Who's Counting?

I am sitting at my desk with an advance copy of my new book on Henry VIII lying before me. BBC Radio 3 is playing a Mendelssohn symphony in the background. An announcer has just informed me and the rest of the listening audience that during the coming weeks special programs will be devoted to Haydn and Handel as well as Mendelssohn. This evening, if I wish, I can watch a special documentary on the life and work of Charles Darwin. A friend has just mentioned, en passant, that a new biography of Gladstone will be hitting the bookshops in the next few months. What do all these great men have in common?

Anniversaries. Mendelssohn's all too short life began in 1809, the same year that Haydn died. The future author of the Origin of Species was also born in that pregnant year and shared his birth date with the future prime minister. And, of course, the most famous/notorious of English kings began his thirty-seven-year reign in 1509. And Handel? Well, he apparently qualifies for particular attention because this year marks the 250th anniversary of his death. But it does not end there. 2009 positively bristles with publications or celebrations of people deemed worthy to be so honoured. Among the greats we could be remembering this year are Abe Lincoln, Tom Paine, Henry Purcell and, as we sometimes say over here, "Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all." Even Kew Gardens are celebrating their 250th.

King Henry VIII

But is there any justification for all this? Are I and other experts who are writing new biographies, organizing exhibitions, or staging concerts simply clambering aboard anniversary bandwagons? If there is nothing new to be said about people whose careers are already well-known, would we be better occupied directing our energies into enlightening the public about men and women who deserve to be rescued from relative obscurity?

One argument runs, "Anything that raises the profile of past events and personalities is to be welcomed. When galleries and museums gather exhibits in celebration of important lives, put rare documents on display, publish catalogues, and produce specialist publications aimed at schoolchildren and students, the knock-on effects may be many and varied—school visits, newspaper articles, radio and television features, new books. Anniversary events are of inestimable value in raising the profile of history."

To which the cynic is inclined to respond, "Enough of this pious missionary pose. All the anniversary mongers are interested in is bums on seats. They need a constant supply of special attractions. They have to refresh their image continually to boost attendance figures or flesh out their catalogues. Making chosen subjects flavors of the month does nothing to encourage intelligent appreciation of the 'chronicles of wasted time.' To offer the public a diet of historical celebrities is to set before them a menu of high-calorie goodies which may be mouth-watering but scarcely good for the intellectual arteries." Cynicism, as a wise man once remarked, is despair dressed up in fashionable clothes, so we would be ill-advised to take it at face value.

There must be something to be said in favor of "anniversaryitis." Anything that creates a demand for magazine features, historical advisers, or popular lectures cannot be bad for us members of the profession. And there often are serious, scholarly spin-offs from the populist jamborees. Hampton Court is, inevitably, one of the focal points of Henrician quin-centenary celebrations. The program organizers there are certainly running the whole gamut of events. There will be jousts and Tudor banquets and Henry VIII look-alikes stalking the chambers. There will be public lectures and a very high-tech exhibition. But that is not all: a central feature will be a three-day conference at which over fifty leading academics will be presenting papers and participating in panels.

Of course, specialists do not need quincentenaries, tercentenaries, or centenaries to get together in solemn conclave, but there is nothing wrong in having an extra excuse for sharing fresh insights on newly discovered data. Yet probably the best reasons...