Category Archives: HIST204-Archive

Manipulating History: Week 4 readings

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One theme that I want to pick out of the readings for this week is that of creating history to say what we want it to. This idea was first introduced to us by the historians in the first week, and later propagated by Tey in her novel Daughter of Time. Grant’s nurse tells him that it is her personal belief that people hate changing their opinions on something. If they were raised thinking one thing, it is almost impossible to get them to change their views, even if faced with historical facts. In our readings for this week, this theme is also incorporated. In Wolfgang Schivelbusch’s article on trains, he writes: “The carriage…remained, in spite of all obvious shortcomings and dangers, the European standard for half a century thereafter.” I think this quote explains the phenomenon that Grant’s nurse talked about in Daughter of Time. People are afraid of change, they like what is familiar. Because of this, people are hard-fixed in their ideas and ways of life.

I also want to focus on the argument put forward by Natalie Zemon Davis in her article “The Rites of Violence: Religious Riot in Sixteenth-Century France” because I think it is a very interesting argument to make. Davis attests to the fact that riots are not chaotic mobs like they are normally viewed, but rather have a very coherent sense of order in them. When I first read that as her goal of the essay on page two, I did not believe that she would be able to convince me of what appeared to be a ludicrous argument. By the end of her essay, however, I completely agreed with Davis’s argument. This just goes to show that if a historian, or any writer backs up their claim with solid evidence and well-written conclusions, they can convince their audience of their point of view.

Constructing History

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In “The Railway Journey” Wolfgang Schivelbusch compared and contrasted the forms of travel prior to the 19th century, to the railway introduced in the 19th century. Schivelbusch organized his paper around the ideas of the changing concept of “natural”, the effect of class boundaries on travel, and the evolution of a distinct European train ride experience despite American influence. Schivelbusch utilized primary sources, such as journal articles from travelers of the time, to depict the people’s reactions to the novelty of the railroad. Although as we have learned it is wise to consider the sources used by an author. These journal entries were written by the upper-middle class and wealthy who were both literate and had the leisure time to write about their experiences. This means we lack the experiences and reactions of the lower and working classes to the introduction of the railway. Schivelbusch mentioned the drastic difference between the experiences of the upper and lower class on the train due to the separated compartments, and it would be interesting to read an account of a third class travelers experience.

In “The Rites of Violence” Natalie Davis explains the potential reasons behind religious riots in sixteenth-century France and compares and contrasts the motivations and actions of the Protestant and Catholic mobs which took part in these riots. Davis refutes the popular argument of sixteenth-century religious riots as being caused by economic crises and rising bread prices. Instead Davis argues religious riots can be caused by prior acts of violence against the church by another religious group, a general feeling of the government passing inadequate judicial sentences, or a desire to “cleanse” the community. Throughout her article Davis utilizes primary sources such as, both Protestant and Catholic sermons of the time as well as a source called “Memoires” written by Claude Haton. I was curious who Claude Haton was, as Davis cites his work multiple times, and he was a Catholic who chronicled the religious issues of France during his lifetime in the sixteenth. Therefore as an article about the religious battles between Protestants and Catholics, we should be aware that Haton could have a biased point of view on the series of events as a Catholic and could affect Davis’ article. I found it interesting that Davis chose to use a table depicting the numbers of male victims killed in the 1572 massacres and included the tallies based on both city and occupation. While this data chart is most likely misrepresentative of the actual number killed, it does help to give the reader a semblance of the distribution and to further Davis’ argument.

Writing History

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In chapter 3 of Marius’ book, he writes about certain skills every writer should have. He discusses the importance of reading over the question giving when writing an essay, or on the syllabus, because in that prompt or description of the paper is what the professor or teacher is truly looking to find. Finding a concrete, specific topic is discussed, as many students today get caught up in topics which are too broad for a paper. Marius also discusses how students, when writing, need to exercise extreme caution with a source because a lot of the sources used, are not necessarily well checked sources. The example given is Wikipedia, which as most students know can be edited, or added onto by anyone at all. Therefore, although it is a good place because it has information on everything, do not rely on it as a source of evidence in a paper. Finally, Marius discusses the use of primary and secondary sources and the importance of making a pathway of all sources used, so that when the bibliography is made, one can trace their steps back to the beginning where they got the information and create a working bibliography or works cited page.

In  Natalie Zemon Davis, “The Rites of Violence: Religious Riot in Sixteenth-Century France”, the violence between the Catholics and the Protestans is discussed. It is stated that “Our sources will be contemporary Catholic and Protestant accounts of religious disturbance , from which we will do our best to sort out utter fabrication from likely fact.” (Davis pg. 55) The statement made above is very important for writers of history because as we have discussed in class, history cannot be written without bias, although every writer must do their best to eliminate their bias and write from an objective point of view. This is essentially what Davis is trying to do; to present the facts about the violence took place in the sixteenth century between the Protestants and the Catholics, without having emotions.

 

Tey’s “The Daughter of Time”

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Josephine Tey’s historical fiction novel “The Daughter of Time” is an intricately woven story that, while sometimes incredible, blends reality with fiction seamlessly. Tey tells the story of a bedridden cop (Grant) who decides to unravel the mystery behind Richard III, one of England’s most notorious criminals. Tey’s background in history allowed for her to incorporate many of the methods in research used by historians. What I found most interesting in this novel was Grant’s insistence on the ignorance and stupidity of historians. Do his thoughts on the subject mirror Tey’s? or is she simply creating a character?

After reading this novel, I understand why some people are suspect of history. For all we know, everything we learned in history class was a lie schemed up by biased individuals for political or personal gain. Tey terms this type of history “tonypandy.” The methods used by Grant and his research assistant in uncovering the mystery of Richard III correspond with the methods used by diligent historians. By researching a source to discover where it got its story from, Grant was able to learn that all the stories about Richard III killing his two young nephews came from one historian, who would personally lose everything if Richard III was allowed to continue in his rule.

One quote that I found correctly summed up the basic plot line of the book came towards the end: “It [the story of Richard III as a horrible villain] is a completely untrue story grown to legend while the men who knew it to be untrue looked on and said nothing” (Tey 104). Through the example of the Richard III story, Tey proves the importance of a historian to be diligent and not to simply take everything they hear for fact. It is by being meticulous in one’s research that a historian can be sure they did everything correctly.

False Accusations

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After reading Josephine Tey’s Daughter of Time, I now realize how important primary sources are to a historian, more general history itself.  The book starts out with Alan Grant, a policeman, staring at a ceiling, in bed, in a hospital.  There is only so much the mind can create with just a blank ceiling.  After months of refusing to read books, his friend Marta brings him a stack of portraits of prominent figure in past centuries.  He goes through several of these portraits until he comes across the portrait of Richard III.  For some reason the facial expressions and other aspects of this portrait cannot leave Grant’s thoughts.  He eagerly decides to learn more about Richard III and the infamous accusations of the murderer of his two nephews.

Throughout the book, Tey establishes the importance of primary sources.  Although school textbooks, well known authors such as Sir Thomas More, say one thing, the facts may not be factual.  It puzzles me how such thing could be possible.  Only declaring history a few weeks back, I still have a lot to learn.  I was one who depended on text books and online websites (not Wikipedia as taught in grade school), not utilizing the primary sources that are available at public libraries, churches, government buildings, etc.

This book and the understanding of primary sources has definitely overlapped with my work in the archives.  It has given me a greater reason to believe in the importance for researching primary sources.  Although it may be difficult to piece together because there are so many articles and separate pieces, it is important for a true historian to be able to piece the information together.  One must not always depend on the information readily available and already pieced together because, like Tey depicted in The Daughter or Time, not all common knowledge is reliable.

“Truth is the daughter of time”

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Josephine Tey presents an enthralling historical mystery that envelops the minds of policeman Grant who is bedridden and bored in a hospital, and the American student,  Brent Carradine who is in pursuit of a worthwhile occupation. Tey’s novel begins simply, where a portrait inspires Grant to ask questions about the history surrounding Richard III’s reign and his villainous legacy. The process which he uses begins with asking his friends who visit him and the nurses who attend to him in the hospital about what they know. He reads two school textbooks and then asks for other historical works, from apparently legitimate historians. Through his investigations and police-like thinking and methodologies, in collaboration with Carradine, they uncover historical inconsistencies and “breaks” within the story.

I was thoroughly confused reading this novel, and it was difficult to keep track of all of the different actors, their motives, who they were related to and how, what dynastic titles they had and who was next in line to become king. The details of history, as Tey shows, are extremely important and primary sources, staying within the “account books” vs accounts of people are important to finding the truth. Grant’s position throughout the novel is similar to Tuchman, where she believes that historians must stay within the discipline of the facts. This is problematic though, because what constitutes facts? Often, as we saw with the discussion of John Dickinson’s birthday in class the other day, or in Thomas More’s history, historians base their writings off other historians accounts, without questioning it. So, detailed investigative work, using primary sources and questioning others interpretations of history is essential to telling a more truthful or accurate story.

 

After much time has passed, truth is birthed.

 

-Eddie

Morals of Tey’s Daughter of Time

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The first perception of Richard the Third offered to the reader is in the form of a portrait. Upon viewing it, Grant depicts him as the “monster of nursery stories. The destroyer of innocence. A synonym for villainy” (Tey, 28). The painting, however, displays different emotions to Grant. Having left out the hunched back, the painter depicted Richard III as a sickly and weathered man, brutalized from years of responsibility and illness. His curiosity peaked, Grant resorts to searching for his villain in English history books. What he finds does not shed much more light on the mystery; the king died in battle and became hated for his supposed deeds by all the British. Having established the commonly held belief of Richard, Grant gathers facts about Richard III from the limited company available to him. His sergeant, nurses, and friends allow him to develop a piecemeal background on what happened to the two princes. Grant consults many sources about the mystery of the boy’s demise, including children’s history schoolbooks and historical fiction on the subject. He discredits what might’ve been his most reliable source, a formal history text of Richard III’s life by Sir Thomas Moore, and continues to delve into first hand sources. Grant his assistant, Carradine, and Marta examine and analyze primary sources such as letters and notes from the time period of Richard III and his relatives. Through discussion of the facts which they gradually uncover, Carradine and Grant are able to discern the true nature of the affair between Richard and his two nephews who he supposedly murdered. They test theories with not only each other, but with the nurses as well. By a combination of deductive reasoning, fact compilation, and insights into the personalities of the royal figures in question, Grant concludes that Henry VII, of the Tudor house, had more to gain from the murder of the princes.

This story has several important morals to be taken into account while studying history. The first, and most prominent, is that the common perception of a man, woman, or event of kind is not necessarily correct. In the case of Richard III, the world believed him a murderer, but Grant proves this to be incorrect. The second moral is that the victors of the past write history. Indeed, it was the Tudors who prevailed in this situation and as a result, it is the Tudor story that is widely believed.

The Daughter of Time

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The Daughter of Time, written by Josephine Tey, is Tey’s explanation of how to do history and historical research, as well as the problems faced by historians. The protagonist, Alan, endeavors to solve the mystery of Richard III’s death and the murder of his two nephews. Throughout the book Tey utilizes Alan’s profession as a policeman at Scotland Yard to illustrate the process of historical research through the lens of a detective’s investigative process. Initially Alan acquires a portrait of Richard III and it was interesting to read the characters variety of actions and perceptions of the man in the portrait prior to their knowledge of it being Richard III. The characters would describe the figure as being afflicted by “poliomyelitis” or a liver condition but upon learning it was Richard III they would describe the painting as a “portrait of a murderer”. Relating to our discussion of how to do history, it is interesting to see how preconceived notions can affect a person’s opinion or retelling of a historical event.

Initially Alan consults high school textbooks and contemporary accounts concerning Richard III and his nephews. One of the books was written by John Morton, a “trusted” historian of Richard’s life, who declared Richard was a calculating murderer whose sole concern was his throne. After learning more about John Morton, Alan discovers Morton was Henry VII’s(the ruler who succeeded Richard) Archbishop of Canterbury and an enemy of Richard III’s who had plotted an uprising against him. Morton also stood to gain through propagating the story in order to help legitimize Henry VII as the new ruler, and therefore increase his own chances of social mobility. Therefore Alan discovers that while doing history it is important to consider who the writer is and the possible biases which could affect their narration of events.

As Alan progresses in his research he rejects all “accounts” of the events written during the reign of Henry VII and the writings of any historians of the time given the bias he had already encountered with his prior sources. Alan moves on to primary sources from the time of Richard III which included personal letters and Parliamentary reports. From the new sources he encountered, which were less likely to have politically motivated bias, Alan sees a kinder and more caring side of Richard III, as well as the fallacies within the “history” of the murders of the two princes by the orders of Richard III.

The Daughter of Time

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The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey, is a novel that describes Tey’s definition of history. Throughout the novel, the murder of Richard II’s nephews. This horrendous event is speculated about through the main character, Detective Grant. He is eager to find out the truth, but he comes to learn that what he thinks is the truth is hearsay. Hearsay and the stories about what happened are all questions and rumors. Grant reads Sir Thomas More’s account of Richard II, only to realize later that that story was just another version of the same story he had been hearing. Grant discusses his struggles with the other characters about finding out the truth. This is significant to us, the readers, because as we learn to write about history, it is important to find the whole truth, not simply the parts we hear most often. We had one example of this in the archives when we were debating John Dickinson’s birthday, and that although maybe 70% of sources said his birthday was November 8, the truth was that it was on November 2.

Discussing ones ideas with others around them is a good way to get new information that one may not have received already, or to confirm information one might have. Exchanging ideas is what happens with Detective Grant and Brent Carradine, they use each others ideas and knowledge of what they have researched and heard to uncover the truth about the murders of Richard II’s nephews. At one point of the novel, there is a conversation between Grant and Carradine about the point that Grant really wants to find a “contemporary account of events…not what someone heard-tell about the events that happened”. (Tey pg. 93) This statement is directly related to ‘how to do history’ because it tells the reader, and/or informs the scholar that primary sources are the best way to find accurate information on the topic at hand. Tey’s point in writing this novel was not only to tell a story of a detective and his assistant looking for details of an old crime, but rather the process they go through to find the information. Grant starts out just listening to old stories from people in the town, to getting a research assistant to help him separate folk-lore tales from possible accurate depictions. Next, the share the details they find with one another to see what matches up, and to show that asking questions and sharing information is the best way to go about conducting research. Finally, they use what information they have collected to build their case, however now Grant and Carradine are not sure if it was Richard II or his hired hand who killed Richards two nephews.

Tey: History is Made By Those Who Follow

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Tey attempts to portray Richard III in a positive light, I am a befuddled as to her avenue of approach. She uses the novel as a format from which she can critique prior histories of Richard without actually establishing a solid thesis. By not establishing a thesis, Tey is able to use a train of thoughts in an attempt to demonstrate Richard as he truly was. While this works wonderfully for an attempt at solving out a “conspiracy theory”, this does nothing to create an actual fact-based historical argument.

Tey does do a solid job, however, on the explanation on how history is shaped and why it is shaped in the ways that we see today. If Richard III was as benevolent as Tey establishes, the Tudor’s depiction of Richard as a murderous tyrant reverberates across a common thread in history: people are what those who follow portray them as. While children for the past hundred years or so have learned that George Washington was an excellent general or  Abraham Lincoln believed in the need for equality between white men and enslaved blacks, it is only because we who have followed in the footsteps of these men have painted them to be that way.

I must admit, having read the various pieces of historical fiction lying around in AHEC’s gift shop, that Tey presents her take on history in an interesting way. By using the detective figure, she can use police methodology to create an interesting chain of thought to “solve” what truly happened. But by using this, Tey also creates her biggest fault; deductive reasoning. With Grant trying to solve history as if it were a crime, his method of reasoning goes against even the basic historical principles. By creating history based on what he thinks must have happened in the missing spaces rather than using the documents to prove what happened in the spaces, Tey through Grant takes what may or may not have been a possible position on Richard III and ruins all of her credibility. But as a historical novel? Tey manages to deliver a solid reading experience sure to intrigue even those with no interest in Medieval England.