TALKING POINTS
Attention to detail
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twitter.com/
historyextraGETTY^ IMAGESPupils at a Nazi-run school in Germany, c1941.
New research suggests that such institutions were
R partly modelled on elite schools in Britainecent documentary series The Beatles:
Get Back prompted Greg Jenner
(@greg_jenner) to consider how well
he and his fellow historians capture the three-
dimensional human nature of the eras they
study – and if it’s even possible. “Watching
Get Back, and having read many books about
the Beatles, is a salutary reminder that
historians and memoirists can easily fail to
capture the essence of the banal and joyous
humanity on display when they tell true
stories,” he tweeted. “Historians try to paint
a portrait without the subject being in the
room; all we get are scraps of evidence... I’m
not a fully paid-up postmodernist who thinks
the past is utterly unknowable, but it really
does bring it home that – when we write about
Shakespeare or Austen or Jefferson or Aristotle- are we missing the most important stuff of
all – them [hanging out] with their friends?”
Jenner’s query sparked discussion about
whether we can ever really be certain of
historical truth. Paul Hudson (@ pau l hud-
son26), for instance, asked: “How do we know
all this stuff from a thousand years ago?
It’s rarely first-hand discoveries... How much
do those recounts or interpretations morph
without observer testimony?” Elis James
(@elisjames) picked up on Jenner’s mention
of postmodernism: “I studied the postmod-
ernists at uni... I just couldn’t understand
it, especially the ‘all histories are fictions,
and all as valid as each
other’ argument.” Jenner
responded that “It’s a good
intellectual exercise, and it’s
not unfounded to say all
knowledge systems are cultur-
al artefacts, but I think we can know some
things while also knowing [that] we can’t
know all things.”
Others focused on the idea of the intimate
human details that might fall between gaps in
the historical record. Ruth Mather (@ r ut h _
mather) tweeted: “I went to a conference about
protest history many moons ago, during
which [UWE history professor] Steve Poole
asked what protesters might have been up to
when not protesting, and it’s still something
I come back to all the time. [There’s] so much
unrecorded, especially for those who we tend
to encounter through state records.”
Matt Jollands (@Jol l a nd sMat t he w),
meanwhile, noted: “I really liked Francis
Wheen’s [1999] biography of Marx, because it
did go large on the student japes and worrying
about if a beard made him serious and all the
stupid [nonsense] that otherwise gets lost in
the big sweep of history.” Helen McCarthy
(@tweetheart4711) also mentioned the
philosopher: “I would have loved to be a fly
on the wall when Karl was at home with Mrs
Marx and the kids. It would throw a whole
new light on his philosophy. (And probably
tell us why she never wrote hers.)”
Final word should go to who, dr?
(@elegantfowl), who enthused: “I sense
a school of history in the making.
All hail the New Frivolists!” The name
does have a certain ring to it...Anna Whitelock is professor of history
at City, University of LondonSECOND WORLD WARNazis were “inspired
by top British schools”
Commonly known as Napolas, the
Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten
(National Political Institutes of Educa-
tion) were boarding schools set up in
Nazi Germany to train future leaders.
Now a new study shows that these
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by British private schools.
The research, carried out by Durham
University historian Helen Roche,
draws on testimonies from more than
100 former students. It shows that an
extensive series of exchange trips and
sporting contests took place between
German and British schools from 1934
to 1939. These were designed to
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ambassadors” for the Nazi regime, but
also to glean insights into the way the
British private school system worked.
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educational model that also drew on
military corps and teaching in the
ancient world.
Roche’s work, published in her new
book The Third Reich’s Elite Schools:
A History of the Napolas (Oxford
University Press), highlights exchanges
with British institutions including
Bingley Grammar School in Yorkshire
and tournaments involving Harrow and
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educated the rulers of the centuries-old
British empire, but it was ultimately
envisaged that the Napolas should
train the rulers of the ‘Thousand Year
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the Napolas gives us crucial new
insights into... how the Third Reich
moulded its very youngest citizens.”A new Beatles documentary prompted Twitter users to ask
whether other histories could benefit from adopting its focus on
small human details. ANNA WHITELOCK followed the debateI’d have loved
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wall when Karl was
at home with Mrs
Marx and the kids
The Beatles, and band manager
Brian Epstein (centre), in a hotel
room in Paris, 1964