Australian History # Australia is fortunate in having a number of outstanding historians delving into our past to discover ourselves. Divergent opinions lead to an appreciation of the complexity of our history. Honest research and appraisals can still lead to inspiring accounts. As part of the culture wars Alan Tudge, and others claim examining the past causes students to hate our country, while Stuart Macintyre claims that “submitting history to a loyalty test, debases it.
The Jurd Bligh Family # The Jurd family became established in 1802, with the arrival of Daniel Jurd who married Elizabeth Douglas in Windsor, New South Wales in 1812. The Jurd family is intimately connected with the first fleeters in the settlement of the new Colony in 1788 through Elizabeth’s parents. William Douglas and Mary Groves, (first fleeters) were the parents of a Currency Lass, Elizabeth Douglas, born in the Colony in 1796 who married Daniel Jurd in 1812, recorded in the marriage register of St Matthew’s Church of England, Windsor.
Egyptian History # The kingdom of Egypt is reputed to be the oldest of all kingdoms, if we accept that mankind emerged out of Africa, spreading northward and to the east. The period from roughly 2700 BCE to 2500 BCE was the age of the pharaonic system established during the First Dynasty eventually encompassed every aspect of life in Egypt. The Pharaohs many roles included, hig priest, head of country’s administration, leader of the army and head of the royal family.
Demagogues # The definition of the word, with roots in ancient Greece, is: “ a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument.” Demagogues tend to play on our basic, primordial, primal fears or “gut” instincts. They appeal to the selfish animal or savagery in us. The most effective lure is the drum beat of war. For some reason the anticipation of war fosters impressions of strength and resolution while rational debate is portrayed as a sign of weakness.
Political Leaders # What makes a good leader? There are many elusive qualities. A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader. A great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves. Here are nine criteria for a democratic Leader • effectively managing cabinet; • maintaining support of party; • demonstrating personal integrity; • leaving a significant policy legacy; • relationship with the electorate; • communication effectiveness;
Revolts and Revolutions # Revolts against opression have been a regular occurrence since time immemorial. “When any group feels they’re disenfranchised or have lost something they really wanted, they tend to rebel. If we recognize the grievances that cause the revolution, maybe we can find the solutions.” Ruddy Roye, supported by Eyebeam’s Center for the Future of Journalism. “In revolutions everything is forgotten … The side once changed, gratitude, friendship, parentage, every tie vanishes, and all sought for is self-interest.
History of Rome # The quest for an objective and impartial account of history is often considered today as illusory, if not disingenuous. Consciously or unconsciously, it is said, these accounts are permeated with ideology and embody the world-view of the winners or of those in power. Rome was built on low lying swamps surronded by seven hills. Rome is known became known as the divine city due to the myth of Mars seducing a Vestal Virgin giving birth to Romulous and Remus who are abandoned and suckled by a wolf.
Conspiracies # To define conspiracy depends of which side you are on, however most would agree it is a secret (clandstine) plan (plot) by a group (cabal) to do something unlawful or harmful aganist another person or group. The rise of the internet has given rise to many wacky conspircacy theories,especially those involving celebrities. The death of Diana, the sagas of Harry and Megan, the faked photoes of the moon landing and many other off-piste ventures.
Road to Democracy # There has never been a golden age of politics, enlightened by bright and shining ideals. Politics then, as politics is now, was nasty, brutish and sure to disappoint. A soon as people began to live in the Polis (city) they had to form some sort of organisation. Politics and policy derive from the Polis. In The Shortest History of Democracy, John Keane explored its beginnings in Syria-Mesopotamia - and not Athens - to its role in fomenting revolutionary fervour in France and America.
Atrocities # Some terms are more difficult to define than others. An atrocity is in the eye of the beholder. Atrocities involve ineffable horror – unspeakable pain, in response to unconscionable acts. One man’s atrocity is another’s desperate justice. The first murder is believed Cain & Abel In the Book of Genesis, Cain and Abel are the sons of Adam and Eve. Cain is a farmer, and his younger brother Abel is a shepherd.
Human Rights # In Roman times, citizenship varied greatly. The full citizen could vote, marry freeborn persons, and practice commerce. Some citizens were not allowed to vote or hold public office, but maintained the other rights. A third type of citizen could vote and practive commerce, but could not hold office or marry freeborn women. In the late Republic, male slaves who were granted their freedom could become full citizens.
Nomads # Nomads and Agarian Cultivation Cadmus wanted to sacrifice the cow to Athena, and sent men to the spring of Aretias to fetch water, but a dragon guarding the place killed them. Cadmus then killed the dragon and, at the suggestion of Athena, sowed half of the dragon’s teeth in the ground. Up sprang armed men, and in fear, Cadmus threw a stone in their midst. Each man thought that another one had attacked him, and they all fought.
Imperialism: # Imperialism is the God given prerogative of powerful nations over their inferiors. Most emerging empires aspired to grow by colonising weaker states to extend their dominant hegemony. Persians, Greek, Roman, Ottomans, Russian and many others expanded by conquest – might is right. Perhaps the most pernicious invaders were the European, beginning with the Portuguese, Dutch, French, English and Belgian. They managed to alienate most of Asia and then the shameful scramble for Africa, destabalising the world order giving rise to local insurrections and causing the First World War which managed to provoke the second one.
Australia’s slide into Tyranny # Primitive societies were obsessed with fertility. Any drought, famine or pestilence was seen as a punishment from superior beings. The safety and welfare of the tribe depended on the health and life of a semi-divine or demi-god ruler. A healthy vigorous and virile king ensures natural and human productivity. A sick, maimed or impotent king brings blight and disease to the land and the people.
Canada’s slide into Tyranny # According to Robin Wright in The New Yorker, some of the trend lines for the world in 2023 are already visible; the wars and crises of 2022 will shape the challenges of the New Year. Among them, ruthless autocrats are exerting their might in ways that strain the diplomatic bandwidth, financial resources, and arms stockpiles of democracies. Democracies are also under covert attack. Incipient, insidious attacks creep up slowly.
Louis Riel # Manitoba’s origins # Issac Cowie describes Manitoba as he saw it in 1867, three years before It was incorporated as a province of the Dominion of Canada: “It was in a state of nature outside the Red River Settlement and the pickets of the posts and mission stations, as it was when it was first discovered and explored. Only nature’s highways through the webs of interlocking waterways were in use, except where the Red River carts roved complaining o’er the plains.
Digging up the Past # In 1798, French soldiers dug up the Rosetta stone. When Napoleon was defeated, the British shipped it to the British Museum. After years of research, the code was finally cracked so that now we can translate other excavations of ancient Egypt. The burial chamber of King Tutankhamun was unsealed by British archeologists in 1923. “The Pharaoh is seen by some people as a prop of empire, and by others as a symbol of resistance and revolution; the thousands of artifacts removed from his tomb are presented as the greatest treasures ever found, or as the spoils of an unforgivable act of colonial desecration,”
Ideologies # ‘Ideology’ comes from the French idéologie, and was first used during the French Revolution, but didn’t become popularised until the publication of Marx and Friedrich Engels’s The German Ideology (written in 1846) and later Karl Mannheim’s Ideology and Utopia (1929). Credo - a system of principles or beliefs { creed, credible, credibility, credulity, credulous,} Dogma - intransigent beliefs. Christianity # With the conversion of the Roman emperor Constantine in 312 to the baptism of Grand Duke Mindaugas of Lithuania, the last pagan ruler in Europe, around 1250, the Medieval world became monotheistic in religion, monolithic in culture, monarchial in governance and uniform in feudalist economy.
Statues – Monuments # Tacitus claimed standards of historical research and scholarship should be more than just glorified gossip. We need higher expectations - to commemorate great deeds and to bring to the attention of posterity the damage that evil deeds do and to denounce them. We create monuments, statues and artistic memorials to commemorate the past. The problem is many become sites of unquestioning glorification rather than of profound reflection?
English History # The first inhabitants of England were likely Celtic tribes including Britons and Picts. Archaeologists have found evidence indicting advanced metalworking, pottery, weaving and a warrior culture. The Druids, members of the learned class among the ancient Celts, acted as priests, teachers, and judges. The earliest known records of the Druids come from the 3rd century BCE. Their name may have come from a Celtic word meaning “knower of the oak tree.
What is History? #
Tacitus insisted:
“Standards of historical research and scholarship should be more than just glorified gossip – we have higher expectations - to commemorate great deeds and to bring to the attention of posterity the damage that evil deeds do and to denounce them”.
History and Memory
The writing of History is an attempt to record, document and preserve the collective memories of our past. In an attempt for continuity, most societies transmit the accumulated experience, traditions, wisdom and values of their ancestors to younger generations. In oral cultures this was done through myths, dance, legends and songs. In literate cultures recordings are more indelible or permanent. These can be raw data such as church records, documents, paintings, archaeological artefacts, eye witness accounts, letters, narratives; The world’s oldest extant piece of Literature is putatively, The Epic of Gilgamesh.
From raw data we hope to glean information, transform it into knowledge, gain understanding and ultimately attain wisdom. Unfortunately this does not always eventuate due to glitches in the processes.
History is an interpretation of the past that is often revised or reinterpreted. A.J.P. Taylor demonstrated that it was possible to reach diametrically opposite conclusions from the same primary source of evidence.
There are dialectical views on the significance of history; those who dispute its value, like Henry Ford’s: “History is more or less bunk, to the – philosopher George Santayana’s “Those who cannot remember the Past are condemned to repeat it" to which others have responded: - History does repeat itself, the first time as tragedy, the next time as farce” ( Marx) and “Each time history repeats itself, the price goes up” to Mark Twain’s sardonic, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme a lot”.
Napoleon considered history as “Lies agreed upon”, while Churchill acknowledged that history is written by the victors and like Julius Caesar it was kind to both.
Every nation tells reassuring lies about itself. Ours are fundamental to the national character. David Marr
As Michel-Rolph Trouillot said in his influential work Silencing the Past , the past is what happened and history—shaped by both historical sources and historians’ narration—is “what is said to have happened.” Still, even as our own lives may inform our scholarly pursuits, we must be careful to avoid presentism. We must allow the past to speak on its own terms, even when asking questions that are pertinent to the present.
History and Lit
Hilary Mantel writes historical fiction:
“This is something much stronger than repression. It is the deliberate construction of one reality out of the denial of another. “History’s what people are trying to hide from you, not what they’re trying to show you. You search for it in the same way you sift through a landfill: for evidence of what people want to bury.”