[WatTyler]

I was wondering how many of you ever think "gosh this looks familiar" when emerging from history into the real world?

I just spent a day revising C19th poverty and making sarcastic comments about Malthus, and then a friend calls who starts moaning about child tax credits and reproduction and all I could help thinking was (not very seriously) are child tax credits the new speenhamland?!?

But in all seriousness, it strikes me every now and then how relevant certain historical issues are such as poverty, to the present. And was wondering what links others could find between the topics you study in history, and modern occurances?

[MrJohnDClare]

Great topic.
I'll be really interested to see people's ideas.

[Tathrim]

WatTyler, on May 29 2008, 06:25 PM, said:

I was wondering how many of you ever think "gosh this looks familiar" when emerging from history into the real world?

I just spent a day revising C19th poverty and making sarcastic comments about Malthus, and then a friend calls who starts moaning about child tax credits and reproduction and all I could help thinking was (not very seriously) are child tax credits the new speenhamland?!?

But in all seriousness, it strikes me every now and then how relevant certain historical issues are such as poverty, to the present. And was wondering what links others could find between the topics you study in history, and modern occurances?

Well, I have to say, I do. Society is simply going round in circles. People have different viewpoints. The same can be said with music these days. The Mass Culture has developed, and is (primarily) dominated by RnB and Hip-Hop, or Drum and Bass, signifying change in the culture. This mass culture means that they think they run the country (When it's actually the Times .

OHang on, I may need to provide a link to that reference. Click here. (Apologies to anyone who takes offence to the last comment on the vid)

[Democracy]

My view is that history is down to interpretation and that human nature is prevalent no matter what time in history it is. It is just one thing after another and we can't really help that because we are ultimately making the same mistakes over and over again because of it (e.g. the wars that will inevitably happen and are perhaps occuring now). All we can do is attempt to make sure that society has a safety net for the people to fall upon if their welfare is threatened at that we educate them about the mistakes that are reoccuring (e.g. war, damaging the planet: basically the human race digging a hole for themselves). Just my two pence here.

This post has been edited by Democracy: 01 June 2008 - 04:51 PM

[WatTyler]

Tathrim, on Jun 1 2008, 10:52 AM, said:

WatTyler, on May 29 2008, 06:25 PM, said:

I was wondering how many of you ever think "gosh this looks familiar" when emerging from history into the real world?

I just spent a day revising C19th poverty and making sarcastic comments about Malthus, and then a friend calls who starts moaning about child tax credits and reproduction and all I could help thinking was (not very seriously) are child tax credits the new speenhamland?!?

But in all seriousness, it strikes me every now and then how relevant certain historical issues are such as poverty, to the present. And was wondering what links others could find between the topics you study in history, and modern occurances?

Well, I have to say, I do. Society is simply going round in circles. People have different viewpoints. The same can be said with music these days. The Mass Culture has developed, and is (primarily) dominated by RnB and Hip-Hop, or Drum and Bass, signifying change in the culture. This mass culture means that they think they run the country (When it's actually the Times .

OHang on, I may need to provide a link to that reference. Click here. (Apologies to anyone who takes offence to the last comment on the vid)

Ah! I love that sketch!

Just a point on changing cultures though, what I find fascinating about all this (as a bit of a folk obsessive) is how the purpose behind music has stayed the same. The "folk" culture - that is the music of the people may have started out in a certain way, but as RnB/Hip Hop etc have become a massive part of English culture we've seen the two cultures overlapping (think of all the crossovers at the moment) and now, whilst utterly different to what we classically deem as folk music - it is the music of the people strongly rooted in culture. In this way, although the style of music has developed so dramatically, the purpose and meaning has stayed the same. They are certainly not worlds apart.

[bighrocks]

I personally feel at the mo with the credit crunch that it all seems to sound very alike the wall street crash. I also think that the government should be loosley following Roosevelts alphabet laws aswell as looking into hitlers ecomonic policy (just minus the sacking all women bit!!!)

[Mr Hargreaves]

Here's one to get you all started...

Go and do a Google search for Hogarth's print 'Gin Lane'. Examine it closely and then tell me whether or not the current belief that society is declining as alcoholism etc takes hold is a new thing!

The more adventurous amongst you might then go away and find out what changes the British government made in the immediate aftermath (well decade or two!) of that print being released.

The most adventurous can start to think about whether or not the changes made in the 18th century to tackle drunkenness etc would be relevant today and let everybody on here know what you think.

[Tathrim]

Mr Hargreaves, on Jun 2 2008, 08:40 PM, said:

Here's one to get you all started...

Go and do a Google search for Hogarth's print 'Gin Lane'. Examine it closely and then tell me whether or not the current belief that society is declining as alcoholism etc takes hold is a new thing!

The more adventurous amongst you might then go away and find out what changes the British government made in the immediate aftermath (well decade or two!) of that print being released.

The most adventurous can start to think about whether or not the changes made in the 18th century to tackle drunkenness etc would be relevant today and let everybody on here know what you think.

Done all three.

1) It is not the new thing. All this recent talk of making parents more responsible is just a situation like that before the answer to the second question. However, the source is a bit ambiguous without the 'Beer Street' source. This source was trying to reduce the popularity of gin and was in support of the production and consumption of beer.

2) The simple answer is the Gin Act, which effectively made distilling gin in the United Kingdom completely illegal.

3) In a way, there is a more recent example. The US between 1919 and 1932, during the prohibition years. And we can see from that very example that any form of prohibition wouldn't work. The Gin Act is an example which we shouldn't follow again, because restrictions result in rules, which adversely, leads to a rise in the activity that you were trying to prevent.