BBC World Histories I11 2018 PDF
BBC World Histories I11 2018 PDF
BBC World Histories I11 2018 PDF
WorldHistories
FRESH PERSPECTIVES ON OUR GLOBAL PAST
Islam’s struggle
with modernity
How the faith adapted
to a new global order
Brazil: a nation
moulded by slavery
Matt Elton
Editor, BBC World Histories
A painting from
c1822 shows a pair
of black men
practising the
martial-art-cum-
dance capoeira in
Brazil. This issue we
explore how slavery
and a unique blend of
cultures shaped this
South American land
16 44
THE BIG QUESTION Israel & the Palestinians:
How has migration A history of conflict ✪
BY MATTHEW HUGHES
changed the world? ✪ Explore eight key periods in the ongoing
Eight experts debate how the movement of
hostilities in the Middle East
people has influenced societies throughout
history – from ancient Phoenicians crossing 54
the Mediterranean to Caribbean colonies
Playing with history ✪ ✪ On the
and 20th-century independence movements cover
BY JOHN WILLS
26 Switch on to the videogames that recreate
Brazil: a society shaped or reimagine important episodes and eras
by slavery ✪ 62
BY LILIA M SCHWARCZ
The legacy of Emmett Till ✪
How a South American land viewed as an
PUBLIC DOMAIN
BY MARIA MARGARONIS
earthly paradise by its Portuguese colonisers
Why a teenager’s brutal murder proved a key
was transformed by the migration of enslaved
moment for the US civil rights movement COVER ILLUSTRATION
labourers from Africa BY DAVIDE BONAZZI
4
CONTRIBUTORS
5
The Briefing
The history behind today’s news
UNITED STATES
Expert opinions on
the historical issues
ecent incidents in the US investment in white supremacist
behind today’s news
R – including the murderous
rampage of white suprema-
cist Dylann Roof in a
politics. If we shift away from the
male-dominated, the dramatic and
the violent, and instead examine
church in Charleston, South Carolina in women’s participation, the mundane
2015, and the fatal violence at the ‘Unite and the grassroots, an equally instruc-
the Right’ march in Charlottesville, tive story emerges.
Virginia last year – point to a disturbing For decades, groups of white women
political reality. Indeed, the 2017 report have crafted multi-layered efforts to
by the Anti-Defamation League’s Center shape and sustain white supremacist
on Extremism noted a startling increase politics in the United States. They were
in domestic extremist murders in the US racial segregation’s constant gardeners.
committed by white supremacists. In 1920, as the woman suffrage
As a result, the violent and masculine amendment wove its way through the
nature of white supremacist politics has states, many southern white women
come to dominate the public narrative. It promised that their votes would uphold,
is easy to draw parallels between, on the not weaken, racial segregation.
one hand, southern lynch mobs and the To make good on that promise,
incendiary speeches of cigar-smoking the members of Georgia’s United
segregationists and, on the other, the Daughters of the Confederacy banned
white nationalist violence and rhetoric textbooks that painted slavery as the
of the alt-right today. cause of the Civil War. A (largely
This focus, however, obfuscates female) legion of social workers, school
the deep and widespread American teachers and public-health officials
6
Have your say Share your thoughts
on this issue’s columns by emailing us
at [email protected]
GLOBAL POLITICS
9
THE BRIEFING
G Viewpoints
detested each other, barely able to be spite of their differences in politics and come and go but bureaucracies remain,
in the same room. On the other hand, policies, but that Blair should “hug them and are settled into habits of working
Henry Kissinger and the US State close”. This Blair clearly did. There was with each other. Foreign and some
Department certainly continued to a hiatus during the leadership overlap of economic interests are shared. The US
work with the British Foreign Office. Brown and Obama, whose policies and and UK are each other’s most important
This disenchantment continued dur- personalities apparently did not mesh, investors and trading partners. Also,
ing the 1970s, not because of personal but the expectations of both the British public opinion can change. British
animus but because the UK was increas- and Americans were high when it was public opinion swung from approval
ingly of less use to the US, largely because thought that Hilary Clinton would be of Obama to acute dislike of Trump; it
it appeared to the Americans to be falling elected president. could change again. American public
apart both politically and economically. When the British government opinion is less volatile, primarily because
Yet the Americans were worried because learned they would need to deal with most Americans are uninterested in the
the two had important military links, Trump, they did what British politicians UK (except for the royals), or indeed
through the nuclear and intelligence and officials tend to do: picked them- in many other countries save, perhaps,
relationship and through Nato. selves up, dusted themselves down, and their two neighbours. Fundamental
The election of Thatcher in 1979 set out to preserve the relationship they interests are slow to change, and the
and Reagan the following year was very considered vital to their security. pendulum will swing back.
important to the resumption of the President Trump appears not to Nevertheless, the world will have
relationship, partly for the same reason view the United Kingdom as anything changed. In his first 500 days as
that Nixon initially welcomed Heath special, in spite of the intelligence and president, Trump has – in my view –
– they were two conservatives – but in nuclear links. From his public activities managed to destroy any trust other
this instance they liked each other and and comments, and his ignoring of Brit- countries had in the veracity of the
largely shared political philosophies. ish interests and sensibilities, it could be president’s word and the stability of
Under Thatcher and Reagan, a close re- assumed that he has lumped the British American solidarity with her allies.
lationship flourished, which was crucial into the European pot. He respects The United Kingdom is apprehensive
for the UK during the Falklands War in strength, power and authority in a leader because it has few alternatives but to try
1982 when military supplies from the of a strong country. Neither Theresa to maintain the ‘special relationship’.
US were vital. The UK’s performance May nor the UK fit his template. Yet the United States will also suffer,
during the war convinced the Ameri- Can the relationship be saved? It because the president will ineluctably
cans that the British could once again is important to remember that leaders find that, when faced by his favourite
be vital military allies – a situation that type of authoritarian leaders, being
has continued, though with lessening Kipling’s “cat that walked by himself”
importance given the sharp decline in
British military strength.
Trump appears not can be a dangerous position.
10
NORTH KOREA
But the global media coverage, with
11
THE BRIEFING
G Viewpoints
CHINA
Anti-history charter?
A new law in China forbids defamation of the
nation’s ‘martyrs’ – and serves as a reminder that
the critical appraisal of our global past remains key
BY ROBERT BICKERS
his May, it became a civil socialism (as he put it in his diary) – system in which the language of employ-
the new legislation “encourages and sup- ‘civil rights’, press freedom and other More pity is merited, perhaps, for those
ports research on the deeds and spirit of “things that should not be discussed”, who ‘protect’ their heroes.
heroes and martyrs”, and “efforts to re- as a directive in 2013 put it, which But pity, too, those societies that
search, compile and publicise historical included “historical mistakes by the think history serves an ornamental
materials” about them. This builds on Party.” This last includes those purpose. Open societies should learn
well-funded initiatives to scour archives ‘mistakes’ that the Party itself has in one thing from China’s example: history
internationally for materials to secure the past acknowledged, such as the is important. We should support its
evidence of Japanese wartime atrocities, policies that prompted the 20th teaching and discussion in universities
for example. Archives and historical century’s worst famine, and the and schools, and we should spare no
research are of vital importance – but violence of the Cultural Revolution, ‘heroes’ the sceptical analysis that the
not if that scholarship does not serve the during which many of those previously practice of history demands.
interests of the ruling party. and now again regarded as revolution-
The political context for this law is ary heroes were attacked, jailed and, in Robert Bickers is
the tightening of Communist Party many cases, lost their lives as a result. professor of history at
control under its leader, Xi Jinping. The German playwright Bertolt the University of Bristol.
BHAGESH SACHANIA
Concern about the potential under- Brecht missed a thought in the famous His latest book is
mining of the state by the growth of exchange in his 1943 play Life of Galileo. Out of China: How the
a more independent-minded civil “Unhappy the land that has no heroes,” Chinese Ended the Era of
society has seen crackdowns on any ventures one character. “Pity the land,” Western Domination
public discussion of ‘universal values’, retorts Galileo, “that needs a hero.” (Allen Lane, 2017)
13
THE BRIEFING History Headlines
1 GREENLAND
Frozen assets
Analysis of lead pollution trapped in layers of Arctic
4
3 POMPEII ITALY 4PACHACAMAC PERU
Deadly debris Rare relic
The headless skeleton of a man crushed to death by a A large funerary bundle containing
falling rock while running away from the eruption of a 1,000-year-old mummy has been
Mount Vesuvius has been discovered near Pompeii. discovered at the pre-Colombian site
Experts believe that the man may have escaped the of Pachacamac near Lima by archae-
initial stage of the volcanic eruption in AD 79, only ologists from the Université libre de
to be hit soon afterwards by a stone sent flying by Bruxelles. This relic is an extremely rare
the eruption along with the resulting ash cloud. find because most burial chambers in the GETTY IMAGES/UNIVERSITY LIBRE DE BRUXELLES/
The man’s head has not yet been unearthed. area – later home to a 15th-century Incan
healing temple
– were looted
FUSCO-EPG-EFE-REX-SHUTTERSTOCK
14
5 URALS RUSSIA
Ice Age idol
New analysis shows that a carved wooden idol found in the Ural
Mountains was made 11,600 years ago, making it one of the
world’s oldest pieces of symbolic art. The Shigir Idol, thought
to have been created during the last major glacial period, was
The Shigir Idol,
discovered in a peat bog in 1894. Professor Thomas Terberger discovered by gold
of Göttingen University stated that pushing back the idol’s date prospectors in the
of creation, previously estimated at c7600 BC, by 2,000 years Ural Mountains in
“dramatically changes our views about the birth of ritual art”. 1894, may be 2,000
years older than
previously thought
How has
migration
changed
the world?
Throughout human history, men and women have travelled
across continents and oceans, in search of opportunities,
seeking refuge from war or persecution, or transported as
slaves. Eight experts discuss the impacts these people had
on the places they settled – and the lands they left behind
Æ
17
The Big Question: How has migration changed the world?
18
Sumita Mukherjee
“Anti-colonial struggles and
fights for universal human
rights in the 20th century
were shaped by migration”
Enforced migration underpinned much
change. Transatlantic slavery involved the
enforced displacement of African men, women
and children. In addition, after the abolition of
slavery an estimated 3.5 million Indians were
forced into indentured bondage and displaced
to colonial plantations in the Caribbean,
Africa and parts of the Pacific. The labour
of African slaves, indentured Indians and
Chinese workers shaped the infrastructures and economies of so
much of the world, through the building of railways and roads,
and through the wealth generated through their plantation labour.
But how do we measure change? The original question implies
that change is easy to measure and easy to notice. Change does not
just take place because ‘great individuals’ shape history. How do
we measure the stealth of migration – the long-term changes that
migrant communities have influenced, shaping language, food,
Cubans demonstrate against Fidel Castro in Florida in 1994. Cuban
music and other forms of culture? How do we measure shifts in
conservatives who fled to the US during the revolution or after the social attitudes over time?
communist regime took power became influential in US foreign policy Migration shaped European empires and the nature of imperial
conquest in the 18th and 19th centuries. Colonial officials,
military officials, merchants, missionaries and labourers from
Europe were involved in migrations to colonise various parts of the
world, through trade, conquest or settlement. Communities were
changed in many ways through contact with these European
migrants, not least through decimation or subjection.
But imperial migration was not one-way. Migration also helped
to eventually dismantle empires. Anti-colonial struggles and fights
for universal human rights in the 20th century have been shaped
by migration. Many leaders of anti-colonial movements in Asia
and Africa started their political careers as students in European
or American universities. Feminist struggles were similarly shaped
by migrants.
Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta and Jawaharlal Nehru had
formative student experiences in Britain that they brought to the
nationalist struggles in Ghana, Kenya and India, respectively.
Migration has been hugely beneficial for aspiring political leaders
through the centuries – in meeting new people, in learning about
different societies and cultures, in communicating important
GETTY IMAGES
20
BRIDGEMAN
Slaves in a Cuban sugar-cane field, depicted in a painting of 1874. Millions of enslaved Africans were transported to work
plantations in the Americas, later joined by indentured labourers from Asia. “Migration, whether forced or free, created
large-scale shifts in demographics and the establishment of diaspora communities,” says Meleisa Ono-George Æ
21
The Big Question: How has migration changed the world?
Martin Pitts
22
Marlou Schrover James Evans
Marlou Schrover is professor in economic and social history with James Evans is a historian, broadcaster and author of Emigrants:
a special interest in migration at Leiden University Why the English Sailed to the New World (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2017)
23
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Brazil:
Early European visitors to eastern South America
described an earthly paradise inhabited by naked
cannibals – one soon inundated with African slaves.
Lilia M Schwarcz explores the modern legacy of
past colonisation and exploitation in Brazil
TRANSLATED BY RAHUL BERY
26
a society
shaped by
slavery
ALAMY
Æ
27
Brazil’s troubled history
I
deas of ‘nature’ and of ‘natives’ have played a major the historians are in agreement, although its extent is debated:
part in the way Europeans have portrayed Brazil some claim that between 1493 and 1650 the Americas lost a
throughout the country’s history – or, rather, ever quarter of their population; others suggest that the population
since Portuguese colonisers landed in a territory decline was in the order of 95% or 96%. There were a number
that was already densely populated by Amerindian of factors responsible for this terrible loss of life, including war
people. On the one hand, the natural environment and unfamiliar diseases such as the common cold, but slavery
was portrayed as a paradise: an amenable climate, was also a major cause of death.
the absence of extreme weather, crystalline rivers,
waterfalls set in verdant surroundings, fruit falling Negotiating a name
from the trees and dolphins leaping from the seas. Because of The name of the new Portuguese colony generated much
this, Portuguese America was considered to be an example of debate, a discussion also influenced by the question of ‘nature’
the ‘placid tropics’, with only insects interrupting the natural and ‘natives’. The church wanted to name its dominion Terra
harmony of the landscape. de Santa Cruz (Land of the Holy Cross) in tribute to the place
But if ‘nature’ was seen through an Edenic lens, the ‘natives’ where the first outdoor mass had been held. Merchants argued
of this land were viewed with suspicion from the very start. In for Brazil, the name of a tree that grew widely in coastal areas
his letter to King Manuel I of Portugal dated 1 May 1500, (and which ended up being totally decimated); its wood was
explorer Pêro Vaz de Caminha – a knight serving in the first used for making furniture, and its red sap was used for dyeing
European fleet to land in what’s now Brazil on 22 April 1500 clothes. The market claimed victory in this initial battle just
– described how the indigenous people “went about naked… a dozen years after the Portuguese first arrived, and this corner
with their private parts on display”, and noted that the ‘natives’ of the New World came to be associated with the colour red –
also engaged in polygamy, a habit he judged to be decadent. the red of the dye from the Brazilwood tree, but also the
However, what most struck the first travellers was the infernal red of hell, which was how indigenous people and
practice of ‘cannibalism’: this was a people who “ate their their anthropophagy were represented.
peers” in order to sate their hunger. Without ever so much as The fact is that these different portrayals became jumbled
stepping foot in Brazil, in the late 16th century the engraver together, with Brazil sometimes viewed as a place of biblical
Theodor de Bry made a fortune from his images of the promise, at other times as ‘the land of the devil’. For many
country’s natives greedily gnawing on the legs and arms of people this vision would become all too real – above all for
their enemies. Today we know that this was not ‘cannibalism’ the enslaved natives, as well as those enslaved people who
but ‘anthropophagy’ – the people were practising a ritual were beginning to arrive from different parts of the European
whereby enemy tribes ate only the prisoners they considered to continent. The language of slavery entered the country
be worthy and strong. These were people who communicated and took its time in leaving. The arrival of the first African
through war, forming vast networks that quite clearly did not slaves, who were shipped mostly from Angola and west Africa
respect the boundaries created by Europeans. between Benin and Nigeria, was recorded towards the end
Both Europeans and the indigenous population found of the 16th century, when the cultivation of sugar cane
the other equally strange. The Portuguese traveller was introduced.
Pêro de Magalhães Gândavo was certain of his As nature adapted to the whims of the
claim, made in the 1570s, that the native market, the soil experienced great cycles
peoples had “no F, L or R”: no faith, no laws, of monocultural production. Brazil’s
no king (in Portuguese, Rei). Understood north-eastern region, especially Bahia and
only in terms of what they ‘lacked’, in the Pernambuco, was the first area to prosper
majority of cases the Brazilians were thanks to the sugar planted there, which
thought of as groups of children. In the guaranteed a steady supply of money until
most negative of visions they were consid- the end of the 18th century. From the
ered ‘degenerates’, and thus the war against late 17th century, news of the discovery of
them was seen as being a ‘just’ one, as if gold and diamonds in the region of Minas
spreading the Christian faith was something Gerais sparked a gold rush. This arid, flat
absolutely ‘necessary’. shrubland, so unlike the fertile tropics, was given
Such attitudes had consequences on an Fall from heaven? the designation cerrado, denoting a closed or
immense scale. Estimates of the population Iguaçu Falls, on the Brazil- fenced-off zone. Finally, in the 19th century, it
GETTY IMAGES
Æ
29
Brazil’s troubled history
Fight club
Capoeira performers in
Salvador, Bahia, eastern
Brazil. Originally a fight
disguised as a dance,
capoeira evolved from
practices and rhythms
that arrived in Brazil
with slaves from Africa
Black gold
A c1900 advertisement for Brazilian coffee.
During the previous century the expanding coffee
industry demanded huge amounts of manual
labour, fuelling the transatlantic slave trade
a mere economic system: it shaped the way people behaved, many were violent.
defined social inequalities, turned race and colour into the Of course, a system based around the idea that one person
traits of fundamental differences between groups of people, can possess another can sustain itself only through violence.
30
Stolen cargo
An English engraving of 1830
shows the layout of a slave ship
bound for Brazil, which was
the final destination for an
estimated 5 million Africans
before slavery was finally
abolished there in 1888
Slave masters would consult manuals, which circulated the state of Pernambuco in 1597. They ascended the Barriga
back and forth across the Atlantic, that offered advice about mountain range, in the present-day state of Alagoas south-east
how to punish and control slaves. In response, many slaves of Pernambuco, arriving at an uninhabited place where the
escaped, had abortions, murdered and poisoned their mountains acted as ramparts. The region’s palm trees provided
masters, or killed themselves. a living and sustenance: their leaves were woven together to
There were also examples of organised insurrections in create animal traps, items of clothing and roofs for rudimenta-
which the slaves’ resistance led to the creation of quilombos, ry dwellings, and they also gave the settlement its name.
places where those who had escaped would come together. Palmares was not just a refuge for the enslaved, but also
The term originated on the African continent, specifically in an extensive confederation of different communities capable
Angola, where it designated a kind of military encampment in of conducting their own business and of choosing their own
which warriors would undergo rites of initiation and embrace leaders. At its peak, 20,000 people found shelter there –
military discipline. The proliferation of quilombos across the a population far bigger than that of Rio de Janeiro at the time,
American landscape between the 16th and 19th centuries was which had only 7,000 inhabitants in 1600.
the result of a complex variety of political situations. They were
not just transitory, isolated places. They represented an alterna- A new religion
tive way of life while at the same time forming a part of the The slaves also bargained with their masters for the right to
slaveholding society that surrounded them, with which they play music, dance and sing, in accordance with their rituals.
were intimately linked in a variety of ways. This gave birth to candomblé, a name given to a set of recon-
In the mid-18th century Buraco do Tatu, a quilombo structed religious practices that, from the 19th century
located not far from Salvador, was kept financially onwards, took the traditions of Africa’s Yoruba
afloat through robbery, which it achieved by Out of Africa people, together with some other west African
maintaining a complicit relationship with the A carved wooden relief influences, as its base. In this new environment,
depicting the candomblé
community of slaves and freemen in the city. orisha (deity) Oxalufan.
candomblé was responsible for mediating the
In the lower Amazon region, in the far north The religious practices of differing realities of the Africans, mestiços and
of the country, slave refuges were established candomblé evolved from indigenous peoples. It’s no coincidence that, to
on the ‘white water’ of the river in a densely forested African Yoruba beliefs this day, the version in Bahia – the state most
BRIDGEMAN/GETTY IMAGES
area near the border with Suriname. strongly identified with Afro-Brazilians – called
The biggest community of escaped candomblé de caboclo venerates the spirits of
slaves, however – and possibly the one that indigenous ancestors.
survived the longest in Portuguese Over time, quilombos and differing cultural
America – was Palmares. This quilombo’s traditions blended together. Brazil today is still
original nucleus comprised around marked by this unequal, hierarchical mixing
40 slaves who had escaped from a mill in of so many African and Amerindian Æ
31
Brazil’s troubled history
An American Eden
A coloured engraving from
Historia naturalis palmarum,
a book based on the 1817–20
travels of German botanist Carl
Friedrich Philipp von Martius.
The fertility of Brazilian soil was
believed to have no limits – but
needed human labour to work it
GETTY IMAGES
32
Harsh reality
Children pictured in a favela (slum) in Rio de Janeiro in 2014.
Widespread poverty and social inequality plague Brazil
Amerindian nations A Brazilian woman of African descent in Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval,
a Catholic festival celebrated with African-influenced samba music
nations, and of the European and East Asian immigrants system of racial discrimination that affects how they enter
who arrived at the end of the 19th century. the job market, their birth rates, rates of criminalisation and
The country still suffers from a democratic deficit. even how they spend their free time. There is still inequality of
Patrimonial and clientelistic practices, inherited from the opportunity, along with daily displays of racism in both private
era of slavery and recreated in the present, cling on in the and public. And, though torture has not been state policy since
political system and in public institutions. The electoral base the 1980s, it continues to be widespread, used in a concealed
may have been expanded, but an ethical agenda capable of way by police officers in some poor neighbourhoods where
transforming the electoral system and the behaviour of the rampant violence primarily affects young black men.
political parties has been found lacking; there is a serious risk Problems are environmental as well as social. Abundant
of corruption, associated as much with the mistreatment of cultivation without crop rotation has led to the deterioration
public funds as with the lack of control over governmental of once-productive areas such as the old sugar-growing region
politics, becoming endemic. of the Bahian Recôncavo, and the Paraíba Valley in Rio and
São Paulo states. Both have been victims of the frenzy for
The challenges continue immediate profit – as, too, has the Amazon, where rivers are
Many problems that characterised the past have persisted to still being polluted and the misdeeds of humans have created
the present day. Poverty continues to ravage a significant chunk veritable deserts.
of the population, and various indicators place the country These problems indicate the extent to which Brazil’s
among the global champions of social inequality. In many present rings with echoes from its past. Brazil today is in
places, women earn less than their male counterparts despite crisis. But every crisis has its positive side: on the one hand it
carrying out exactly the same tasks, and ‘crimes of passion’ – is exposing the fallacies of Brazilian democracy and the way
a euphemism used to define the violent practices that charac- in which the nation uses its
terise gender differences in the country – are still common- natural resources; in another
place. While newer familial arrangements based around sexual sense, it invites the country’s Lilia M Schwarcz is
and gender diversity are defended in public, many Brazilian citizens to respond and react. professor of anthropology at
citizens continue to be victims of sexist practices rooted in an It’s possible, indeed, that
GETTY IMAGES
33
A year in pictures: 1894
AKG-IMAGES
34
Pole position
Norwegian botanist and expedition
doctor Henrik Greve Blessing fishes for
algae alongside the icebound schooner
Fram in July 1894. Norwegian explorer
Fridtjof Nansen and his hand-picked
crew had set out a year earlier on the
purpose-built ship to try to reach the
uncharted North Pole. He planned to
sail to a northerly latitude where the
ship would become icebound and drift
with currents across the Arctic. After
nearly 18 months locked in ice, Nansen
realised the ship would not drift far
enough north, so he set off on dog sleds
towards the pole. He failed to reach
90° north, but returned to Norway
a hero, having collected a wealth of
new scientific information.
A YEAR
IN PICTURES
1894
Exploration and
engineering, riots
and Russian rulers
36
Justice perverted
French army captain Alfred Dreyfus defends himself
against charges of treason at a military court in
December 1894, as depicted in an illustration in
Le Petit Journal.On 22 December he was found guilty
of passing secrets to the Germans, and was sentenced
to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island off French
Guiana. However, the evidence against Dreyfus had
been fabricated, and the head of French counter-
espionage soon discovered that the true culprit was
another French officer, Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy.
The ‘Dreyfus Affair’ divided French public opinion,
exposing widespread anti-Semitism, particularly in
the military and in sections of the media. The debate
TOPFOTO
Icon of engineering
Traffic crosses London’s Tower
Bridge shortly after its official
opening by the Prince of Wales
(later King Edward VII) on
30 June 1894. First planned
in the late 1870s, work began
in 1886 but construction of
such a complex design – two
suspension bridges flanking a
central roadway that lifted to
allow ships to pass through –
took eight years to complete.
It soon became a London icon,
akin to the Eiffel Tower in
Paris, and remains so today.
Rail riots
Firemen tackle a blaze engulfing 600
Pullman freight cars in Chicago started
by rioters on 6 July during the national
railroad strike in the United States, and
depicted in a contemporary illustration.
The strike, which ran May–July 1894, was
called in protest against wage cuts imposed
by the Pullman Company. It was supported
by the American Railway Union, formed
the year before by Eugene Debs to give a
voice to workers. Railway traffic was halted
or disrupted across the western and central
states, and strikers were responsible for
widespread violence and arson. President
Grover Cleveland ordered the army to
break the strike, and by July it had petered
out – but not before the railroads had
suffered $80 million of damage and
30 people had died.
ALAMY
38
Tropical trinity
Day of the God, painted by Paul Gauguin
(1848–1903) in 1894 after his return to
France from Tahiti. The painting, notable
for Gauguin’s hallmark use of contrasting
colour, flat surfaces and semi-abstract images,
possibly depicts Ta’aroa, supreme deity in
the pantheon of gods in French Polynesia,
who created the Earth. The three naked
figures symbolise birth, life and death.
Gauguin’s work had an immense impact on
the modernist art movements of the following
decades, particularly influencing the fin-de-
siècle symbolism and escapism that permeated
much of the culture of the 1890s.
Strong showing
A poster advertises the
German strongman Eugen
Sandow (born Friedrich
Wilhelm Müller, 1867–
1925), who wowed American
audiences in 1894 during
a nationwide tour staged
by the impresario Florenz
Ziegfeld. Sandow pioneered
the idea of what he called
‘bodybuilding’, employing
weight training and a proper
diet to develop a strong,
healthy body. He organised
the first bodybuilding
competition at the Royal
Albert Hall in London,
and later founded the first
fitness centres, forerunners of
modern gyms.
BRIDGEMAN
40
Rising tsar
Russian tsar Nicholas II is crowned
in the splendour of the Uspensky
(Dormition or Assumption) Cathedral
in Moscow’s Kremlin, as painted by
French artist Henri Gervex. Nicholas
acceded to the throne on 1 November
1894 following the death of his
father, Alexander III. He was little
prepared for his new responsibilities,
but stated from the outset that he
believed profoundly in the necessity
of autocratic rule and would not yield
to popular demands for constitutional
reform. His unbending attitude
contributed to the revolt against the
monarchy and the revolution that
ended his reign 23 years later.
Radio age
A replica of the first radio transmitter built
by Guglielmo Marconi – then just 20 years Richard Overy
GETTY IMAGES/BRIDGEMAN
41
EXTRAORDINARY
Y PEOPLE
T
he cartoon stereotype of remains of several Norse buildings were Gudrid urged Karlsefni to make the
the Viking age is decidedly discovered in the 1960s. journey. Once in Vinland, Gudrid gave
male: bearded blond men in Gudrid is described in The Saga of the birth to a son, Snorri – the first baby born
boats raiding the coast- Greenlanders as “a woman of striking to a European on the North American
lines of western Europe, appearance, and wise”. In both texts, her continent, if the account is true.
discovering and settling new lands. Yet dramatic story began when she and her Gudrid is the real hero of the Vinland
from the Valkyries of Norse mythology father sailed west from Iceland to join sagas – such an important character in
to female prime ministers and presidents, Erik the Red’s new colony in Greenland. The Saga of Erik the Red that it’s been
and from legendary shieldmaidens to That sea journey was notoriously suggested the story would be more aptly
other trailblazers of socially progressive dangerous and, according to The Saga of named Gudrid’s Saga. In her older years,
gender politics, the Nordic world has a the Greenlanders, Gudrid, her husband she continued her travels, undertaking
long history of extraordinary women. and several others were shipwrecked, then a pilgrimage to Rome. She became a
No one epitomises this heritage better rescued by Leif the Lucky, son of Erik the formidable matriarch, ancestor to many
than Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir, a Norse Red. Sickness afflicted the colony that illustrious Icelanders – it is her line listed
explorer known as the ‘far-traveller’, born winter, and Gudrid’s husband died, but at the end of The Saga of the Greenlanders,
on Iceland’s Snæfellsnes peninsula in the Gudrid lived to fight another day. not that of Erik the Red. As the pagan
latter part of the 10th century. What The Saga of Erik the Redd tells of no seeress in The Saga of Erik the Redd told
we know of her life story is derived from shipwreck and no husband. In it, instead, her: “from you will be descended a long
two Old Norse sagas, The Saga of Erik when Gudrid arrived Greenland was in and worthy line, and over all the branches
the Redd and The Saga of the Greenlanders. the grip of a famine. Though a Christian, of that family a bright ray will shine”.
Together they are known as the ‘Vinland she took part in a pagan ritual, helping a A modern sculpture of Gudrid at her
sagas’, because they describe voyages seeress called Thorbjorg to chant songs to birthplace, Laugarbrekka in western
sailing to the fringes of North America charm the spirits and end the famine. Iceland, depicts her standing on a ship,
around the year 1000. The Norse named Both sagas tell us that Gudrid married one hand resting on the square, toothy
these lands ‘Vinland’, apparently because Thorstein, son of Erik the Red and dragon’s head that forms the bow. On her
of the wild grapes that grew there. younger brother of Leif the Lucky shoulder she balances her little son Snorri,
The sagas were first recorded in (Eriksson), then spent a dark, terrifying his face lifted upwards, arm raised to the
13th-century Iceland over two centuries winter at the farmstead of a pagan farmer, sky. Gudrid’s eyes, though, are fixed firm-
after the events they describe took place, which was struck by a deadly plague. ly ahead, on the long sea road before her.
their tales having been transmitted The tale cites supernatural forces: at one True, the sagas are by no means
down the years in oral form, retold and point, the farmer’s wife looked out into straightforward historical records. But
reshaped as the stories passed from gen- the yard to see the figures of those who they are our main source of information
eration to generation. They contain ele- have died, waiting menacingly for her – about the remarkable people who un-
ments we might expect to see in fantasy and among them saw herself and dertook long and dangerous sea voyages,
films – dragons, trolls, zombies – but they Gudrid’s husband, Thorstein Eriksson. building new lives far from home and
are our main textual sources for Norse By the morning she was dead. Thorstein discovering new lands – and Gudrid was
activities at the far-western margins of died a few hours later, but – true to form perhaps the most extraordinary of all.
the medieval world. It was thanks to the – Gudrid survived another deadly winter.
sagas that archaeologists began to search Gudrid’s next husband was an Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough is
for material evidence of these journeys Icelander, Thorstein Karlsefni, with associate professor of medieval history and
– for example, at L’Anse aux Meadows whom she travelled to Vinland – indeed, literature at Durham University, and author
at the tip of Newfoundland, where the The Saga of the Greenlanderss tells us that of Beyond the Northlandss (OUP, 2016)
42
Vinland bound
Old Norse sagas describe Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir as “the loveliest of women and
noble in every trait”. But this far-travelled Icelandic woman was eulogised largely not
for her beauty and charm but as a strong-willed survivor who married three times and
bore a son, Snorri, in Vinland (North America) during one of her intrepid voyages
A Palestinian village is
destroyed by British forces in
1938 during the Arab Revolt
GETTY IMAGES
44
GETTY IMAGES
45
Æ
Israel and the Palestinians
Men from Bethlehem in Jerusalem in 1894, when the territory identified as Palestine was part of the Ottoman empire. At the start of the 19th century
Palestine’s population was mostly Arab, with a small Jewish minority, but from the 1880s waves of settlers rapidly augmented the Jewish population
the place for a possible Jewish homeland. yet this was not accurate: the land was
A view of Jerusalem from the north in about A wave of Jewish people came to the already occupied by predominantly
1870, when it lay within the Ottoman empire country in an Aliyahh (‘ascent’) starting Muslim communities.
46
2 The seeds 3 Riots and revolt significant Jewish population) and
providing for British control of
of conflict 1917–20 Palestine. The Jewish settlers depended
1896–1917 on Britain for their survival and, until
the Second World War, worked with the
In 1917, during the First World War, British authorities to maintain security
British-led troops conquered southern in Palestine. Jewish settlement was met
Palestine and took Jerusalem. In the with local resistance: in 1920, for
same year, the British foreign secretary, instance, rioting broke out as Palestini-
AJ Balfour, issued the so-called Balfour ans opposed British-facilitated Jewish
Theodor Herzl’s Declaration. Sent as a letter to the immigration. More violence was to
pamphlet Der
Judenstaat (1896),
Jewish (and Zionist) Lord Rothschild erupt throughout the next two decades.
proposing a on 2 November, and published a week Jewish-European settlers in this
Jewish country later in The Times, it was a deliberately period recorded the mood of colonial-
ambiguous statement of British intent ism. “We must not forget that we
In 1896, an Austro-Hungarian Jewish towards Palestine. It did not promise are dealing here with a semi-savage
intellectual, Theodor Herzl, published the Jewish people a state in the country; people, which has extremely primitive
Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), instead, it vaguely expressed the concepts,” one wrote at the time.
a pamphlet outlining the intellectual sentiment that “His Majesty’s Govern- “And this is his nature: if he senses
basis for the idea of a Jewish country. ment view with favour” the establish- in you power, he will submit and will
There was initially much discussion ment of a Jewish “national home” hide his hatred for you. And if he
among Zionists about whether such in Palestine, while also recognising senses weakness, he will dominate you.”
a place was to be in Palestine or that the region had an existing, non- Amid such colonial views, the British
elsewhere. Early schemes proposed Jewish, population. veered between support for Jewish
such disparate locations as Canada, The declaration helped Britain’s war settlers and for the Palestinians. Their
parts of South America, and British- effort in various ways, boosting support goals were diverging and becoming
run East Africa around what is now in the United States (which had a seemingly irreconcilable.
Uganda and Kenya. European Zionist
Jews were looking for a place to make
real the Jewish state, and the debate
fell between two major camps. The
first was willing to accept a Jewish
state anywhere, while the other
was determined to forge a state in
historic Palestine.
In 1905, at the Seventh Zionist
Congress in Basel, the dispute was
settled in favour of a Jewish state in
Palestine rather than some part of the
world with no religious or historical
connection for Jewish people. Many
Palestinians resisted this move to
settle in the territory, and expressed
their own national identity through
channels such as Falastin, a newspaper
founded in Jaffa in 1911 and named
for their homeland. Other responses
were more direct, with Palestinians
aggressively targeting landowners who
sold land to Jewish settlers.
Jewish immigration and settlement
set the two communities on the road to
war. It would be a struggle in which the
GETTY IMAGES
Zionists, armed with modern European General Edmund Allenby enters Jerusalem on foot on 11 December 1917 during
nationalist ideas, organisation and the British campaign in Palestine against Ottoman forces in the First World War Æ
technologies, had the edge.
47
Israel and the Palestinians
preachers such as Shaykh ‘Izz al-Din conflict with Zionists who were trying of establishing a state. Palestinian and
al-Qassam mobilised Palestinians, prim- to save European Jews by helping them Arab groups rejected it, however,
ing them for jihad. The Jewish popula- get to Palestine. arguing that it ignored the rights
tion prepared much more thoroughly, After the war ended in 1945, the of most of the population of Palestine
building a proto-state alongside nascent Jewish population of Palestine had to decide their own destiny.
48
British servicemen search the wreckage of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 1946 after it was bombed by the Zionist Jewish organisation Irgun.
The hotel had housed a British headquarters, and became a target after the British blocked Jewish immigration during the Second World War Æ
49
Israel and the Palestinians
Palestinian refugees
pictured during the first
Arab-Israeli War in 1948.
At the conclusion of the
war the following year,
some 700,000 Palestinians
had fled or been expelled
from the new state of
Israel and were refugees
in neighbouring territories
50
Jerusalem (including the Old City), and the Arab-Israeli conflict. For the events, and in different ways. Indeed,
the territory known as the Gaza Strip, Palestinians this was the nakba histories of this period quickly reveal
running along the Mediterranean Sea (catastrophe) that turned hundreds of how divisive this time remains, with
just northeast of the Sinai Peninsula. thousands of them into refugees; for accounts often skewed significantly
The result of this expansion was that Is- Israel, it was triumph in a war of toward one side or another.
rael controlled more than 75% of what independence in the face of a full-scale The conclusion of the First
had formerly been British-run Palestine assault against its Jewish people. Arab-Israeli War left two significant
– or, in other words, the Palestinians Both communities saw the events in political problems, both of which
now held less than 25% of Palestine. very different ways. From an Israeli remain largely unresolved today.
What happened next has informed perspective, the Arabs were hell-bent First, more than 700,000 Palestinians
a great deal of how we now understand on destroying Israel in 1948, and the now lived in refugee camps in the
war they provoked ended up making Egyptian-run Gaza Strip, throughout
thousands of Palestinian people neighbouring Arab nations, and in the
refugees. From a Palestinian view- Jordanian-controlled West Bank.
point, the Israelis were acting on a plan Stateless, without passports and
to expel them and thus ethnically dispossessed, theirs was a squalid
cleanse the country. existence, and no one addressed their
Israel did expel Palestinians, but lack of political rights.
others simply left as their society Meanwhile, Israel built a function-
collapsed under the pressure of war; ing Jewish state, drawing in more
even so, more than 100,000 Palestini- Mizrahi Jews who had lived for
ans remained inside Israel after 1949. centuries in Arab countries but who
Massacre was followed by counter- were no longer welcome there. But
massacre: Jewish forces killed around though the Zionists had realised their
100 Palestinian villagers at Deir ambition of a Jewish state, no Arab
Yassin, just west of Jerusalem, in April states recognised it, meaning that Israel
1948; shortly afterwards, Arab fighters was flanked by hostile neighbours.
killed some 80 Jewish medical staff The consequences of the failure to
near Jerusalem. settle the political needs of both
These massacres reveal how both communities were to feed directly
sides emphasise different historical into the wars that were to come.
Æ
Note: this map is for illustrative and location purposes only
51
Israel and the Palestinians
control to the Palestinians. Netanyahu’s which the Israeli and Palestinian states book, Britain’s Pacification of Palestine, will be
supporters see his policies as the natural coexist alongside each other. Similarly, published later this year by CUP
result of Palestinian unwillingness to a binational solution resulting in a single DISCOVER MORE
forge a compromise deal and accept Israeli-Palestinian state as a home for all Follow events in the Middle East
Israel’s right to exist. communities also seems unlikely. online via BBC News at bbc.co.uk
53
History in videogames
54
PLAYING
WITH
55
History in videogames
subjects, from delivering newspapers in Paperboy (1985) to Creed: Origins. Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed even sports a combat-
saving Earth from alien attack in titles such as Space Invaders free ‘discovery’ mode, transforming the game into a virtual
(1978). Games have also explored world history. In the 1970s museum of historical artefacts. Videogame companies such
56
Alternative Egypt
Cleopatra, as depicted in the 2017
action-adventure game Assassin's
Creed: Origins. Set near the end of
the Ptolemaic era, the title offers a
fictionalised account of real events
as Ubisoft and Rockstar Games conduct significant historical – they get to shoot back. In historical games, players contribute
research for their titles, visiting archives and speaking to the unfolding narrative: they ‘play’ history. Gameworlds
to experts. therefore intimately involve players in all kinds of recreations
Given the increasing sway of videogames over popular of historical moments. They, in turn, have the ability to
culture, it is natural to assume they now exercise some level ‘reshape’ those moments, raising all kinds of dilemmas over
of influence over how we negotiate the world. For decades, counterfactual history and authenticity.
popular literature, film, radio and television have had a In autumn 1971, three trainee teachers huddled in a
powerful impact on mass understandings of history. From janitor’s closet at a Minnesota college to work on a prototype
Shakespearean plays to Vietnam War movies, fiction has educational computer game. Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann,
framed the past. As Adam Chapman, a leading scholar in and Paul Dillenberger were creating The Oregon Trail (1971),
digital history, argues: “for most of us imagery and under- a text-based adventure designed to teach students the history
standings drawn from popular media probably construct the of westward migration in the United States. The game asked
past as much, if not more, than the books of professional students to budget for a journey by wagon to Oregon in the
historians”. Videogames help shape the historical imagination. 1840s. Along the route they would need to negotiate rivers,
hunt wild animals, barter with Native Americans and
Digital pioneers sometimes catch diseases such as dysentery. Pupils loved it,
In 1903, American film projectionist Edwin S Porter produced and the Minnesota Education Computing Consortium soon
The Great Train Robbery, a 12-minute black-and-white silent rolled out the game across the state.
movie. Constructed as a series of action-packed set pieces, By the late 1970s, The Oregon Trail was being played across
Porter’s film helped establish the Western genre. In the final the US. This education title portrayed the American frontier
scene of the movie, an outlaw played by Justus D Barnes looks as an exercise in linear progress, with players guiding their
directly at the camera, lifts his revolver and fires. Immersed wagons on a simple, set route toward success. The computer
in the moment, feeling helpless and dumbfounded, audiences game reflected a traditional historical interpretation of frontier
reeled in shock. progress, and celebrated the journey of the white settler, but
UBISOFT
Yet videogames go one step further. Unlike in Porter’s lacked an understanding of multiple borders and the true
movie, they actively involve players in the unfolding storyline complexities of migration. However, it excelled at capturing Æ
57
History in videogames
1 2
3 4
2 The idea for Atari’s Missile Command came from a magazine story
about satellites and radars. The game proved a phenomenal arcade hit,
and a 1981 conversion for the Atari VCS console sold 2.5 million copies
58
CIVILIZATION TAPPED Meier’s title was ingenious. It offered a technology tree to
master, and competing empires to negotiate with or conquer.
Meier tapped into a desire to play god with history. The game
INTO A DESIRE TO actively indulged the egos of its players: those who performed
admirably were lauded by a digital populace who raised palaces
PLAY GOD – AND in their honour. While offering the player a multitude of
options, Meier’s Civilization nonetheless sanctified very
ALSO GLORIFIED particular notions about progress. The game glorified western
science and technology, while indigenous groups in the game
WESTERN SCIENCE were forced to ‘become civilised’ or face extinction. Five
subsequent sequels, and numerous ‘expansion packs’, have
AND TECHNOLOGY modified which civilisations players can control, while
maintaining the same underlying gameplay mechanics.
Titles such as Civilization pandered to grand concepts
of history and empire, but other videogames tackled specific
events and incidents. For example, the strategy game History
the feel of the trail – the personal hardships, the dangers, the Line: 1914-1918, released by German company Blue Byte in
daily grind. The game highlighted the potential of the entire 1992, recreated military campaigns of the First World War
medium to educate and inform – to teach history. Games with distinct educational overtures. The turn-based wargame
became part of the teacher’s toolbox in the United States and began with a realistic depiction of the assassination of
around the world, introducing pupils to both new technology Archduke Franz Ferdinand before launching the player into
and new historical ideas. a series of challenging tactical scenarios, requiring them to
move military units across a hexagon-based map. Intriguingly,
War games History Line didn’t allow players to deviate too much from the
As with all media, videogames reflect the historic moments of historical record. It also forged a sense of atmosphere by
their production. In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghani- regularly feeding the player contemporary newspaper stories
stan and Margaret Thatcher assumed power in the United and facts about wartime conditions.
Kingdom; the following year, former Hollywood actor Occasionally, games provoked controversy with their
Ronald Reagan was elected US president. With a new vitriol colourful takes on history. In 2004, Scottish-based Traffic
to superpower sparring, Cold War tensions escalated. Software released the ‘historical simulation’ title JFK Reloaded.
Media culture of that era reflected the sudden rise in public Exploring the assassination of President John F Kennedy on
anxiety about the possibility of nuclear exchange – and this 22 November 1963, the game puts the player in the position of
included videogames. In 1980, Atari released the arcade Lee Harvey Oswald, replaying his actions on that fateful day in
machine Missile Command. This cast the player in the role of Dallas, Texas, by shooting at the presidential motorcade. The
a defence co-ordinator tasked with protecting six cities from aim was to test the official report of the Warren Commission
nuclear attack by shooting down incoming missiles. The game (and the broader historical record); in a sense the game
proved a phenomenal success. It also presaged Reagan’s encouraged the player to solve a lingering historical conspiracy.
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, dubbed ‘Star Wars’ by the Unsurprisingly, the choice of topic offended many. Despite
popular press), a proposed programme that would use numerous freely accessible documentaries on the shooting
satellites, lasers and missiles to defend the US against attack. of the president, as well as the footage captured by amateur
However, in contrast to Reagan’s promise of a nation protected cameraman Abraham Zapruder, who filmed the Kennedy’s mo-
from fallout, Atari’s title painted only a bleak picture of torcade as it drove through Dallas, ‘playing’ through the event
conflict. The cities in Missile Command could never be saved – itself appeared quantifiably more offensive. It was an example
their destruction was merely delayed. The game, and with it of a game pushing the boundaries of acceptable behaviour.
nuclear war, proved practically unwinnable. Missile Command
captured the historical moment and gamified nuclear fear. Living in the past
As videogame technology advanced in the late 1980s, One of the most consistent aims in videogame design over
the potential for games to present more complex simulations the past four decades has been the emulation of real life.
increased. In 1991, MicroProse released Civilization, an Throughout the 2010s, the quest for realism has edged closer
advanced strategy title designed by Canadian-American and closer to perfection. With the advent of photorealistic
Sid Meier. The game required the player to create an empire graphics and virtual-reality headsets, the gap between the real
and manage its development across time. and the imagined has reduced significantly. These heightened Æ
59
History in videogames
Simulacrum city
The virtual cityscape of 2013’s
Grand Theft Auto V, based on LA
and other places in California.
This game is the fastest-selling
entertainment product in history
against wave after wave of pixellated can be traced through scores of titles
alien attackers. An arcade sensation, released in subsequent decades.
it made a profit of some $450m. Pixel progression From cowboys and archaeologists to
While many arcade titles navigated A 1977 iteration of Pong, a very basic the criminal fraternity of 2013’s Grand
similar themes of interstellar con- simulation of table tennis. The initial Theft Auto V, videogames now offer an
flict, 1980’s Pac-Man strayed into very version, released in 1972, was one of increasingly diverse range of settings,
different territory, creating a new genre. the earliest arcade games characters and player experiences.
60
New frontiers
Western-themed action adventure
Red Dead Redemption, set on the
US-Mexico border in 1911, has
sold more than 15 million copies
since its release in 2010
hugely popular 1975 arcade shooter Gun Fight – the first video- have more work to do before was exhibited at the British
game to depict two humans fighting – the game brims with games truly offer balanced, Academy Summer Showcase.
frontier atmosphere. Assuming the role of retired outlaw rounded accounts of global For more details, see britac.ac.uk/
John Marston, the player tackles a diverse variety of challenges, historical realities. events/summershowcase/2018
61
The murder of Emmett Till
Emmett Till pictured with his mother, Mamie Till Bradley, in the early 1950s
ALAMY
62
Emmett Till was a happy, confident
teenager. In August 1955 he travelled
south to visit relatives in Mississippi.
Eight days later he was dead,
killed by two men who accused
him of whistling at a white woman.
His brutal murder was just one
of thousands of racially motivated
lynchings in the American South –
but it proved to be a pivotal moment
in the civil rights revolution.
By Maria Margaronis
Æ
63
The murder of Emmett Till
O
n 20 August 1955, Mamie Till
Bradley reluctantly put her 14- Mamie Till Bradley
year-old son Emmett – ‘Bo’, to his
family – on the train from Chicago insisted on an open
to Mississippi with his great-uncle
Moses Wright, who had come up to coffin so the world
Chicago for a family funeral. Bo’s
favourite cousin, Wheeler Parker, could see what had
was going down south with Uncle
Mose for a summer holiday, and Bo didn’t want to miss out on been done to her son
the swimming and the fishing, the food from the gardens, the
adventures and the starry nights. He was a confident, cheerful,
kid, big for his age, a joker with a playful swagger in spite of the
stutter left by a bout of polio. to Chicago, told the undertaker not to clean up his pulped
Mamie worried that Bo’s confident Chicago manners head, and insisted on an open coffin so that the world could
would get him into trouble in the small community of Money, see what had been done to her son.
deep in the American South, where black subjugation was The funeral service was held on 3 September at Chicago’s
policed by a rigid code of behaviour and enforced by murder- Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ. Tens of thousands
ous terror. She had prepared him carefully for his trip to the of people filed past Emmett as he lay in state for four days
place her parents had left three decades before in search of afterwards, dignified in a dark suit in defiance of the white
work and safety: don’t speak to white folks unless you’re spoken men’s violence. Some fainted at the sight. The horrifying pho-
to, step off the sidewalk when they pass, never look them in the eye. tograph of his disfigured face was published in Jett magazine
She had packed some fried chicken and cake for him in a and reprinted everywhere, passed round, cut out and shown to
shoebox, because she knew he wouldn’t be allowed to use the African-American children for years afterwards as a warning.
dining car. At Cairo, Illinois, he and his cousins would have The image was a deliberate reversal of the white supremacist
to move to the crowded ‘colored’ car behind the locomotive – tradition of lynching photographs – gruesome images of black
the noisiest and smokiest on the train. men hanging from trees while white families looked on –
Emmett came back to Mamie two weeks later in a pine box printed and sold as postcards in the segregation-era South.
packed with lime, his face mutilated and swollen beyond rec- When an all-white Mississippi jury acquitted Milam
ognition, one eye missing and the other hanging halfway down and Bryant in a brief trial in the town of Sumner, near Money,
his cheek, his skull split and pierced by a bullet hole. At 2am that September, news of the verdict travelled round the world.
on the morning of Sunday 28 August, he’d been taken from The dancer Josephine Baker led a protest in Paris, and letters
his great-uncle’s house by two white men, Roy Bryant and demanding justice for Till arrived at the White House from as
JW Milam, who claimed he’d flirted with Bryant’s young far away as Norway and the Kremlin. Rallies were held across
wife, Carolyn, as she minded the couple’s general the American Midwest; in Harlem, Mamie addressed
store. Bo had gone in to buy bubblegum the pre- a huge crowd alongside leaders of the National
vious Wednesday evening; his cousins recalled Association for the Advancement of Coloured
that he’d whistled when Carolyn came out. People (the NAACP), the Abyssinian Baptist
They whisked him away from the store, Church, and black unions.
but the white men came for him anyway, In November, Mississippi civil rights
bundled him into the back of a pickup activist TRM Howard spoke about Till
truck with a couple of Milam’s black hired at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in
hands, drove him around half the night, Montgomery, Alabama. The pastor of the
then tortured him in a barn before shooting church was the 26-year-old Martin Luther
and killing him. A black teenager called Willie King Jr, and among the congregation was
Reed who happened to pass by heard the terrible the seamstress Rosa Parks. Four days later she
screaming; later he saw something wrapped in refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white
a tarp loaded onto the truck. Emmett’s bloated The accused man, sparking the Montgomery bus boycott.
GETTY IMAGES
body was found in the Tallahatchie River by Roy Bryant and JW Milam during Many years afterwards she said: “I thought of
their trial in September 1955.
a fisherman three days later. The all-white jury acquitted both
Emmett Till and I couldn’t go back.”
Mamie refused to bury her boy in the Delta defendants after deliberating Thousands of black men and boys had been
mud. She made sure that his body was sent back for just over an hour lynched on lesser pretexts, their killers never
64
Final rites
Mamie Till Bradley is
comforted as her son’s coffin
GETTY IMAGES
1861 1861–65
The Confederate States The American Civil
of America is formed War is fought between
after slave-holding the United States and
states in the south the Confederate States
declare secession of America. By its end,
from the United States at least 750,000
over disagreements people have been
about the expansion killed and the
of slavery Escaped slaves, pictured in 1861. The secession of southern Confederacy collapses
states, in part due to disputes over slavery, sparked civil war
1948 1954
Executive Order 9981 is State school segregation
passed, proscribing is ruled unconstitutional.
racial discrimination in This landmark victory
the US armed forces. It for the civil rights
marks the first step in the movement is met with
eventual desegregation resistance, and further
of the military legislation is required
An African-American army for it to be fully enacted
corporal, c1953. The last all- Black students arrive at a Tennessee school in
black unit was disbanded in 1954 1956, shortly after desegregation was ordered
T
White defiance
ill’s lynching united in grief, solidarity and anger Members of the White
the black communities of Mississippi and Chi- Citizens’ Council of Greater
New Orleans at a meeting
cago, which had been separated but not severed in 1960. Such groups used
by the ‘great migration’ that began around 1915 intimidation and violence
and, over the next five decades, saw six million to oppose racial integration
African-Americans move from the rural south of the US to
the cities of the north-east, west and midwest. In some ways, it A few months before Till’s kidnapping, on 7 May 1955,
began to crystallise a national black consciousness. The hugely minister and voting rights activist George Lee was shot dead in
popular TV show I Love Lucy was interrupted to announce the Belzoni, Mississippi. Police claimed he had died in a traffic
discovery of Till’s body; the trial was international news, with accident, and that the shot found in his mouth was loosened
TV cameramen crowding the square outside Sumner’s court- dental fillings. Reverend Lee was given an open-casket funeral;
house. White liberal reporters from the north saw Southern his photographs, in life and in death, appeared on the cover of
racism up close for the first time; black Chicago’s confident Jet. But the far more shocking images of the cheeky Chicago
publications, especially Jet magazine, understood and framed boy who’d gone South to visit family and been slaughtered for
the story in the context of the civil rights movement gathering nothing more than teenage high spirits, mourned by a young
strength in the South, and the white backlash against it. mother who was also light-skinned enough to please the
The year before Emmett was killed, a unanimous decision warped ‘colorist’ prejudices of the time, gave the NAACP
by the Supreme Court in the case of Brown vs Board of a much better vehicle for its anti-lynching campaign. As Till
Education had declared unconstitutional the state laws scholar and film-maker Keith Beauchamp puts it, Till’s murder
establishing separate schools for black and white students. was “the perfect storm”. It was through that coincidence of
It was a landmark ruling that opened the first real crack in history, politics and brave personalities that Emmett Till
the legal structures of white supremacy, and set the Federal became the protomartyr of the civil rights movement, and his
government on a collision course with Southern racism. mother its grief-stricken but determined Madonna, a model for
That victory had given a new impetus to the black freedom countless others deprived of their sons and daughters.
movement, but also to white supremacists, who joined White
E
Citizens’ Councils (a sanitised retooling of the Ku Klux Klan) mmett Till’s story lives on in literature, music,
in droves to protect their ‘way of life’. The thought of their art and film, in commemorations and museums,
daughters sharing classrooms with black teenage boys was in activism and the unfinished search for justice.
anathema to those people. Racist fantasies about black Those streams converge and cross like the rivers
sexuality and horror at the notion of ‘miscegenation’, or ‘racial of the Mississippi Delta, so that it’s hard to say
mixing’, were driving forces behind Emmett’s murder, where one ends and another begins; the waters began to flow
as they were behind so many previous lynchings. at once, and still flow on today. Despite confessions by Milam
Between 1877 and 1950, more than 4,000 African- and Bryant soon after the trial, no one has ever been convicted
Americans were lynched in Southern states – that is, whipped, of Till’s murder. The FBI reopened the case in 2004 after
castrated, tortured, burned alive or strung from the trees Keith Beauchamp, working closely with Emmett’s mother,
by white mobs – a form of terrorism meant to enforce the discovered new evidence. No one was indicted then but,
subjugation of the entire community. Nearly 200 anti- since Carolyn Bryant confessed that she lied at the trial in
lynching bills were introduced to Congress between 1882 and an interview with historian Timothy Tyson for his 2017 book
1962, but this seemingly obvious measure was blocked every The Blood of Emmett Till, there’s been pressure to reopen the
time by Southern Democrats. (In 2005, the Senate finally case again.
issued a formal apology for its failure to act.) The NAACP had The first blues for Emmett Till was written by Harlem
made the passage of anti-lynching legislation a primary goal Renaissance poet Langston Hughes almost immediately;
GETTY IMAGES
since 1912; now, with the victory of Brown vs Board and the during the first weeks after Emmett’s murder, the leftwing
backlash against it, America’s oldest grassroots civil rights Daily Worker and Chicago Defender carried an outpouring of
organisation was determined to redouble its efforts. elegies. In 1960, the great Chicago poet Gwendolyn Brooks Æ
67
The murder of Emmett Till
Freedom of movement
Members of the Freedom
Riders pictured in New York
City, 1961. This organisation
travelled in multi-ethnic
groups to protest against
laws enforcing the racial
segregation of public
transport in the US South
Empty places
The creeper-shrouded
store in the Mississippi
town of Money, 60 years
after the encounter
there that led to
Emmett Till’s death
Class unity
Pupils in Washington
DC shortly after the
1954 legal decision to
integrate US schools.
The move “opened
the first real crack in
the legal structures
of white supremacy”
68
Today, as the Black
Lives Matter movement
takes Till as an ancestor,
rappers pepper songs
with his name
A
nd yet it took 50 years for Till’s death to
be commemorated in Mississippi. This summer
I drove the Emmett Till Memorial Highway
through the Delta, under a sky heaped with tall
clouds that burst one afternoon in sluicing,
An artistic legacy thunderous rain. The wide, flat fields are empty, straddled by
US singer Emmylou long sprinklers like giant insects, haunted by the thousands of
Harris pictured in the souls who worked and suffered there or tried to run away, with
1960s. She is one of no place to hide but muddy ditches and thin bands of trees.
many artists, musicians
and authors to refer to
The towns, too, are half empty. Absentee agribusiness firms
Emmett Till’s life and now run the big plantations; the Delta ekes out a living from
death in their work casinos, prisons, and tourism based on its rich blues heritage. Æ
69
The murder of Emmett Till
Symbol of resistance
A demonstrator in Ferguson,
Missouri wearing a shirt
depicting Emmett Till, August
2014. Some of the protests
that followed the shooting
of black teenager Michael
Brown here turned violent
the general store is empty except for a cooler and bags of chips.
Till’s story echoes every Men without work sit outside in the middle of the afternoon.
Meanwhile, in the spectacular new National Museum
time that the killing of African-American History and Culture in Washington,
DC, Till’s real restored casket, white and lined with silk,
of an African-American lies in state in a room that is more shrine than museum
display. Photographs cover the walls; gospel legend Mahalia
person by a white man Jackson sings over the loudspeakers. Visitors file out in tears,
sometimes too overwhelmed to speak. “Your heart just drops,”
goes unpunished one woman said. “So much sacrifice, so much blood, and it’s
not over yet.”
In a way, Till’s funeral never ended. His story echoes every
time the killing of an African-American person by a white man
Till is making his own small contribution to local regenera- goes unpunished – especially
tion. The restored Sumner courthouse where his murderers when the victim is young, as
were acquitted is now a centre for projects aimed at truth and Trayvon Martin was when he Maria Margaronis is a writer
reconciliation. Sites related to his kidnapping and death form was shot by a neighbourhood and broadcaster. She is London
part of a national Civil Rights Trail. A small museum in the watch volunteer in 2012 at the correspondent for The Nation,
hamlet of Glendora, former home of JW Milam, includes an age of 17, or when the body is the oldest political weekly
effigy of Till in his coffin, the head made from clay and the left in public view like that of a magazine in the United States
body stuffed with straw by the local undertaker. lynching victim, as 18-year-old
DISCOVER MORE
But while black America remembers, much of white Michael Brown’s was in Missouri
Archive on Four:
America still wants to forget. The sign by the Tallahatchie in 2014. The wound is raw, The Ballads of
River where Till’s body was found was shot full of holes two and regularly reopened. As Till’s Emmett Till,
years ago; the one by Bryant’s store has twice been vandalised. mother used to say, “You must presented by Maria Margaronis,
The store has almost vanished, pulled down by a tangle of continuously tell Emmett’s story is scheduled to be broadcast
GETTY IMAGES
70
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71
Culture
Books, exhibitions, films and more
73
CULTURE The Conversation
Tom Holland: Rather than begin at the beginning of your and chemistry sets, and the Islamic world had to wake up
fascinating new book, I want to start at the end, with its final to what was going on in Europe. To what extent do you
paragraph: “The House of Islam is on fire”. That’s a very think the need to integrate western ideas and technology
dramatic image. Why is the House of Islam on fire? helped or hindered the formation of the kind of Islam
that you favour?
Ed Husain: The main reason – to continue the metaphor –
is because there are ‘arsonists’ within the house, who have The battle of ideas is key. The Ottomans tried to emulate
the shelter and protection of parts of the global Muslim everything western, from military attire to the latest guns,
community. They are adherents to a form of thinking but they couldn’t understand what was driving that innova-
expressed in bodies such as the government of Iran and tion, nor the wider European thought process. And behind
extreme Islamist organisations such as the Muslim Brother- that thought process were two or three big ideas that are still
hood, Hamas and Hezbollah. An entire category of people has with us, and which still haven’t had the necessary impact on
reduced Islam to a political, confrontational ideology. the Muslim world today.
The first is the pursuit of complete individualism.
Why do you think they are doing it? What is feeding Napoleon’s invasion wasn’t the first time the Muslim
these flames? world encountered the west: they’d had a sustained two-way
conversation with the crusaders, for instance, for at least
In the book, I explain the 120-year humiliation that most 200 years. But the crusaders weren’t able to leave behind
Muslims experienced stretching from Napoleon’s invasion of a legacy that troubled the Muslim world because they did
Egypt in 1798 through to the First World War. That period not bring a world view that stood in complete contradistinc-
was very painful for Muslims, because it didn’t reflect their tion to the way in which the Muslims lived.
history, and it didn’t chime with who they felt they were
supposed to be: a warrior people with an upper A 14th-century illustration shows Because they were Christians...
hand globally. For 1,000 years Muslims were a Mongol prince studying the
the global superpower, and they were suddenly Qur’an. Muslims believe this Yes. The crusaders, too, had a holy book, their
central religious text of Islam was
reduced to losing imperial territory and the revealed to the Prophet Muhammed
fight was over a holy land, and both Muslims
technological race. That loss of empire and the and Christians broadly agreed on the place of
Ottoman decline led to the formation of the man in the spiritual universe. Napoleon and
Muslim Brotherhood and a whole range of the French Revolution had a very different idea
extreme and sometimes violent organisations. of man’s place, and of individualism, which remains
a shock to the Muslim mind to this day.
I absolutely agree with you that Napoleon’s invasion Another key idea was the pursuit of rational
of Egypt was a key event, even if symbolically, thought – wherever that thought process led –
because up until that point Islamic civilisation independent of religion or tradition. That, too,
had been a world unto itself. It hadn’t really had was hard to absorb, because in most Muslim
any need to take much interest in, say, what the communities ideas such as tradition and family
BRIDGEMAN
Franks in the barbaric reaches of western were much more important than they were for,
Europe were up to. And then suddenly say, Enlightenment thinkers such as Jean-Jacques
Napoleon crashed in with his hot-air balloons Rousseau or Voltaire.
74
Napoleon leads his
army at the battle of
the pyramids
(21 July 1798) in
a 19th-century
painting. French
post-revolutionary
ideas of individualism
and rational thought
were a shock to
Muslims who first
encountered them
when Napoleon
invaded Egypt
The third key idea for the French revolutionaries, and for Christians had to face when, for instance, Notre-Dame de
those who aspired to be more like France and Europe, was Paris was converted from a Catholic cathedral into a Temple
that history was a burden that had to be forcefully removed. of Reason during the French Revolution, before Muslims
Yet for most Muslims, history was sacred and ought to be had to put up with Napoleon turning up in Cairo.
revived. Indeed, unlike followers of the French Revolution And so, as a result, there is a sense in which if you are
or the Enlightenment, who believed the best days were yet to a believer – whether a Muslim, a Christian or a Hindu –
come, many Muslims saw their best days as being in the past. faced with the manifold challenges that modernity repre-
All of this, sadly, meant that many Muslims started to sents to traditional paradigms of faith, you have, to be
define themselves against the west. If the west was going to be very reductive, two choices. One is to go with the grain
individualistic, they were going to be collectivist. If the west of modernity, which is what you, Ed, are doing, and what
was going to be logical, they were going to become excessively liberals in Christian churches and Reform Judaism and so
emotional and angry. If the west was going to disregard history, on do. The other is to take the fundamentalist option.
Muslims would reimagine a perfect form of history. Essentially, the problem for Muslims – as for everyone else
What was lost was an understanding that, even within – is that although you may have a sense of what your faith
Muslim tradition, there is a strong precedent for empiricist was in the past, when it wasn’t challenged by modernity, we
thought, for being critical of history, and of looking to the can’t ever get back to it. Whether we’re fundamentalist or
future and not necessarily imagining a perfect past. Take, liberal believers, in other words, the past is still gone.
for example, the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the
Ottoman empire in 1858: the Ottomans, supported by But the past also lives on. It lives on in my recital of the Qur’an,
prominent Muslim thought-leaders, were at least a century for instance, and in my upholding of the teachings of the great
ahead of the west. Homosexual acts were was seen as a matter philosophers, prophets and poets of the past.
between individuals and God, not something the state should
be involved in. That was revolutionary – but, rather than build Yes, I was very struck by your book’s beautiful articulation
on that thought process, what followed was a conscious of your love of poetry and of the great poets of Persia and
rejection of everything the west stood for. Al-Andalus. It seems to me that it’s a hymn of love to
BRIDGEMAN
75
CULTURE The Conversation
76
“You begin with Muhammed’s
life and the revelation to him
of the Qur’an – but that isn’t
really history, is it?” TOM HOLLAND
isn’t it a bit like me wistfully citing [17th-century English to us. I think that’s also valid and is also important. I’m not
poets] John Milton or John Donne in memoriam of a saying that there weren’t excesses in some of the layering of his-
vanished Christian faith? Aren’t you mourning a civilisation, tory, and that’s where I think that the academic rigour is useful
rather than a religion? to us, but at the same time it is history. It’s probably more living
and meaningful history to a believer than the past is to some-
Well, firstly, hats off to you for encapsulating the essence one who approaches it simply as pottery and manuscripts.
of the book. You’re absolutely right: it is a hymn of love.
But I don’t think I am mourning Islam as a civilisation; if You have a really intriguing line about the Hadith – the
anything, I’m genuinely resuscitating its spirit. This religion sayings of Muhammad that provide the fabric of traditional
doesn’t have to take the form of the Alhambra, of the Blue Islamic understandings of God. You write that “very little
Mosque or of the Taj Mahal, because those are all external thought is given to the fact that the Hadiths were written
manifestations. Inner comfort, serenity, beauty and meaning so long after the Prophet’s passing” – which, of course, is
in the modern world must take different manifestations – something that I’d absolutely agree with, although my take
the big question is what those are today. would be is that they’re most unlikely to have come from
We haven’t found answers yet. What does being modern the mouth of the Prophet himself. To be rude, it seems to me
and Muslim mean today? Where are the great artistic that you’re saying that any Hadith with which you personally
achievements of the modern Muslim world? To my eyes, disagree is unreliable and not to be trusted. Is that unfair?
there’s too much mimicking going on and not enough native
expression of beauty in Jakarta or Dubai, Delhi or Lahore – It is somewhat unfair! I’ve struggled with Hadith over the
nor, indeed, in the west. And that’s what worries me: that years, because the Qur’an describes a prophet as a mercy unto
we’re losing the spirit that inspires that beauty. mankind or to the universe – and then you come across claims
of Hadith in which the Prophet was allegedly violent. Early
You begin your book with the life of Muhammed and the Muslims had deep reservations about Hadith, too, and there
revelation to him of the Qur’an. You know what I’m going was a famous incident in which a caliph forbade many of the
to say: this book is subtitled ‘A Global History’, but this isn’t companions of the Prophet from even attempting to write
really history, is it? You are giving the received account of the down Hadith. My issue is that, among Muslims today, we’ve
traditional Muslim understanding of Muhammed’s life… lost a critical approach to Hadith literature. It was written at
least 120 years after the Prophet, after all.
And you’re Tom Holland, famous for refuting it! You’re more
than welcome to refute it, too – indeed, you should, and you But my understanding is that, while scholars in Islam’s
should bring the rigour of the modern historical methodology early centuries appreciated that there was the risk of fakes
to it. But while I respect that historical criticism, academic and fabrications, there was also a science for evaluating
history is a relatively modern innovation…
BRIDGEMAN/FRAN MONKS
77
CULTURE The Conversation
back a spirit of critical thought, the spirit of a Prophet who is really only in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries that
kind, logical and thoughtful. So I think that Hadith have to be people started arguing that the whole institution should be
in keeping with the spirit of the Qur’an. abolished. I suppose that, as a result, an Isis ideologue would
argue that the notion of slavery as an evil institution is
So do you think that you can apply that same critical spirit a western idea that has infected Islam, and that nobody in
to the Qur’an, or is everything in it true? the faith’s classical period had such an idea.
For me, as a Muslim, everything in the Qur’an is true. You’re right – that’s exactly what they’d say. That’s why groups
But it’s important to say that the biggest reservations and such as Isis are so dangerous: because they are literalists who
areas of contention between Islam and modernity aren’t in want to go back to an imagined ‘year zero’. That’s why most
the Qur’an at all. Most of them, whether they concern suicide Muslims, and indeed most other people, disagree with them.
bombings or apostasy [the abandonment
of religious belief], are in the claims of The implication of this is, actually, rather
Hadith literature. hopeful. If the vast majority of Muslims
accept that the institution of slavery
Yet there are also verses within the is evil, yet also acknowledge that’s an
Qur’an which have been used to justify idea derived from European tradition,
war, violence and, indeed, slavery – a fact then there is scope for a kind of Islam
that groups such as Isis have notoriously that welcomes ideas and thoughts from
pointed to in support of the idea it should outside traditions.
be reintroduced.
It’s revealing to me that you think that’s
But the vast majority of the world’s a big moment, because Islam has always
Muslims have rejected that. There’s “You can find plenty been exactly that. It has absorbed from
a well-established principle, born in of evidence and other cultures, including Byzantine, the…
the very early days of Islam and carried thought in early
throughout history, of a consensus of …but my understanding is that Muslims
the mainstream. What’s interesting is that Islam to support have classically understood Islam as the
the early Muslim scholars always looked the development of final, perfect revelation, as humanity’s
to what the Prophet tried to do, and to his a fully modernised, last chance, and that it is therefore in
attitudes to injustice such as slavery. secularised state a sense complete.
78
A 15th-century decorated
book of Islamic law,
traditions and obligations.
Islamic societies developed
diverse schools of thought
on jurisprudence and
practice, says Ed Husain
developed such diverse schools of thought on jurisprudence two’ issues as opposed to the ‘tier one’ issue – the existence
and practice. of God. That’s what matters.
What you have in the Qur’an are broad base principles. If the thrust of modernity were to force me to say that there
One of the greatest beauties of Islamic history and its legacy was no divine existence, no way to communicate with God,
is a continued focus, from the 10th and 11th centuries onward, and no divine accountability for my actions, that would be
on the same overarching objectives: preservation of life, family, a problem. For Muslims, what matters are the wonders of God,
religious worship, intellect and private property. Those are the communication through the Prophet Muhammed, and the
five fundamentals we all have to preserve. Everything else is idea of an afterlife. Everything else is detail, which has always
open to debate and discussion. been contested. The problem with modernity is that the ‘tier
By that measure, what we’re seeing is that living in the west two’ issues are seen as primary.
is fully in keeping with what it means to be a Muslim. Nobody
in the west is persecuted for being a Muslim, unlike in China, A slightly more depressing take on the prospects for Islam,
where you cannot observe religious freedom. and for faith generally, is that there are people who feel
that liberal manifestations of those faiths are slightly pallid.
Is the fact that you and other believers can look back to the You see that in the Islamists but also in new, militant strands
example of the Prophet’s life, and the revelations given to of Hinduism, for instance, as well as in the Orthodox Chris-
him from God, a help in negotiating modernity – or is it tianity of Putin’s Russia. Is there perhaps a sense that, rather
a hindrance? Essentially, do you not than what we might call the ‘Thought
have to continually adjust your inher- for the Day’ approach to religion in
itance of scripture and tradition to your ABOUT THE AUTHORS which an imam or a priest says totally
gut instincts as a liberal living in the inoffensive things on the radio, there’s
21st century, and to issues such as now a global phenomenon of people
slavery or gay marriage? wanting a bit more ‘red meat’?
I’m not saying that this is exclusive
to Islam, by the way – it could apply Ed Husain I think here we can apply a political
just as much to any religion. Believers is the author of The House maxim often cited in the United States:
gain immense sustenance from their of Islam: A Global History ‘if you’re in your 20s and not a socialist
faith, but at the same time there is a (Bloomsbury, 2018) and you have no heart, and if you’re in your
sense it prompts them to recalibrate The Islamist (Penguin, 2007) 40s and not a conservative you have
elements within that tradition that are no brain’. I think there’s some of that
problematic to the way in which they at play for the younger rebels: a desire
see the 21st-century liberal order. Tom Holland to change the world.
is a historian, broadcaster But as long as those on the more
Inherent in your question is an emphasis and author of books modernised, thoughtful and pluralist
on what I call ‘tier two’ issues as including In the Shadow arm of civilisation continue to assert
being completely primary and of vital of The Sword: The Battle our values, continue to refuse to say
BRIDGEMAN
importance to a believer. Whether it’s for Global Empire and the that the Islamists and extremists are
homosexuality, gay marriage, gender End of the Ancient World somehow right, and continue to not
equality or apostasy, these are all ‘tier (Little, Brown, 2012) give up, I remain optimistic.
79
CULTURE Agenda
Agenda
EXHIBITIONS, TV,
FILMS AND
MORE
80
GOLDEN GIFTS
There’s colour and gold galore inkstand is one of the collection’s
in a new exhibition of artefacts highlights. Crafted from gold,
presented to the Prince of Wales enamel and a multitude of precious
– later Edward VII – as he toured stones, its prow adorned with a
the Indian subcontinent in 1875 peacock, it was given to the prince
and 1876. Aiming to bolster ties by the maharaja of the sacred city
between the British crown and local of Benares (now Varanasi).
leaders in anticipation of Victoria
Splendours of the Subcontinent:
being named Empress of India, the A Prince’s Tour of India 1875-6
prince’s itinerary traversed areas of until 14 October at The Queen’s Gallery,
what are now Nepal, India and Buckingham Palace
Pakistan. This lavish barge-shaped royalcollection.org.uk/whatson
ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST-© HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II 2018
81
CULTURE
E Agenda
An early 20th-century
necklace, in a style
worn in Oman, east
Africa and south Asia,
features in the new
exhibition
CHRIS BROWN-KRANNERT ART MUSEUM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS /THESECRETSTUDIO.NET/©THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD
PAST MASTERS
Leading global historians, many of
them contributors to this magazine,
will be sharing their expertise at
two BBC History Magazine History
Weekends in October. Speakers at the
events in Winchester and York include
Michael Wood on the Trojan War,
OCEAN CURRENTS
Sarah Churchwell on the evolution Africa’s Swahili coast, spanning parts to photographs and books – with origins
of America First, and former British of Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and in cultures from Asia, Africa, the Middle
Museum director Neil MacGregor nearby Indian Ocean islands, is rich East and Europe. It’s also a story that
on the role of gods in diverse human in natural resources that have long reveals wider influences such as migra-
cultures. If you’re going to be in the attracted diverse cultures to the region’s tion and the blending of cultures.
UK this autumn, this is a great chance shores and ports such as Mombasa, The exhibition moves to the Fowler
to hear the latest thinking first-hand Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam. Museum at the University of California
– and to explore two historic British A new travelling exhibition, calling in Los Angeles from 21 October 2018
cities at the same time. at the National Museum of African to 10 February 2019. And as an enticing
History Weekends, Art in Washington DC this summer, taster, historian Gus Casely-Hayford
5–7 October (Winchester), 19–21 October (York) celebrates the dynamic artistic traditions highlights one of the artefacts from the
historyweekend.com
that emerged along the Swahili coast, the exhibition in our Museum of the World
name of which derives from the Arabic feature on page 98 of this issue.
word for ‘edge’ or ‘coast’. Reflecting the
World on the Horizon: Swahili Arts Across
cosmopolitan heritage of the region, the Indian Ocean, until 3 September at the
the collection features more than 150 National Museum of African Art, Washington DC
artefacts – from jewellery and clothing https://africa.si.edu
82
A young boy milks a cow in the US state of
Massachusetts in 1913, and (above) a 1941
poster extolling the virtues of drinking milk
DAIRY TALES
A new book from American writer in part because it spoiled so quickly; Milk consumption became fashionable
Mark Kurlansky explores the history of instead they used it to make cheese and from the 18th century, partly because of
milk, from its significance in the ancient yogurt. In ancient Rome, for instance, the popularisation of ice cream but also
world to current debates about genetic it was mostly farmers who drank milk, because women began to turn against
modification and animal rights. Here, which is why the Romans were so con- breastfeeding and nursemaids, and
Mark skims through the ways in which temptuous when they went to northern towards ‘artificial feeding’ – giving chil-
the liquid has shaped our past. Europe and saw so many people drinking dren milk from animals. It was also part-
it. They thought that Europeans were ly because of a change in fashion among
Many cultures have creation myths backwards, barbaric people because they the wealthy: women’s clothes were not
about milk. It’s how the Milky Way acted like a bunch of farmers! what we could call ‘breast-friendly’!
got its name, for instance: the stars
were thought to resemble spilled milk. Observing Tibetan dairy farming The transition from breastfeeding
Hindu mythology, as well as a number today is like looking back into medieval babies to using animal milk proved
of African cultures, also features times. I studied the history of medieval fairly disastrous. Animal milk can kill
milk-based creation stories. It’s not too dairies in Europe, then watched if it’s not clean, and at that time nothing
surprising, because milk gives life – it’s Tibetans milking their yaks – and they was known about hygiene or germs.
what newborn babies need, after all. were doing exactly the same things. Pasteurisation, developed in the 1860s,
They don’t have milking parlours, for was a big step in reducing fatalities,
It’s not known which animal was instance, so just milk out in the fields. particularly from tuberculosis. Interest-
first milked for human consumption, ingly, it wasn’t originally associated with
though because the practice seems to Only about 40% of humans worldwide milk; Pasteur developed it for use with
have started in the Middle East it was today are not lactose intolerant – in wine – much more French! In the process
probably either a goat or a camel. Cows other words, more people are than of his work he discovered microorgan-
came to be favoured because they’re the aren’t. A large proportion of people in isms that cause disease, and that they can
most efficient: you have to feed a cow Africa are lactose intolerant, for instance be eliminated with heat. Though that
a lot, but you get a lot of milk in return – apart from groups such as the Maasai, had obvious implications for milk,
– far more than from a sheep or a goat. who are cattle herders. It testifies to the it wasn’t developed for the reasons we
dominance of white European culture often think – and it was the British and
The first people to milk animals that, because most Europeans are able to Americans who applied the process to
BRIDGEMAN
probably lived in hot regions including drink milk, it’s come to be accepted as milk from the late 19th century.
the Mediterranean and the Middle East. the norm – even though so much of the Milk!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas is out in
They didn’t drink milk much, however, world is lactose intolerant. August, published by Bloomsbury
84
The raw red earth, scrub and ridges
of the Selwyn Range in western
Queensland stood between Burke
and Wills’ expedition and their goal:
the north coast of Australia
GETTY
85
JOURNEYS In the footsteps of a 19th-century expedition across Australia
The Victorian
Exploring Expedition:
Key characters
ust over a century and a population, and vital with the ebb and
86
Burke and Wills turn back
before reaching open sea,
defeated by boggy ground
and dense mangroves
Æ
ILLUSTRATION BY THERESA GRIEBEN 87
JOURNEYS In the footsteps of a 19th-century expedition across Australia
88
A contemporary painting
reflects public enthusiasm
for the expedition. On
20 August 1860, some
15,000 people crowded into
Royal Park to cheer off the
party, which numbered 19
men, 24 camels, 26 horses
and six wagons laden with
20 tonnes of supplies
A memorial at the
‘Dig Tree’ at Cooper’s
Creek, in remote
south-west
Queensland, under
which supplies were
cached by William
Brahe for Burke and his
forward party on their
return from the coast
BRIDGEMAN/ALAMY/GETTY IMAGES
An 1880 engraving
depicts John King,
sole survivor of the
expedition’s forward
party, mourning the
death of Robert O’Hara
Burke in late June 1861
TOPFOTO
“a whole tribe coming down, all painted, too, died around that date at another two-way traverse of Australia, returning
and with fish in small nets carried by two spot on Cooper’s Creek. The Yandru- from the north coast with no loss of life
men”, and also handed over food made wandha then took pity on King, feeding – in stark contrast to the catastrophic
with nardoo (a kind of fern). But Burke and caring for him for many weeks until expedition led by Burke.
misinterpreted the intentions of the the arrival on 15 September of a rescue In 1860, before setting out on his epic
Aboriginal people and, becoming party led by English bushman Alfred but ill-fated journey, Burke proclaimed
enraged by them, ordered King to fire Howitt. The only man who survived, that: “I have only one ambition, which is
his pistol over their heads. King, was the one who respected the to do some deed before I die, that shall
Aboriginal way of life, and had been entitle me to have my name honourably
Final mistake looked after accordingly. inscribed on the page of history. If
That was a fatal error of judgement. When news of the expedition’s fate I succeed in that I care not what death,
Without the help of those locals, the reached Melbourne, it caused an outcry. or when I die.”
Europeans were left to starve – and did A government enquiry largely blamed His expedition – and, particularly, his
just that. They gathered and ate nardoo Wright, the man whose relief expedition leadership – may today be judged as an
but, without using the correct method of from Menindee had been delayed by honourable failure. And with monu-
preparation known to the Yandruwand- bad conditions, and Brahe, for leaving ments, memorials and statues erected
ha, it merely weakened them further. the camp. Burke and Wills themselves across Victoria, the page of history
And despite the abundance of edible fish were feted, thousands paying respects to certainly bears his name.
in nearby billabongs and creeks, they their recovered bodies as they lay in
were unable – or not skilled or aware state in Melbourne.
enough – to catch the ready food that On 21 January 1863, Burke and
could have sustained them. Wills were given Victoria’s first state Peter FitzSimons
Wills, insisting that the others leave funeral. On the same day, explorer John is a former Australian
him behind when he became too frail to McDouall Stuart was received in international rugby
walk, perished around 30 June; Burke, Adelaide, having completed a successful union player, journalist,
broadcaster and
biographer
Burke ordered King to fire his pistol above the DISCOVER MORE
heads of the Aboriginal people who’d offered Burke & Wills: The Triumph and Tragedy
of Australia’s Most Famous Explorers by
food to the starving explorers – a fatal error Peter FitzSimons (Constable, 2018)
90
MAGAZINE
Save when you subscribe
to the digital edition
of BBC History Magazine
‘Little
Rome’ of
Provence
The picturesque streets, squares
and ancient sites of Arles inspired
19th-century painters including
Vincent van Gogh
Throughout the past et at the apex of the Rhône combat; bullfights have been held here
92
brought water into the city. Follow the
aqueduct’s route a few kilometres east to
Arles’s backstreets ARLES IN NINE SITES
Barbegal to see the remains of the com- are lined with grand 1 Musée Départemental Arles Antique
Fascinating archaeological museum
plex of 16 Roman watermills, built in the
second or third century AD, that could medieval houses in housing a 31-metre Roman barge
grind enough wheat to feed more than a state of elegant 2 Roman Amphitheatre
First-century-AD venue for gladiatorial
10,000 people daily.
Arles has long been famous for its and evocative decay fights and animal combats
3 Roman Theatre
Roman cemetery, the Alyscamps, estab-
lished outside the city walls alongside the Home of Roman high culture
Aurelian Way. It became sought after for 4 Cryptoporticus
Christian burials in the fourth century Rhône silted up, trade and commerce Vast array of subterranean arches built
after Christ reputedly appeared here, moved elsewhere, and Arles became a to support the portico of the Roman forum
an incident marked by the Chapelle de backwater and fell into decline. In the 5 Baths of Constantine
la Genouillade. Though fractured by 19th century, the sense that Arles was Fourth-century Roman baths complex
railways built in the 19th century, an untouched by the modern age appealed with remains of a pool and hypocaust
atmospheric avenue lined with late to poets and artists. Wandering the back- 6 Alyscamps
Roman tombs was preserved, inspiring streets, lined with grand medieval houses Atmospheric Roman necropolis that
paintings by Vincent van Gogh. in a state of elegant and evocative decay, inspired Vincent van Gogh
By the 12th century Arles was the it is not difficult to see the attraction. 7 Church of St Trophime
second-largest city in Provence, and in Discover Arles’s later cultural and artistic Imposing 12th-century Romanesque
1178 Holy Roman Emperor Frederick heritage at Musée Réattu, housed in an church with exquisitely carved west door
Barbarossa was crowned King of Bur- old priory of the Knights of Malta with
8 Musée Réattu
gundy at the Church of St Trophime; its a wonderful late-medieval facade, and Art by Arles-born Jacques Réattu,
12th century west door and cloister are Museon Arlaten (due to reopen in 2019), Picasso and others in a historic priory
masterpieces of Romanesque art. founded by the poet Frédéric Mistral
9 Museon Arlaten
Arles’s political significance declined (1830–1914) to preserve Provençal life-
Treasury of Provençal cultures
in the Middle Ages. The mouth of the style, folk art and costumes.
3
4 7
94
Forest of temples
More than 2,200 pahto (temples or
shrines) and zedi (stupas or pagodas)
stud a vast plain on the left bank of the
Irrawaddy River, 100 miles south-west
of Mandalay. Although once a thriving
city home to perhaps 200,000 people, the
buildings in which its inhabitants lived
and worked were made with wood – and
only brick and stone-built religious
structures survive today. It’s believed
that more than 10,000 Buddhist temples,
pagodas and monasteries were con-
structed during the Bagan kingdom’s
heyday from the 11th to 13th centuries.
Known as Arimaddanapura (City of the
Enemy Crusher), Bagan was the foremost
ancient empire in what’s now Myanmar.
Plain of 1,000
pagodas
On a bend in the Irrawaddy River
GETTY IMAGES/MAP: BATTLEFIELD DESIGNS
First foundations
The Tharaba Gate is the oldest
part of the city walls, believed to
date from the 10th or 11th century
when Bagan was first fortified.
The city was founded around 849
by Bamar people (from whose
name ‘Burma’, the country’s
alternative title, is derived)
who arrived here in the eighth
or ninth century, possibly
from the eastern Himalaya,
and successfully battled the
Mon for control of the region.
Golden age
The gilded Shwezigon pagoda was begun during
the reign of Anawrahta, whose accession to the
throne in 1044 marked the start of Bagan’s golden
age. Anawrahta consolidated and expanded the
empire, centralised government and converted
to Theravada Buddhism. He established Bagan as
a major religious and cultural centre, building
many of its most impressive monuments.
96
Pinnacle achievement
Ananda Pahto, a soaring temple
built around 1105 by King
Kyanzittha, marks a transition
in architectural styles. One of
the largest and most beautifully
proportioned of Bagan’s
temples, soaring to 51 metres
high, it was – like most of the
monuments at the site – dam-
aged by a powerful earthquake
that struck in 1975. Since
rebuilt, its spires were gilded to
mark its 900th anniversary.
Height of sophistication
Sulamani Pahto (known as the
‘Crowning Jewel’), built c1181–83
and decorated with elaborately
carved stucco, is the epitome of
the sophisticated temple styles
that evolved later in Bagan’s golden
era. This temple was once the focal
point of a busy complex of Buddhist
learning and devotion, its enclosing
wall lined with 100 monastic cells.
L Final flourish
This decorative tile adorns Mingalazedi
(‘Blessing Stupa’), Bagan’s last great
monument. Built by Narathihapati around
1277, its ornate decoration reflected
royal extravagance that may have over-
stretched the city’s finances. Bagan was
probably already in decline when Kublai
Khan’s Mongol army invaded the region
in 1287, and over the following centuries
this once-thriving city became a largely
deserted badland, its magnificent monu-
GETTY IMAGES/ALAMY
97
MUSEUM OF THE WORLD Global history’s finest objects, curated by experts
action here. The Swahili Coast of what’s Swahili Coast. destroyed such regalia, fearful that their
now Kenya, Tanzania and northern continued presence in local communities
Mozambique has always been a place of This ngoma kuu was made by a Swahili would inspire rebellion against Busaidi
exchange, of diffusion and hybridity, an artist on Wasini Island off the coast of rule. Today it is an object that exudes an
interface between strategically impor- Kenya at some point in the 17th century. aura of age, power and that quality of
tant worlds that has been contested and Carved from a single piece of wood and great drums – of aching to be played.
competed over for millennia. In this place finished with what appear to be cow-
that straddles faultlines, where cultures hide membranes, it is one of the most
Gus Casely-Hayford is director of the
meet and exchange, a particular trans- important cultural-heritage objects of
Kenya, and is very rare – fewer than a Smithsonian National Museum of African
cultural way of being was created.
The Swahili Coast was important not dozen such monumental drums exist Art in Washington DC, where the exhibition
just for trade but also for music, for craft today. It is connected to an ancient city- World on the Horizon: Swahili Arts Across the
and for ideas. And it wears that heritage of state, the Diwanate of Vumba Kuu (an Indian Ocean is open until 3 September 2018
98
Living colour
The hillside settlement of Rocinha in the
Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. Although
officially a municipal subdistrict, many
still regard it as a favela, or urban slum.
We explore how Brazil has been shaped
by poverty and slavery from page 26