Jack the Ripper - A Woman?

New evidence has been uncovered to suggest that Jack the Ripper may have been a woman. John Morris, author of a new book entitled Jack the Ripper: The Hand of a Woman, argues that the real 'Jack' (who killed at least five prostitutes in 1888) was Lizzie Williams.  Married to physician Sir John Williams (a suspect himself) Lizzie is thought to have killed the women in a jealous rage because she was unable to have children. The murderer had to have medical knowledge, and Lizzie would have been well schooled in anatomy because of husband. Most of the women were mutilated, three of whom had their uteruses ripped out, but there was no evidence that they had been raped. The last victim, Mary Kelly, was 'seen' hours after her death, and some historians have suggested that this was the murderer fleeing the scene in Kelly's clothes. Women's clothing not belonging to the victims was also found near the bodies.

The plot thickens...

Obama 1, North Carolina 0.

It's great news that President Obama has declared his support for gay marriage, particularly after North Carolina has just passed a law to ban it. Before this happened, I had a very interesting/upsetting discussion about gay marriage earlier in the week...

I volunteer at a National Trust property near Winchester, something which I enjoy despite the fact that there are NO PEOPLE MY OWN AGE. (OK that gets tiresome occasionally). At lunch, the subject of gay marriage was touched on - OK I brought it up. I was talking about politicians, and then I dropped the subject of gay marriage into conversation, as I was trying to say I have no respect for politicians who say they are in favour of one thing and then completely reverse their position because of internal, or external, pressures. Before I could carry on I was attacked left, right and centre. To be fair, I should have known not to mention it - I was sat around a table of old and retired people who are set in their ways. Maybe a small part of me hoped they would break the mould - after all, I know several of my older, religious neighbours couldn't give a crap who you marry. But alas. So after they laughed in my face (literally) when I tried to explain gay marriage in the context of civil rights, they protested that marriage was between a man and a woman and it defied everything Christian.

It really pisses me off when people try to invoke religion - if it says somewhere in the bible that homosexuality is a sin, it also says you can't eat shrimp, wear mixed fibre clothing and grow beards. Unfortunately, mainly because of religious reasons, more states in the US allow you to marry your cousin rather than your same-sex partner. And as for the argument that gay people will undermine the 'sanctity' of marriage, sorry but Kim Kardashian anyone?

Being gay is a personal decision that shouldn't have to be debated over. Religion and politics shouldn't mix, but it's unlikely this will change. As Martin Sheen in The West Wing said, "there may be a separation between church and state but that doesn't mean a separation between church and politics."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX3gMDJCZ-4

'Academic' vs 'tele-don' historians...OUCH.

Studying Public History has taught me that many historians hate history on television. Or radio. Or on the Internet. Or in fact, anything public at all. Which is a shame - there are a lot of problems with all three mediums, but if written well, there is little need to panic. An article in the Independent (and the comments below) warns of the danger of popular history, as it "risks undermining the status of academic study." If historians are only concerned with a public persona, then yes, that is worrying, but this is about bringing history to the public - we need to democratise history and engage an audience. We don't need to prove to ourselves how interesting history is, we need to prove it to the public.

Thus, a number of "tele-don" historians are deemed 'nonacademic.' Lucy Worsley, chief of Historic Royal Palaces, is attacked for parading around in costume. Is this really a problem? If it makes history more accessible to the public (especially to children), is this not a good thing? I'm not advocating that costume interpretation needs to happen everywhere - far from it - but there is nothing wrong with dressing up in costume; after all this is just one interpretation from the past.

And poor Dan Snow. I've seen a lot of his programmes, and they're really engaging - his series on 'Filthy Cities' was really good. Refusing to call him an 'academic' historian is rather insulting - surely he, like any decent historian, went to the archive and did RESEARCH USING FOOTNOTES to write a book or make a television programme?

Here's a link to the article:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/young-historians-are-damaging-academia-in-their-bid-for-stardom-7723284.html

There are many problems with history on the television. Producers are often reluctant to branch further than the c20th, and it is more difficult to check historical sources without footnotes. But if it sparks an interest in that particular period for the viewer, isn't that a good thing? History should not be confined to the ivory tower - where 'traditional' historians debate their findings in articles and conventions. Instead of shouting from the sidelines and bemoaning the lack of 'authenticity' in the public arena, why don't they do something about it? Get involved in the public arena!

Clue to Lost Colony?

Over four hundred years ago, an English settlement at Roanoke Island, North Carolina, was abandoned...and no one knows why. The inhabitants simply disappeared, but new evidence has arisen to suggest that the colony moved from Roanoke Island upward to Albemarle Sound. This was based on a map of Virginia and North Carolina, owned by the British Museum. James Horn, vice president of research at Colonial Williamsburg claims "their intention was to create a settlement. And this is what we believe we are looking at with this symbol - their clear intention, marked on the map..." Historians have made out what appears to be a fort in Northeastern NC on the map, and assume the 95 people in the colony moved to live with the Native Americans.

Unfortunately, the site is on private land, so archaeologists may have to wait a while to excavate it. What an incredible opportunity that would be...

http://news.yahoo.com/researchers-clue-lost-colony-214550117.html

Great Photos of London!

The Telegraph have published an article with some great photos of London - what it used to look like forty years ago compared to today! 

I heart London.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/propertypicturegalleries/9181557/Photos-taken-almost-40-years-apart-show-how-Londons-streets-have-changed.html

NY in 870,000 Images

The Department of Records in New York have released over 870,000 images of the city on the Internet, some dating from the mid nineteenth century. The variety of photographs are outstanding - from crime scenes and gang murders to the every day, municipal tasks like building bridges or ports. The Department spent four years collecting and digitising the photographs, in order to make them "accessible to everyone." (a great public history quote if ever there was one...!) The number of photos are endless, and if the project is a success, more will be digitised over the next few years.

See some of them here...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/24/new-york-city-photo-database-department-of-records-online_n_1448418.html

Gallipoli, Anzacs and Twitter...

Historians in Australia and Turkey are using Twitter to raise awareness of the Gallipoli campaign (WW1, 1915). @Gallipoli_Live tweets events and soldier's memories at the same time they occurred or were written down, nearly 100 years ago. Bill Sellers, an Australian historian and Sahin Aldogan, a retired Turkish soldier have collected a wealth of information about the campaign, and will be tweeting events as they happened every day until January. Sellers explained that they "use diaries and letters, official histories, often unpublished documents as well as those that are very much in the public domain."

Twitter is an incredible resource, and this is a great way to generate interest in something that is not in public consciousness, outside of Australia and New Zealand of course. It brings history home to us, we can read soldier's memories and understand what they were a part of. Twitter can help democratise history, something that is sorely needed.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-25/anzac-timeline-recreated-on-twitter/3970888/?site=centralvic

Martin Luther King and a KKK Bounty?

According to a new book by historians Stuart Wexler and Larry Hancock, Martin Luther King was assassinated as a part of a plot by the KKK. The racist group raised over £62,000 for the bounty, collected by a network of organisations who wished to see King dead. Conspiracy theories have surrounded the assassination since 1968, but the FBI have rigorously denied the KKK's involvement. However, Wexler and Hancock want to reopen the case, particularly in light of some FBI reports that have previously been unpublished. The historians state that James Earl Ray was in prison for arson in Missouri when he heard about the bounty, and plotted to kill MLK. This came to pass on 4 April 1968, and Ray was arrested at Heathrow a few months later. An interesting read perhaps...

Argentine dictator admits to crimes

Ex-Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla has finally acknowledged the crimes of his regime. In the 1970's, over 30,000 men, women and children were abducted and murdered by the military junta. Thousands were tortured, raped and executed for opposing the dictatorship; babies were kidnapped from political opponents, and given to supporters of the regime who raised them as their own. All became known as the "disappeared". Human rights groups like the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo are still searching for their loved ones, as many of the bodies were never recovered. 

Videla was imprisoned for life in 2010 for torture and kidnapping, but has always maintained his policies were necessary to rid the country of communists and socialists, a defence that stems from the height of the regime. However, this is the first time Videla has admitted to the murder of 8,000 people. He has never admitted to the policy of stealing children, although he claims there were a "few cases" when that happened.

How can a nation move on from such a tragedy? I remember reading a story about a couple who had been kidnapped and brutally tortured by the regime. They survived to see the onset of democracy to the country, but the political change in government did not provide a "stable" solution. One day the couple were heading home on a bus, and at one stop, a man climbed into the seat in front of them. He was the man who had tortured them. There are hundreds of people like him, walking the streets, never punished for their crimes. They are unlikely to be punished now. Argentina may have organised trials, amnesties and other attempts at "healing" the country, but can a wound this deep ever be healed? Will it take the death of the perpetrators and those directly affected by the regime for society to move on? Should society move on? Whether Argentina tries to forget or not, the uncomfortable truth is that the future discoveries of mass graves and torture centres are inevitable, sporadic interruptions to a society that may prefer silence.

http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/145748.html 

Titanic Commemorations

Last night, one hundred years ago, the Titanic hit an iceberg at 11.40pm. Over two and a half hours later, at 2.20am, she sank four hundred miles off the coast of Newfoundland. Over 1,500 people died, and just over 700 were saved. Over five hundred of the dead came from Southampton.

The Balmoral sailed from Southampton on the 10th to commemorate the fatal voyage, and held a remembrance service in the early hours:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-17715345

Researching the Titanic has been truly heartbreaking, there are so many stories of men asking their wives and children to be brave and get into the lifeboats, others who chose to remain on the ship with their loved ones, dying together. Though, the news coverage always seems to divide people into classes of "heroism" and "cowardice"- of course there were acts of extraordinary bravery, but to label others as 'cowards' is a little harsh. When confronted by death, survival instinct is bound to kick in, and I don't think people should be blamed for that. Besides, they have probably dealt with survivors guilt their entire lives, let's not add to it.

What is interesting however, is that the Titanic is remembered on such a scale - why are people so fascinated by it? Was it the discovery of the wreck in 1985? Was it James Cameron's film in 1997? That the last survivors were slowly disappearing? Or is it the stories of the people? There is no definitive answer, just as long as Titanic is kept in our memory, especially in Southampton.

Slave resistance

 When I studied African American slave resistance at Uni, I thought it was incredibly interesting how men and women fought actively and passively against their masters to prove their independence. Some men, like Nat Turner, attempted to start a slave revolt in 1831, but this was suppressed by government of Virginia, who had Turner executed. Judging by the 'success' rate of such revolts, it seems fair to say that daily resistance was far more effective. Silent sabotage could be used to threaten the master’s hold over his slaves, using any means necessary to assert their individuality. Slaves would break agricultural tools, claiming they didn’t know how to use spades or hoes; others took all day to kill livestock, and one slave pretended to be blind for 40 years to get a smaller workload. Self-inflicted violence was also common, from suicide to infanticide.

Slaves would also use religion as effective resistance. Combining traditional African practices with Christianity, religious meetings were held in slave quarters, and language, dancing and storytelling was passed down through the generations.

    

Thousands of slaves ran away from their plantations, sometimes creating ‘maroon’ communities in parts of the South. Some joined the Seminole Indian tribes in Florida, although this led to a war in the early 1820’s and again in the 1830’s. Abolitionists helped slaves escape in the ‘Underground Railroad’, with anti-slavery supporters lining the routes, former slaves would lay low across America before escaping to the North or Canada. Frederick Douglass admitted that “as a means of destroying slavery, it was like an attempt to bail out the ocean with a teaspoon”, yet he believed that one less slave made his life more bearable.

New evidence raises Civil War death toll

For over a hundred years, the total number of men killed in the Civil War was thought to be just under 620,000 but new research claims the figure is closer to 750,000. This is a 20% increase on the previous number. Dr David Hacker, a demographic historian, has spent several years trawling through enlistment records trying to calculate an accurate figure to explain past discrepancies. The results of his findings are to be published in a forthcoming book. This is incredibly interesting research, something that will have a massive impact on Civil War studies in the future.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/science/civil-war-toll-up-by-20-percent-in-new-estimate.html