Conservative History Journal

A bit odd, what? Here we are running a blog for Conservative historians, conservatives, historians and any combination of that and no comments. Well, a couple. At first, there was a technical problem caused entirely by Tory Historian’s ionefficiency. But that has been cleared up and … well, still no comments. It’s not as if Conservative historians had nothing to say for themselves usually. A more vociferous lot it is hard to imagine. Perhaps,...

In a never-ending pursuit of excellence Tory Historian has, somewhat reluctantly, learnt some more about the technology of blogging, to wit how to illustrate postings. Here are two pictures of one of the best-known Conservative Prime Ministers and godfather of political spinners, Benjamin Disraeli.The first one is a delightful sketch by the Irish artist, Daniel Maclise (or possibly, somebody copying Maclise), unfortunately not on display...

Not only a meeting today but a special supplement to the Journal: an essay on Sir Michael Hicks Beach by T. G. Otte of the University of East Anglia, a frequent contributor to the Journal.The paper looks at the career of an important but curiously neglected Conservative politician of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It deals with political shenanigans as well as certain firmly held ideas.The tension between Conservatives...

Unfortunately Peter Mangold has had to pull out of our speaker meeting tomorrow. Lord (Tim) Renton has stepped into the breach and will give a talk on Chief Whips. The venue is Committee Room 16 of the House of Commons and the meeting will run from 6.30 to 7.30...

This is a posting for all those conservatives and historians of various denomination and, indeed, people who are interested in history and conservative ideas without practising the first or sharing the second, who are tired of apologies for the past.Apologizing for the past is a particularly silly and unhistorical idea. (And, of course, two days after the anniversary of Hitler’s birth and on the day of the anniversary of Lenin’s it does occur to one that those of us who do not believe in utopias have very little to apologize...

.... to all those who have tried to leave comments on this blog. Technical incompetence on the part of Tory Historian (well, what would you expect) meant that these comments did not actually appear. This has now been rectified and we all look forward to a spirited discussi...

Today marks the anniversary of the first publication of what is considered by most people to be the first modern detective story, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” in Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine in 1841.Why should this date be noted on a Conservative History blog? Simply, because in my opinion, the real detective story is a truly conservative form of literature in its main aspects. It is also, very much an Anglospheric form, with other countries and cultures largely imitating the British and American...

Many of our readers will be shocked to see that we are celebrating or commemorating the first battle of that mighty rebellion. That was the consideration that prevented me from writing about Paul Revere's ride yesterday (that, and my inability to rid my memory of the other Paul Revere in Guys and Dolls "I gotta horse right here/ his name is Paul Revere").The American Revolution, however, was in many ways the second English civil war and certainly a civil war within what we now call the Anglosphere. Furthermore, many of its principles...

Easter week seems a good time to think about the past and the future. This blog is offering two quotations on which one can meditate. They are about a thousand years apart but both very apposite.The first is from Archbishop Wulfstan who lived from 1009 to 1095 (not a bad span for that age and even for ours), was Bishop of Worcester and Archbishop of York. He wrote civil and ecclesiastical legal codes and a number of homilies.His Sermo Lupi ad Anglos ("Wulf's Address to the English", c. 1014 AD) consists of ferocious denunciations...

On April 15, 1755 the following advertisement appeared in the London press: “A Dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals and illustrated in their different significations by the best writers. To which are prefixed a History of the Language and a Grammar. By Samuel Johnson A.M.”Dr Johnson’s great dictionary was published and the best known definition of a lexicographer “a harmless drudge” was first presented to the public.In his entertaining history of “Dictionary-makers and the dictionaries...

This is what Andrew Roberts, the first conservative historian to be interviewed for the Conservative History Journal wrote this in his “Napoleon and Wellington” about April 12, 1814: “[Marshal] Soult withdrew the next day to Carcassonne, leaving most of his guns and 1,600 wounded, and at noon on 12 April Wellington entered the city of Toulouse. He found that the stone eagles had been pulled off the administrative buildings there and Napoleon’s statue had been thrown out of the window of the Capitol. He saw the Bourbon white...

Today marks the 400th aniversary of the decree issued by King James I of England and VI of Scotland that united the Cross of St George (red on a white background) and that of St Andrew (diagonal white on a blue background) in the first version of the Union Flag.The Cross Saltire of St Patrick (diagonal red cross on a white background) was added after the Act of Union and the Union Flag as we know it now was first flown on January 1, 1801.Why no Welsh Dragon? Simple really. Wales, a Principality, had, by 1606, been a part of...

Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, which will require a special trip to Paddington railway station, it being the nearest surviving monument to the man’s genius.As Richard Savill wrote in the Daily Telegraph the other day:“The vision of Brunel - who by the time of his death in 1859, aged 53, had built 25 railway lines, more than 100 bridges and three ships - helped transform the West Country during the Victorian era.”It also helped to transform Britain, as Richard Alleyne pointed out on the...

In his brief but exhaustingly dashing analysis of the “European Question and the National Interest”, professor Jeremy Black makes an interesting comment about the Hundred Years' War.In the 1330s, as France and England drifted towards war it became rather awkward for the aristocracy to continue with what we would now call international and francophile outlook and behaviour.In particular, the question of the language became acute. The use of English as it had developed from mixed Anglo-Saxon and Norman roots became a matter of...

Continuing our series of inspiring quotations, we turn to the great French conservative historian, sociologist, political writer and politician, Alexis de Tocqueville. His two great books, Democracy in America and The Ancien Regime and the French Revolution, as well as his shorter works are full of goodies and the English translations are, in some ways, easier to read than Burke’s pronouncements.Here are two examples from the first of those works: “When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.”“Democracy...

I'm delighted to use my inaugural post to announce the launch of the Conservative History Group Website which you can get to by clicking HERE. After a period of relative inactivity due to my involvement in the last election and the ensuing leadership campaign, this year promises to be rather more exciting for the Conservative History Group. If you've got any ideas of how we can improve the website and what kind of information we should consider adding to it, do email me iain AT iaindale DOT ...

On April 5, 1955 Sir Winston Churchill resigned as Prime Minister because of failing health. Alternatively, one might say, he was finally persuaded by his despairing colleagues that the state of his health could no longer be hidden from the relatively inquisitive media (can anyone imagine the media not commenting on such facts now?) and the public.The BBC’s historical archive has an article and a video of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh arriving on the previous evening at Number Ten for a dinner, hosted by the Prime Minister...

Backbenchers that is. Yes, they exist but do they have any importance? This melancholy thought occurred to me as I read the obituary of Sir Anthony Beaumont-Dark, in his day a well-known backbench MP and, as the Daily Telegraph diplomatically puts it, “an outspoken and populist” one at that.“Outspoken and populist” comes into the same category as “frank and open”. In other words, the man was rude about anyone he did not quite approve of. And despite his denials, it is clear that many of those off the cuff comments were made...

It seems that Marcus Tullius Cicero (c. 106 - 43 BC) may have had an unsuspected strain of puckish humour. This is what he said about history and historians: "The first law for the historian is that he shall never dare utter an untruth. The second is that he shall suppress nothing that is true."I expect it applies to conservative historians, thou...

I knew a quotation or two from Edmund Burke will bring the best out of our readers. Lexington Green, a stalwart Anglospherist from the other side of the Pond (the former colonies) sent us the following from Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America: "As to the wealth which the Colonies have drawn from the sea by their fisheries, you had all that matter fully opened at your bar. You surely thought those acquisitions of value, for they seemed even to excite your envy; and yet the spirit by which that enterprising employment...

We are starting a series of quotations of conservative nature; words of (possible) wisdom uttered by writers, thinkers, even politicians. And who better to start with than Edmund Burke, the man who, though a Whig for most of his political career, laid the foundation of much of the thinking that the Conservative Party follows (from time to time) and who has inspired generations of conservatives.Here are two from Reflections on the Revolution in France: “The state includes the dead, the living and the coming generations.”“People...