-- Ggosh! I must have suffered so much from my English upbringing that
stuff like the Julie Burchill piece flows off my back. Yes, it is ignorant,
and yes, it does reflect England's history, recent and more remote. But let
us be just a bit careful about the comparisons. I have just been proofing an
article on the legal historian F.W. Maitland, in which I examined his
treatment in his HISTORY OF ENGLISH LAW of the "rest of us", including
women, homosexuals, the "lower orders" etc. And, yes, he does come under
suspicion of anti-semitism and other brands of illiberal Victorian liberal
views. But compare him with an American near-contemporary like Henry Adams
or -- to screw matters up with a Cornellian of English upbringing -- Goldwin
Smith, and be starts to look a bit better. Still divine but more human was
my verdict, which, come to think of it, left the English part of my audience
in July a trifle uncomfortable.
My American wife still hopes to retire "back" to England. Her reaons
are aspects of life in the US that she (and sometimes I too) thinks are much
nastier than anything she finds in Britain. I shall not go into details,
because this is a History List and a family show. But I do recall a Cornell
student in one of my courses, NYC Jewish but now moved out into Connecticut
if you get the idea, who told his father about his British professor. His
father took a look at my Course Materials and noticed that I had announced
that I would not teach on Yom Kippur. "What's this?", he said, "I thought
you told me he was English!" He simply could not believe that the same
person, apparently quite congenial to his son too, could be both English AND
Jewish. But I am, and I like being both, but boast about being a Yorkshireman.
My favorite Eng. Hist quote: "I beseech ye gentlemen, in the bowels
of Christ, think it possible ye may be mistaken." (Cromwell to the
Covenanters, unless I have got it wrong.
Sincerely,
Paul Hyams
PAUL R. HYAMS prh3@cornell.edu (607) 257-3168
History Dept.,
Cornell University,
ITHACA NY 14853-4601.