Last Hope Island
As those of you who hang out regularly here on the Margins have probably guessed, I love it when a book turns what I think I know upside down and shakes the change out of its pockets. Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe and the Brotherhood that Helped Turn the Tide of War is one of those books.
Historian Lynne Olson looks at the seldom-told stories of how European refugees—both governments-in-exile and individual patriots—continued to fight Nazi Germany from a (relatively) safe base of operations in London.
Taken individually, their stories are dramatic, and occasionally tragic. Queen Wilhemina of the Netherlands was outraged when the captain of the British destroyer on which she escaped Amsterdam refused to put her ashore at Zeeland: she had been determined to “be the last man to fall in the last ditch” in defense of her country. (She continued to be outraged throughout the war. Her grandchildren were not allowed to listen to her radio broadcasts because her language was so bad when she talked about the Nazis) A young French banker named Jacques Allier, traveling on a fake passport, smuggled the world’s supply of heavy water from German-occupied Norway to Scotland under the nose of Abwehr operatives—hamstringing Germany’s efforts to develop a nuclear bomb.
Told in combination, these stories challenge traditional accounts of the war. Olson reminds us that French forces guarded British troops during the heroic evacuation at Dunkirk. That Polish pilots played a critical role in the Battle of Britain and in defending London during the Blitz. That Britain’s successes in breaking the Enigma codes rested on the work of the Polish underground, who were able to decipher a high percentage of Enigma intercepts by early 1938. That Churchill was a butthead as well as a great leader.*
In the English-speaking world, Britain and the United States are often portrayed as standing alone against the Nazis in World War II. Last Hope Island reminds us that was never true.
*Okay. She doesn’t say that. But the stories she tells reinforce my growing dislike for the man.
Much of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness for Readers.
Celebrate A Woman Who Made a Difference (By 5/20)
(Normally I try to send out blog posts on Tuesdays and Fridays, but I’m pushing this one forward a bit because, as you’ll see below tempus fugit.)
At some point in the last two years I stumbled across the National Women’s History Project, an organization whose tagline reads “Writing Women Back into History.” (Insert fist-pump here.)
Founded in 1980, the organization led the charge for designating March as National Women’s History Month. Today, the NWHP focuses on teaching as many people as possible about women’s role in history. To which I say, Yes! Yes! And Yes! They provide women’s history resources for schools, train teachers, and coordinate programs for Women’s History Month.*
They also chose an annual theme for National Women’s History Month. The theme for 2018 is honoring women who fight all forms of discrimination against women.** Here’s how they describe it:
The 2018 theme recognizes the intersecting forms of discrimination women have faced, and continue to face, throughout American history and celebrates the diverse women who have fought, and continue to fight, discrimination at all levels and in all forms.
You still have time to nominate your favorite shin-kicker–current or historical. But hurry. Nominations are accepted through May 20. Here’s the link: http://www.nwhp.org/2018-theme-nominations/
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a few women warriors nagging at me to get back to work.
*They also have registry of women’s history performers and speakers. Adding my name to that list has been on my to-do list for months now. Maybe I’ll head over as soon as I post this. Or at least set up the public speaking page on my website. (Feel free to nudge me, folks.)
**They announced the 2018 theme back in April, but it slipped past me in the daily email avalanche.
Napoleon in Egypt, Part 2
Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign was a military disaster,* but the Army of the Orient wasn’t the only army that Napoleon brought with him to Egypt.
Frontispiece to the Description of Egypt
A commission of some 160 savants–scientists, artists, engineers, and scholars–accompanied the invading army, bringing with them virtually every book on Egypt available, dozens of crates of scientific instruments and a printing press “borrowed” from the Vatican. Their job was to record and analyze every aspect of Egypt’s antiquities, culture, geography, and history. Unlike the military invasion, the scholarly invasion was a roaring success.
Napoleon’s scholars made topographical maps. They collected minerals, plants, animals and artifacts.** They made plaster casts of things that couldn’t be easily collected. They measured anything that could be measured. They recorded the sites of ancient Egypt in exquisite detail.
When the French army surrendered at Alexandria in September, 1801, the scholars were forced to turn over their collection of antiquities, but were able to keep their copies, drawings and notes. Back in France, they organized their materials for publication. The commission’s publications ranged from a popular travel account by artist Baron Vivant Denan to the official 23-volume Description of Egypt, published between 1809 and 1813.
In the short run, Napoleon’s army of scholars triggered a fashion for things made in the Egyptian style (loosely defined). In the long run, the meticulously recorded details of Egyptian antiquities provided the raw material for serious study.
*If you’re coming to the story late, you can find the details here.
**Most notably, the Rosetta Stone.