FROM THE EDITOR WHAT’S IN A NAME? The sorrow and the pity: Jean-Marie Lustiger, a French cardinal of Jewish heritage, visits Auschwitz, 23 June 1983. When people are Auschwitz Memorial is a outskirts of Paris. But all have Twitter feed I was introduced to a brief biography, the adult returned to the by the novelist and critic Linda entries usually mentioning their historical record, Grant, which is run by staff at trade – furrier, clerk, barber, the Auschwitz Museum. Each tailor – which leaves much for they regain their entry – and at least one is the reader to imagine. And all humanity. posted daily – starts with a look straight at the camera. If date, usually that of the person’s the eyes are the window to the Paul Lay birth: ‘9 April 1938: Jewish soul, then it is never more true twin girls Annette and Paulette than in these photographs. Sklarz were born in Metz.’ ‘3 The task that Auschwitz May 1938: A Czech Jewish boy, Memorial has set itself will take Ivan Fink, was born in Brandys many years to achieve, such was nad Labem.’ ‘3 May 1930: A the scale of the murder. But it Dutch Jewish girl, Meriam will return those forgotten back Kok, was born in Amsterdam.’ to the historical record, which is These are followed by another the opposite of what the Nazis date, that of their death at wished: to reduce a people Auschwitz or another Nazi to mere numbers. concentration camp. The It was Stalin who said entries are always accompanied that the death of one man is by a photograph: sometimes a tragedy, the death of millions they are the all too familiar a statistic. By recovering the official images taken by the names and faces of ‘statistics’ camp authorities of people in we are able to restore their the characteristic striped humanity. This can also be uniform or, more frequently, applied to the Atlantic slave they are photographs of people trade, the genocide in the living another life pre-war. Belgian Congo, to Stalin and The images of children are, Mao’s murderous regimes and understandably, the most to today’s Uighurs and Yazidi. affecting. Some of them were A name returns a semblance born in 1943, or 1942: toddlers of humanity to those who have soon to face a barely imaginable endured the inhuman and from fate, many of them from the whom our gaze should never transports at Drancy on the turn away. June 2021 | History Today | 3 4 | History Today | June 2021 Frederic Leighton, President FOUNDATIONS of the Royal Academy, was one FLAMING JUNE of the most celebrated painters of the Victorian era when he painted his most famous work – and his swan song – Flaming A Victorian June in 1895. It was a homage to Michelangelo’s statue, Night, homage to created for the New Sacristy of a Renaissance the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence around 1530, which master became Leighton considered to be one one of the world’s of the greatest achievements in western civilisation. most reproduced While Michelangelo’s images. reposing figure is made of cool, solemn marble, Leighton’s is a rush of warm, carnal colour: the saffron gauze shift draped around the curled up, s-shaped body; the long auburn hair; the blush of the cheek that suggests the woman knows she is being watched and is only feigning slumber. The creases and contours are compressed in the centre, like a flower in full bloom in a vaguely classical, Mediterranean setting. The oleander in the top corner symbolises the proximity of sleep and death. Flaming June was bought soon after the artist’s death in 1896 by the canny editor of the Graphic magazine, who offered postcards of it to his readers. They bought them in their thousands and it remains one of the most widely reproduced of all paintings. Despite its popularity with the Victorian public, the works of Leighton fell out of fashion. When it was offered to major galleries for a song in the 1960s there were no takers until a Puerto Rican businessman, Luis A. Ferré, bought it for his new museum where the work that Samuel Courtauld called Flaming June, by Frederic ‘the most wonderful painting Leighton, 1895, Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico. in existence’ now resides. June 2021 | History Today | 5 Look at This Welcoming Village LETTERS As the author rightly observes The article about Cromwell (Foundations, April 2021), and the Jews (‘The Chosen no one knows why Hans Peoples’, April) reminded me Holbein the Younger painted that there is a Jew’s Lane The Body of the Dead Christ in between the Black Country Email [email protected] the Tomb, the most striking settlements of Upper and of all his works. But its very Lower Gornal. This is not Post to History Today, uniqueness and the evident the obvious place for 2nd Floor, 9 Staple Inn, passion with which it was a Jewish community to settle London WC1V 7QH, UK executed speak to us more and I would be intrigued to eloquently than documentary know more. Contact us on Twitter evidence. Earlier treatments of Martin Edwards twitter.com/historytoday the descent from the Cross or Birmingham the entombment that Holbein would probably have known Top Score (works by Mantegna and On the Spot has become Grunewald, for example) a platform to proclaim ‘explain’ the death of ‘Jesus progressive academic Nazarenus Rex Judaearum’ credentials. With Shadi Bartsch as incidents in a story. (April) seeking to destroy the The viewer is urged to identify Christian Church at one of with grieving disciples: its foundational moments, attention is to some extent Paul’s conversion on the road distracted from the just-dead to Damascus, has the professor body which is almost sanitised, accrued the highest score yet in as though the wounds have this game of one-upmanship? already been tended. Patrick Mullane Holbein’s image, by via email contrast, does not allow us to take a step backwards to Ever More War ponder the biblical narrative. In reference to Head to Head It rubs our noses in reality. (April), a number of years ago, ‘Make no mistake,’ it says, ‘this while discussing new titles God-man really died, as you pertaining to the American and I must die.’ Civil War, the Americanist in Contemporaries in the the University of Sheffield’s violently combative 1520s history department said to me: were propounding their ‘We’ve done it year by year, versions of the Easter story campaign by campaign, and backing up those battle by battle, day by day; versions with denunciation, eventually we’ll be doing persecution and war. What it bullet by bullet.’ a young, impatient, angry Graeme Innes-Johnstone artist was saying in this Elland, West Yorkshire intensely personal painting (it was not, after all, Correction a commissioned work) was: In Head to Head (May 2021) ‘Put away your books, your we reproduced an image of swords, your sermons and Professor Ada Ferrer-i- your bonfires. Just look at this.’ Carbonell not Professor Ada Derek Wilson Ferrer of the City University of Menasseh ben Israel, by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1636. Bideford, Devon New York. Apologies to both. 6 | History Today | June 2021 HEAD TO HEAD Alex von myself) is to focus; it’s better to tell one story well than to be Tunzelmann overwhelmed by the material. ‘The last year has The experience of the last HAS THE year has underlined the underlined the interconnected nature of EXPERIENCE OF interconnected events in a crisis. For instance, I’m interested in the THE PANDEMIC nature of events’ phenomenon of conspiracy theories and denialism, which CHANGED YOUR crop up in a lot of historical crises. It would be hard to tell VIEWS ON THE the story of Covid deniers NATURE OF without rooting it in the last couple of decades of the HISTORICAL ‘anti-vaxx’ movement, the Author of Blood and Sand: expansion of conspiracy CRISES? Suez, Hungary and the Crisis theories, the erosion of that Shook the World (Simon traditional media, the decline & Schuster, 2016) of trust in government and so on. The nature of crises and The past year has Strictly, the answer to this crisis responses is that they question is no: the facts of this do not happen in a vacuum. been one few will pandemic and the response Exploring these connections forget. But what have not changed the facts or makes it even harder for a natures of previous crises. historian to maintain focus, insights does it More broadly, though, but that is part of the challenge. offer historians? watching a global crisis unfold Finally, diversity of in real time has made me think experience. The pandemic about how I approach has brought suffering to many. historical crises in three ways: Yet there are large numbers focus, connections and of people who are quite diversity of experience. indifferent to this. There are The nature of crises is that those who have benefited they’re incredibly complicated. materially from the pandemic The ‘hot’ period of the Suez and those who seek to deny Crisis lasted around 16 days. or minimise its effects. For It took me more than three historians of past crises, this is years to research and write a reminder that human stories about it, because so many are never simple; we must different powers and interests never presume a single were involved all around the response. The nature of human world: it coincided with the experiences and opinions is Hungarian Rebellion, always astonishingly varied. threatening to draw the Soviet Union and the US into a Third World War. Future historians will have to reconstruct the Human stories are pandemic from a global mountain of information, never simple: we including social media as must never presume well as conventional media. a single response My advice to them (and to 8 | History Today | June 2021 Jessie Childs education. It has not, therefore, Anthony Barnett changed my views on the ‘It has deepened ‘It makes me think nature of historical crises, my understanding which are in any case varied, what is happening contingent and hard to distil, of the emotional now is different’ but it has deepened my response to understanding of the emotional responses to such events’ such events. Throughout the lockdowns, I’ve been writing about the British Civil Wars of the 1640s. A combination of natural and man-made factors made the Author of The Lure of 17th century a ‘global crisis’, Greatness: England’s Brexit in Geoffrey Parker’s phrase. and America’s Trump Author of God’s Traitors: Those who lived through it (Unbound, 2017) Terror and Faith in Elizabethan sometimes seem like iron men England (Vintage, 2014) and women. It is easier now Yes and no. No: historic crises to appreciate their anger, were as they were. Pandemics When the vestrymen of confusion, envy, apparent usually intensify but do not the burnt-out church of St apathy and extraordinary change existing forms of rule. Sepulchre’s gathered together resilience. Having grappled With the exception of the Black after the Great Fire of London with home-schooling, I’m more Death, which appears to have in 1666 they established several forgiving of lacunae in registers transformed the value of things very quickly: a new way and diaries. Contemporaries labour because of the extent of meeting, a list of the most spoke of their ‘distracted’ of the losses, natural disasters vulnerable pensioners and a set times. I’d always thought it was such as plagues do not alter the of safety measures. They relit a euphemism, but now I realise nature of a society. They are the streets, fixed the fire that it is exactly the right word. a challenge that amplifies engines and recast the molten Past crises show that cities existing problems but do not bell-metal into ‘sound and and states can rise from the pose a systemic crisis. tuneable bells’. ashes of catastrophe, but it Thus, in the 20th century, Those impulses – to takes inspired leadership pandemics were still regarded regroup, protect and come and an awful lot of work. as fate: the flu pandemic of together as a community – The British test and trace 1919-22 killed more people have been iterated by the scheme was abysmal, the than the First World War pandemic. From clapping on vaccine rollout magnificent. but left little lasting legacy. British doorsteps to singing It may be that we can ‘build Similarly, the pandemics of from Italian balconies, a sense back better’, as the slogan goes, 1957 and 1968. If you have not of campanilismo (loyalty to find a new equilibrium and heard of them, that proves the the bell tower) has been perhaps even tread more point. AIDS and Ebola were strong. The pandemic has lightly upon the earth. But at lethal for the communities also reinforced the view that this point it is too soon to say. impacted, but did not become most people, if faced with a ‘historic crisis’. an existential threat, will This pandemic is different. People, if faced prioritise security over liberty. It has not led me to alter my Hobbes still matters. with an existential view about what has happened It is no surprise either that in the past, but it makes me threat, will the pandemic has exposed and think what is happening now deepened the cracks in society prioritise security is different. and caused further stresses to Until recently, all that could over liberty the economy, healthcare and be done was slow infection June 2021 | History Today | 9 aquila_advert_history today 170mm x 240mm_jun_coding_display_outlined_Layout 1 28/04/2021 18:40 Page 1 rates: fatalism was Camilla Townsend of the world mitigated unavoidable. As humanity relatively successfully by ‘The pandemic has became capable of genuine keeping people at home, there self-organisation, a cult made more vivid were pockets that experienced of fatalism was generated Covid’s full two per cent the disaster that to protect rulers from mortality rate; certain areas in popular agency. Called unfolded in the New York City, for instance, ‘market fundamentalism’ or square-block areas in New New World during or ‘neoliberalism’, it insisted Jersey, where I live. The sound government was the problem the 16th century’ of the sirens, the stories from and market forces had to be my students’ families and obeyed to achieve a better life. my own fear for loved ones Economically, its success combined to leave me feeling ended with the financial traumatised. But, a few months meltdown of 2008-09. later, life had continued for Now, politically and socially, most of us and we were finding the hegemonic theory ways to laugh again. Our smiles of government has been were shaky, but genuine. overturned by a micro- Author of Fifth Sun: a New In the 16th century, organism. Tremendous History of the Aztecs (Oxford smallpox could kill between advances in medical science University Press, 2019) 20 and 30 per cent of those and technology meant that that caught it. More common Covid could be treated. In 1919 Living through the pandemic diseases, such as whooping there were not intensive care has made more vivid the cough or measles, had lower units able to treat patients disaster that unfolded in the mortality rates. There was no under 24-hour sedation. There New World during the 16th die-off that left whole towns was not, therefore, the danger century. Following contact empty overnight. Instead, of life-saving wards being with Europe and its viruses, people went through overwhelmed in the same way. the indigenous population something like unmitigated Governments had to act. of the Americas dropped by Covid, then a few years later, President Macron has said: at least 85 per cent over the Covid but ten times worse, then ‘We are going to nationalise course of the first century. the next year, a bad flu season, the wages and the profit and By the 1580s, some Spaniards then in a decade, something loss accounts of almost all our feared that literally all the twice as bad. After decades of businesses ... It’s against all the Native Americans would die. this, they felt so vulnerable, dogmas, but that’s the way it Because of this horrific their psyches didn’t know is.’ A huge effort will be made context, there has been which way to turn. They to rehabilitate the old order a tendency on many modern focused on small victories. after its period in intensive- people’s part to speak of In a record in a small church care, but it is unlikely to ‘die-offs’, to assert that around in the 1620s, a man wrote: re-emerge unchanged – the half the population would ‘Today no one’s child died.’ pandemic has generated perish when an epidemic took The survivors still laughed a historic crisis of its own. place, or even to explain the sometimes the following year, conquest as a consequence but by then, their sense of of the fact that so many people themselves in relation to the were dying of disease that they universe had changed forever. A huge effort will be couldn’t fight back militarily. But the Aztec-language made to rehabilitate In a record in a small histories do not speak of events the old order in this way. Instead, they church in the 1620s, after its period convey an abiding sadness. a man wrote: ‘Today Now, I understand better why. in intensive care no one’s child died’ This past year, though most 10 | History Today | June 2021 12 | History Today | June 2021 The Abode of Madness The long history of No Man’s Land, from lawlessness and desolation to hope and regrowth. Maria Ogborn ‘Like the face of the moon’: Oppy Wood 1917, by John Nash, 1918. June 2021 | History Today | 13