Northern Ireland s version of tbe Chuckle brothers - Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness or Sarah Patins candishydacy for the office of the American vice President Yet what could pos shyibly be considered the mDst im shy
portant unlikely union of them all a relationship that dominated and shaped British politics for nearly two decades - is the Tony Blair and Gorshydon Brown ITlarriage
Judging by just the index of the formers autobiography A fou rney
the Blair - Brown relationsh ip forms a large part of the fo rmer PMs mem shy0irs much greatll thall either two of Blairs closest aids - Mandelson and
ampbel l Since its publication in September 20 10 tile media have de shyvoured the autobiography for its acshycount of the Blair and Brown years 111( SOllnd bites that filled our news shypapers and TV screens presented a PM who thought his ChancellDr to be maddening and a Chan ceLlor who tbought his PM to be an empty vessel There are stories of Blair reshyfusing to speak with Brown Poor Jon [an adviser] would come in and say The chanceIJor really wants to speak to yoU J would say I Ul) reshyally busy JDn And he would say He is really demanding it Then I wou ld say Ill call h im soon And Jon would say Do you really mean that prime minister And I would say No Jon There is also mention of Brown blackmaiJing Blair over the xpcnses ~candal in March 2006 so
that he would clear the way fo r his own p rcll1iership
I dont necessarily believe that the unlikely union between Blair and Brown can be character ised negatively Dr as unusual It simply
~ ~
copy C==2J
captures a key premise of politicS shypnwer A Journ ey presents a political relationship that involved a (ractiollS personal relationship but a practical necessity to sustain a profeSsional relat ionship due to a desire to stay in government Attempts to deceive the public of any personal issues are described in one particular passage where Blair records hDW he went to buy bimsdfaJ1d Brown an ice-cream from a van iJ1 order to seem togethshyer and normal IL seems Iaughable when one considers the length the couplc were willing [0 go to in order to suggest theres was still a loving relationship
The book also reveals the basic human desire for self promotion
pedally towards the end of Blairs premiersbip two keys themes occur quite regularly during di~ssion s of the relationship - be ielt I was run shyning his inheritance I felt he was ruining my legacy At times it seems like a battle between two overgrown boys but it is more than likely an ac shycurate portrayal of how the mechashynisms of government and political egos operate under pressure After aJl the reader must remember that politicians are human however difshyficult it might be [0 believe
Reading A fOllnIey makes il ail the more puzzling that these two men succeeded as a political double act at aJl and that their di fficulties and sedisdain fo r each other wh ich the book unasham edly and vivid ly reshyveals could have produced a record term of offi ce for New Labour But Blair does suggest glimpses of a genuine Katie and Peter-esque love neither of us had met anyone like that before it was a genuine and sincere liking - feelings that whilst echoing would have sustained the relationsh ip until a divorce was unshyavoidable Perhaps all great unlikely
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
Retrospect30
BRIT ISH TRADE un ion ism ha rdshyly sounds li ke the stuff ofl augh-ashym in ute box offi ce en tertainmen t and if we go by th e (lId idiom sex sells then surely sexism is a misfire Yet director Nigel Cole aJld scree n writer W ill iam Ivory have taken tbjs Wlu keIy story and turned it into a heart -warming and cheerful film although one th at smacks of sentimen talism with a healthy slice o f nostalgic cockney charm
Made in Dagellham dram atises the 1968 str ike act ion of fem ale machini sts a t th e Ford plant in Dagenham east Lo ndon They deshymanded equal pay with male emshyployees and campaigned agai nst re-cl assification legislatio n that rendered seat ( over stitchers unshyskil led In total 187 women wer incensed to st rike action T he historical context is never fu lly developed by Cole alOlOugh he spri nkles the film with original footage of the factory belping to evoke the disconten ted zeitgeist of Britains working classes during the swingi ng Sixties
Their strike action leads them in to conflict wilh union leaders who simply wish to placate them Until Rita OGr ad y - played by Sajly Hawkins (H appy-Go-Lucky) - steps fo rwa rd attem pt s tu cajole
these wo men arnount to em pty promises of d iscussion with inshysensit ive chauvin ist bosses a t Ford A merica Their busbands are none too h appy either Factory producshyt iOn slow~ to a trickle p utti ng t heir jobs in jeopa rdy Ritas husshyband - played by Dan iel Mays (Th e Firm) - struggles to come to terms wit h looking after LIle chilshydren ru le h is wife flit s ac ross tbe GOwl try raj lyi llg su pport
The on ly m an who comes off well is Bob Hoskins cha rac ter the twinkle eyed D ickensian wi de-bo) who champi on s the womens cause Eventuall y RHas no -nonsense a ttitude secures her an audience with Harold W ilshysons secretary of state Barbara Castle played forcefully by M ishyran(ia Richa rdson w llere she lays the ground for the Equal Pay Act which foll ows two year s later
Despi te the con ten t being grou Jld -b reakUlg and of intern ashyt ional s ignifi cance the p redictable and contrived relation ships Cole prese nts h inder the films capacity to feel truly original lts perhaps un surprising tbat Col e has cre shyated a feel-good impressioni stic rep resentati on The director of Calendar Girls has taken mid dleshycl ass ru r al wom en determined to creale a s tir plonked th em io the urban East- End and dressed them in Biba
It s importa nt th at Ma de ill Dashygenham reca lls th e events of 1968 fo r un ionism and fem aJe equalshyity in the workplace Yet I d oubt whether these women soldiered forward w ith th e same nost algic Blitz spir it th at Cole and Ivory p resent w ith litOe subt le ty nor eloquence
NEIL MACGREGO R the current irector of the British Mus eo ms
new work A History oj the Vorld 1 100 Objects risked being wfiLten ofr as a monu mental letdown given its attempt to cover such a wide remit in one volume The preface entitl ed Mission Impossible even recognises the task at haJld Yet monu mental as the work may be a le tdown it most cer tainly is not being hailed as one of finest bo oks of its nature in recent years pershyhaps even decades
Describing itself as a visual feast it is surp rising that the project started out as a renowned Radio 4 ser ies - a joint venture beLween the BBC Ind the Bri tish Museum - that sta rted in January of tbis year and only carne to a reshycent co nclusion It seem s that the Brit ish public didnt even need to be able to see tbe objects to have th eir imaginat ions captu red All the more reason that the OelLvre deserves the attention that it is re shyceiving aJld perfect for those that enjoyed the cOllcept but no t its exshyec ution over the radio waves
It is in fac t hard to put into words jus t how compell ing the book itself i ~ Perhaps rendershying the larger them es of arou nd 2 million years of human history in one VOllLll1e of images is more powerful than anyone m ight have anticipated By skim ming even briefly tl lrough its twenty sub -secshytions we can fl ick from a 11 000 BC stone spearhead to the Rosetta Stone from the Lewis Chessmen to Span ish pieces of eigh t (To m
the early Victorian tea set to the cred it card from object n um ber one- the Mummy of HornedJitefshyto object nu mber one h undred a
solar powered lamp and charger the choice of which was a point of great contention during th e broadshycasting of the orig inal p rogram me Regardless of what certain modern objects inclusions mayor may not say about our day and age the work certainly creates the impresshyion that you might fare better in
next weeks episode of University Cha llenge
The work is most definitely a world h istory encompassing every popushylated continent but also a triwuph of public h istoqr taking a history millennia long to the masses in an accessibl e and yet intellectually fru it ful manner It is also important to note tha t our times are properly red uced to a m ere moment in the span of hum an historr
f course the radio series and consequently the book have been labelled as being a mere publici ty stu nt for the m useum bot be tbat as it m ay its hard to argue with the quality of the writing or fault the treatment of the objects And so what if it is Its an excellent examshyple of how accessible history can be In th e words of its dust jacket A Histo ry oj the World 1 100 Obshyjects is one of the most engrossing and unusual history books pubshylished in years Besides everybody loves a good pic tu re book
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment
31
A RECENTLY released comedy Burke and Hare offers so many examples of unl ikely unions that could really work if done well comedy and death medicine and murder Serkis an d =Pegg Unforshytunately little posi tive can be said about the success of any of these unions in the fi lm Historical in shyaccuracy aside the characters are badly sketched the lines poorly delivered and the accents bordershying on ridiculous Consideri ng the number of famous faces th at pop up the poor quality of the whole film leaves the vi ewer incredulous Not even an appearance by Greyshyfriars Bobby can save it
The story if you are incredible as it would be for an Edinburgh resident in the dark to centre around the murde rous ex ploits of two Irish immigrants in early nineshyteenth century Edinburgh Stumshybling upon the lucrative market of supplying corpses to the merucal school run by Dr Knox they soon resort to bumping off the inhabitshyants of West Port] n order to meet the ever increasing dem and Pegg is the guil t ridden (but not so guilt ridden that it stops him) WIlliam
Burke and SeTkis his conscienceshyfree (and increasingly libidinous) partner in crime illiam Hare O th er famous faces included in the supporting cast include Ronshynie Corbett Tom Wilkinson and Isla Fisher none of whom give the best performance of their careers TIle romance provided by Pegg an d Fisher is certainly the most implausible in the wh ole piece
The union of medicine and murder is of course a central feashyture of the true tale TIl e fact that the advancement of medical scishyence comes at the expense of hushyman li fe is one that continues to fascinate those interested in the story but unfortunately th is is of li ttle interest to the writers of Burke and Hare vThat could have belll developed in a better film is merely gl ossed over as they spend their time subjecting the viewer to cliched comedy lacking in imagishynation cringe-wor thy sex scenes and tired racial stereotypes In fact the humour fe lt predictab le and deededl forced the wh ole way through That said I can recomshymend staying to the end (its only ninety m inutes long so it wont kill
you) not because the film imp roves as the story p rogresses but because th e cred its may be of interest to Edi nburgh University students
Not to be completely negative about tbe whole th ing the attempt to cast Burke in the mould of an Jrish Macbeth that is a tragic he ro who is flawed but not evil makes an interesting side story and is preshysumably the sale reason Isla Fisher was kept in th e film once the di shyrecto r d iscovered how bad her acshycent really was Drawing parallels between the two figures as Tictims more of love and circumstance rather than their own immoral shyity could have added real depth to the characters in another fil m It is certainly an unlikely union and in a dramatic adaptation the story could have been expanded and used to a much better effect
In a fi lm that promised to proshyvide some interesting ci nematic unions unfortunately the only one I can say it delivered with any sucshycess was the one all too common in modern cinema that of high expectation and definite disapshypointment