'History is written by the winners' is an observation so old that it has no known origin and is simply proverbial; though it feels like one of those precise, intensely quotable sayings by a Roman historian such as Tacitus.
One thinks of Alexander setting off to conquer Persia with a tame historian on his staff, Callisthenes: because what is the point of doing epochal deeds if no one knows about them ? Particularly when you are a hero in the mould of Achilles. One thinks likewise of Julius Caesar being his own historian for the same reason, in 'De Bello Gallico' and elsewhere: but surely very few people take Caesar at his own estimation or uncritically today. Napoleon did not have a director of propaganda, characteristically he was his own: though perhaps we could see the savants he took with him to Egypt as so many Callistheneses. One thinks of Churchill's often repeated joke "History will be kind to me - for I am going to write it."
But is history really kind to Churchill nowadays ? What about Gallipoli, as one instance among several ?
Chinua Achebe
Last February on Twitter, William Dalrymple tweeted a marvellous quote by Chinua Achebe:
"Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter."
It stuck with me because it's just so true. Also, because it reminds me of one of my favourite fables by Aesop, 'The Man and the Lion.' Aesop - let's say it is him - puts his finger on something profound and fundamental. I would retell it like this:
The Man and the Lion
A man and a lion were walking together. They were arguing about which is better and stronger, men or lions. It so happened that they came upon a statue of a man killing a lion.
"You see ?" said the man, indicating the statue.
"Yeah" said the lion, "but if lions could make statues . . ."
Here is another version of that story, from the Library of Congress' Aesop for Children:
The Man & the Lion
A Lion and a Man chanced to travel in company through the forest. They soon began to quarrel, for each of them boasted that he and his kind were far superior to the other both in strength and mind.
Now they reached a clearing in the forest and there stood a statue. It was a representation of Heracles in the act of tearing the jaws of the Nemean Lion.
"See," said the man, "that's how strong we are! The King of Beasts is like wax in our hands!"
"Ho!" laughed the Lion, "a Man made that statue. It would have been quite a different scene had a Lion made it!"
It all depends on the point of view, and who tells the story.
Aesop's insight I think is that history is not so much written by the winners as by those who have the ability and the power to represent; a broader group which can include the winners. This fable always makes me think of the marginalisation and exclusion of women from history, which we are slowly beginning to correct, because those with the power to represent were almost always men. Hence the persistent ugly misogynistic streak in our culture, from the Garden of Eden story onwards.
I don't know why the lion is looking frightened in this version. Illustrations of this story are however surprisingly rare.
The BBC showed Doctor Zhivago this afternoon. The plot summary for it made me laugh out loud. It was the following, nothing more:
A doctor (Omar Sharif) falls in love with the mistress of a political opportunist.
It's not wrong: it is an accurate summary of the plot as far as it goes; but the bald, blunt reductiveness is absurd compared to the famous epic drama it is describing. It's like calling St. Peter's Basilica "a church in Rome" or Shakespeare "a well-known writer from the Midlands."
It got me thinking about doing the same - absurd summaries - to other classics. Here are some I thought of:
Anna Karenina
A married Russian noblewoman embarks on an affair with an army officer.
In some ways we resemble people from the past: in others, they are utterly alien. We share many of the same emotions, but they may be triggered by the equivalent, similar or quite different causes. I want to illustrate this by examining British recruitment posters from World War One. What I believe we shall find is that in most, the emotion they are playing on is recognisable even if the immediate stimulus of it is not: we understand what encouragement and shame (the two most used triggers) are even if we do not feel them from the same sources as our ancestors in the first 15 years of the 20th century. We shall also find that people at that time responded to stimuli almost entirely incomprehensible to us: this is the shock of abruptly realising again that the people from the past are in the past, a different place with different mores, standards and assumptions; a different mental universe.
The image of Lord Kitchener above is so famous it has become unmoored from its origin, endlessly reproduced, imitated and parodied. We might rank it with the following:
I'm not going to name the first painting above: it is superfluous to do so; that's how famous it is. The next are Hokusai's 'The Great Wave': Korda's photograph of Che Guevara; Munch's 'The Scream'; Delacroix' 'Liberty Leading the People'. Almost anyone with the vaguest visual literacy will recognise them, and probably be able to say who made them, where they were made and their title (excepting Che), although they might not know much beyond that, like when they were made and why. That haziness around the specifics - who for instance is Lord Kitchener and what exactly did he do ? - is proof of how famous the images are, not a denial of it.
Conscription was not introduced in the UK until early 1916. To encourage enlistment, the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee produced an extraordinary range of posters in late 1914 and especially 1915. Many of these posters were in my opinion extremely effective because they were simple and clear, and played on two very powerful stimuli, encouragement and shame: sometimes a mixture of the two; surely they are closely allied feelings, each contains an element of the other. The techniques of these posters could be studied with advantage by any modern propagandist, campaigner or advertiser: I'm sure they do; for instance, modern anti-smoking campaigns.
I want to concentrate on 1915, and come back to late 1914 for reasons which will become clear when we do so. The following posters were all issued by the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, and the issue numbers underneath are those used by that Committee. I have included the month of issue where I have it. By September 1915, the Committee had distributed the remarkable figure of more than 5 500 000 posters. Here are examples which use encouragement:
PRC no.22
PRC no.122
June, 1915. PRC no. 96
February, 1915. PRC no.35. Note how the line of men extends beyond the frame on the left.
PRC no. 87
An element of shame is entering more evidently into that last example. The following very famous poster mixes the two stimuli:
by E. J. Kealey, March, 1915. PRC no. 75
There is a well known song from 1914 which is an aural equivalent to the 'Women of Britain say - "Go !"' poster: it is called 'Your King and Your Country Want You', though you might recognise it from the line "We don't want to lose you, but we think you ought to go." Here is the sheet music:
You can see it is specifically called 'A Woman's Recruiting Song'.
Here are two versions, the first by Helen Clark:
And the second by Edna Thornton:
There is a minor but interesting point in the first verse, regarding a strategy of persuasion - flattering the target of persuasion that he is in a higher social class than he really is. This technique is still widely used today.
We've watched you playing cricket And every kind of game
At football, golf and polo, You men have made your name,
But now your country calls you To play your part in war,
And no matter what befalls you, We shall love you all the more,
So come and join the forces As your fathers did before.
Oh! we don't want to lose you but we think you ought to go
For your King and your Country both need you so;
We shall want you and miss you but with all our might and main
We shall cheer you, thank you, kiss you When you come back again.
To the average male listener, the idea that they had played polo is flattery and a considerable social promotion. The overwhelming majority of British men would have played cricket, football and rugby: virtually none would have played polo, which was the preserve of army officers and wealthy civilians.
The emphasis in the following posters has shifted and is definitely on shame.
PRC no.125
PRC no. 74
PRC no. 128. Note the Union Jack lettering.
PRC no. 103
PRC no. 65
That last is brutally concise, the essence of what so many of these posters are getting at. This next example has this and other posters in the background, a composite of some of the rest of the campaign.
PRC no.121
This famous next example leans heavily on shame.
PRC no. 79
I once saw Tim O'Brien, one of the great writers about the Vietnam War and a veteran of it, on one the series about that war, probably either PBS' 'Vietnam: A Television History' (which is the best on this topic I've seen) or Ken Burns' 'The Vietnam War'. Unfortunately I cannot find the exact reference for what follows*, I am going to paraphrase Tim O'Brien, and I hope he will forgive me because I believe that this is accurate to what he meant. He said that the principal reason he obeyed the draft when he was drafted was the fear of the disapproval of his fellow townspeople in his home town if he did not: and that, looking back after his experience in the war, it seemed a stupid reason and an insufficient one; if he knew when he was drafted what he knew after serving, he would refuse to go and damn anyone's disapproval. But I think it also goes to show that social shame, the disapproval of one's peers, is an extremely powerful force: one which the posters above are trying to arouse.
This next poster addresses women directly, to overcome concerns and resistance they might have.
PRC no. 69
Point 1 there is referring to German Army atrocities in Belgium, a theme we will pick up later on. Point 3 is the same as 'Women of Britain say - "Go !"'. Point 4 is the same as "Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War ?" We can see how the messages of the posters are reinforcing one another: the whole campaign is coordinated. Note in this regard the relentless slogans of 'Enlist Now', 'Enlist At Once', 'Enlist To-Day' - seeing 'To-Day' hyphenated gave me pause when I first saw it on these posters, it looks odd because we don't do it anymore: a telling orthographic hint that we are dealing with the past.
Now we come to the poster from 1914 which was the starting point for researching this piece, because I could hardly believe it when I first saw it: here one stumbles against the threshold to the past, because the feeling it is trying to summon up seems so entirely alien.
by Lawson Wood. 1914. PRC no. 17
I think that even in 1914, although some would have found this line
convincing, many spectators would have reacted negatively to it: I don’t think
it is anachronistic to say so. As an ordinary citizen, I am going off to war to get killed or maimed physically perhaps and mentally definitely, 'to maintain the honour and glory of the British Empire' ?
There is a lot to analyse in this poster.
A Scottish soldier stands in a Belgian street. He is from a Highland regiment, though which one in particular I have been unable to identify**. We know it is Belgium because of the bi-lingual sign - 'Jan Mirael Straat/Rue Jean Mirae'. We can compare his uniform and equipment with actual highland soldiers of World War One:
Gordon Highlander, WWI
Gordon Highlander, WWI
Gordon Highlander, WWI, with ceremonial sporran similar to the soldier on the poster.
I do have to wonder how the proud soldier in the poster is going to get on against shells, barbed-wire, rifle and machine gun fire. For all his pride, he seems a soft target.
Here are real Gordon Highlanders in combat in World War I, with helmets and puttees:
The statement 'A Wee "Scrap o' Paper" Is Britain's Bond' needs explaining. First, the 'scrap of paper' part. This was a very important element in the British Government's justification for entering the war, and in its propaganda.
In the next paragraph I am going
to give an account of a small but significant element of the series of events
which led to the outbreak of World War I. Its purpose is to explain the phrase 'scrap
of paper'. It is not intended to be a full account of the immediate series of
events leading to the outbreak: that would be another blog of its own; the
reader must supply the deficiency from their own knowledge or research. It also
does not imply the attribution of guilt for the outbreak to any of the
belligerents in particular. My current understanding - which may be revised -
is that essentially all the major Powers were coequally guilty in the outbreak
of the war and in persisting with it once it had broken out, because they
shared a common mindset. This mindset can perhaps be summarised under the term
Imperialism: which is to say, they thought and acted like senior gangsters, but
with vastly greater resources and consequences. Some examples of how they
resembled gangsters are the following: intense competition with their rivals,
with the accurate fear of being overtaken and destroyed; greed for territory and
resources; willingness to use violence to get what they want and to hold it.
When I say all the Powers were guilty, I mean exactly that, not that no one was
guilty because everyone was. Wars do not just happen: they are not a mysterious
event occurring without any human intervention; they are the outcome of political decisions.
Early on the morning of August 4th, 1914, the German Army invaded Belgium on its route to northern France. They were taking this route to bypass the network of forts defending France's eastern frontier with Germany. The Belgian Government called for military assistance from Great Britain under the Treaty of London of 1839, which had established Belgium as a country recognised by all the major Powers and guaranteed its neutrality. The British Government issued an ultimatum to the German Government that they had to withdraw, which expired at 11 pm London time. The British Ambassador in Berlin, Sir Edward Goschen, went to see Gottlieb von Jagow, the State Secretary at the German Foreign Office, to see if the Germans would withdraw, but he said it was too late. This was about 7 pm. Goschen then went to see the German Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg. Goschen subsequently wrote in his report to Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign Secretary:
"I found the Chancellor very agitated. His Excellency at once began a harangue, which lasted for about twenty minutes. He said that the steps taken by His Majesty's Government was terrible to a degree; just for a word -- "neutrality," a word which in war time had so often been disregarded -- just for a scrap of paper Great Britain was going to make war on a kindred nation who desired nothing better than to be friends with her."
The German Government did not comply with the ultimatum, and King George V declared Britain at war with Germany that night.
So here is the origin of the term 'scrap of paper' - taken up and broadcasted by British propaganda as a derisive German reference to the Treaty of London and hence Belgian neutrality.
Having stressed how alien the motivation behind our poster of the Highlander is, we see a familiar technique in the caption 'A Wee "Scrap o' Paper" is Britain's Bond' - it is as if the Scottish soldier is saying it - 'A Wee "Scrap o' Paper"' as opposed to 'A Little "Scrap of Paper"', which would be the Standard English way of putting it. A regional accent and vocabulary are intended to make the statement seem more "authentic" and therefore more convincing. One hears this technique endlessly in modern advertising: something will be proposed or recommended in a Geordie (North-Eastern), Scouse (Liverpool), Yorkshire or other regional accent to make the recommendation somehow more "genuine" because it's coming from a "real person". It's all complete nonsense of course: every single element of the given advertisement is finely tuned for maximum persuasive value; as here on our poster of the Highlander.
Here is another poster on the "scrap of paper" theme:
December, 1914. PRC no. 15
Whatever my misgivings about fighting to maintain the honour and glory of the British Empire, either as me now or as an imaginary potential recruit in 1914, the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee must have felt it was a good line to take because they produced another poster on the same theme(apologies for the poor quality reproduction, it was the best I could find):
by Lawson wood. 1914. PRC no.18.
The caption is 'A Chip Off the Old Block'.
Here are more posters on the theme of Empire:
PRC no.68
by Arthur Wardle. March, 1915. PRC no.58
Another version of this poster makes who 'The Overseas States' are explicit.
As well as the ancient indigenous cultures of Australia, Canada and New Zealand, the absurdity of calling civilisations as old as those of the Indian subcontinent 'a young lion' is jarring to a modern eye.
Here is another poster on the theme of the invasion of Belgium, focusing on real and alleged atrocities committed by the German Army there:
December, 1914. PRC no. 19
Conscription was introduced in Britain in early 1916, starting on March 2nd, so there was no longer a need for posters urging men to enlist. Here is a poster announcing the Military Service Act:
The following posters were not produced by the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, but turned up during my research and are worth seeing. The first is from Ireland, it was produced in Dublin in July, 1915:
German soldiers are bursting in through the door: the man has not just his wife but also his baby and aged father to protect - or has failed to protect them by not joining up.
This next is from the USA in 1917:
by H. R. Hopps. Note 'Kultur' written on the club.
To finish with, a British recruiting poster from an earlier era - a really remarkable document.
I have been unable to establish which King George is referred to here, that is the date of the poster. My guess from the diction is Regency. But what diction ! Read it aloud. This is the patter of a recruiting sergeant transcribed. The typesetting emphasises the central message: 'Young Heroes' - 'Marines' - 'Prize Money'. As typical of its own time as it is, the message here resembles modern advertising in that the prospect of prize money is alluring, but if you look more carefully, nothing definite is promised: "Remember these Times may return, it is impossible to say how soon." Join the Royal Marines and you might get enough
PRIZE MONEY
to set you and your family up for life: it's happened (once) before: who knows what might happen ? you never know !
*Mike Boddington informs
me that the interview with Tim O’Brien is in Ken Burns’ ‘Vietnam’ series, &
it is reproduced in his ‘Vietnam: An Intimate History’ book, p.319
** My brother JP
identified our Highlander as a member of the Black Watch – source: National
Army Museum.
