News about History in July
Remember the Ladies, Mr. Cannadine*
In studying British history, I’ve come across female British historians of the early twentieth century who helped develop economic history as a discipline. They were intellectuals; we’d call them “blue-stockings” in the United States (a few were also elegant), and they tended to delve deeply into regional archives.
Julia Mann, for example, was the expert on Britain’s pre-industrial textile industry; Ivy Pinchbeck wrote a pioneering volume about how women’s lives were changed by the Industrial Revolution; and Pat Hudson practically owned the history of woolen textiles, Britain’s largest industry before the Industrial Revolution.
I recently read a 1992 essay by Maxine Berg indicating that these historians, while well-regarded, were not taken as seriously as they should have been. [1] Berg suggests that such inattention may distort our understanding of the historiography of Britain.
I realize that historiography—the study of what historians write—may not appeal much to my readers, but that is what my master’s thesis is about. Specifically, I’m looking at what historians have said about labor conditions in the Industrial Revolution (1750-1850) and how their views changed over the years. Thus I need to know which historians helped paint the picture accurately.
And I see that some may have been left out. Continue reading “Remember the Ladies, Mr. Cannadine*”
So Much News about History This Month
Historian David Blight defends the Freedmen’s Memorial in Washington, DC.
‘A Master Historian’: George Nash reviews the latest book by the prominent American historian Bernard Bailyn (now 97 years old).
George Washington shouldn’t be “canceled.” John Berlau explains.
Can we learn from the pandemic of 1596? From the History Workshop. Continue reading “So Much News about History This Month”
The Fire Last Time
Some months ago I questioned the famous statement of George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I argued that even if we remember the past we may end up repeating it.
And now, repetition is occurring. This month the Economist called its editorial about today’s racial conditions “The Fire This Time,” echoing James Baldwin’s passionate 1962 denunciation of the American legacy of racism.[1] The editorial also drew a parallel between today and the murderous year of 1968—even to the point of observing that a flu pandemic (called the Hong Kong flu) killed about 100,000 Americans that year.
Could a better understanding of the past have prevented the racial tragedies and tumult we are going through today? To begin answering that, let’s assume that someone did understand the relevant history. I suspect, for example, that Thomas Sowell and Shelby Steele did.
Daniel P. Moynihan may have, too. But Moynihan’s experience indicates that no matter how much you know and how much involved in public affairs you are, your advice may fall on deaf ears. Continue reading “The Fire Last Time”
Middle-class at Heart (Part II)
In 2012 President Obama outraged many people when he tried to argue for the value of government by saying, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” His statement was wrong because, of course, you did build that.
But that doesn’t mean that you had no help. For many of us, that help goes back perhaps hundreds of years.
In my last post I wrote about some of the family histories my readers have sent me. I was struck by how “middle-class” their families were, even 100 or 150 years ago. I concluded that if you are a successful professional today, chances are good that you have a family history with a lot of solid middle-class people behind you, people who worked hard, sometimes back-breaking hard, who gave up leisure, and who sought education for themselves or their children.
That doesn’t mean your family history didn’t have some cads and misfits (mine did) but the general direction was toward discipline.
In other words, we have a cloud of witnesses who have predated us. Perhaps we received material goods from those ancestors, but far more important were the habits of mind—the mental strength that allows us to give up short-term rewards in the hope of longer-term gains. Continue reading “Middle-class at Heart (Part II)”