Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2012

2011 was a great year for fresh and groundbreaking material, Mao's Great Famine showed us that, let's hope 2012 is even more fruitful. Here are a few titles due for publication in 2012 which I'm looking forward to and are definitely on my pre-purchase list.

Bertie: A Life of Edward VII
By Jane Ridley
Publication Date: 30 Aug 2012
Price: £16:99
ISBN 978-0701176143

This promises to be an exciting new approach to biography and is certainly by an acclaimed historian and biographer. Edward Vll, who gave his name to the Edwardian Age and died in 1911, was King of England for the final 10 years of his life. He was 59 when at last he came to power. Known as Bertie, and the eldest son of Victoria and Albert, he was bullied by both his parents.

His mother, Queen Victoria, the first and most powerful woman in his life, blamed Bertie's scandalous womanising for his father's early demise. Although Bertie was heir to the throne, she refused to give him any proper responsibilities, as a result of which he spent his time eating (his waist measurement was 48 inches and his nickname was 'Edward the Wide'), betting on race-horses and shooting grouse. He was married off to Alexandra of Denmark, who was beautiful but infantile, lavishing her affection on her doggies and pet bunnies.

Bertie's numerous mistresses included the society hostess Daisy Brook ('Babbling Brook') and the gorgeous but fragile Lillie Langtry (with whom he 'played house' in a specially built hide-away home). The last of the women in his life was the clever and manipulative Alice Keppel. He always placed her at dinner next to his most important guests, because of her grasp of politics, her brilliant conversation and her formidable skills at the Bridge table.

When Bertie finally became king, he did a good job, especially in foreign policy. This colourful book will hopefully give him due credit, while painting a vivid portrait of the age in all its excess and eccentricity, hypocrisy and heartbreak.

Clash of Eagles: America's Forgotten Expedition to Ottoman Palestine
By Carol Lea Clark
Publication Date: 4 Sep 2012
Price: £15:00
ISBN: 978-0762778423

Carol Clark is an associate professor of English at the University of Texas at El Paso and has written more than 50 magazine articles and eight textbooks. She held a Fulbright to Jordan in 2008–2009 and discovered this long forgotten chapter in American history while at the American Centre for Oriental Research in Amman.

In the middle of the Mexican-American War, the secretary of the Navy authorized Lt. William Francis Lynch to command an unusual expedition, not south to the war zone, but east to Ottoman Palestine, now Israel and Jordan, to map the Dead Sea. Traversing this backwater of a dying empire, Lynch forged life-saving alliances with a Bedouin sheik and a Hashemite Sharif. Horses weren’t strong enough, so he improvised with foul-tempered camels to haul metal boats overland from the Mediterranean to the Sea of Galilee. He navigated the treacherous, uncharted rapids of the Jordan and braved near starvation before reaching Jerusalem. But why exactly ? The expedition followed a long tradition of quasi-scientific expeditions as it attempted to establish that the Dead Sea lay below sea level—but it didn’t generate enough knowledge to justify the expense or the suffering of the fifteen Americans who joined Lynch’s obsessive quest. Was it a publicity stunt? Or the first step in returning Muslim Palestine to its former glory as a Judeo-Christian land of milk and honey? Well CLASH OF EAGLES will attempt to answer all these questions while recounting this seemingly foolhardy mission that the Civil War soon derailed. Another hundred years would pass before America again involved itself in the Middle East.

Alix and Nicky
By Virginia Rounding
Publication Date: 13 Feb 2012
Price: £14:99
ISBN: 978-0312381004

Few characters in history are as fascinating or controversial as Nicholas and Alexandra. From their passionate love to their horrifying execution, they are alternately viewed as innocent victims of Bolshevik assassins or blamed for causing the Revolution themselves. When it come to reading about their tragic downfall, there is so much material to choose from, especially amongst the numerous pieces of recent scholarship on the subject, it can be difficult to know where to start and it's hard to believe that some authors still regularly publish books on the subject hoping to add something new and fresh. 
However, acclaimed author Virginia Rounding, will in 2012 be attempting to offer a different kind of biography, with an intimate look that probes the souls of these unforgettable figures, and tells the story of their passion and its consequences for Russia. Through newly revealed letters and diaries, Rounding explores the Empress' ill health, examines the enigmatic triangular relationship between Nicky, Alix and her confidante Ania Vyrubova, and looks anew at the reasons behind their reliance on the infamous Rasputin. Her conclusions purport to be 'surprising', we'll find out in February.

 

Dynamite, Treason & Plot: Terrorism in Victorian & Edwardian London
By Simon Webb
Publication Date: 1 April 2012
Price: £14:99
ISBN: 978-0752463780

'Most people are unaware that London was a terrorist target as long ago as 1867'. Author Simon Webb already has a well established pedigree as a writer on the history of London with two published tittles on the subject: 'Unearthing London: The Ancient World Beneath the Metropolis' and 'Life in Roman London'.
In 2012 However he brings his gaze firmly into the heart of the modern period in a book which will attempt to give us a new perspective on the emergence of modern terrorism, a phenomenon that now allegedly has its roots in Victorian London, the city being a target for terrorists long before the provisional IRA and al-Qaeda.
There is no double that this kind of investigation should be able to draw numerous parallels with current news stories and I for one will be there in April to find out.

Hitler and the Nazi Cult of Celebrity
By Michael Munn
Publication Date: 10 May 2012
Price: £18:99
ISBN: 978-1849541893

Hitler's rise to power in Germany owed much to the creation of his own celebrity. Hitler believed he was an artist, not a politician, and in his Germany politics and culture became one. This celebrity was cultivated and nurtured by Joseph Goebbels, Germany's supreme head of culture. Hitler and Goebbels enjoyed the company of beautiful female film stars, and Goebbels had his own 'casting couch'. In Germany's version of Hollywood there were scandals, starlets and secret agents, premieres and party politics, and an actress who was the key to killing Hitler. In Nazi Germany, the cult of celebrity was the embodiment of Hitler's style of cultural governing. The country's greatest celebrities, whether they were actors, writers or musicians, could be one of only two things: if they were compliant they were lauded and awarded status symbols for the regime, but If they resisted or were simply Jewish they were traitors to be interned and murdered.
Michael Munn is a writer and film historian. He has written biographies of John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Steve McQueen and in this book he promises to give us a shocking account of Hitler's fantasy of power and stardom, of the correlation between art and ambition, of films used as a weapon, and of sexual predilections. It reveals previously unpublished information about the 'Hitler film', which Goebbels envisaged as 'the greatest story ever told', while Hitler was planning on his own Wagnerian finale.

Titanic on Trial: The Night the Titanic Sank, Told Through the Testimonies of Her Passengers and Crew
By Nic Compton
Publication Date: 1 Mar 2012
Price: £8:99
ISBN: 978-1408140284

2012 will be the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic and many authors will have been working for years on books intended for publication in April 2012. In that 100 years many books have tried to capture the disbelief, the chaos and the terror of the fateful night the Titanic sank 100 years ago, and while many of the releases due in 2012 look to add absolutely nothing to this hobby horse of mine, this is one book I do have my eye on. The author certainly has the right background. Nic Compton was Editor of Classic Boat Magazine until 2000, and since then has travelled the world as a journalist and photographer. He has written for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, including The Independent, Yachting Monthly and Yachting World and is the author of a wide range of books on nautical subjects.
Titanic on Trial will attempt to bring to life the tragedy through the voices of those who survived it. Stories about the sinking have become legendary - how the band played to the end, how lifeboats were lowered half-empty - but amongst the films, novels and academic arguments, only those who were there can separate truth from fiction. This book gives the story back to those people. After the sinking, inquiries into the loss of 1,517 lives were held in both the UK and US. The 1,000 or more pages of transcripts represent the most thorough and complete account of the sinking, told in the voices of those who were there. For the first time, these transcripts of the courtroom questions and answers have been specially edited and arranged chronologically, uncovering and drawing out the real drama of the Titanic's final night. The witnesses are transformed into characters in a much bigger story, and the events are described from the perspectives of people in every part of the ship, from a stoker in the boiler room escaping just before the watertight doors sealed behind him, to first class passengers trying to buy their way onto lifeboats. This book looks to be a genuinely accessible  and unique insight into what really happened on the night.

Top 10 Gifts for Historians this Christmas

Whether you're struggling to find that thoughtful stocking filler for your history housemate or that perfect mind-blowing gift for your historian -loved one, struggle no longer for here at History and the Sock Merchant I have compiled the top 10 best modern-history related gifts available out there this Christmas. 

10: English Heritage Plum and Date chutney

A preserve which every historian should enjoy with their leisurely scholarly breakfasts with hot buttered toast and chunky marmalade, or perhaps in the afternoon with a pint of ale accompanied by a plate of farmhouse cheese and a spoonful of spicy chutney, - images that bring to mind times of a historians well earned rest and comfort.  Cooked in open pans, these chutneys are made from top quality seasonal fruits, vegetables and spices. For those historians who enjoy cooking try adding some English Heritage Sweet Plum & Date Chutney to a Moroccan Tagine for a fruity flavour or use to glaze a gammon joint.


9: Family History Gift Box

This gift box is perfect for the amateur historian, it allows the recipient to discover the history of their family surname and their family tree. The gift box will include a welcome letter plus explanation of your gift, a 'tracing your family history' booklet', information on the introduction of surnames, more about the origins of surnames, a blank family tree and personalisation pen all presented in a luxury metal gift tin. After registration you will receive an ornate printed certificate detailing the history behind your chosen surname.


8: History Chess Set 

The history of the last century has often been compared to a chess game, with political systems, brands, and artistic movements jousting for world dominance.  Each figure in this monumental chess set alludes to a particular icon of the century’s troubled history, from the sinking Titanic to the scarred towers of the World Trade Centre. New York designers Boym Partners have created History Chess, a wooden chess set with 32 unique carved figures, each representing a historic moment or icon from the last century.


7: Twinings Tea History Hamper 

Any historian that does not like drinking tea will never be able to produce the same quality of research as the ones who do. If you don't know what to get your historian friend and they don't drink tea then this is not only your answer, but an investment in their career.  The Twinings Tea History Hamper, comes with two large boxes of 1706 Twinings tea and their English Breakfast tea, a London Pottery china white teapot and a pair of Twinings History mugs in bone china. All of which come in a large 18" luxury willow hamper -ideal for extra book storage when the tea has been drunk.


6 Mao's Great Famine

If there was one book I had to recommend as a gift to someone interested in history this year its Mao's Great Famine. I reviewed it earlier this year at History and the Sock Merchant and found it to be a masterpiece of historical investigation. Frank Dikotter’s chronicle of how Mao's regime killed at least 45 million people in what he calls the greatest man-made famine the world has seen, will go a long way to ensuring that no one will have any more excuses for modish Maoism.



5: Gold Abacus 

Nothing screams of high-intellectual humanities standards quite like a well placed shiny ornament.  This ancient abacus is recreated as a stunning functional masterpiece of ingenuity and artistry. It bears the sculptures of the royal Koi, fish prized for their beauty, revered for their long lives and lovingly cared for in the moats and garden pools of the Forbidden Palace of China. Fitted with red counting beads and plated with 24-karat gold, this is a fascinating and refined historic statement for the home study or campus office. 5 inches in height.


4: Vintage Bookends

Every good historian has far too many books and the best kind of storage for a historians books is storage that makes them look like they have even more books!  These beautifully crafted resin bookends, are designed to fit in seamlessly onto a  bookshelf or desk (or maybe even the top of a kitchen cabinet if you know the same historians I do).


3: Napoleon in Europe

The historic board game to end all historic board games, Napoleon in Europe with its giant game board combines elements of economy, politics, and military into victory. Having played this a as a student many times I can tell you, be prepared for many all-nighters.
There are seven major nations to play as in: France, Great Britain, Russia, Austria, Prussia, Spain, and the Ottoman Empire. When games are played, most of the time each country is given (in relative terms) the amount of troops it had historically. So France and Russia vastly outnumber the forces of second-stringer powers like the Ottomans. Game play is similar to Risk, at least at the very bare bones. Each player has their own designated turn where they move, and then fight any combats that result from it. But there, the similarities end. Rather than randomly roll huge fistfuls of dice as Risk players do, fighting troops are transferred over to another, smaller board that simulates a battlefield, allowing for the game to be played on both a tactical and strategic level.
Noteworthy to mention are Political Action Points (PAPs). Unlike in other strategy games where one can randomly declare alliances and war, PAPs are a system that prevents such a thing from happening so easily. It costs one to do things like establish alliances, declare war, sue for peace, or even something as simple as annexing new territories into your empire. It also makes it harder for one to backstab an ally or declare war randomly, making for more historically accurate game play.


2: Indiana Jones Hat

Forget the tacky replicas from the Universal Studios gift shop, this is the real thing for the discerning travelling gentleman historian. One rather uneventful afternoon in 1980, two American gentlemen came in to Swaine Adeney Brigg at 13 Old Burlington Street, London. They introduced themselves as Mr. Harrison Ford and Mr. Steven Spielberg. Little did we envision that the following conversation involving hats was going to produce the Indy Hat: one of the most instantly recognisable and iconic pieces of headwear. Each Indiana Jones hat is carefully cut by hand, using the original patterns. Each size is ever so slightly tailored to keep the hat in proportion to the wearer's hat size and each Indy hat is hand-rubbed to give it its unique shape.


1: Downton Abbey Series 1 & 2 Box Set

You simply can't go wrong, unless they already have one. Downton Abbey is already close to an institution as the most popular costume drama for about 30 years. So far we have two series, with a third promised which will take us up to the 1920s with doubtless more to come. This DVD set covers the first two series, with 15 episodes, 7 from the first series and 8 from the second.

The first series covered the period from 1912, just after the sinking of the Titanic, up to the start of the first world war in 1914 and much of the story line is about the matchmaking within the Crawley family where financial and social influences have a major bearing. Of course the interaction between the family and those who serve them `below stairs' is a continual contributor to the excellent story lines. The second series picks up two years on from the first series in 1916, in the middle of World War 1. Downton Abbey has been converted into a convalescent home for injured servicemen and the action covers the period from the Battle of the Somme up to the end of the war. In both series topical events of the period, political, economic and military are covered.

Have a very Merry Christmas everybody!

Treaty of the month: What historic treaty has amused me this month?

This month: The Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty

Heligoland Today

Yes ladies and gentleman, after a long absence and by literally 'some' demand the Treaty of the Month is back! This month I encountered a treaty that provided such an orgy of amusement as has never before been indulged in on History and the Sock Merchant.

The Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty of 1 July 1890 (also known as the Anglo-German Agreement of 1890) was an agreement between the United Kingdom and the Imperial German Empire concerning mainly territorial interests in Africa.
This treaty temporarily settled colonial disputes between Germany and Great Britain, but because the treaty appeared to abandon German colonial claims to much of east Africa, it unleashed a storm of nationalist protest at home.

Who, When and Where?

Caprivi

In the treaty, signed in Berlin on July 1 1890, Germany gained the islands of Heligoland (Helgoland in German, originally part of Danish Holstein-Gottorp but since 1814 a British possession) in the North Sea, the so-called Caprivi Strip (chieftainship of the Fwe people in what is now Namibia), and a free hand to control and acquire the coast of Dar es Salaam that would form the core of German East Africa (later Tanganyika, now the mainland component of Tanzania).
In exchange, Germany handed over to the UK the protectorate over the small sultanate of Wituland (Deutsch-Witu, on the Kenyan coast) and parts of East Africa vital for the British to build a railway to Lake Victoria, and pledged not to interfere in the actions of the UK vis-à-vis the sultanate of Zanzibar (i.e. the islands of Unguja and Pemba). In addition, the treaty established the German sphere of interest in German South-West Africa (present-day Namibia) and settled the borders between German Togoland and the British Gold Coast (now Ghana), as well as between German Kamerun (now Cameroon) and British Nigeria.

Why it has amused me:

The UK divested itself of an outlying island difficult to defend in the case of armed confrontations. It immediately declared a protectorate over Zanzibar and, in the subsequent 1896 Anglo-Zanzibar War, gained full control of the sultanate.

The treaty served German chancellor Leo von Caprivi's aims for a settlement with the British. After the 1884 Berlin Conference, Germany had already lost the "Scramble for Africa": the German East Africa Company under Karl Peters had acquired a strip of land on the Tanganyikan coast (leading to the 1888 Abushiri Revolt), but it had never had any control over the islands of the Zanzibar sultanate and so the Germans gave away no vital interest. In return they acquired Heligoland, strategically placed for control over the German Bight, which with the construction of the Kiel Canal from 1887 onwards had become essential to Emperor Wilhelm's II plans for expansion of the Imperial Navy. Wilhelm's naval policies aborted an accommodation with the British and ultimately led to a rapprochement between the UK and France, sealed with the Entente cordiale in 1904.
The misleading name for the treaty was introduced by ex-Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who intended to attack his despised successor Caprivi for concluding an agreement that Bismarck himself had arranged during his incumbency. However, Bismarck's nomenclature implied that Germany had swapped an African empire for tiny Heligoland ("trousers for a button"). This was eagerly adopted by imperialists, who complained about treason against German interests. Karl Peters and Alfred Hugenberg appealed for the foundation of the Alldeutscher Verband which took place in 1891.

Handover ceremony on Heligoland, 10 August 1890

Book Review: Republic of Egos: A Social History of the Spanish Civil War

By Michael Seidman

This is certainly not just one more book on the Spanish Civil War. Its originality lies not only in the empirical evidence it handles but also in its unconventional way of explaining the reasons for the Republican defeat. The potential audience for this book clearly goes beyond Spanish Civil War scholars, since it will be equally appealing to social, economic, and military historians, as well as to social scientists interested in political violence, collective action, and socio-political identities. Also, various illuminating comparisons are drawn among the Spanish, American, and Russian civil wars. Due to its novel and stimulating view of the Spanish conflict and its original contribution to the study of individual behaviour in wartime, I highly recommend this very readable, perceptive, and interesting book.

Price: £21.50
Publication Date: 2002, University of Wisconsin Press.
ISBN: 978-0299178642
Buy this Book

However, for the sake of discussion, I will raise some points that need further illumination.
Although the author is very interested in writing a social history of the Spanish fratricidal conflict, he is equally concerned with emphasizing the role of personal choice in history. One of the main strengths of the book is to account for variation in circumstances not specially favourable to individual freedom of action, but this focus may also constitute one of its weaknesses. After reading the book, I do not have a clear idea of the reasons why some individuals, apparently subjected to the same environment, behaved as militants while others engaged in opportunistic, cynical, or survivalist behaviours. One of the author’s aims is to combine individual behaviour with social history, but while he identifies and analyses these four kinds of individuals (militant, opportunistic, cynical and survivalist), he fails to show what individuals within each group had in common; nor does he demonstrate why people in different groups who were apparently subjected to the same social, economic, and cultural conditions behaved in such different ways. All of this is directly connected with the difficulty contained in the author’s attempt to combine the idea that “individuals were not determined by their class or gender identities” with the statement that “the Spanish civil war was undoubtedly a class war”. If the author wants to emphasize family, friends, and village ties above the most commonly used class and gender identities, the second statement could be seen as unnecessary or, alternatively, the articulation between the two arguments could be more developed.

Another intriguing problem, partially related to the former, has to do with the fact that although the author is very concerned with avoiding determinism in the explanation of individual behaviour, when he comes to the general description of Spanish history before the conflict, he seems to fall into a somewhat deterministic account of the “long-term causes for the civil war.” He states that “Spain did not follow the same pattern of development as north-western Europe,” and he even goes back to the eighth century to try to prove that. This is somewhat unnecessary for the main argument and contradicts the principal methodological assumptions of the book, which sometimes seem to be used to justify the unavoidability of the civil war.

The author is absolutely correct to devote more attention to an issue normally ignored in academic—not to mention novelistic or cinematographic—accounts of the war: that the main priority of most people was to survive, to protect their families and friends, and to avoid suffering. The Spanish Civil War, after all, often has been portrayed as a pure ideological war in which most people were clearly aware of their ideological stands. In spite of the high levels of political and union mobilization during this period (part of it due to instrumental attitudes during the war), most people did not have the time or the resources to develop a committed ideological stand. Given this truth, which is abundantly demonstrated in this book, several aspects of this account could be improved.

Worthy of note is the way in which the author has dealt with primary sources; he undoubtedly made the most of them. However, regarding secondary sources, in order to make some of his points he sometimes resorts to quoting authors who are fairly discredited, due to their ideological biases and unconditional commitment to one of the warring sides. The most obvious example is Vallejo Nágera, who cannot be considered a reliable source. His comment that “young women [of both sides] … were frivolous, impertinent, irritable, erotic, but incapable of taking care of the home and raising children” (p. 99) is unnecessary.

Other strengths of the book lie in Seidman’s more than adequate description of collectives, in the sophisticated account of the economic and management problems faced particularly by the Republican side, and in the description of the diet consumed in both zones and the health problems faced by each side. The fact that the Nationalists proved much more able to feed their population and military turned out to be crucial for the outcome of the war, since this affected not only the health but also the morale of the society and troops. Seidman’s depiction of the conflict between socialist and anarchist unions is very accurate, as is his description of the logic of violence on both sides. Also, his recollection of the cases of self-mutilation and desertions that affected Nationalists as well as Republicans is very well documented. In conclusion, I strongly recommend this refreshing book, stimulating and fruitful reading throughout.

Napoleon's Secret Navy

Napoleon in Venice 1807

Contrary to popular belief, Admiral Horatio Nelson's triumph over the French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar did not end Napoleon's hopes of mounting a challenge to Britain at sea. Nevertheless, the loss of a number of ships of the line forced him to turn to his satellites and conquered territories for shipbuilding facilities to supplement those of France; and this, in turn, gave rise to a new French naval strategy. From the end of 1805 onward, Napoleon sought to build and operate warships in as many places as possible in order to exceed and, eventually, exhaust the resources of the British navy. While historians traditionally have attributed the French acquisition of European coastal regions to a desire to enforce the Continental System -the economic embargo against Britain- Napoleon's need to control and exploit shipbuilding centres on the continent could very well be another, perhaps equally important, motivation for his interest in these territories.

In the Adriatic, France pursued an active program of warship construction while never seriously attempting to enforce the Continental System. This quiet arm of the Mediterranean, a strategic backwater ever since the decline of the Venetian Republic decades earlier, suddenly became a theatre of competition between the British and Napoleonic navies. The British were faced with the choice of extending their operations into the Adriatic or acquiescing in France's exploitation of its resources. In Napoleon's view, either choice would serve his overall strategy. In October 1805, within days of the disaster at Trafalgar, the French minister of Marine and Colonies, Vice Admiral Denis Decres, started to lay the groundwork for the reconstruction of the French fleet. Fortunately for Napoleon, Britain's continental allies in 1805 had not matched her triumph at sea. Austria pulled out of the war in December and concluded the Treaty of Pressburg, by which the French satellite kingdom of Italy received the lion's share of the spoils. The Habsburgs had to cede the Adriatic coastal provinces of Venetia, Istria, and Dalmatia.
In late January 1806, Prince Eugene de Beauharnais, the viceroy of Italy, made his first visit to Venice. Upon receiving his report on the condition of the port and its famous Arsenal, Napoleon instructed Decres to explore the possibility of creating a naval squadron there. The emperor spoke optimistically of building six ships of the line and six frigates in Venice, entirely from Venetian resources, and of manning them with local seamen. The viceroy issued a decree establishing naval conscription, to provide the fleet with seagoing manpower and shipyard personnel. At the same time, he had twenty gunboats laid down in the Arsenal, all of which were to be completed and armed by the end of 1806.

Ships of the Line

A construction program began in earnest and gained momentum over the fall of 1806. The brig Jena, named in honour of Napoleon's recent victory over the Prussians, entered service in December. By the end of the year, keels had been laid for two more brigs, two seventy-four-gunships of the line and two forty-four- gun frigates; then, in January, work started on three more ships of the line. Early in 1807, at his field headquarters near Warsaw, Napoleon spoke of having a dozen ships of the line built in Venice within the next two or three years. In appraising the possibilities of the Venice Arsenal, he noted that "profit from this great resource" to France was "most urgent." In the months that followed, a number of smaller vessels were laid down on its slips: in February, two more brigs; in April, a pair of thirty-two-gun corvettes; and in June, a smaller corvette to round out the first phase of the program.
While awaiting the completion of the new warships, the French and their Italian compatriots could do little to challenge their enemies in the Adriatic. A British squadron under Captain Patrick Campbell managed to blockade Venice for an entire year (September 1806 to September 1807), preventing both the supply by sea of French troops in Dalmatia and the transport to Venice of Dalmatian naval conscripts and ship timber.

The neutralization of Russia, together with the launching of new warships at Venice, strengthened the Franco-Italian hand in the Adriatic and brought on a new, more active phase of naval warfare that would oblige the British to commit more ships to the theatre to avoid losing it entirely. The French plan of action for 1808 called for the main fleet to break the British blockade at Toulon, then resupply the new French garrison on Corfu, land troops on Sicily and, if the opportunity arose, engage the British Mediterranean fleet. To overcome their numerical inferiority, the French hoped to rendezvous with Spanish ships of the line and eventually join forces with the Franco-Italian fleet in the Adriatic. Napoleon, somewhat unrealistically, even counted on a Russian squadron which had taken refuge at the Austrian port of Trieste after the Treaty of Tilsit. He assumed that the British would have to send ships of the line into the Adriatic to watch them, and thus weaken their blockade of Toulon and other ports.

The Adriatic

In January the French fleet, under Vice Admiral Honore Joseph Antoine Ganteaume, succeeded in breaking out of Toulon. After failing to find the Spanish, Ganteaume proceeded alone to the Ionian islands and delivered reinforcements and supplies to Corfu. The British admirals lost track of him but took up defensive positions off Malta and Sicily and quite by accident foiled his plans to take the latter. Lacking Spanish support, and with the Russians unwilling to leave their haven at Trieste to join him, Ganteaume considered it pointless to seek an engagement with a superior British fleet. After accomplishing his mission at Corfu he returned home, thus bringing to an end the last major French naval sortie of the Napoleonic wars. The French expedition shook the British hold on the Adriatic, but they did not have to deploy ships of the line there; and after the threat passed, Campbell's frigates sufficed to restore order. The fate of a convoy sent out from Venice one month after Ganteaume's departure con- firmed the speed of the British recovery. Campbell intercepted its escort of three brigs and captured the Franco-Italian commander, Captain Paulucci, along with his flagship Friedland. The British subsequently imprisoned Paulucci at Malta; in the years that followed, a succession of French officers filled his post as head of the active squadron.

The subsequent timidity of the Italian navy lasted throughout the War of 1809, when it declined to venture out against Commodore William Hargood and three British ships of the line. Although new frigates, corvettes and brigs had been launched and put into service at Venice, the five ships of the line laid down in 1806 and 1807 were all still on the stocks and the fleet had nothing to match Hargood's larger vessels.

In July 1810 Napoleon decided to start a second round of naval construction in the Venice Arsenal, optimistically informing Decres of his intention "to have five [new] ships of the line on the stocks at Venice" by the end of the year. Of the five already under construction, he hoped to have two in service by the end of 1811 and a third by the fall of 1812.

By the end of 1810 the completion of most of the frigates, corvettes, and brigs of the initial building program at Venice gave the Franco-Italian forces a rough parity with the British in medium-sized ships, and the progress of work on the five ships of the line threatened to turn the overall balance in their favour. A month before Dubourdieu's raid, Eugene had travelled to Venice to witness the launching of the first of the ships of the line, the seventy-four-gun Rivoli. During the fall of 1810 the second phase of naval building began in the Arsenal, on slips vacated by the launching of vessels laid down in 1806 and 1807. Of the five additional ships of the line authorized by Napoleon in July, three were under construction by the end of the year, along with another frigate. At the same time Napoleon ordered an additional ship of the line and frigate to be built for the Illyrian navy in Trieste, where heretofore only gunboats had been constructed. In July he doubled the navy's budget for 1811 from three million to six million francs and assigned Commodore Jean-Baptiste Barre to Venice to replace the late Dubourdieu. The emperor wanted Barre to take command of a squadron consisting of the Rivoli and two other new ships of the line, then to show the flag and reassert French naval hegemony in the Adriatic during the late summer and early fall of 1811. But the shipbuilders could not match his ambitious schedule, and when the time came for the cruise to begin none of the three vessels was ready for sea; the Rivoli still had to be armed, and the other two had yet to be launched. Instead of conducting a new show of force, the Franco-Italian navy reverted to its pre-1810 impotence. For the remainder of 1811, the British managed to control the Adriatic with only two frigates and their corsair fleet.
Barre's Adriatic cruise finally took place in February 1812 with a squadron consisting only of the Rivoli and three brigs. The seventy-four-gun ship of the line and its small escorts left Venice on the twentieth of the month with the modest assignment of sailing first to Trieste, then to Ancona. The sortie did not catch the British off guard, since they had just sent a ship of the line of their own, the Victorious, to the upper Adriatic. At dawn on 22 February this seventy-four-gun vessel and a British sloop intercepted the Rivoli and her squadron off Grado, west of Trieste, and after a preliminary exchange of salvoes destroyed a French brig, the two ships of the line squared off for a classic duel. As soon as the Rivoli came under fire, some 150 Dalmatian crewmen abandoned their stations and sought refuge in the hold of the vessel. In four hours of combat, the British guns inflicted 400 casualties among the 650 men who remained at their posts. The Rivoli had to strike her colours, and the Victorious sailed off with the greatest prize of the war in the Adriatic, one of the few ships of the line captured by the British after Trafalgar. After the battle, Barre was fortunate to be in enemy hands; an outraged Napoleon called the loss "unforgivable."
In hindsight, the battle appears to have been the fatal blow to his Adriatic strategy. Although the building program at Venice continued, with the emperor even ordering a replacement for the captured warship, there was no longer the optimistic belief that the completion of the ships of the line somehow would automatically break Britain's domination of the sea. In 1812 the British expanded their Adriatic squadron to three ships of the line and a half-dozen frigates, under the command of Rear Admiral Thomas Fremantle. The enlarged force was more than powerful enough to keep the Franco-Italian fleet in port.

After returning from his Russian campaign, Napoleon for the first time expressed doubts about the future of his program at Venice. In January 1813 he ordered the completed ships of the line (three, at the time) to leave the port and "if possible" make a run for Toulon. Given Britain's mastery of the Adriatic and western Mediterranean, such a mission would have been suicidal; Duperre realized as much and did not attempt it.

To the end, Napoleon refused to give up the dream of making Venice a major maritime centre of his European empire. Warship construction continued for months after the Italian navy had ceased to venture out, and money was spent on new ships even after the bankrupt kingdom of Italy no longer could meet the payroll for personnel aboard the vessels already completed. As late as 1813, two new frigates were laid down in the Arsenal, one of which, ironically, was named the Moscava, in commemoration of the emperor's triumphant march to the Russian capital and in defiant non-recognition of the disaster that had followed.

While Eugene fought desperately to save northern Italy for Napoleon in the campaign of 1813-14, the Franco-Italian navy remained in port at Venice. In October 1813 the emperor advised Decres that all ships of the line might have to be disarmed in order to put the guns and manpower to better use on land. Napoleon subsequently pressed thousands of sailors into service with the army, but Eugene did not follow his example in Italy. In late October, with help from the guns of Fremantle's ships of the line, Austrian troops subdued the citadel of Trieste; the British then enforced a strict blockade of Venice for the next six months until Eugene's defeat and surrender in April 1814. The Austrians besieged the city by land and occupied it at the end of April, inheriting a wealth of ships and naval stores in the harbour and Arsenal. Habsburg officials found a total of four ships of the line, three frigates, and one corvette completed, and another six ships of the line and five frigates under construction. Roughly a dozen brigs and countless schooners and gunboats rounded out the fleet. The number of ships found built and building in Venice surprised even the British, who were aware all along of the activity in the Arsenal but had no precise knowledge of its scope. In addition to the vessels inherited by the Austrians, the program had produced the ship of the line Rivoli, two frigates, one corvette, and several brigs and smaller vessels, all either sunk or captured by the British. By the end of the war, Napoleon's efforts had produced (or had under construction) eleven ships of the line, ten frigates, and two corvettes at Venice, another frigate at Trieste, and as many as sixteen or seventeen brigs at Venice and Trieste combined.
 
Further Reading:

        

Stalin's Seasons Greetings

At this time of the year it is expected that we all join in the spirit of goodwill to all men and yuletide cheer!  It is noted, however, that there are certain aspects of this holiday season that are mixtures of good and bad, those who have had to rummage through the remnants of the Christmas tin of 'Quality Street' will attest to the truth in that. So for those among you who let the insufferable Christmas cheer get to you and go around saying 'baa-humbug', I would just like to point out how even men like Stalin could get into the festive mood at this time of year, as evidenced here in his 'touching' seasonal greeting to the people of Japan.

Text of telegram from Joseph Stalin to Kiishi Iwamoto, Editor-in-Chief, Kyodo News Agency, December 31, 1951. Source: Soviet News.

Dear Mr. K. Iwamoto: I have received your request to send a New Year's message to the Japanese people. It is not a tradition with Soviet leaders that the Premier of a foreign State should address his wishes to the people of another State. However, the profound sympathy of the peoples of the Soviet Union for the Japanese people who are in straits owing to foreign occupation, impels me to make an exception to the rule and to meet your request. Please convey to the Japanese people that I wish them freedom and happiness, that I wish them full success in their gallant struggle for the independence of their homeland. In the past the peoples of the Soviet Union themselves experienced the horrors of foreign occupation in which the Japanese imperialists also took part. Therefore they fully understand the sufferings of the Japanese people, deeply sympathize with them and believe that they will achieve the regeneration and independence of their homeland as the peoples of the Soviet Union achieved it in the past.

I wish the Japanese workers deliverance from unemployment and low wages, elimination of high prices of consumer goods and success in the struggle for the preservation of peace. I wish the Japanese peasants deliverance from landlessness and land shortage, elimination of high taxes and success in the struggle for the preservation of peace. I wish the entire Japanese people and their intelligentsia full victory of the democratic forces of Japan, revival and advance of the country's economic life, the flowering of national culture, science and art and success in the struggle for the preservation of peace.

With respect,

 J. Stalin

Book Review: Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris

By Graham Robb 

This was bought as a present for my good lady, who loves travel and history and who is always planning long weekends in Paris, our 'Paris Syndrome', therefore, had long been overcome when I picked up this book which I then became hooked on. 'Paris Syndrome', by the way,  affects a large number of tourists every year, mostly Japanese, for some reason. It appears to spring from the shock of the disparity between the popular image of Paris – of accordions, flowers and cobbled streets – and their subsequent exposure to the Banlieue at night. They do not know that, within our lifetimes, those cobble stones have been prised up and thrown in anger.

Price: £9:99
Publication Date: Picador (2010)
ISBN: 978-0330536233
Buy this Book

Graham Robb wrote a superb book about France two years ago, The Discovery of France, and now follows it up with an ingenious study of Paris since 1750. He has just about made sense of the history of the great city by confining it to a series of chronological character studies, casting light on celebrated or obscure moments. Most studies of places start from a geographical or a historical point. The author has focused on what really matters, the human beings who shaped, or who were occasionally defeated by, their city.

There are some famous episodes here, such as the Commune, the Terror, the Evènements – how easily Paris boils down its dramas into one-word labels with characteristic chic. With almost a novelist’s eye, however, the author prefers to take an oblique approach, focusing on the telling human detail. Many people before have told the story of Louis XVI’s and Marie Antoinette’s flight to Vincennes. How many have understood the significance of their getting lost as soon as they left their palace, that they had not only been perpetually immured from the city, but the city had no maps?

Post-war French politics is accounted for by an amazing tale of successive assassination attempts on de Gaulle and Mitterrand, some, perhaps all, staged by the apparent victim. We have already been prepared for the slippery connections between the Parisian underworld and official life by a superb chapter on Vidocq, the 19th-century master criminal turned corrupt head of the Sûreté. When he died, 11 separate women turned up bearing a will, each in their favour. Even so, Mitterrand’s shamelessness in staging a mock-assassination astonishes, as does the fact that his political career survived the episode at all. The account of the transport of the Jews from the Vel d’Hiv is heartrendingly good, and the author has some fun with the Soixante-huitards and their witty slogans: “Ici bientôt, de charmantes ruines”. It comes right up to date, with an angry account of the death, in the banlieues, of some immigrants running from the abusive French police, and Sarkozy’s unapologetic use of the word “racaille” , or “scum”, to describe them.

No doubt Graham Robb could have written a book twice as long as this one, without running the risk of repeating himself, and there is no shortage of subjects which must have been left out with some regret. Perhaps there is a whole book remaining to be written about visitors to Paris. And if I have one minuscule criticism of this marvellously entertaining, bouncingly energetic and original book, it is that Robb prefers the authentic, under-bellied Paris to the external one. The only tourist here is Adolf Hitler, shown on a hilariously surface-skimming tour of the conquered city in the company of Arno Breker and Albert Speer.