History: All this has happened before... + A Pic'n'Mix of thoughts.
So. I read History Today today, which is a rather excellent magazine, and keeps one thinking about history. Very important. Anyway, a small piece informed me that recent research and thoughts on Napoleon's campaign in Russia in 1812 has occurred. It specifically examined the effect of typhus on the Grand Armee's march into Russia and had large numbers of soldiers fall in and many of those die...
Something which I could have told you about some 6 years ago, and which Eugene Tarle could have told you half a century ago... not specifically about the specific impact of typhus, but the fact that the French (and Russian) army faced huge casualties during the summer of 1812, not in battle, but from disease (not just typhus, Tarle mentions several ones we know about, and several other probable ones). Tarle was a historian in the Soviet Union who was given a surprisingly free hand in writing a history of the 1812 campaign (called the Patriotic War in Russia; contrast Great Patriotic War for Russia's involvement in the Second World War) by Stalin who had earlier intervened to prevent him being prosecuted for... well... the usual Soviet accusations. Aaaanyway, enough biography there. His was one of the books I read as part of doing the big essay module for A2 history (which was an awesome module - you do a timed essay, and do all your own reading and stuff for it and... yeah, this is why History A-levels are still pretty neat) and part of the essay was about the casualties suffered in the summer, and because of disease. It's something that makes sense, and something we have evidence for. Interestingly enough, among Western historians, this is a very rarely looked-at part of the war and it is rarely attributed as a major factor of Napoleon's failure, it's not even as such rejected or discussed. Which, given that Tarle and the other historians I read discuss all the various topics, including this and the ones the Western historians look at, is quite surprising.
Anyway, it seems that it has taken until the last decade, and the discovery of a mass grave in Vilnius (modern Lithuania) on Napoleon's route, to spur research into this area. All this time. This is why reading a breadth of work on a given subject, from all angles, and looking back at primary sources from diverse secondary/tertiary sources is very important.
That is not, incidentally, of course to say that this research isn't important. This is some pretty valuable stuff, given how it provides us with new and interesting evidence to look at and fit into the collection of everything else!
Second history topic - Horrible Histories! I've written about it before, and will do so briefly again, since History Today has written about it. Whatever the failings and academic disapproval (based largely on a 'Well.. it's not... well... sort of... not really proper academic stuff, is it?' attitude which seems to imply that children should be given dense tomes of 19th century historians to read as an incentive to enjoy history...) the series remains an absolutely brilliant way to give children the idea that History is actually fun, that it actually matters, and that bad and horrible things did actually happen. It's the last point that I wish to briefly emphasise - Terry Deary makes it clear that a lot of rulers etc throughout history were a nasty bunch and did very nasty things. And he does it without exactly making one a cynical and jaded individual. It is a very important point to make and prevents, I hope, and over-romantic and over-idealist view of the past in this and future generations of historians. Woo!
Pic'n'Mix - I was walking down Cornmarket today, and there were some jazz musicians with their saxophones jammin'. It was pretty awesome. What was more awesome, is that some guy decided to grab some likely bi-standers to do some dancing next to the musicians. It was actually not bad at all. And put a smile on everyone's face! Huzzah!
HMV. I popped in to see if there were any DVDs I wanted at a non-robbery price. There weren't. What they did have was The Ting Tings' That's not my name playing. It's a f*cking annoying song that makes me want to strangle puppies or something. SUCH a bad song... I DON'T CARE THAT IT'S NOT YOUR NAME. I KNOW IT'S NOT YOUR NAME, YOU'VE BEEN SINGING IT TO ME FOR MINUTES. MINUTES. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH.
Ahem. Thanks for listening.
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