Oxoniensis's Weblog

Overy on History: past imperfect, future uncertain?

oxoniensis — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 11:44:48 +0000

This week’s edition of The Times Higher Education Supplement (29 April – 5 May 2010) has some reflections by Richard Overy, Professor of History at Exeter University, on the threats posed to the discipline of history by the growth of the heritage industry on the one hand and by demands from government for relevance, utility and impact on the other. Popular, indeed populist, history has mass appeal in the shape of television programmes hosted by recognisable personalities, in heritage trails, historical re-enactments and so on. Academic history by way of contrast is arcane, theoretically driven and often without drama: its appeal to politicians preoccupied by concepts of added value is limited and uncertain.

What is Overy’s prescription for saving academic history from extinction from these threats? He does not believe that history or historians have much to offer as guides to public policy. He does contend that the subject needs an intellectually free environment in which the frontiers of knowledge can be pushed back and long-term research can be undertaken. But he also expresses the hope that specialised institutes, some privately funded, may be established in which historical research may be conducted and protected. Businesses and, perhaps, local authorities might just conceivably be willing to support such ventures. Even so, academic history will remain a critical activity dedicated to investigating the past and throwing light on abuses and discrimination to the discomfort of rulers. History may not meet the criteria of those enamoured of the agenda of “impact” but it is and must remain the most humane of subjects, the reflective element of the collective mind.

This is an interesting but rather disappointing piece of analysis. It is unlikely that “the heritage industry” with its historic houses, museums and re-enactment societies poses much of a threat to academic history. Most people who visit such places or participate in the events they sponsor understand perfectly well the gulf that separates them from the past. They offer entertainment rather than historical enlightenment.

The danger from politics is more serious and far-reaching. Politicians naturally enough wish to take important decisions which will be remembered at whatever level they may be operating. They want to promote visions of the past that support their own preconceptions and preferences. Hence, the excision from the history taught in our schools of courses that illustrate the past of the peoples of these islands in the longer term. It is virtually impossible to find any serious consideration of Britain’s imperial record at school level. Hence, too, the attempt to construct radical genealogies linking the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 to the Levellers and Diggers of the 1640s and the Chartists of the mid-nineteenth century. These were important and interesting but they are only a tiny piece of flotsam on the broader river of English and British history. Similarly, the events of the First and Second World Wars and the Holocaust suffered by the Jews under Nazi rule are of very great significance in recent history but they should not obscure the other struggles – for example, with Spain and France on the continent and across the Atlantic from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries – in which Britain has been engaged: the far larger scale of atrocities committed by the Soviet Union against its own people and the countries it subjugated after 1945 must not be forgotten.

It is not realistic to expect businesses and local authorities to support historical research. They have to answer to shareholders and to council tax payers. The deplorable record of local authorities in cutting funding for the Victoria County History in the last two to three decades should be remembered. The government will go on providing funding for history as long as there are students who want to study it in universities. But this is going to be cut whichever party wins the General Election next week. If students stop wanting to study the subject, then it will already be dead.

But I do not think this will happen. Too many people inside and outside universities have a serious interest in the past for the discipline of academic history to die. They will go on conducting their research and writing their books and articles. These will be published in one way or another. Overy’s pessimism and his prescriptions are unnecessary. The past has a vigorous present and an excellent future.

Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia

oxoniensis — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:42:23 +0000

Antonia Fraser

oxoniensis — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 18:08:03 +0000

“Another A-lister, Antonia Fraser, [is] widely regarded as the doyenne of historical biographers” (Richard Brooks, Arts Editor. The Sunday Times 11 April 2010 page 4)

Really?????

Tom Barnes has died

oxoniensis — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:56:30 +0000

Thomas G.Barnes, probably best known as the historian of pre-Civil War Somerset and as a legal historian, has passed away.

Simon Parker’s review of Blair Worden, The English Civil Wars

oxoniensis — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:26:18 +0000

This can be found at bookgeeks http://www.bookgeeks.co.uk/2010/03/12/the-english-civil-wars-by-blair-worden/“> here.

Michael Hunter and Birckbeck’s Historical Society

oxoniensis — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:15:49 +0000

Re-creating Renaissance and Baroque Spectacle Conference

oxoniensis — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:10:36 +0000

Re-creating Renaissance and Baroque Spectacle: The Hispanic Habsburg Dynasty in Context, University of Edinburgh, 6-7 July 2010

Deadline for proposals: 1st April 2010

Re-creating Renaissance and Baroque Spectacle: The Hispanic Habsburg Dynasty in Context
6–7 July 2010, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

The organisers of this two-day conference seek contributions related to any aspect of Early Modern European festivals and are especially interested in proposals which relate to the festivals of the Hispanic Habsburg dynasty. Proposals from any field of the Humanities in a broad sense are welcome, with an emphasis on, but not limited to, the visual arts, music and performing arts. Ultimately, we are interested in any study that would bring back the pageantry and senses of those magnificent events.

The Keynote speaker is Prof. Fernando Checa Cremades, University Complutense of Madrid, Spain. Prof. Checa Cremades is one the most important international voices in the study of Renaissance and Golden Age art patronage in Europe. Among his many achievements, he is a former director of the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Dr. Alexander Samson from the University College of London has confirmed his attendance. He is due to publish a book entitled: Mary Tudor and the Habsburg Marriage: England and Spain 1553–1557.

Submissions should include a 300 word abstract in English or Spanish and a 200 word CV, and should be emailed as an attachment. The deadline for proposals is 1 April 2010. Notification of acceptance will be made before 1 May 2010. See here for the full call for papers.

Pasted from FMRSI

Reading Anthologies in Renaissance Europe Conference

oxoniensis — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:07:48 +0000

Reading Anthologies in Renaissance Europe (1450-1650), Trinity College, Dublin, 19-21 July 2010.

Deadline for proposals: 31st March 2010

Reading Anthologies in Renaissance Europe (1450-1650)
Trinity College Dublin, 19–21 July 2010

Trinity College Dublin Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies, University of Liverpool

As print culture developed through the Renaissance, authors, printers and editors quickly came to exploit the commerical and literary potential of compendia and anthologies. These works took many different forms: ‘recueils’, ‘œuvres’, ‘poésies choisies’, song books, joke collections. In both printed or manuscript form, anthologies circulated in sixteenth-century Europe in Latin and the vernacular.

This conference will explore the factors that governed the production, circulation and reception of anthologies in the Europe of the Long Renaissance. What editorial and commercial imperatives drove their appearance? What cultural practices arose from their publication? How are the cultural practices of the anthology related to or different from those of collected and multi-part works? How did readers react to the concept of multi-authored works?

The organisers welcome panals of up to three participants and individual papers which are related to the following broad thematic areas:

• The Semantics of the Anthology
o What is an anthology?
o Re-presenting works to the reader
o Material reconstruction of previously-circulated works
o The role of illustration in anthologies
o Literal and Metaphorical collections

• Commercial imperatives
o The emergance of collected works
o The notion of branding
o Case studies of failed brands
o The re-ordering of texts for commercial purposes
o Print vs Mansuscript
o The place of Anthology in print culture

• Anthological Methods & Editorial Practices
o How was matierial collected?
o Selection vs compliation
o Case studies of items left out or excluded
o The role of the printer/publisher/author/editor/translator
o Editorial changes
o The role of translation
o Bibliographical approaches and methodologies

• The Reader
o Strategies to modify appeal to the reader
o Moralisation as a means of attracting a new readership
o Spatial metaphors of reading and the reader’s ‘journey’
o New reading experiences

• Anthologies and Longevity
o How does the form of the anthology either promote or hinder the longevity of the text?
o Anthologies across disciplines
o Poetry
o Literature
o Moral philosophy
o Science
o Law
o Historical writing

Proposals of up to 300 words for a 20-minute paper (proportionately longer for panels) should be sent to conference organisers Sara Barker and Pollie Bromilow by 31 March 2010.

Pasted from FMRSI

Clive Holmes

oxoniensis — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:17:32 +0000

Fellow and Tutor in History at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford.

Bucharest-Princeton Seminar 30 June – 6 July

oxoniensis — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:02:55 +0000

This seminar will convene at Bran in Transylvania to discuss Non-Mechanical Philosophies in the Seventeenth-century. For a link, click http://modernthought-unibuc.blogspot.com/2010/03/bucharest-princeton-seminar-2010.html“>.