Introduction to ‘making sense of this crazy world’
As a history teacher of many years standing, far too many years, it has always been a frustration that some people see history as a “dead” subject. It’s already happened so why learn it?
The most direct answer, and the most important, is that we cannot hope to know ourselves, nor others, nor the world we live in, if we don’t know our histories – and please note the plural – there’s an awful lot of history out there, and that includes an awful lot of debated history.
So, that is a key purpose of my podcast – in about 15-20 minutes per episode I hope to encourage you to get to know your history as well as that of others so that we can get a little bit further to understanding this crazy world we live in.
In this introduction, I’m going to focus on 5 things:
What I mean by getting to know your history because I don’t just mean what’s been going on since you were born
The importance of getting to know other peoples’ histories
The realisation that the way we understand our history can affect the choices we make, the decisions we make and the actions we take
The importance of understanding that there are alternative versions of the truth out there – and always have been
And finally, a warning about the way history can be misused to justify things (no names mentioned!)
So, your history. You cannot know yourself in the world as a woman, a gay, a liberal, a socialist or a conservative, or an Afghan tribal leader for that matter, if you don’t know your history. And our own histories can be complex. I am British, English to be precise – I’m from Liverpool. That already makes “my” history different to the Scots, the Irish and the Welsh, who may or not also call themselves “British”. It makes my history different to those Brits whose families may have once lived in former empire countries. Though the histories of the peoples of the British empire are themselves very different, the experience of empire being very different for those living on the Indian sub-continent, for example, to those living in the former “White” dominions of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa. And what of the histories of a white South African compared to a black South African or for that matter an Aboriginee in Australia, a Maori in New Zealand, or the native Indian or Inuit in Canada? See what I mean about a lot of histories?
But back to me (it’s always about me), I am more than an Englishman: I am white, I am male, I am heterosexual, I am from working class stock, and as I said, I am from Liverpool. That last fact, I know to my very core, makes a huge difference to “my” history and so, to who I am. I grew up in the sixties, Liverpool Football Club were on the rise again, the Beatles were in their heyday; it was the greatest place in the world to be, at least that’s how I felt. And it shaped me: football and music is in my blood. Liverpool’s docks, its port, was also still in its heyday, shipbuilding too (though neither was to last much longer – and that,too, is part of my story). The port, for centuries, had given Liverpool a link to the rest of the world: to the empire, to the slave trade, to Ireland and its history (and, of course, Ireland was once a part of that empire), to America and the rest of the world. When I was young, China town in Liverpool had the biggest Chinese population outside of China. All of these things, and more, have helped shape me and how I see the world. But what if I was from a family of Caribbean or Asian immigrants? What if I was a middle-class woman from, say, London? What if I was gay? I would be a different person, not just because of the history of my own lifetime, but because of the history of my kith and kin, my community, over centuries.
And what of the histories of others? What do we really know about the history of African Americans, or the wider history of slavery for that matter? Or about what divides Israelis and Palestinians, or about how the make-up of Israeli society today has so profoundly changed since Israel became a state in 1948. What is Russia’s claim on Ukraine, or China’s claim on Taiwan? And what are the alternative stories? Why is Africa so poor and so troubled? What was the impact of colonialism on the continent? And the same could be asked of South America? Why is the West and Islam at loggerheads? And again, we would have to look at colonialism, and so our own histories, but from another perspective, to get anywhere close to a complete answer. And so, again, we have to consider the alternative stories. And so on, and so on.
Let’s look at an example in a little more depth. Take the example of Jews. Apart from a very few right-wing racists (who will deny it ever happened), we are all aware, to some extent, of the appalling history of the Holocaust. But how much are we aware of the anti-Semitic pogroms (actions) taken against Jewish communities in Europe, throughout the centuries; and from Britain in the west to Russia in the east? So, that anti-Semitism long pre-dated Hitler and the Nazis. How much are we aware of the influence of “Social Darwinism”, the belief that, just as Darwin had seen a process of natural selection in nature that allowed for the survival of the fittest and so the strengthening of a species, so it was/is felt that racial purity, in which the “fittest” breed with the “fittest” has allowed for the strongest race to survive and dominate other races. This is, after all, the kind of thinking that led Hitler to both war with Russia (a weaker Slavic race in his view) and the “Final Solution” to deal with Europe’s Jewish communities once and for all. And it is the view of many racists today. It is abhorrent, but if we want to properly understand it, we need to know our history.
And if we look at the world today, we cannot properly understand it if we don’t know something about the BRIC countries, for example: Brazil, Russia, India and China; the rising giants who are expected (in some cases are in the process) of challenging the old order of Europe and America. We cannot understand the peoples of such an important country such as China, for example, if we know nothing of its history, and how the Chinese people see their history and what its history means to its people. Early in his book, When China Rules The World, Martin Jacques comments on how the Chinese view their history, and how China lives in and with its past like no other nation: its history, the dynasties, its very way of being, the teachings of Confucius, the place held by the family and ancestral worship, relationships and customs, its belief in the state, the paternalistic role of government, the central place given to unity, and above all, its sense of superiority.
The Chinese have a high regard for their race, the ‘Han Chinese,’ for their culture and for their history. They see their civilization, which they claim spans five thousand years, as superior to others. China sees itself as always being at the centre of the world, the ‘Middle Kingdom’, as they call it. If you compare China to America, America is a relatively new nation and is an ethnic melting pot with profound cultural differences. China, however, sees itself as homogenous (minorities account for only 9% of the total population, though this still adds up to 105 million people), boasting a longevity no other nation can come near to matching and, over the last three thousand years, showing great unity. Though Chinese self-confidence has experienced periods of grave doubt, notably in the ‘century of humiliation’ when Europeans and the Japanese subjected it to imperial servitude between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, it’s self-confidence has survived largely intact. The Chinese believe their rightful place is as the world`s leading power and every leader over the last century has regarded it to be his historic task to overcome that ‘century of humiliation’ and restore China to its rightful position in the world order: at the top. We need to understand this better than we do at present as China is already a dominant player throughout the world, and is only likely to become more so.
Finally, we need to appreciate that a knowledge of history can affect events, choices made or not made, actions taken or not taken. Just as an ignorance of history can! For example, if American presidents had known more about the history of Vietnam and its relationship with China, I don’t think they would have got themselves embroiled in a war they weren’t able to win. For the history of Vietnam shows that Vietnam and China had always been rivals rather than close friends. Vietnam would have become Communist, yes, but so too had Yugoslavia in Europe. And as Yugoslavia fiercely kept its independence from the Soviet Union, so too, most likely. would Vietnam have ensured its independence from the People’s Republic of China. Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist as well as a communist and had courted American support by including extracts from the American Declaration of Independence in the Vietnamese declaration of independence, And what is more, after the Americans had left, China actually invaded and briefly occupied parts of northern Vietnam as punishment for Vietnam’s attack on the Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
Whereas the knowledge George Kennan had, a diplomat in Moscow and an expert on Russian history and policy, was a critical influence on America’s response to the Soviet occupation of eastern Europe. Kennan argued that in many ways the Soviet Union was in essence no different to Tsarist Russia, just worse! It was insecure, mistrusting its own people as much as its enemies, potential or real. In fact, it needed an enemy abroad in order to help keep its people in line. So, the Soviet Union had little interest in resolving differences. His advice was not to confront Moscow, nor to expect too much from negotiations, but rather to contain communism. The best means to defeat the Soviet Union, Kennan argued, was through a patient, long-term policy of containment (though the word wasn’t used until later). He felt America had to accept what the Soviet Union had gained from the defeat of Hitler, but shouldn’t let it spread its influence any further. If America stood firm, the Soviet Union would back down. And, as the Communist system struggled to give its people the standard of living they wanted, it would eventually collapse from within, i.e. its own people would overthrow it. It was an incredible document as it foretold just how the Cold War would play out!
So, yes, knowing our history can be very important, but that is not to say that history repeats itself. And I will explain the difference. Should Chamberlain have appeased Hitler? Hard to say at the time, easier to say now, perhaps. But could we have learned from that when dealing with Saddam Hussein or now in dealing with Kim Jong-un or Putin. I would say, no. History does not repeat itself. The context is always different and, more importantly, the characters are. Saddam Hussein was not another Hitler, (he actually saw Stalin as something of a role model) and nor is Kim Jong-un. Their aims, and the reasons, were/are very different, and for different reasons. Yet whilst Putin is not another Stalin, we could still perhaps learn from George Kennan’s assessment of the Soviet Union back in 1946.
Of course, we have to be careful – history can be misused. National myths can be a central part of our lives yet spin a false history. The so-called ‘white man’s burden’, the civilising mission of empire, a responsibility the white man had to take on, when empire was always, is always, more about power and profit. The myth of the ‘American Dream’, that every American, even the newly arrived immigrant, has an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, sheer determination or initiative. And yet in the 21st century we have the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement. And the Chinese and their belief that theirs’s is a superior civilization. And yes, Putin and his belief that Ukraine (and Crimea) is Russian. Or at least its not as clear cut as Putin suggests.
So, to return to the purpose of my podcast and to add to what I said at the beginning – I hope to show how history can offer different perspectives and widen the debate to current and past events from the way they have been presented to us in our newspapers and on our tv screens. It is not to say that anything I may present is the right view (nor that the dominant view is wrong) – that is not my purpose at all. But it is to make us realise that there are other views, other perspectives, other stories. And, as I said at the beginning, hopefully it will make us better understand this crazy world we live in and maybe get to a “better” truth. Whatever that means!
I have introduced some of the themes that I will be returning to, but there will be more. It won’t always be doom and gloom though history does tend to focus on bad stuff – is that history’s fault or is it human nature? I leave that as a question for you to think about. I do intend to look at a variety of issues – I’ll just run with it and see where it takes us. And, of course, my purpose is to publicise the importance of history. History is not a dead subject, it is alive and kicking, and it is always at its essence about people, including you and me. And I cannot say this enough,
I will be posting my episodes each Sunday evening, give or take the odd holiday break. I also have a website: History Made Easier. It was set up for students but I will be posting my scripts to these podcasts on it too. So, if there is anything you missed in any of my podcasts, or you want to double-check what I’ve talked about, take a look on the site. But please remember, I do not make any claim to presenting the truth, rather a range of different truths! I hope that’s ok with you because for sure, you will have some of your own.