The Economist - USA (2020-11-21)

78 Books & arts The EconomistNovember 21st 2020

1

I

n may 1933 MauriceWilson,a first-world-

warveteran,tookofffromStagLaneaero-

dromeinnorthLondon.Hehadresolvedto

flyhisGipsyMoth,a single-enginebiplane,

6,000milestoMountEverest,crash-land

onitslowerslopesandascendthethen-

unconquered mountain—alone. He had

only 19 hoursofflight-trainingunderhis

belt, and “had hardly climbed anything

morechallengingthana flightofstairs”.

EdCaesartellsthisirresistiblyquixotic

talein“TheMothandtheMountain”—a

rollickingbiographyofaneccentricadven-

turer,anda sensitivestudyofthepressures

thatdrovehim.Warwasthedefiningfactof

Wilson’slife.AsWadeDavisarguedin“Into

theSilence”,hisaccountoftheearlyEver-

estexpeditions,forthemeninvolvedthe

perilsofhigh-altitudeclimbingpaledbe-

sidethecarnageoftheWesternFront.They

wereagenerationinoculatedbytrauma.

Onaverage,a secondlieutenant(Wilson’s

rank)survivedforaboutsixweeks;hisbat-

talionlostover 400 menina singlenight.

At 20 hewontheMilitaryCrossforbravery,

butwasshotin 1918 andrepatriated.

Inthe“topsyturvy”worldofpeacehe

wasshell-shockedandrootless.He“lost

thethreadofhisownstory”,writesMrCae-

sar.EverestpromisedtogiveWilson’slifea

newplot.Hewasenthralledbyprevious

Britishattemptsonthemountain,thebest

knownofwhich,in1924,ledtothedeathof

GeorgeMallory, theera’sfinestalpinist,

highonitsslopes.Thoseearlyclimbers

sawinthe“thirdpole”ofEveresta kindof

vindicationfor theempire; toWilsonit

suggesteda morepersonaldeliverance.

Unliketheairyandill-preparedWilson,

MrCaesar,a journalistattheNewYorker,

grounds his story in patient archival

sleuthing.MarryingextractsfromWilson’s

lettersand diaries withlively prose, he

winninglyconveystheglamourandcon-

tradictionsofthisoutlandishfigure,bring-

ingcinematicvividnesstohisescapades.

ThemaximumrangeofWilson’saeroplane

was 750 miles,sohewasforcedtohop-

scotchbetweenscrubbyimperialoutposts

as Whitehall pen-pushers—fearing the

“loud-mouthedaviator”wouldcausea dip-

lomaticincident—triedtostophim.But

hiscunningandironcladjauntinessdeliv-

eredhimtothefootofthemountain,and

hisinevitablefate.

Despitetheseenticingdetails,Wilson’s

motivationsremainobscure.AsMrCaesar

admits,the“slipperyrockface”ofhislife

shrugsoffthemostagilebiographer.Apart

froma fewtellingcracksofintrospection

andself-doubt,hiswritingsarea smooth

wallofwhat-hobravado.Evidentlyhewas

damagedbyhismilitaryservice,butthe

deeperprincipleswhichguidedhimarea

blur.MrCaesartentativelypointstothein-

fluenceof esoteric religiousbeliefsthat

flourishedintheturbulenceofthepost-

warera.Anunusualrelationship witha

marriedwoman,EnidEvans,wasclearly

important,too.He eventouchesonthe

somewhatshakyrumoursthatWilsonwas

a secrettransvestite.

Yetthesespeculationsbringreadersno

closertothemanhimself.“Youimagine”,

“youcanalmostsee”:MrCaesarincreas-

inglyresortstothesehopefulconjectures.

“Sometimes,Wilsonseemsdistantandan-

cient,”hewritestowardstheend.“Atoth-

ers,heissoclosethatyoucanhearhim.”

Hypothermicandhuddlingina tentblast-

edbyicywinds,Wilsonsignedoffhisfinal

letterwitha characteristic“Cheerio”. 7

Derring-do

Cloudsofglory

TheMothandtheMountain.ByEdCaesar.

AvidReaderPress; 288 pages;$28.

Viking;£18.99

Flights of fancy

I

n liverpool,a French observer mar-

velled in 1907, “one feels one is in contact

with America, Australia, west Africa, the

Far East, at the same time as with Germany

and France. There one is at the commercial

centre of the world.”

This remark neatly captures the subject

of John Darwin’s new book. He tracks a cen-

tury of what he calls “steam globalisation”,

when steamships and railways drove a dra-

matic acceleration in the exchange of

goods, people, ideas and money across the

world. Faster and cheaper transport

seemed to shrink the globe; the volume of

world trade and foreign investment soared.

Mr Darwin shows how major port cities

were both products of these transforma-

tions and agents of change. In the great

opening up of the world that is his subject,

the port cities were the hinges.

The current era of globalisation, the au-

thor notes, is not unique but the latest in a

series that have built on each other in a

cumulative, though not neatly linear, fash-

ion. In the mercantile system that sprang

up in the wake of the voyages of Ibn Bat-

tuta, Christopher Columbus and Vasco da

Gama, Asia was the world’s workshop and

Europe relatively peripheral.

Then coal, readily available in Europe,

fuelled what historians have called the

“Great Divergence” of the 18th century,

whereby Europe (and later North America)

came to dominate. By describing the evolu-

tion and sometimes decline of a number of

major port cities, most compellingly Lon-

don, Bombay, Singapore and New York, Mr

Darwin shows how this process worked.

Singapore, for instance, grew exponen-

tially, and played a central role in the in-

dustrialisation of tin and rubber produc-

tion in its maritime hinterland of Malaysia.

New Orleans rose in importance with the

Mississippi riverboat steamer, only to de-

cline as railway connections to Baltimore

and New York changed the dynamics of

American trade once more. Trieste enjoyed

a brief heyday as the Austro-Hungarian

Empire’s main seaport, before collapsing

abruptly into romantic obscurity after 1918.

Mr Darwin takes globalisation to mean

primarily “economic connectedness be-

tween different parts of the world”. That is a

reasonable but limited definition, missing

the ascent in the 19th century of ideologies

such as nationalism and socialism that

purported to explain social relations

Globalisation

Ports in a storm

Unlocking the World.By John Darwin.

Allen Lane; 496 pages; £25