HISTORY LEFT BEHIND: The Abandoned Places of the Twentieth Century

DRINKING BRITAIN

Ata RahmanCharlie Bush

Aditya IyerBecky StevensVidhur PrasharSinead Doherty Jenny Ho

Feargal LogueJessie BrenerAmy GarnettSigourney FoxEve Commander

Charlotte JohnsonTom Eccles

Caroline BishopGemma NewtonTom OliverHarry Cooke

Rebecca Hennel-SmithKate BlaxillLeah Crowther

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DRINKING BRITAINTea: our National drink

A HISTORY OF ALCOHOL: Ale & Gin

FLORIDA: A State of ChaosThe Long Road to Peace in Mindanao

Marikana Miners Strike

Theatre review: Orpheus DescendingA Postgraduate Students thoughts on her

Research and Postgraduate Life

INTERVIEW: Dr Pierre Fuller

Review: Demon Drink, Temperance and the Working Class

Review: Didsbury Beer FestivalReview: Jane and Louise Wilson: Atomgrad

HISTORY LEFT BEHIND Abandoned Places of the 20th Century and

the History of Small Islands

James Bond: The Phantom Limb of the Empire

Winds of Change? Or just the same old problem?

The Economic History of the EUThe History of Evil CorporationsHow Bikes Changed our History

HISTORY SOCIETY ANNOUNCEMENTEvents

I’m really happy with how the Historian has progressed this term. The team’s been working incredibly hard at coming up with ways to incorporate a more contemporary angle and I’m re-ally happy to announce that we’ll be launching our own website very soon. I’m delighted to see the Historian growing and hope by the end of the year we’ll have a much more widespread paper. I’d also strongly like to encourage students to email in their ideas to us for future articles; even those who aren’t interested in writ-ing. After all, we want to make this magazine more about what History students want to read!

Ata Rahman

We have taken as our theme for this issue an integral part of his-tory, an integral part of being a student (and apparently a lec-turer), and an integral part of life itself. I am, of course, talking about drinking: be it tea, beer or any other type of booze. We’ve sent reporters to a beer festival, an exhibition about the Prohibi-tion Movement (the horror, the horror), and had them research-ing the importance of beverages in British history. Ata has been getting even more of a taste for a subject close to his heart: gin. We have also drawn on the experience of History lecturers for some recommendations for we should be quaffing. So pull a pint, unscrew the cap of a bottle of the house vino, crack open a can or pop the kettle, and enjoy this issue of the Manchester Historian. Cheers!

Charlie Bush

Tea: Our National Drink Us Brits can hardly make it through the day without a beloved brew, but WHEN and HOW did dried up leaves in water (not, perhaps, the most appetising description) become anessential requirement?

Keep Calm and Drink Tea’ could probably rival ‘God Save the Queen’ as the unofficial slogan for British-ness. No other country’s national con-sciousness is so saturated by a single drink. Tea in Britain is not just a bev-erage—it’s a social expe-rience. Our rich have tea parties, our poor have tea time and our middle-classes have tea anxiety over whether the milk goes in first or last. But when tea first arrived on these shores in 1657, you wouldn’t have guessed anything significant was brewing.

In fact in the seventeenth century, it looked like coffee was set to become the brew of choice among fashion-able British elites (eventually it would filter down to all classes). All-male coffeehouses became important meeting places where all classes could enjoy a cuppa - of coffee. In fact, for much of the century it looked like tea would never bag the hot beverage market.

This is possibly because it wasn’t seen as a beverage so much as a medical panacea. Today, all good Brits know about the magical physical and emotional healing prop-erties of a mug of hot tea, but seventeenth century Eu-ropeans really drank in this idea. At first, tea was sold almost exclusively at apothecaries. It did briefly catch on

in Holland and fashiona-ble Parisian districts but, by 1647, a fall in demand meant Dutch tea drinking had pretty much popped its clogs. In France, tea’s decline may have been encouraged by the revo-lutionary spirit which de-nounced anything even vaguely associated with the aristocracy. It seems

Earl Grey didn’t quite make the transition to Citoyen Grey.

Tea-drinking in Britain was also encouraged by two trendy ladies. Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese wife of spaniel-haired party animal King Charles II, in-troduced tea to the royal court in 1662 and Anna Maria Stanhope, the Duchess of Bedford, took the trend fur-ther. Between lunch at 12pm and dinner at around 8pm, she began to get a little bit peckish. Without the mod-ern-day go to - a pot noodle - she settled for cakes or sandwiches with tea instead. This 5pm ‘tea time’ proved so good that Stanhope soon began inviting her friends round for ‘tea parties’. The most stylish aristocrats at-tended, and this was quickly copied by the lower classes.

The British Empire also played a part in tea’s rise to prominence. In the bad old days of imperialism, the cartoonishly evil British East India Company had mo-nopolised trade with Asia, where tea came from. The government’s eventual support for such an important source of tax money meant they kept prices fairly low.

In comparison, by 1734 coffee had run out of steam. Coffee merchant, Thomas Twining, decided it was a mug’s busi-ness and closed his coffeehouse to focus on his teahouse. These allowed women in too and meant their husbands or servants no longer had to be sent to fetch them a brew.

While coffee’s appeal wasn’t completely ground down, nowadays there are few things more spiffingly British than the beloved cuppa.

Christie Fraser

The production and drinking of ale can be traced back 4,000 years to the first har-vesting of barley. Since then, ale has gone from uniting warrior tribes to becoming an

essential element of pub culture.

Ale was produced on a domestic scale throughout the Middle Ages. As a result, an esti-mated 1 in 5 houses were also informal alehouses (as well as the first pubs and taverns). The selling of ale formed local economic markets within communities, with women as the domi-nant producers. Whilst today some may regard ale as a luxury product, ale was a staple drink during this period, with the only alternative being contaminated water sources. Preserving ale started during the 15th century through adding hops.

Speculation surrounds the origins of this method; suspects include returning Crusaders from the early 1400s or traders from Flanders. Ale could be produced in larger quantities due to the expansion of investment, machinery and technology during the Industrial Revolution. Major profit making brewers such as George Adlam in Bristol and R.W Andrews in London emerged. However, the quality of ale also suffered during this period. Mass brewers cared little for the taste and texture of the ale. Instead, they chose to increase profits through preserving ale in bottles (causing a loss of taste quality) and reducing the volume by injecting Carbon Dioxide (producing a frothier drink).

During the last 40 years there has been something of an ale revolution- the introduction of ‘Real’ ale. The ‘Campaign for Real Ale’ (CAMRA) has been at the forefront of this. Valuing secondary fermentation in the kegs and the use of natural ingredients, they argue for the im-portance of micro-breweries. It is this resurgence in the quality of ale that has made it so vital to British pub culture.

Caroline Bishop

A History of Alcohol Tea may well be our National drink, but there’s no denying the long-held, never-ending love the population of the UK has for Ale!...and Gin...and Vodka....and basically all spirits.

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Hannah Barker

When contemplating what alcoholic beverages are truly British, nothing springs to mind quicker than a refreshing gin and tonic. Whilst this drink has strong historical roots in the British Empire, gin has not always been Britain’s favoured tipple. Though consumed widely today throughout the UK and having associations with all things British, gin’s roots do not lie in the many distilleries continuing to produce gin in Britain today.

Gin is thought to originate from the Habsburg Netherlands, where Franciscus Sylvius created an ailment for stom-ach aches in the 1550s using the diuretic properties of the main flavouring of gin, juniper berries. Having said that, there is evidence of Italian monks flavouring alcohol with juniper berries since the 11th century, but no evidence of it bearing resemblance to modern day gin. Sylvius named the drink ‘genever’ and it became an important part of Flemish and Dutch culture. Troops brought it back to England returning from the Thirty Years War where they consumed it to deal with the cold, coining the term ‘Dutch courage’.

A combination of factors including a heavy government tax on imported spirits and an unfit grain crop for beer brewing led to gin becoming incredibly cheap in the 18th century, setting off what was known as the Gin Craze. Gin’s popularity had surged when William of Orange of the Dutch Republic married Mary II and ruled the British throne. This led to widespread consumption of gin on a large scale, and saw the birth of the phrase ‘mother’s ruin’.

Gin sales were eventually more regulated by the government through the Gin Act of 1751 and a lot of gin began being distilled at home, commonly flavoured with turpentine. Overall, gin consumption reduced during the 19th century and its production style changed, becoming a bitterer and clearer spirit than previously. Today, though gin remains one of Britain’s most beloved drinks, cheaper vodkas have caused a slight decline in popularity.

Ata Rahman

Classically, gin should be served with cubes of ice, a wedge of lime and tonic water. But where do the tonic and lime come from?

Tonic contains quinine which has antimalarial properties and became an important mixer with gin for colonial British of-ficers, initially in South Asia but also in Africa.Lime was originally add-ed to gin to make lime juice more palatable, be-cause it was a good coun-termeasure against scurvy.

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There are a number of unwritten rules that surface during an American Presidential Election with alarm-ing alacrity. A small town in New Hampshire will be the first to declare its results after the 34 voters have cast their ballots, no Republican wins without taking Ohio’s 18 Electoral College votes, and the calamitous inevita-bility of something going horribly wrong in Florida. As a result of demographic changes over the last 50 years, Florida has become an important swing state. Its 29 electoral votes mean that it is always a highly competi-tive battleground, and one with a reputation for elec-toral chaos.

Perhaps the most infamous example of this chaos was the 2000 Presidential election clash between Bush and Gore. According to the state’s finals results Bush led by 537. The whole process was riddled with controversy and partisanship: the state’s Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, who was responsible for the electoral process, was also the Bush campaign’s state co-chair. She over-saw the ‘scrub list’ process that removed felons from the electoral lists, however, often people with the same names were also removed. This disproportionately af-fected African-Americans, who were more likely to be Democrat voters.

Badly-designed ballot cards also caused problems in Palm Beach County. Voters had to punch a hole next to the candidate that they supported, but the layout of the ballot paper meant the second candidate on the ballot paper (Gore) was the third hole. Democrats ar-gued that this confused voters who accidentally voted for Buchanan of the Reform Party. 5,330 were spoiled and not counted because voters voted for both Gore and

FLORIDA: A STATE OF CHAOSBuchanan. The Gore campaign claimed that this was be-cause voters tried to correct their mistake. The Gore campaign requested that disputed ballots be counted by hand and the Bush campaign counter-sued. The case advanced through the courts to the US Supreme Court. While the Justices considered their de-cision, the whole presidential election hung in the bal-ance. On 12th December, the Supreme Court handed down its decision on Bush v Gore: the recount would cease and Bush would be declared the winner in both Florida and the country.

This was a constitutionally horrendous situation be-cause, as Professor Sheldon Goldman of the University of Massachusetts says, “the judiciary was essentially determining who the President would be”. The Court was split 5-4, on partisan lines with the conservative element in the majority; the decision made was based on who the Justices wanted to win, creating a mockery of the elections. The Court further judged that a par-tial recount contravened the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, resulting in Bush’s succession into the White House.

This year, Florida was beset by long lines and absentee ballot problems. The delayed result was a victory for Obama. When I went along to a voter centre in Massa-chusetts on Election Day, I remarked to one of the vol-unteers on the lack of line and how smoothly voting was going. She replied, “This isn’t Florida, we’ve been doing this much longer.”

Charlie Bush

With a population of 94 million inhabitants, the East-Asian archipelago of The Philippines is the 7th most populous nation in Asia and 12th in the world. Despite this, developments in The Philippines rarely feature in Western news cycles, until recently. An oft-cited rea-son for The Philippines’ huge and ever expanding pop-ulation is that 80% of the country is Roman Catholic and, although it is overpopulated to the extent where-by shanty towns in Manila house up to 90,000 people within a half a square kilometre, the Filipino govern-ment fears losing support if it promotes contraception.

Religion has held a prominent place in the politics of the Philippines ever since it became part of the Span-ish East Indies in 1565. The 300 years of religious con-version that would follow Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi’s arrival are still felt in the political climate of the Philippines today, no more so than in the predominantly Islamic southern island of Mindanao, where a sectarian conflict that has displaced 250,000 and killed two million has been a consistent factor since 1976. Just as Catholic principals have a stranglehold on government policy in the north, the determination of Muslim militant groups to establish an independ-ent Islamic state Mindanao has dominated the south.

The Filipino government and the Moro Islamic Lib-eration Front, negotiating on behalf of the five million Muslims living in the Phil-ippi ne s , recent ly agreed to end six-teen years of on-off p e a c e negotiations on 15th of October this year. The crux of the negations is that the Muslim popula-tion will hold a plebiscite on the establishment of a Muslim area, under Sharia law, called Bangsamoro.

Incidentally, term ‘Moro’ is derived from the Spanish colonists’ derogatory name for Mindanao Muslims. It seems that even if plans to establish an Islamic utopia in the southern islands do come to fruition, years of colonial obsession with religion will remain as much a factor in The Philippines’ future as it has been throughout its history.

Feargal Logue

The Long Road to Peace in Mindanao

Marikana Miners Strike

This summer there were a series of wildcat (unlawful) strikes that took place in South Africa at the Marikana mines, over proposed drastic pay cuts. The mining in-dustry is considered the driving force behind the South African economy, being the largest in Africa.

This explains the eagerness of the government to quell the strike, utilising methods which culminated in a massacre of protesters on 16th August, with 47 casual-ties as a result. What is significant is that this took place on the anniversary of another major miner’s strike 25 years previously, which begs the question of why there are so many tensions in the mining sector.

The mining industry in South Africa has a long histo-ry, with its start popularly attributed to the discovery of a large diamond in the banks of the Orange River in Transvaal republic when it was still an independent Boer region. When it became part of the dominion of

South Africa in 1910 the British exploited the natural reserves of South Africa even fur-ther, as the Republic did post-1961.This country, much like Sierra Leone, has very rich natural mineral deposits, and today ac-counts for 80% of the

world’s platinum reserves and the 3rd largest exporta-tion of coal. However, what caused the Marikana strikes was the recurring theme of exploitation. When under British control most of the wealth went into the empire and little went to the miners. This carries on today, with private corporations and governmental departments taking the place of colonial organs.

It is a land of dichotomies; the 28th richest economy in the world with 25% of the population unemployed and most living on the equivalent of 85 pence a day. It is a vicious cycle of exploitation that spurred the strikes and violent backlash and has the potential for many more to occur as the demand for raw resources increases.

Tom Oliver

I’m still unsure myself what the title of my postgradu-ate dissertation will be – but, at the moment, the most enjoyable part of doing a Masters is having the complete freedom, if not infinite time, to decide. My undergradu-ate degree was English and History, so this year I was really drawn to research an area of History which would make use of the expertise I’ve gained from both subjects.

I decided to focus on travel and colonisation in the early modern period, in particular how these experiences and themes can be explored in popular culture. So far I’ve been making use of the diverse print sources which sur-vive from this period – including published travel ac-counts written by those that explored the New World, descriptions that survive of court masques which toyed with contemporary ideas of empire, as well as plays about colonisation, such as The Tempest. These sources appeal to me most because I get to further explore my interests in language and literature; which, I’ll admit, is a relic from my undergraduate study that I’m finding hard to give up.

I’m hoping to conclude my research – though I’m far from this point yet – by making light of the ways that ideas about the New World were transported across Eu-rope, as well as how they were consumed and interpret-ed by contemporaries. For the moment I’m still doing secondary reading to gain a better understanding of the historiography of this field, and also determine whether there are unanswered questions for me to investigate. A good amount of early modern print sources are avail-able online, but I would love to make a trip to the British Library and Museum in the future to paw over origi-nal travel accounts, and perhaps even view objects that were collected by travellers from the New World.

Misha Ewen

A Postgraduate Student’s Thoughts on her Research

and Postgraduate Life

Review of Orpheus Descending

This rather relatively underperformed Tennessee Wil-liams’ play is set in the Deep South in the 40s. Claustro-phobia and prejudice smothers the small town, where the parochial poison of vicious and sadistic hatred of wops, blacks and those that just don’t conform steadily intensifies. This is a deeply unsettling play that discom-forts the audience, who can only remain held captivated by some moving performances and mighty rhythm.

Imogen Stubbs plays Lady, the aging wife of a dying dry goods storeowner, whose loveless marriage and Si-cilian background increasingly isolate her in this mis-erable town. Stubbs gives an incredible before of huge d e p t h and range, her vul- n e r a b i l -ity and p a s s i o n e m e r g e cautiously f r o m i n i t i a l f r o s t i - ness. The arrival of the out-sider, the unknown m u s i - cian with a shady past, has a desul- t r i f y i n g e f f e c t on Lady. Played by Luke Nor-ris, this interloper Val is trying to start a new life with his guitar as a form of resurrection. His vitality and apparent liberty have a fascinating appeal to Lady. Norris’s performance is cer-tainly strong, but Stubbs gives a transfixing portrayal that outshines the rest of the cast. She has a wonderful intensity and sensuality, as evident as it was the last time she performed at the Exchange in Private Lives.

Despite the ultimately tragic brutality of this play, it is not without amusing, indeed, absurd moments. Howev-er, the overall tone of the play is ominous, the periodic baying of chain-gang dogs and Choctaw chants are un-settling. The disgraced, promiscuous Cutrere girl (Jodie McNee) interludes throughout the play, indicating and prophesying the ostracism that besets anyone who devi-ates from the crushing mores of 1950s Louisiana. Or-pheus Descending leaves one with the impression that in such a society, even the greatest strength of character or romance will be torn down by loathing, jealous and fear. As a modern retelling of the Greek myth of Or-pheus, the futility of love is stunning in this production.

Charlie Bush

Photo by Jonathan Keenan

MJC- First of all, what brought you to the University of Manchester?DF – What really took me to this institution is the fact that there’s way more to the job and the community than just the teaching and the research. You have a vari-ety of institutes here like the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI), the Brooks World Poverty Institute, the Centre for the Cultural History of War; you’ve got plenty of things that add many dimensions to what I can contribute here.

MJC – What did you do before academia?DF – I took about a six or seven year break between finishing University and getting into graduate school. So I spent a good chunk of my twenties wandering around, really, trying different things, and trying some independent underground film projects. Heading off to China to try my hand at freelance journalism without a resumé that could get me a job in a newsroom, I had to try and get in through the back door. The idea, then, was to go to a part of the world that was somewhat un-der-reported, in other words a part of the world where a news room would be excited to get news copy. I got some contacts in a few newsrooms around the world, mainly in Tokyo at the Japan Times, and wrote stories from China, using an interpreter because I had no Chi-nese at the time (sic.).

MJC – Do you think History students from the Univer-sity of Manchester can learn from your experience?DF – In the field of journalism, resumés don’t neces-sarily matter. If it’s journalism we’re talking about, it’s the ability to manage an uncomfortable environment and find a story; what a newspaper wants to read. Those are things that that a resumé won’t necessarily help you with. Of course, you’ve got to network in terms of what you can get published. I’d encourage any Manchester student to head out there and see what they can do be-fore they get a full-on graduate degree, because it’s also very useful when you’re getting a graduate degree to ap-proach it from another, outside academia perspective. One of the ways I was able to finance grad school is that there were fellowships out there which were fellowships for people who can demonstrate an ability to put out academic work that you can put out there for the wider public. So that required a sort of journalistic style, a cer-tain style of writing and so I came to grad school with a portfolio, it also helped fund my graduate schooling.

MJC – Which courses are you teaching this year?DF – Right now I’m teaching is a Level 3 course called The Margins Mobilise. Looking at the modern experi-ence, how modernity is seen through everyday people, in other words; working girls, refugees fleeing crises, re-bels against the state. It’s sort of an everyday history of the modern period.

MJC – Do you have any advice for History students coping with their workload?DF – One thing I would strongly, strongly suggest is: visit your professors, your lecturers way more often. I think many students don’t realise that there can be a conversation beyond the classroom; where they want to take their work, how they want to approach their read-ing, how they want to approach the course. See your lecturers more; I would suggest for students to show up for the lectures and the office hours and talk about the challenges of the course. The lecturers would be, by and large, happy to because it makes their lives easier as well. The other thing is to be deliberately conscious about how you approach the readings.

Michael Cass

Interview: Dr. Pierre Fuller

Which movement in-volved a regal robe, a bicy-cle and milk? The Temper-ance movement, of course.

The People’s History Museum, located in Manchester’s old pump house, accommodates this exhibition now in its final few months. Midweek the museum is rather empty, so the demography of the few visitors wandering around while I was there was limited to students and thirty-something’s, while the child-orientated activities draw families on weekends.

Originating in Liverpool and moving swiftly to Preston and the rest of the North West, the Temperance move-ment developed out of the Beerhouse Act of 1830. This Act hoped to increase competition between breweries, thus lowering the price and weaning the public off more alcoholic drinks such as gin (given frequently to chil-dren to keep them quiet, have you seen Sweeney Todd?), but subsequently fuelled beer consumption. The move-ment drew on the newest scientific information of the time to support economic, moral and social arguments against drinking, whilst providing social alternatives for its members; men and women, adults and children.

Despite some repetition and if you can either overlook or are happy to participate in the activities for children, the abundance of historical memorabilia is worth a visit: archive film footage, maps, photographs, posters and artefacts from the movement spanning a century. Those interested in a specific and largely unknown so-cial movement in the nineteenth century will enjoy this exhibition. In fact, students wanting to adopt a nine-teenth century substitute for alcohol would benefit from a visit. The real gem however, was the museum itself. Its modesty in the museum world makes it a pleasant place to peruse, where you can take tea with a view of the canal and get some reading done in the Study Centre. To find out how the regal robe, the bicy-cle and milk are connected, pay a visit.

Charlotte Johnson

The Didsbury Beer Festival was a three-day event, cel-ebrating the beers, ales, perries and ciders from inde-pendent breweries throughout Britain. Returning for its fifth year the Festival has expanded both in capac-ity and the range of drinks on offer. It was hosted by St Catherine’s Social Club, which also provided a wide range of music and a surprisingly good curry to accom-pany the booze. Initially, set up by locals in Didsbury who want to enlighten people to the wonders of Brit-ish beverages with all profits going to local charities.

Included in the entry was a pint glass and drinks cou-pons. The marquee was bustling with people but there rarely was a need to queue for your pint. With all the ales in one marquee I found myself walking up and down try-ing to work out how to decide which ones to try. Despite my wish to try them all I decided that I would go for the ones with the most interesting flavours. I started with the seasonal pumpkin ale by Quantum Brewers. Unfortu-nately I would have to say that pumpkin really shouldn’t be added to ale. Despite a bad start, I persevered with the Triple Chocoholic by Soltaire and the Ginger Pale Ale by Little Valley. These ales were much more appealing, with the former having an almost Guinness taste with a hint of chocolate. To finish the night I decided to try a perry and a cider. The Double Vision Elderflower I sampled was an absolute delight and something I would recom-mend to anyone. Unfortunately I didn’t stop there and decided to end the night with the Moss-Cider which, as the name may suggest, left me wishing I hadn’t risked it.

Will Porter

Demon Drink? Temperance and the

Working Class

Didsbury Beer Festival

Exhibition at the People’s History Museum, 30 June 2012 — 24 February 2013

Demon Drink Exhibition phtoograph by Charlotte Johnson

The April 1986 nuclear disaster of Chernobyl remains an infamous date throughout history. From this, the Whitworth Art Gallery’s latest exhibition of the works of British artists Jane and Louise Wilson seek to entice the attention and imaginations of students from a variety of academic programmes. One of the main focuses of the ex-hibit centres upon the Wilson’s exploration of the recent obsession of the 1986 Chernobyl power station disaster and the abandoned nuclear exclusion zone city of Pripyat.

The works include a premiere of the Wilson’s new short film ‘The Toxic Camera’, a factual dramatisation which takes its inspiration from the later reflections of the Soviet filmmaker Vladimir Shevchenko’s camera crew, who were granted access to the area to document the af-termath. Taking into account the recent proliferation in the historical study of social memory, ‘The Toxic Cam-era’ offers an intriguing medium with which to gauge how Shevchenko and his contemporaries considered human impact upon the earth. It also further explores the jeopardy of their own mortality posed by the radia-tion they willingly entered. Visitors are made aware of what the Wilson’s term to be ‘‘radiation’s sadistic rap-ture’’ by revelations including the death of Shevchenko’s camera and film technician. Shevchenko never visited the site but his contact with the polluted materials alone was sufficient enough to induce radiation poisoning.

The complementary screening of Shevchenko’s ‘Cher-nobyl: A Chronicle of Difficult Weeks’ is also en-lightening in the field of social memory and stud-ies of patriotism and the suppression of knowledge. Twenty six years on from the disintegration of ‘Reac-tor 4’ media coverage and popular commemoration rarely offer insight into the ‘decontamination pro-grams’ which relied upon the military and a 30,000

plus force of volunteers from across the USSR. Through Shevchenko and the Wilson’s films we can extrapolate the sense of collective responsibility felt by large por-tions of the population in the wake of the disaster.

The Wilson’s ‘Atomgrad: Nature Abhors a Vacuum’ is a powerful series of photographic prints of the once prosperous Pripyat. It is left in its current state, as na-ture returns to reclaim the land once occupied by lei-sure centres and theatres. The image of a decimated lower school classroom with books still on desks is an enduring image capturing the fragility of human life and civilisation. It seeks to serve as a historical testa-ment to the dangers of atomic energy. The prints and film screenings are framed by the haunting crack-le of Geiger meters and the recurring use of yard-sticks which the Wilson’s have employed to illustrate the desolation and emptiness of the exclusion zone.

Despite the artistic backgrounds of the installations in this exhibit students of history and other disciplines should not be deterred from visiting this moving and interesting interpretation of a significant moment in twentieth century history. Further complementary events to this exhibit will be running in November and January including ‘‘Apocalypse Now: thinking about ru-ins and radiation’’, a seminar which will feature Dr Paul Dobraszczyk of the University of Manchester’s SAHC.

Robbie WilsonThe exhibition will be open until 27th January 2013.

CHERNOBYLJane and Louise Wilson: Atomgrad

HISTORY LEFT

BEHINDLiving in the hectic metropolis of Manchester, it’s hard to imagine the bustling streets empty and abandoned, the buildings left to ruin and decay, and complete silence where once was the sound of thousands of people. However there are entire Islands in the world that have been abandoned, now uninhabitable, and buildings which saw thousands pass through their walls, now empty and decaying.

Hashima Island (ABOVE)

This concrete slab in the Pacific Ocean will be recognisable to anyone who has seen the latest Bond film, Skyfall. The island has been abandoned for nearly forty years but before then it had the highest population density in the world. Its rein-forced concrete residential blocks were home to 5,000 employees of the Mitsubishi Corporation. The company mined coal from the seabed, around ‘Battleship’ Island. The labour force extracted huge quantities of coal but when demand for petroleum took off, Mitsubishi closed the mine and Hashima was deserted.

Beelitz Military Hospital (BELOW)

This hospital in a suburb of Berlin was mostly abandoned by 2000, after over 100 years of use. It served as a sanatorium for the Imperial German Army in the First World War. After Adolf Hitler was injured at the Somme, he recuperated in this hospital. At the end of the Second World War, it was taken over by the Soviets and continued as a military hospital until 1995. Now only the Neuro-logical Rehabilitation Centre is still in operation, the rest slowly decays, unvandalised. No longer a destination for injured soldiers but curious visitors and film-makers (The Pianist and Valkyrie used the location).

We all know plenty about Sicily, Crete and Cuba, but what about those tiny little patches of land in Earth’s vast oceans? Here’s a few interesting facts about threeislands you may only know very little about…

South Sandwich IslandsWe all know about the controversies surround-ing the Falkland War, but the South Sandwich Islands were a site of British-Argentine tension long before the Falkland Islands. Located east of the Southern coast of Argentina, James Cook discovered these islands in 1775 who named them “Sandwich Land” in honour of the 4th Earl of Sandwich. They were formally annexed by the UK in 1908, however Argentina laid claim to the islands in 1938. They challenged British sover-eignty on the islands numerous times, including maintaining a naval base on the southeastern coast of Thule Island from 1976 to 1982, after a brief stint in the same locale with a summer station in the mid-1950s. Efforts were made by the British to resolve the situation via diplomatic means, however it was unsuccessful and the issue was dissolved into the Falklands War in 1982. Today, they remain a British overseas territory which Argentina still lays claim to.

Diomede IslandsPerhaps the least known of this bunch, these two islands could have been the site of some particu-larly heavy nuclear bombing had the USSR not collapsed. They are located in the Bering Strait which separates Russia and Alaska. The islands are responsible for marking the boundary between Russia and the USA – the 1867 purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire by the United States uses these islands as territorial markers. Big Diomede is still part of Russian territory and was once occu-pied by people, but during World War II the Soviet government relocated the entire population to the mainland in order to use the island as a military base. Little Diomede remains part of the USA and is home to a small Inuit population of 170 people. Though due to weather conditions the residents of Little Diomede are poorly connected to the main-land, a small Russian military presence on Big Diomede (only 2.5 miles away) might just be the last remnant of the Cold War.

Thursday Island (Waiben)Waiben is the local Melanesian name for this is-land located just North of the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, Australia. Home to a Melanesian population for thousands of years, the island is be-lieved to have been first discovered by Captain Wil-liam Bligh after being set afloat from the mutiny of the Bounty. A government outpost was set up by the British colonial government in 1877. In the 1880s it became a huge site for pearl diving, particularly popular with the Japanese and today there remain large gravesites on the islands for Japanese pearl divers. A fort was built in 1892 to protect the island from Russian occupation after worsening Anglo-Russian relations; however it has been out of use since 1927. During World War II it became the main government site for the entire group of islands in the area known as the Torres Strait Islands and it was spared from Japanese bombing due to Japanese concerns about pearl divers on the island. It became a subject of a territorial dispute with Papua New Guinea in the 1960s, due to the Melanesian population, but the decision was ruled in favour of Australia. Today it represents one of the challenges the Australian government faces regarding indigenous peoples.

Even if you have not, by some stroke of luck or misfor-tune, seen any of the James Bond films, it is very likely that you have at least heard of the franchise. This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first James Bond film Dr. No, and we are now on the sixth actor to take the reins of the womanising super spy. The books go back even further. In many ways how James Bond is perceived reflects how the British see themselves, and this is most clearly seen in the evolution of the James Bond films, and how our perceptions have changed with them.

For many, Sean Connery has been the best Bond to date: smooth and charming yet at the drop of a hat a cold blooded killer with deadly efficiency. In the dying days of the British Empire this was a comforting im-age to hold on to, suggesting that whilst Britain’s star was fading, it was still powerful and not to be underes-timated despite its calmness. Roger Moore’s flicks (La-zenby’s one film stint was sandwiched between Con-nery’s and so for convenience will not be looked into) were increasingly outlandish in a desperate attempt to capitalise on current trends, as in Moonraker, yet one

theme remained: suaveness, unflappability, bottomless charm and the ability to do what was necessary. Despite what was considered rather silly overtones, the portray-als of an Englishman flying around the world solving international problems continued to reflect a belief that Britain was a relevant power in the new world.

When Timothy Dalton took on the role of James Bond, this perception had changed, and as a result so did the films. They became darker and more realistic, focus-ing less on protecting the world and more on British interests as Britain became less focused abroad and more on domestic issues. However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the focus of the Bond films had to change drastically to remain relevant. The Brosnan films became a mix of the Moore and Dalton films, with outlandish gadgets accompanying more ground-ed issues such as international terrorism and, in the last Brosnan outing, the threat posed by North Korea.

This leads us to the latest instalment: the Craig films. If we pretend for a moment, like most of the world, that “Quantum of Solace” didn’t happen, the Dan-iel Craig Bond films have a radically different feel. In a reflection of what is demanded of an action hero nowadays, Bond is still smooth and full of quips but now rougher round the edges, feeling pain like an ac-tual human being. This is a far cry from the Connery films of old, where it felt like nothing could really harm him, and this reflects how Britain sees itself today, no longer an undefeatable superpower, or a nation des-perately clinging to an oldidea of empire, but tough and capable, able to hold its own on the world stage.

Tom Oliver

JAMES BOND,

The Phantom Limb of the Empire

Bulldog Jack by Royal Doulton as seen in Skyfall

Weather may be the most influential actor in human his-tory. From fluctuating harvests to monumental changes in global climate, it will always be largely outside of our control. Storms are a sudden reminder of this. Only last week Hurricane Sandy threatened to under-mine the work of dozens of political operatives working on the Presidential campaigns. Sandy is just one of a line of great storms that have threatened the Northeast Unit-ed States and its role as the centre of the global economy over the past century.

The New England Hurricane of 1938 ravaged the north east leaving over 600 dead. Salford’s own Alistair Cooke, in a Letter from America, recalled reports of a New York cinema being carried two miles into the Atlantic with twenty film-goers still inside. In Charlestown, Rhode Island a house was carried across the street, deposited intact and stood, occupied, until it was demolished last year. In 1944 The Great Atlantic Hurricane stormed, uninvited, into the Second World War and sunk a U.S. Navy Destroyer and Minesweeper.

As well as inspiring awe at the force of nature, super-storms are responsible for awe-inspiring human en-

Winds of Change?...or just the same old problem?

deavour. Hurricane Sandy saw partisan politics cast aside in order to tackle the devastation it created in New Jersey and New York whilst unnamed heroes took to skis and snowmobiles to rescue stranded motorists, buried in their cars, and victims of blocked exhausts on Interstate-95 in the New England Blizzard of 1978. They also inspire innovation. The transport gridlock caused by the Great Blizzard of 1888 precipitated the first US subway system which is fundamental to why New York today is rarely paralysed by heavy snow.

But the weather can turn: who knows if winter will see New York Library’s books burned as kindling?

Kieran Smith

STOP PRESS!Manchester PMH Graduate, Graham Hughes, is the first person to vis-it all 201 countries in the world without flying! 200 weeks from starting, travelling 250,000km over land and sea, he entered South Sudan on 26th November.

The history of European integration can be traced back to 1306, and the idea proposed by Pierre Dubois that European princes should form an assembly in order to attempt to secure a lasting European peace.

706 years later, much of the continent is tied, to some degree, to the European Union evidenced by Greece’s re-cent signing of the New Deal. How did this come to pass?

The foundations of the European Union lie in the es-tablishment of the European Coal and Steel Commu-nity (ECSC) following the basis for the rationalisation of Europe’s steel industry outlined by French For-eign Minister Robert Schuman in 1950. For the first time, member states of the ECSC would be brought together under a supranational political author-ity. The ECSC was eventually ratified when France, Italy, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and West Germany signed the Treaty of Paris in 1951.

Further attempts by the French government to wid-en the political integration of Europe, however, were met with opposition as plans for a European Defence Community (EDC) and a European Political Com-munity were shelved in 1954, with European col-lective security organised through NATO instead.

However, despite this defeat, 1957 saw the organisa-tion of the Treaty of Rome between member states of the ECSC, which led to the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC) and Eu-ropean Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) fol-lowing the recommendations of the Spaak Report.

The Treaty of Rome served for the basis of the widening of political integration. By 1967, the ECSC, EEC and Euratom were merged to create the European Communi-ties - later named the European Community (EC) – after the Merger Treaty in Brussels. However there were also increasing intimations regarding the possibility of a Eu-ropean-wide monetary integration, which were influ-enced by fears over the stability of international finance and the need for Europe to secure its monetary future.

The 1970s and ‘80s saw the increasing influence of the EC and the common market in the European politi-cal and economic landscape, seeing its membership in-crease in 1973 with Denmark, Ireland and the United

Kingdom. Following further enlargements to the ranks of the EC, the Maastricht Treaty was signed in 1992, paving the way for the establishment of the European Union (EU) and led to the establishment of a single European currency – the Euro – presided over by the European Central Bank. Further amendments to the Maastricht Treaty came in the form the Amsterdam (1999), Nice (2003) and Lisbon Treaties (2009) in which adjustments were made to the functioning and demo-cratic legitimacy of the EU, accommodating Eastward expansion and enhancing individual citizenship rights.

Contemporary debate concerning the European Un-ion is concerned with the stability of the Eurozone’s monetary integrity, specifically the health of Europe-an banks and European budget deficits. It is increas-ingly widely acknowledged that in order to ensure the long-term health of the Eurozone and its banks, further European integration should take place in the form of a European banking union. The aim be-hind a banking union is to oversee a co-ordinated su-pervision and regulation of European banks and en-sure that good financial practises are followed. The talks regarding this next stage of European integra-tion are poised to begin in Brussels this December.

Michael Cass

The Economic History of the European Union

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One of the most controversial episodes of October 2012 was the revelation that many multinational companies, including Starbucks, Apple and Google, have been evad-ing corporate taxes in the UK through tax management schemes. Most strikingly, all of these schemes have been legal leading to suggestions that such companies have undue influence over politicians in this country. Howev-er, commercial interference in the state is nothing new.

Much of the initial imperial expansion of Britain is owed to commercial interest. The desire to dominate the markets for primary goods in Europe led to con-flict between companies that often turned violent. It was in the interest of states economically for their own companies to control these markets. This inter-est led to military (the supply of troops) and eco-nomic (in the form of limited liability) intervention.

In no case did this intervention prove more successful than in that of the East India Company. It was Eliza-beth 1st who granted the company the monopoly in trade from the Cape of Good Hope. Through grant-ing licenses for privateering and the limited service of her navies, Britain could successfully manage this trading stream, guaranteeing huge domestic profits.

Although the East India Company did pay its tax-es, it benefited politically in many other ways. Most notably, an East India Company lobby was creat-ed, designed solely to protect its interests in parlia-ment. Furthermore, by financially supporting un-stable foreign leaders, they ensured their continued influence abroad. If any aspect of the company is echoed in the recent headlines, this must surely be it.

However, this history provides a word of warning for today’s multinationals. The ultimate downfall of the East India Company was not market competition; it was rather its increasing involvement in the Bengalese government that meant it simply stopped focusing on trade. As such, politics killed the profits of the East India Company.

Alice Rigby

History of EvilCorporations

The concepts of mobility and freedom are centuries-old, yet little has shaped

their history more than the bicycle.

German Karl Von Drais cre-ated the first commercially suc-cessful, two-wheeled vehicle

in 1818. He called it the veloci-pede and across Europe Drais’

d e s i g n was copied and reinvented as fashion-able. It was, however, confined to an aristocratic mar-ket by its high novelty and financial value. London dock-workers christened the velocipedes “dandy-hors-es” in reference to the type of men who rode them.

The vehicle returned to vogue when an unknown French metal-worker added pedals to the velocipede frame. In 1868 velocipedes were produced on an industrial scale in Paris but its high price excluded workers from the craze.

It was the invention of the safety bike in the 1890s that marked a turning point in personal mobility. The unsta-ble and dangerous high-wheel cycles of the 1870s were more likely to break your wrists than change your pros-pects but their successor was a big improvement. This gave way to the “golden age” of bicycle manufacture.

For women this transformation was particularly impor-tant. The safety bicycle was the “freedom machine” that gave women unprecedented mobility out of their homes and into society. It became a symbol of the “New Wom-an” even in its impact on clothing: restrictive corsets and dresses could not be worn while cycling. The influence of the bicycle on women’s emancipation was massive.

In western societies the vehicle boom of the early twentieth century turned cycling into a leisure activ-ity. Different styles of bike emerged but with the pri-mary function of exercise and enjoyment. Yet in Vi-etnam or China the initial value of bikes lives on. There are now more bikes than people in some ma-jor Chinese cities, many mobilizing poor workers. Over two centuries the bicycle has been converted from the playboy’s toy to the working man’s carrier.

Alex Underwood

And on a lighter note...How Bikes Changed Our

History

An announcement from THE HISTORY SOCIETY:Following our sporting theme last issue, we asked the History Society for an update on its sports teams .This semester the History Society has fielded four sports teams in the Campus Leagues. All four teams have proved a refreshing addition to the Campus League scene, demonstrating a competitive zeal in their efforts whilst providing the fun and relaxed environment in which History students have been able to enjoy their sport. Despite a strong start to the season from the cricket, netball and football sides, the stand-out team of the season so far has been the hockey. Pushing for promotion and already looking set as one of the strongest sides in their division, the hockey team have played an exciting and enjoyable brand of the sport.

Having caught up with ‘star player’ Will Porter in between lectures, I had an opportunity to catch his views on the season so far: ‘playing hockey for history has been a liberating experience, it’s given me the opportunity to get to know my course-mates even better in a social environment, whilst bringing a joie de vivre to the campus league scene’.

With the end of the semester approaching all the sides are looking forward to a restorative winter break, a chance to be refreshed and ready for the final push for success in the second half of the year. Jamie Lawlor President of the History SocietyIf you are interested in playing in a team for History, email histsport@gmail.com.

Arletty’s Parlour

Cosy café bar serving tasty food,coffees and fantastic cocktails!

EVENTS6th December: Miles Taylor (IHR), The Cult of Queen Victoria in India, 4pm for 4.15pm, Room 4.206, Univer-sity Place. Research Seminar.14th to 25th January: Exam Period. N.B. The examination timetables are published the last two weeks of term.30th January: Sasha Handley, ‘Sleep and Sociability in Eighteenth-Century England’, 1-2pm, Mansfield Cooper 4.05. 31st January to 4th February: History Society Trip to Prague. Excitement is building for our post-exam Prague trip! Shake off those revision blues with a post-exam trip to the lively city of Prague. Historical sites, Czech beer and big nights out - the perfect combination. You can book your place now with just a £40 deposit. £149 total. http://www.outgoing.co.uk/trip/manchistpragSemester 2, Wednesday Lunchtime Seminars, feel free to bring a packed lunch. Everybody welcome. Any en-quiries to penny.summerfield@manchester.ac.uk13th February: Georg Christ, ‘Trade Embargoes. Concept - Enforcement - Coping Mechanisms in Northern Eu-rope and the Eastern Mediterranean in the thirteenth century’, 1-2pm, Mansfield Cooper 4.05. 27th February: Chris Manias, ‘Public Presentations of Deep Time Evolution in the early-twentieth century’, 1-2pm, Mansfield Cooper 4.05. 13th March: Jenny Spinks, ‘Civil war, print culture and violence in sixteenth-century France’, 1-2pm, Mansfield Cooper 4.05. 17th April: Laurence Brown, ‘The 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act: A Global History’, Wednesdays 1-2pm, Mansfield Cooper 4.05. 1st May Sarah Roddy, ‘The spiritual empire strikes back: Transnationalism, migration and Ireland’s “devotional revolution”’, Wednesdays 1-2pm, Mansfield Cooper 4.05.

Free Wi-Fi Inside The Lansdowne Hotel 346 Wilmslow RoadManchester M14 6AB arlettysparlour12@gmail.comFind us on Facebook and Twitter

Come and celebrate the end of the semester with the History Staff

Wednesday 12 December5-6.30pm

Samuel Alexander North Foyer

Come along for free drinks and mince pies