"Sweet World Vengeance: England and France, 300 Years of Love-Hate Feud", by [English] Robert Tums and [French] Isabelle Tums, translated by Feng Yida, published by CITIC Publishing Group in June 2022, 1192 pages, 168.00 yuan
When I learned that the Tumes couple's famous work "Sweet Feud" was translated into Chinese, I immediately contacted a French historian who was familiar with Robert Tumes. He said, "The book is very thick, and I just pick it up." After the Chinese translation was in hand, it was true, and the two volumes added up to more than 1,100 pages. The original book was published by William Heinemann Press, a subsidiary of Penguin Publishing Group, and is marketed for a mass audience, nearly 800 pages.
The Tums' work had not been published Chinese Simplified before, so their names were unfamiliar to most mainland readers, making it even harder to interest them in their work. However, Robert Tums is quite famous in Britain, and it has been accumulated in recent years. The style and arrangement of "Sweet Feud" is slightly different from Robert Tums's other popular history works, from which it can be inferred that Isabel Tums is credited with it. The overall narrative tone is in line with the political positions of Robert Tumes himself. There is not much information about Isabelle Tumes, so the introduction to this article revolves around Robert Tumes.
Born in England in 1949, Professor Robert Tumes studied and worked in Paris and met his wife, Isabelle. In 1978, he received his PhD from the University of Cambridge with a thesis on the Paris Commune, and then stayed on to teach. Born in France, Isabelle received her PhD in British history from the University of Cambridge, settled in England for a long time after marriage, and taught French to the Commonwealth and Foreign Affairs Department, mainly for diplomats.
Looking at Robert Tumes' work experience at Cambridge University, one might think that he is a typical academic historian who has been working hard in his field and is quite old-fashioned. In 1981, Robert Tums published his first monograph, the same topic as his doctoral dissertation, which was recognized by his peers in the industry. For historians working in British universities, to have a recognized monograph is to have the capital to stand in the industry. The publication of the book in French in 1997 and a new edition twelve years later shows that the value of his early research not only did not fade over time, but was also recognized by the publishing community in the country of study.
Robert Tombs
Taking the domestic evaluation criteria as a whole, Robert Tums has published a small number of papers. A few of them were published in French and most were published in The Cambridge Historical Journal, edited by the Department of History at the University of Cambridge. The current impact factor of this publication is not high, but it does not affect Tums's love for this magazine in the department. He served on the editorial board of the magazine and cited many other articles published in the journal in his work.
Although not much has been published, both the English law and publishing communities have recognized Robert Tums's level of research. His 1996 publication of The History of Longman France, 1815-1914 is proof of this. After the 1980s, there was a trend in the British publishing world: the number of general histories and annals consisting of individual articles by different scholars was increasing, and the number of general histories and anachronic histories completed independently by a single scholar was becoming less and less. This trend echoed the direction of the reform of basic education in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century, allowing students to become professionals at the secondary school level, focusing on a broken era or a type of problem, so that there is no longer a need for a general history book based on the chronological order and the basic historical facts. Editing and publishing general history books based on cutting-edge research results can allow authors in different fields to show their strengths, but the disadvantages are that the style is not uniform, the standard of articles is uneven, and the overall sense and readability of the book are reduced. Most scholars are also reluctant to challenge the independent writing of most tomes and general histories because of the thankless effort. After all, in order to write a work with strong integrity, high readability, and depth, breadth, and cutting-edge, the requirements for the author's reading surface, text skills, and layout are very high, and it will also delay the author from publishing other research works. Had it not been for Robert Tumes's ability to navigate every aspect of nineteenth-century French history, a prominent publisher like Longman would not have asked him to write it.
The French academic recognition of Tums can be seen in another book in which he participated. To commemorate the centenary of the signing of the Best Faith Agreement of 1904, British and French scholars and diplomats jointly wrote and published a collection of essays. Tums was involved in editing this collection of essays and also showed interest in international relations issues. Two years later, the Toomes' book The Sweet Feud came out. The work earned Tumus, who was nearly sixty years old, a French medal of the Academic Palm and finally promoted from a nominal reader to a true professor.
The shift happened in 2014. Robert Toomes, a French historian, published a single-volume general history of England in England, with a total of one hundred pages more than The Sweet Feud. Previously, Britain had not published a general history of its own country of this length for nearly half a century. Two years later, after Brexit, Robert Tums retired and became a Brexiteer public intellectual, making a name for himself. In addition to posting on the websites he runs to justify Brexit, he has also written many columns for right-wing newspapers such as The Spectator and The Daily Telegraph, and new works closely related to current events are published almost every month.
In Britain, there are not many intellectuals who openly stand for Brexit, because there is a strong leftist tradition in the humanities and social sciences in Britain. In addition, intellectuals themselves are in the middle class, and it is easier to empathize with the left and the middle and lower classes of society. After the Brexit referendum, Remain or Brexit became an important reference for distinguishing between supporting the left and the right. Some scholars, even if they support Brexit in their hearts, may hide their positions in public because of peer pressure. This is also why Robert Tums, as a leading scholar at the University of Cambridge, stands out for Brexit. Moreover, in the 1975 Brexit referendum, his position was the same as that of the Conservative Party, which supported Remain, not Brexit.
To understand his shifting identity, it is still necessary to return to his research interests, namely nationalism. As Tony Judt says, "The Sweet Feud" actually explains how national identities and identities in Britain and France are formed. After the 1980s, most scholars of nationalism were wary of their nationalist sentiments so as not to influence their judgment of the problem. Tums is just the opposite. He not only does not hide his national feelings, but also permeates them in his works. Given his long studies and work at Cambridge University, this position is not entirely unexplainable. Compared to other universities established in older industrial cities, many of the students at Oxford and Cambridge come from wealthy families in the south of their home countries. The political stances of these families are mostly in favor of the Conservatives. A considerable number of scholars from the two universities also come from such families, with relatively conservative and xenophobic political positions and stronger nationalist feelings. The new British Prime Minister, Elizabeth Truss, switched from a supporter of the Liberal Democrats to the Conservative Party during her studies at Oxford University, which shows the influence of the environment.
Tums's political stance would also explain why he is an "anti-woke" who aligns with the mainstream views within the Conservative Party. The movement, a protest over identity politics that has swept Europe and the United States over the past decade, with a large number of young people involved, marked by opposition to white privilege and discrimination against people of color, manifested itself in Britain as a demand for a rethinking of colonial history. In the 2022 British Conservative Party leadership election, the "Wake Up Movement" became an important benchmark for evaluating the candidates' political positions, which shows the influence of this activity.
The problem is that once the awakening movement is supported and Britain's colonial history is reflected, it means that the people and things that once led LinkedIn to world hegemony have become negative examples of oppression of other peoples. On top of that, there is no way to build a nationalist narrative, leaving conservative Britons feeling nowhere to put their pride in the country, and thus forming a stronger nationalist narrative to ease anxiety. For the younger generation that supported the Awakening Movement, Robert Tums's nationalist stance and attitude towards the Awakening Movement fit the stereotype of "older white men in the wealthy cities of southern England" with distinct age, gender, class and party marks.
After learning about Robert Tums's political stance, it will be easier to read "Sweet Feud", and it will be easier to find that he does not hide his political position in his writings, especially in each final "conclusion and dissent". He and his wife have different views, and some of them involve the division of historical responsibilities. Robert would emphasize France's responsibility, either because of the influence of factors that were not under British control, or because there was no better alternative. Some readers may see this method of interpretation as whitewashing Britain's faults, while others may see it as more truth-seeking, given the uncontrollable contingency of the course of history.
Too's political stance can be seen in the choice of citations and examples. These materials can bring the reader closer to the historical scene and historical figures, which is very interesting from the perspective of form. However, for scholars of nationalism, if they cannot discern what kind of wording is inflammatory in what kind of time and space, it is impossible to assess the impact of nationalist narrative generation and spread, and how to trigger resonance. Therefore, these stories and quotations, which fit perfectly into the text, have been carefully selected by the two authors, and have the ability to arouse the reader's emotions so as not to fall asleep while reading.
Let's take an example. The book opens with a picture of William of Orange arriving in England with his troops. In the narrative familiar to most readers, this scene should be associated with the "Glorious Revolution." The author depicts scenes of foreign heavy military pressure (including Finns in bear skins), introduces the perspective of the Netherlandish soldiers (disgusted by the dirty environment of Britain, and is attracted to local cider), compares it with the military strength of the Armada a hundred years ago, and then portrays it as "the most far-reaching invasion since the Norman conquest in 1066", and finally turns the camera to the ensuing British and French "Second Hundred Years' War", opening the book. The use of the "Glorious Revolution" is indeed reflective, jumping out of the ideological shackles behind the traditional framework of constitutional history interpretation. But depicting the scene of the invasion of European armies and introducing stereotypes can indeed mobilize the nationalist sentiment of British readers.
This kind of writing method that combines the personal perspective of ordinary people is also a more exquisite performance of the layout of this work. In addition to the smooth writing, graphic and textual appearance, and bright rhythm, it is also interspersed with many biographies, important events and academic debates, introducing a global perspective, and striving to balance readability, fun, scholarship and cutting-edge. Although chapters thirteen and fourteen, without Isabelle's participation, are a little more academic to read, the overall style is basically stable. What's more, many narratives unfold from the perspective of the individual, whether as an individual politician, a celebrity, or an ordinary person's response. In nationalist studies, it is common to use individual feedback as evidence of identity. It's just that if you write an academic paper, these personal statements are rarely quoted in large paragraphs. Plain reading can accommodate these contents, especially those that derive from a variety of different stereotypes, with unsubmissive and emotionally strong expressions.
Some popular historical works that have become popular in the UK in recent years have the ability to be disseminated across media, which can be read as books and are also suitable for presentation in the form of TV series or documentaries. But I personally believe that to transform a highly informative work like "Sweet World Vengeance", the television media is not a good choice, because it is impossible to truly show the complexity that the two authors want to convey through limited camera scheduling and relatively simple narrative. It is also because the amount of information in this work is so large that even if the author, translator and editor have added annotations, for readers who lack a foundation in modern European history, only the first few maps and explanations in the book will still be confused by the names of places, people, and events.
This means that it is very difficult for the translator to translate such a work. The translators of the book are generally well-transacted, but the translation of individual terms cannot be understood solely in terms of English sounds and meanings, but also in conjunction with other modern European languages. For example, "Palatinate" in chapter 1. In transliteration, "Palatine Territory" fits. But the original meaning of the word was palace, and gradually extended the meaning of the scope of the power of the palace owner. In modern European history, it generally refers to the Earldom of the Rhine Palace, or the Elector of the Palatinate, and the last two translations refer to them more accurately and more easily. Admittedly, there are not many such errors in the book, and with the addition of annotated explanations, it does not affect readers familiar with history, but this is indeed one of the difficulties in translating this book.
The mastery and citation of the vast amount of material displayed by the Tumes in writing The Sweet Feud explains why Robert Tumes was able to successfully transform himself from a researcher of French history to a popular writer of British history in less than a decade. Commenting on his work on the general history of England, The Englishman and Their History, Keith Thomas mentions that Toomes, through self-study, and the extensive citation of papers published in the Cambridge Historical Journal, relied on the large and outstanding group of Cambridge scholars around him to complete the new work, even if the names of some characters were misspelled in the book. It can be seen that after mastering the skills of writing popular works, scholars can rely on their own professional ability to complete the transformation of research objects.
Paradoxically, however, whether it is "The Sweet Feud" or "The British and Their History", Robert Tums has to face two contradictions. The first is how to deal with the positive impact of the arrival of the "foreigners" on British history with nationalist feelings. Let's take the "Glorious Revolution" as an example. This is indeed not very "glorious", because William of Orange is a "foreigner" connected to the blood of the British royal family. After he brought his troops to England, he not only embroiled Britain in the European wars, but also slaughtered the people in the Three Kingdoms. But precisely because he was a "foreigner", the British Parliament had an opportunity to expand its power, and then formed a "more democratic, more progressive" representative system widely recognized by the Western world. Tums needs to oscillate between progressive and nationalistic narrative grandeur to ensure that readers who support both narratives can embrace his narrative.
The English and their History
The other is the shaping of identity and the opposition to awakening. The book's extensive introduction to Anglo-French characteristics (and even many foods) is intended to show that characteristics that appear to belong to England or France actually originate in another country (and mainly in Britain), thus weakening to some extent the essentialist aspects of national identity and identity. In the same way, the rationality of arousal motion can be dissolved, because differences are non-essential. But such a call by white men is indeed unconvincing, for it is true that not all differences in identity are purely constructed, not essential, but are driven by existing power structures. If the difference between England and France is purely constructed, then his own nationalism is merely a castle in the air.
For different readers, "Sweet Feud" is also read differently. Readers familiar with the history of modern Europe will find that the Tums did add many connections between people and things that they did not understand before. An analysis of the literature they cite and the examples they use can help to understand the spiritual world of contemporary Brexiteer intellectuals. For students new to this field, this is a reference book for exploring research topics, from which many questions worth exploring are found, and can also be read in conjunction with other earlier general history books. In this way, it is convenient to grasp the space-time positioning of the main characters and events, and it is also easier to perceive the author's position, and then become familiar with the academic controversy of different issues. For the general public, if you have a preliminary understanding of the recent history of Britain and France, you will find in the book the different faces of familiar characters, as well as some interesting historical knowledge. For readers who are not familiar with this history, it may be necessary to endure the "bombardment" of many stranger names and place names before they can find the highlights of this book.