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‘Risen from the ruins and facing the future’ affirmed Johannes Becher’s emphatic opening strophe to the national anthem of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), composed in that state’s birthyear of 1949. It was a stirring message, and one that amply reflected the political imperative that had come to suffuse the material task of reconstruction after six years of devastating war.
When viewed in a long perspective, the modern history of popular music has very often been one in which new styles are adopted by the young in spite of (and indeed because of) the incomprehension and disapproval of their elders, only to enter the mainstream as those young people age.
We appreciate Professor Yearwood’s robust engagement with our book. While we disagree with the vast majority of his objections, which focus primarily on the empirical analyses we set out in chapters 13 and 14, we accept his critique on three points.
Mary Gladstone and the Victorian Salon: Music, Literature, Liberalism is the first book-length study of music and liberalism, of any period or place. Until now, statesmen and men of letters have been the focus of books about high Victorian liberals; my monograph presents how top-drawer music-making, led by a particularly prominent woman, interacts with this known trajectory.
Martin Fisher’s review of Dancing with the King demonstrates that New Zealand’s history of colonisation is still captured by a dichotomy of Crown versus Māori, where Maori seem inevitably portrayed as innocent victims and Europeans violent, unprincipled and heartless aggressors.
I would like to thank Peter Webster for his generous, thoughtful, and critical engagement with my book. It’s also wonderful that Reviews in History decided to feature it. Webster’s review has helped me think through some of the problems I faced in the research, planning, writing, and editing stages.
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to this review. It is always gratifying when a reviewer exhibits so complete an understanding of what I was attempting to do. I am also grateful that Grenville-Mathers shows a keen appreciation of the contrasting methodologies of popular writers and professional historians.
We want first and foremost to thank Sarah Fox for this meticulous and considered review of our book; we were delighted to read such a detailed response to the mood, evidence and arguments of each chapter of A Day at Home in Early Modern England.
Some 70 years after the British left India it is timely to look back at how the kings and queens of the United Kingdom came to amass one of the largest private collections of South Asian art in the world. Two conjoined exhibitions currently showing at the Queen’s Gallery do just that.
Michael Belgrave’s review is thoughtful, and provocative. I am grateful to him for his care and insight. As he points out in these reflections on Tears of Rangi: Experiments across Worlds (and earlier works), I am an anthropologist, not an historian.