22 February/23 February 2020 ★ FT Weekend 9Zara Shakow Steiner was a distin-
guished historian of the Great Powers
before both world wars and a popular
tutor and fellow of New Hall (now Mur-
ray Edwards College), Cambridge.
Until her time, the arena of diplo-
matic history and war was overwhelm-
ingly the preserve of male scholars, and
the avalanche of writing during the
1950s and ’60s about the origins of the
first world war or Hitler’s foreign poli-
cies, had done nothing to change that
impression. The great figures in the field
were men: Charles Webster, G P Gooch
and Harold Temperley, John Wheeler-
Bennett, Hugh Seton-Watson, AJP Tay-
lor, Fritz Fischer and Pierre Renouvin.
It must have been with some bemuse-
ment, then, that the history faculty
found a female fellow in the genre in
their midst. Yet this young American of
Jewish-Lithuanian heritage had unusu-
ally strong academic credentials: an
undergraduate degree from Swarth-
more College in Pennsylvania as well as
two degrees from Oxford and a PhD in
history from Harvard University all
before she turned 30.
Zara Shakow was born on November
6, 1928, in New York. She married the
rising literary critic George Steiner in1955 and came with him to Cambridge
in 1961 following his appointment at
Churchill College. The couple had met at
the suggestion of their former Harvard
professors, who had a bet they would be
married if they were ever to meet. They
had a son, David, and a daughter, Debo-
rah. George died on February 3, 10 days
before his wife.
It was interesting, at least to outsiders,
that neither academic was appointed to
the faculty, although they steadily
became among the most prominent
Cambridge couples of their time. George
made a name for himself in comparative
European literature and critical studies,
Zara in the history of British diplomacy
and as a prolific reviewer, including for
the Financial Times.
When her first substantial book in
this field,The Foreign Office and Foreign
Policy, 1898-1914, was published in 1969
it was recognised as a trailblazer, both in
institutional history and in the foreign
policy of prewar British diplomacy. A
whole generation of younger historians
was enthralled by the steady opening of
the British Foreign Office and Cabinet
records on the origins of the first world
war, but this young American had made
the first strike.It was her 1977 synthesis,Britain and
the Origins of the First World War, along
with Volker Berghahn’s slightly earlier
Germany and the Approach of War in 1914,
that set the remarkably high standard
for the whole Macmillan Studies in
Modern History series that followed.
The second edition of 2006, co-au-
thored with Keith Neilson, is an impres-
sive update and a teaching classic. By
this stage, her knowledge of the history
of the Foreign Office had attracted the
attention of a coterie of former British
ambassadors and officials, who became
confidants, and helped advise her as she
wrote and edited the massiveThe Times
SurveyofForeignMinistriesoftheWorld.
Steiner cautiously agreed to write a
tome for the Oxford History of Modern
Europe, the only female author in that
remarkable series which included Paul
Schroeder’s dauntingThe Transforma-
tion of European Politics, 1763-1848and
AJP Taylor’s stunning, The Struggle for
MasteryinEurope1848-1918.
Just at this time, the archives for the
interwar years opened up. It was so hard
to keep up with it all that she and her
editors made the tough choice to aim for
a more comprehensive work, broken
into two enormous volumes.The Lightsthat Failed, published in 2005, andThe
Triumph of the Dark(2011) together cov-
ered European history from 1919-1939.
The reviewers reached for the appropri-
ate adjectives: “magisterial” was the
most common. Yet there had been times
when she despaired of getting it done,
showing visitors her writing room, over-
flowing with papers, articles, tagged
books and copies.
There were lighter occasions, too,
when the same visitors to Barrow Road
would be brought in to tea or dinner
with Zara and George, and to extraordi-
nary debates on American politics, anti-
Semitism, new book projects and
research. Both at Cambridge, and in vis-
iting professorships at Stanford, the
LSE, and elsewhere, Zara was remarka-
ble in encouraging younger women.
As her fame grew, the awards began to
arrive. She was elected a fellow of the
British Academy in 2007. Very late in
the day, the International History
Review realised that she was a grand
historical resource herself, and asked
her to write “Behind the Foreign Office
Papers” for their February 2017 issue. If
anyone had opened the curtains upon
British diplomacy it was she.
PaulKennedyObituary
The grande
dame of
diplomatic
history
Zara Steiner
Historian
1928-Her work attracted
the attention of former
British ambassadors
and officials, who
became confidants
Zara Steiner inspired a generation of
younger historians— Michael DerringerA hostile
takeover bid
roils party
T
his weekend, Michael
Bloomberg is planning to
meet advisers for what
promises to be one of the
most difficult sessions in his
unorthodox bid for the White House:
rewatching painful moments from his
first presidential debate, including a
particularly brutal inquisition by sena-
tor Elizabeth Warren.
Hanging over the meeting will be the
fundamental question about Mr
Bloomberg’s hostile takeover bid for the
Democratic party — whether the 78-
year-old billionaire can salvage his cam-
paign, including through a stronger per-
formance in the next debate on Tues-
day, or whether, after spending more
than $400m of his vast fortune so far, he
is engaged in little more than an expen-
sive ego trip.
With a candidacy premised on out-
smarting traditional campaigns, and
bypassing the first four voting states, Mr
Bloomberg’s hopes rest on Super Tues-
day on March 3, when 14 states will head
to the polls and roughly a third of the
total Democratic party delegates are up
for grabs.
This week, the unconventional strat-
egy appeared to be paying off. Multiple
national polls showed Mr Bloomberg
catapulting into second place behind
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders.
With former vice-president Joe Biden
faltering and Democratic voters still
unsure about former mayor Pete Butti-
gieg or senator Amy Klobuchar, it
seemed as if Mr Bloomberg was emerg-
ing as the strongest moderate opponent
to the leftwing Mr Sanders.
But then the former New York mayor,
who had been operating behind a luxu-
riously tailored curtain of glossy cam-
paign ads and celebrity endorsements,
made his faltering primetime debut,
where he took a bludgeoning from Ms
Warren on his comments about women
and use of non-disclosure agreements.
As one prominent Democratic fund-
raiser and donor put it: “Bloomberg the
man had a head-on collision with
Bloomberg the brand.” He adds: “When
you saw him on the debate stage, he
looked out of his league.”
On the campaign trail, Mr Bloomberg
has touted himself as a self-made bil-
lionaire who was laid off from his job at
Wall Street’s Salomon Brothers at 39,
only to found his eponymous trading
terminals and media-financial data
business.
He has pointed to his record as mayor
of New York from 2002, first as a Repub-
lican and then as an Independent,
where he won a reputation as an action-
oriented technocrat and made gun con-
trol, education and public health
(including a failed ban on oversized sug-
ary drinks) some of his core initiatives.
A supporter of George W Bush’s re-
election, Mr Bloomberg later endorsed
Barack Obama on the eve of his 2012 re-
election bid. He has tied himself closely
to the former Democratic president in
ads aimed at African American voters,
irritating former Obama colleagues who
say Mr Bloomberg is exaggerating the
two men’s relationship.
In the 2016 election, Mr Bloomberg
flirted with entering the primaries as an
independent, but ultimately decided
against it. He re-registered as a Demo-
crat in 2018, after giving more than
$100m to Democratic candidates in the
midterms, before eventually entering
the race in November.
His campaign is like no other in
American politics. In January alone, Mr
Bloomberg’s campaign spent a stagger-
ing $220m and has an organisation of
2,400 staff spread out across 43 states.
Entry-level field organisers receive sala-tion, which has given hundreds of mil-
lions of dollars worth of grants to close
to 200 US cities.
“So many people are saying he is try-
ing to buy the nomination,” says Don
Hardy, mayor of Kinston, North Caro-
lina, who recently switched from sup-
porting Joe Biden to the former mayor
but whose city has not received Bloomb-
erg funds. “Yes, he has a lot of money, he
can do whatever he wants. But he is
putting his money where his mouth is.
He is not talking about it, he’s doing it.”
The Kinston mayor, who is African
American, says he was not put off by Mr
Bloomberg’s comments about stop-
and-frisk, the controversial New York
policing policy that disproportionately
targeted black and brown men, and
which Mr Bloomberg has since apolo-
gised for. “If he hadn’t done what he had
done, I think New York City would have
been in a worse predicament than it had
been,” he says.
Juan Vargas, a Democratic congress-
man from California, says he endorsed
Mr Bloomberg after talking to Joseph
McShane, a Jesuit priest and president
of Fordham University, who praised the
candidate’s integrity.
He warns that defeat for Mr Bloomb-
erg would hand the nomination to Mr
Sanders — the self-described Demo-
cratic socialist — an outcome that would
be an “unmitigated disaster” for the
Democrats.
“I wish [the other moderate candi-
dates] would do the right thing and step
aside, and allow someone who can actu-
ally win and beat Trump,” Mr Vargas
says, referring to Mr Bloomberg.
Ahead of this week’s debate, for which
he prepared with his comfort food of
peanut butter on matzo flatbread, peo-
ple close to the ex-mayor had expressednervousness about his performance,
acknowledging the former New York
mayor did not excel in traditional cam-
paigning. “It’s not his thing,” says a top
Bloomberg adviser.
“He is a terrible campaigner — not a
man of the people,” concedes one fan of
Mr Bloomberg who worked closely with
the former mayor at City Hall.
“Compare him to Bill Clinton and Eliz-
abeth Warren who look just completely
delighted to meet anybody,” says Mark
Green, Mr Bloomberg’s 2001 Demo-
cratic opponent for mayor. “And Mike
looks like: How soon can I get to the golf
course?”
At an event for Mr Bloomberg at a
brewery in Richmond, Virginia last
weekend, some Democratic voters
emerged more sceptical of his prospects
after hearing Mr Bloomberg speak in
person for the first time.
“He didn’t really give us a platform,”
complains Martha Donato, 60, before
conceding that Mr Bloomberg was at
least knowledgeable. Her husband,
Charlie, says Mr Bloomberg “lacked
passion”, adding that “he’s coming
across as milquetoast”.Spending truths
Should Mr Bloomberg win the primary,
it would put many Democrats in an
uncomfortable position of having to
support the candidate who had won the
nomination at least partly by outspend-
ing all of his opponents.
“If Mike wins, it’s not the end of
democracy, but it’s a big problem,
because it will unavoidably convey the
signal to future generations that if you
want to run for president, you must
have a billion plus in discretionary
spending,” says Mr Green, the former
Bloomberg opponent.Mr Bloomberg’s supporters say such
concerns would quickly disappear
because of the overwhelming priority of
beating Mr Trump. “Sooner or later
people are getting to be comfortable
with the fact that we have to suspend the
rules, we have to spend millions of dol-
lars if we want to defeat Donald Trump,”
says one Bloomberg acquaintance.
“No one was complaining two years
ago when he spent [over $100m] to flip
the House,” says another longtime
adviser and associate, referring to Mr
Bloomberg’s funding of the midterm
campaign.
His campaign team is hoping that the
advertisements and an improved show-
ing at Tuesday’s Democratic debate in
South Carolina will help erase the mem-
ory of Wednesday’s debate.
“He’ll get there,” insists one of Mr
Bloomberg’s high-profile surrogates in
Congress. “Look at the numbers,” he
adds, saying Mr Bloomberg could
always run “a gazillion ads” to make up
for his poor performance.
For Mr Bloomberg’s critics, his poor
debate performance demonstrated that
he does not have the skills to win the
nomination. Indeed, Mr Bloomberg’s
presence in the race, they say, could
splinter support for the moderate candi-
dates and hand the nomination to Mr
Sanders — the very candidate Mr
Bloomberg and others have claimed
would be most damaging to Democrats’
hopes of winning the White House.
Edward Erikson, a Democratic con-
sultant, says Mr Bloomberg’s campaign
would be the ultimate test for how effec-
tive TV and digital advertising is in the
Trump era. “We don’t really know what
the answer is, and we’re going to find out
in a big way on Super Tuesday.” So too
will Mr Bloomberg and his campaign.F T B I G R E A D. US POLITICS
Michael Bloomberg’s avalanche of TV adverts could make him the strongest moderate Democrat to
challenge Bernie Sanders. But after a poor debate performance, he also risks an expensive ego trip.
ByCourtneyWeaver
ries of $70,000 or higher and have jobs
guaranteed to November, whether or
not Mr Bloomberg stays in the race.
They have been supplied with Mac-
books and the latest Apple iPhones.
Already, $312m has been spent on
advertising, which ranges from tradi-
tional TV spots to online memes. The
Oscar-winner Michael Douglas did the
voiceover for a radio ad. At the cam-
paign’s Times Square office, Bloomberg
LP employees, who have migrated over
to the campaign side, mingle with vet-
eran Democratic political strategists.
“It’s a well-oiled machine,” gushed the
Democratic fundraiser. “There is art on
the walls. People get free food. [There
are] these beautifully thought-through
policy papers. There is a level of sophis-
tication that feels... very private sec-
tor.”Push for endorsements
Mr Bloomberg is self-financing his cam-
paigning, but has courted the support of
the Democratic party’s top donors and
Wall Street elite, particularly those
backing Mr Biden.
Donors who have been approached by
Mr Bloomberg described a surreal proc-
ess of being wooed in multiple phone
calls and meetings, the eventual “ask”
being not for a cheque but only a prom-
ise to talk up Mr Bloomberg among
other members of their circle, particu-
larly those who live in Super Tuesday
states.
Mr Bloomberg has also tapped
endorsements from an extensive net-
work of elected public officials. These
include mayors who attended a training
programme funded by Mr Bloomberg at
Harvard University or have seen their
cities benefit from Bloomberg Philan-
thropies, a multibillion dollar organisa-‘Bloomberg
the man had
a head-on
collision
with
Bloomberg
the brand.
When you
saw him on
the debate
stage, he
looked out
of his league’‘[Democrats
have] to be
comfortable
with the fact
that we have
to suspend
the rules.
We have to
spend
millions of
dollars if we
want to
defeat
Trump’Michael
Bloomberg
struggled
against the likes
of Elizabeth
Warren, left, in
Wednesday’s
debate. Some
Democrats say
the billionaire’s
presence in the
race will splinter
the moderate
vote and help
Bernie Sanders,
below— FT montageFEBRUARY 22 2020 Section:Features Time: 21/2/2020 - 18: 49 User: alistair.hayes Page Name: BIGPAGE, Part,Page,Edition: LON, 9, 1