Historians & Brexit: Debating the Past around #Brexit
Debating the Past post-Brexit is at the planning stage for a debate organized by Historyworks for 2018, where we plan to have a range of historian 'expert' witnesses to reflect about the nature of the historians' debate over Brexit during the past three years. The resources here on the webpages bring together some of the key articles and podcasts, plus some relating to the political voice of historians and the role of the historian in society, including pieces which challenge or advocate for the historians' role in the media!
Debating the Past was kicked off in May 2015 by a controversial article, ‘Britain; apart from or a part of Europe?’, published in 'History Today' by David Abulafia which created a flurry of blogs and twitter debates using the hashtag #HistoriansforBritain (find their website here: http://historiansforbritain.org/) The debate was perhaps a logical riposte to The History Manifesto published by Cambridge University Press - see Historyworks’ overview of this debate here: http://historyworks.tv/projects/2014/10/22/the-history-manifesto/ Abulafia argued that Britain possessed a history and culture which set it apart from the rest of Europe, and claimed that this justified ‘a substantial change in Britain’s relationship with the EU’.
During the remainder of 2015, historians were concerned with validating or undermining Abulafia’s statements. In early 2016 discussion moved to wider issues about whether the UK should vote to leave or remain within the EU. After the referendum result, the debate changed once again, to consider diverse issues such as the role of historical narrative in political visions for post-Brexit Britain, the future of Anglo-Irish relations, and whether or not Brexit qualifies for ‘historical turning point’ status.
Please use the tabs on the right hand side of this page to explore the historical perspective on this significant modern event, and we've archived significant articles and podcasts and conferences year by year. If readers spot any gaps or omissions, please let us know, by contacting Helen Weinstein via historyworks@gmail.com.
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Conferences & Events
2017 Events and Conferences 27th January 2017. Conference – Brexit: Historians Speak. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/research/conferences/brexit-historianspeak/ ‘Can history help us understand Brexit? This forum brings together scholars and students ...
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Podcasts/Radio 2017, 2016, 2015
2017 podcasts and radio 13th Februrary 2017. Patrick Wright with ‘The English Fix; The Secret People’. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08ffw8r Patrick Wright, professor of Literature and Visual Material Culture at ...
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The debate post Brexit: 2017
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The debate post Brexit: 2016
Overview of 2016 articles: Unlike previous debate, which focussed more narrowly on the claims of Historians for Britain or on showing support for the Leave or Remain campaign, discussion post-referendum was more diverse. In the wake of the UK’s vote to leave the EU, the historical community engaged in much discussion about why it was that the Leave vote had won and the downfalls of the Remain campaign. Comparisons were drawn with historical events such as the breakup of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia as a method of predicting what might lie in store for a post-Brexit Britain. There was exploration of the historically fraught relationship between the UK and the republic of Ireland, and suggestions as to how this situation might be affected and managed in the future. Historians looked at the effects of the EU referendum on British culture, comparing the deep societal divisions with the aftermath of the Munich crisis, and explored the ways in which historical narratives were guiding political visions for post-Brexit Britain. Another significant element within the discussion was the extent to which Brexit’s could be considered a historical turning point. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24th June 2016. Peter Mandler. ‘Britain’s EU Problem is a London Problem.’ https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/britains-eu-problem-london-problem Peter Mandler, professor of Modern Cultural History at the University of Cambridge, argues that the vote to leave the EU emanated to a large extent from the perceived exclusion of most of England from London. Mandler claims that the pooling of money and politics in London has been cultivating a sense of isolation, of ‘[un-citizenship]’ amongst people who don’t live in the capital since the 1980’s. The Remain campaign, it is argued, widened this felt divide, by focussing on the opinions of experts and ‘[playing] directly into anti-elitist sentiment.’ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24th June 2016. Emma Mason. ‘EU referendum: how significant is Britain’s vote to leave? Historians debate.' http://www.historyextra.com/article/feature/eu-referendum-what-now-how-significant-britain-vote-leave-historians-debate Four academic historians put forward arguments for each side of the Brexit debate, considering issues such as independence and national identity, Britain’s historical connections with, or distinction from Europe, economic ramifications, patriotism and international relations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25th June 2016. Neville Morley. ‘After this referendum can we find any consolation in history?’ http://www.disclaimermag.com/other-stuff/after-this-referendum-can-we-find-any-consolation-in-history-3689 Neville Morley, Professor in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter, explicates a particular moment in Athenian history; Athens’ decision to attack Syracuse in Sicily in 415BC. He teases out a parallel between this historical moment and the Brexit campaign, drawing attention to the rhetoric used in Athens to secure public opinion in favour of the invasion and contrasting this with the negative, cautious argument warning against the attack. Although it is impossible to draw precise parallels between past events such as this and Brexit, Morley argues, ‘what history can offer is understanding… of the human capacity for self-delusion… our propensity to surrender to emotions, and our susceptibility to manipulation by the less scrupulous.’ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25th June 2016. Ed Simon. ‘The Comparison of Brexit and the Reformation is Misleading, and Yet…’ http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163190 Ed Simon, PhD candidate in English at Lehigh University, focuses on the connections made by Brexit supporters between the EU referendum and the English Reformation. If we strip away the triumphalist narrative which sees the reformation as a split from a corrupt, sovereignty-violating Rome, argues Simon, it ‘may contain some crucial lessons for the possibly dangerous months and years ahead’. Simon draws on Eamon Duffy’s work on the Reformation to suggest that Brexit, similarly, was a movement ‘encouraged by London elites supposedly for the benefit of common people’ and entailed ‘a tremendous flow of wealth into an already bloated capital.’ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29th June 2016. Glen O’Hara. ‘How did Leave win?’ http://publicpolicypast.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/how-did-leave-win.html Glen O’Hara, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Oxford Brookes University, puts forward his opinions as to why the Leave vote won the referendum. Suggested causes include concerns about immigration, lack of knowledge about the EU and its institutions, anti-intellectualism and the bold rhetorical claims made by members of the Leave campaign. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29th June 2016. Simon Szreter. ‘The EU Referendum result in historical perspective: the need for reform of Westminster.’ http://www.historyandpolicy.org/opinion-articles/articles/the-eu-referendum-result-in-historical-perspective Simon Szreter, Professor of History and Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, argues that the EU referendum provided an opportunity for those sections of the populous adversely affected by Austerity to be heard by policy makers. He questions the extent to which the referendum was ‘democratic’ and claims that history indicates the first-past-the-post system of voting has run its course in Britain. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29th June 2016. Dr Natalia Nowakowska. ‘Poland, the UK and the Brexit Vote.’ http://somervillehistorian.blogspot.co.uk/ Here Nowakowska explicates the longstanding relationship between Poland and the UK, and explains that the Brexit vote has ramifications far beyond Britain. Just as the vote as impacted on Polish politics, Poland will, she claims, exercise an important influence on coming negotiations between the EU and the UK. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30th June 2016 Fedja Buric ‘Brexit: A Lesson fro Yugoslavia’ http://www.historymatters.group.shef.ac.uk/brexit-lesson-yugoslavia/ Fedja Buric, Historian at the University of Sheffield, draws on the breakup of Yugoslavia between 1980 and 1992, arguing ‘[t]he Yugoslav case defies the notion that democracy is an essential good in itself.’ The referendums in the 1990’s dragged societal divisions to the fore, and precipitated ‘a blood bath’, providing strong evidence that they are dangerous political tool. Buric suggests that the UK now faces the same fate as Yugoslavia, and will surely fracture. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30th June 2016. Archie Brown. ‘What, if anything, does the possible breakup of post-referendum Britain have in common with the political crisis that led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union?’ http://www.historytoday.com/archie-brown/politics-breakup-uk-and-ussr Archie Brown, Professor of Politics at Oxford University, compares the conditions leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union with the current situation in Britain. He takes pains to establish differences (for example the contexts in which Soviet and Scottish nationalisms were born) but draws out some similarities e.g. the comparable roles of political leaders such as Boris Yeltsin and Boris Johnson in the two movements. Brown also uses the dramatic change in public support for independence in a 1991 Ukrainian referendum to question ‘whether such a complex issue’ should have been put to the British public in a referendum. Finally, he uses a suggested lack of ‘democratic polity’ in modern Soviet successor states to question ‘[w]hether freedoms, democracy and the rule of law’ will be maintained post-Brexit. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st July 2016 Julie Gottlieb ‘Post Referendum Depression’ http://www.historymatters.group.shef.ac.uk/post-referendum-depression/ Julie Gottlieb, Reader in Modern History at the University of Sheffield, draws parallels between the EU referendum and the Munich crisis of September 1938, when Britain, France and Italy permitted German expansion into Czechoslovakia. The Munich Agreement, claims Gottlieb, divided Britain in a similar way to the Brexit referendum. Whilst some held Chamberlain ‘as a ‘Man of Peace’ and a saviour’, others felt ‘regret and deep shame’, regarding the Agreement, as many do Brexit, as political suicide. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st July 2016 Maev Kennedy ‘British Museum even more vital after Brexit, says Hartwig Fischer’ https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/jul/01/british-museum-vital-after-brexit-director-hartwig-fischer Hartwig Fischer, director of the British Museum as of 12 weeks before the EU referendum, believes that the vote to leave has rendered the institution more essential than ever before. ‘I think in uncertain times’, Fischer states, ‘the British Museum becomes ever more important in helping us understand how we got here and how we proceed in the future, within this country and in the context of Europe and the world.’ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th July 2016. Edward Madigan. ‘Salvaging the Past in an Uncertain Present: Brexit, the Peace Process, and Anglo-Irish Relations’. https://historiansforhistory.wordpress.com/category/historians4history/ In this article, Madigan explores the ways in which ‘memory and interpretation of history’ have shaped both the conflict and the peace process in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in recent decades. He surveys the different ways in which Irish involvement in World War One was remembered by the Republic, Unionists and Nationalists, and charts the ramifications of this difference in cultural memory - for example the 1987 IRA bombing of a Remembrance Sunday service in Enniskillen. Madigan concludes by demonstrating that the attempt to reintegrate Irish perspectives on World War One since the late 1980’s has contributed to ‘the emergence of a new, more positive and conciliatory commemorative culture on these islands’. He suggests, in this way, that historical narrative can be a force for good. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8th July 2016. Alain Naef, ‘Opinion: Brexit shock has caused a sterling crash of historica proportions – here’s just how bad it is for the pound.’ http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/opinion-brexit-shock-has-caused-a-sterling-crash-of-historic-proportions-heres-just-how-bad-it-is Alex Naef, PhD Candidate in Financial History at the University of Cambridge, discusses the impact of Brexit on the value of the pound as of July 2016. Naef claims that the various drops in the value of sterling in the 20th century were related to decline in British colonial power, and asks if the post-Brexit devaluation of the pound is ‘the last nail in the coffin of Great Britain slowly becoming little England?’ Although it may be to soon to label the fall a ‘crisis’, argues Naef, is very likely that the economic and political unrest in the wake of the EU referendum will see a further depreciation of the pound. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8th July 2016 – N.C Fleming ‘Brexit, the Commonwealth and the problem of imperial nostalgia – a response’ http://www.historyandpolicy.org/opinion-articles/articles/brexit-the-commonwealth-and-the-problem-of-imperial-nostalgia-a-response N.C Fleming, Senior Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Worcester and Associate Fellow at the University of London, responds to the article by Evan Smith and Steven Gray published on 20th June 2016 (see above.) Fleming challenges the suggestion that the far right have historically advocated union with the Commonwealth rather than Europe, and claims that the ‘fundamental position’ of pro-Brexit politicians is a desire for free trade rather than imperialism. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11th July 2016 Paul Lay ‘A more nuanced conversation among historians to multiple perspectives might have improved the level of debate.’ http://www.historytoday.com/paul-lay/historians-and-brexit-opportunity-missed Paul Lay, editor of History Today, laments that the debate among historians in the run-up to the EU referendum wasn’t more sustained, and didn’t engage with the nuances as much as it might have done in order to lead to a higher level of public debate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20th July 2016. Evan Smith. ‘Brexit and the history of policing the Irish border.’ http://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/brexit-and-the-history-of-policing-the-irish-border Historian Evan Smith explores the history of the border between the Republic of Ireland and the UK – pointing out that even when the conflict was at its height, the border was porous. Between 1969 and 1985 the border was difficult to regulate, and vulnerable to attack. Smith concludes that a strict border would greatly endanger the peace agreement of 1998 and consequently Anglo-Irish relations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20th July 2016. Jens Wendel-Hansen. ‘The power of the popular referendum – the case of Greenland.’ http://www.historyandpolicy.org/opinion-articles/articles/the-power-of-the-popular-referendum-the-case-of-greenland Jens Wendel-Hansen, Assistant Professor of Modern History at the University of Greenland, compares the case of ‘Grexit’ in 1985 with Brexit today. He uses the example of the ‘advisory’ nature of the referendum in Denmark, as in Britain, to suggest that it would be treated de facto as binding in Brexit as in Grexit, though not legally so. He then compares the extent to which Greenland was seen as a country with the potential for political autonomy as a result of the referendum. Wendel-Hansen compares this to the effect Brexit has had for perceptions of Scotland, Wales, Gibraltar, and indeed the UK as a whole. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23rd July 2016. Tobias Stone. ‘History tells us what may happen next with Brexit and Trump’ https://medium.com/@theonlytoby/history-tells-us-what-will-happen-next-with-brexit-trump-a3fefd154714 Tobias Stone, writer and academic, considers Brexit as one of many ‘[e]vents of massive destruction’ in human history such as the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Black Death, the Spanish Inquisition and the Thirty Years War. Stone claims that most non-historians hold a short historical perspective of fifty to one hundred years, which prevents people who warn against the potential devastation of events such as the election of Trump and Brexit from being taken seriously. He warns that experts shouldn’t shy away from narrative, but should ‘avoid getting lost in arguing through facts and logic, and counter the populist messages of passion and anger with our own similar messages.’ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25th July 2016 , Edward Madigan. ‘Breaking the peace: after the UK voted to leave Europe, Northern Ireland’s fragile relationship with both its past and its neighbour is once again to the fore’ http://www.historytoday.com/edward-madigan/breaking-peace Edward Madigan, Historian at Royal Holloway, explores the ways in which historical narratives functioned both in the conflict between Nationalists and Unionists during The Troubles and in the peace process. He warns that in the current climate of political uncertainty, ‘the stability of the peace process should never be taken for granted.’ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5th September 2016. Mark Brown. ‘V&A Director’s Decision to Quit Hastened by Brexit Vote.’ https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/sep/05/german-v-and-a-director-martin-roth-quits-brexit-vote This article reports the resignation of the V&A’s first foreign director, and his decision to leave earlier than planned due to Brexit. Roth expressed anger at the use of war rhetoric during the referendum campaign, and at the ‘“me first” mentality [that] has suddenly started to spread’ throughout Europe. The article records director of the Art Fund Stephen Deuchar’s words; ‘[t]he potential cultural consequences of Brexit… are deeply worrying.’ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17th October 2016. Dane Kennedy. ‘Does British History Matter Anymore? Reflections on Brexit.’ https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/october-2016/does-british-history-matter-anymore-reflections-on-brexit Dane Kennedy, Professor of History and International Affairs at the George Washington University, considers if British history has a future – concluding it does not. He charts what he sees as the increasing separatism of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh histories, and suggests that if the trend continues, British history will lose its purchase overseas. Brexit, Kennedy argues, will likely encourage these isolationist tendencies, and ‘may well drive the last nail in British history’s coffin.’ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17th October 2016. Glen O’Hara. ‘Brexit: an early audit.’ http://publicpolicypast.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/brexit-early-auditto.html Glen O’Hara, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Oxford Brookes University, looks at the consequences of Brexit four months after the vote to leave, and makes some negative predictions as to what the decision holds for the future. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17th November 2016. Paul Lay. ‘The relentless scramble for dubious parallels reveals worrying levels of historical illiteracy.’ http://www.historytoday.com/paul-lay/golden-age-anachronism Paul Lay, editor of History Today, explores the misuse of history to praise or vilify political events such as Brexit, the election of Donald Trump and current conflicts in the Middle East. He cites the anniversary of the Norman Conquest in 2016, when Brexit supporters ‘eulogised the paradisical delights of the Anglo-Saxon realm in contrast to the Norman “yoke”’, and Nigel Farage’s comparison of Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband to Vidkun Quisling. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6th Dec 2016 Raheem Kassam (Breitbart) ‘Top UK Historian Niall Ferguson: I Made a Mistake Oposing Brexit’ http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/12/06/britains-popular-historian-wrong-back-cameron-oppose-brexit/ Raheem Kassam reports on previously anti-Brexit historian Niall Ferguson’s public denouncement of his previous stance, suggesting Ferguson later adopted a pro-Brexit position so as not become ‘irrelevant in a post-globalist world.’ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th December 2016. Fraser Nelson ‘In defence of Niall Ferguson’ 7th December 2016. Fraser Nelson ‘In defence of Niall Ferguson’ https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/12/defence-niall-ferguson/ Fraser Nelson suggests that in announcing he was wrong in opposing Brexit, Ferguson was bringing his stance on the EU back in line with the worldview which characterises his history. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15th Dec 2016 Professor Cathal McCall ‘Fortress island Britain? What could happen to UK borders after Brexit’ http://qpol.qub.ac.uk/uk-borders-post-brexit/ Professor Cathal McCall of Queen’s University, Belfast, engages with the history of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. He argues that the softening of border control from the early 1990’s was essential in ‘post-conflict peace-building’, and highlights the possible options for a post-Brexit border. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19th Dec 2016 Warwick historians ‘Bigotry seeks company in the UK’ https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/warwick-historians/bigotry-seeks-company-in-uk This article, signed by 37 historians from the University of Warwick, documents a spike in racially motivated attacks against Europeans living in Britain in the wake of the EU referendum. It places blame for this trend with the mainstream media’s ‘[collusion] in the myth of immigration as the source of all the nations ills’, and the domestication of Britain’s imperial past. It compares Theresa May’s statement that migrants are ‘citizens of nowhere’ to the early days of the Nazi regime, and urges intellectuals and historians to speak out in defence of Britain’s ‘pluralist and multicultural society’. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30th Dec 2016. Julie Gottlieb. ‘Was 2016 just 1938 all over again?’ http://theconversation.com/was-2016-just-1938-all-over-again-70728?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#link_time=1483462621 Julie Gottlieb, Reader in Modern History, University of Sheffield, here draws historical parallels between 2016 and 1938, focussing on the civil wars in Spain in 1938 and Syria today. She also compares Brexit with the Munich Agreement of 1938, exploring the similarities in which the two events were viewed by much of the population, the fractures within the political left and the internalization of national crisis. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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The Pre-Brexit debate: 2016
Overview of 2016 articles: In the run-up to the EU referendum, the debate in and around the historical community shifted focus. Previous discussion revolved quite ...
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The Pre-Brexit debate: 2015
Overview of 2015 articles: Debating the Past was kicked off in May 2015 by a controversial article, ‘Britain; apart from or a part of Europe?’, published ...
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History in Schools & Citizenship
THIS PAGE IS A STUB LINKS NEED CHECKING AND CORRECTING National Identity and Belongingness History Syllabus & Citizenship Resources on History teaching and the Citizenship ...
