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Eton renewed: A history from 1860 to the present day
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 13, 2022
Tim Card begins his thorough and authoritative account in 1860 for the good reason that it is from that point that the generally excellent history by Maxwell-Lyte in 1911 deteriorates into near-uselessness. Lyte's account was so deficient for its last years that he omitted even the most dramatic event, the fire of 1903 in which a boys' house was burnt down and two boys with it. Typically, Card recounts this in dramatic detail and with the shocking revelation that it was not an accident, as reported at the time, but the deliberate act of a pyromaniacal boy. That Card is able to reveal such things as this and that Chenevix-Trench's departure as Head Master in 1970 was not voluntary is due to the trust he was given as Vice-Provost and a former housemaster to make full use of the school archives.
Card's introductory statement that "this History is authorized, but in no sense official propaganda" is fair. I feel confident it is well-balanced and objective. Critics of Eton and what it stands for need not fear an account that disregards their sensibilities. Those who really hate it though should be warned that it is imbued with his clear love of the place, a love only natural and to be hoped for in a man of his position. Just occasionally, however, his Etonian courtesy grates a little; every single Head Master or housemaster's wife mentioned is beautiful, charming or admirable, and the dames and boys' maids are all splendid too. No doubt most really were, but you will look in vain for mention of exceptions, though I remember the odd one or two.
This is an unquestionably lively history that should be of interest to the general reader as well as Etonians, old and new, though the focus of their interest may not be the same. For the former, it is above all a fascinating social history with its insights into changing values and ways of thinking in both the country's most famous school and the broader society that determined its destiny. Etonians, on the other hand, are likely to be interested in how the Eton they knew came to be, or if they are old enough, ceased to be. I, for example, was delighted by what he said about the house books in which successive house captains recorded their thoughts about each of the other boys, having given them a significant role in my novel about Eton. I became aware they are no longer used and some of my readers imagined I had made them up, so I was bound to be interested in the story of their rise and suppression and relieved to hear the implication that suppression has not amounted to destruction, since Card has quoted from them. Potentially explosive at the moment, they will surely be a goldmine for both future social historians and biographers of Etonians of the middle half of the twentieth century.
I suspect Card is most likely to be criticised by historians for his readiness to impose his own views on the past, and by others for also imposing them on the present. Eton Renewed is peppered throughout with school-masterly judgements and criticisms. Fortunately, these are mostly well-considered and he does not always come down on the side of modern opinion. Discussing the boy-organised games of 1860, for example, he says "by comparison modern school games dominated by masters seem to have far less educational value." His history is thus saved from being one of the insufferably patronising looks into the past that judgmental histories usually are.
Card is at his most enthralling in the chapters vividly reconstructing life at particular periods rather than recounting the course of events. "Eton in 1860" and "Eton between the Wars" stand out particularly. Eton in 1860 was a very much kinder place than it been earlier in the century, when flogging and bullying were still rife, and yet it offered boys a freedom that is staggering by the standards of any age, a freedom largely used by them to create their own society. Combine this with youthful idealism, some inspiring masters and the possibilities for fun afforded by wealth and one sees something approaching an adolescent paradise. A generation later, just thinking about the day he left in 1870 could reduce the eminent courtier Reggie Brett to tears. Unsurprisingly, his feelings were not untypical.
One Eton father wrote in a biography of his son killed in the 2nd World War: "I do not think there are many schools where a boy would have been allowed such freedom of expression; where his disregard of discipline and convention would have met with such indulgence." Though this freedom has steadily declined with the general decline in adolescent freedom, comparatively it holds true of the entire period covered and has been a major key to its success. I think it should have given Card cause for hesitation in his evident anxiety to show Eton has not been resistant to change, though to be fair it is hard to write about Eton without becoming overly sensitive to the criticism and even hatred it engenders.
Edmund Marlowe, author of Alexander's Choice, a novel set at Eton, https://www.amazon.com/dp/191457107X
Card's introductory statement that "this History is authorized, but in no sense official propaganda" is fair. I feel confident it is well-balanced and objective. Critics of Eton and what it stands for need not fear an account that disregards their sensibilities. Those who really hate it though should be warned that it is imbued with his clear love of the place, a love only natural and to be hoped for in a man of his position. Just occasionally, however, his Etonian courtesy grates a little; every single Head Master or housemaster's wife mentioned is beautiful, charming or admirable, and the dames and boys' maids are all splendid too. No doubt most really were, but you will look in vain for mention of exceptions, though I remember the odd one or two.
This is an unquestionably lively history that should be of interest to the general reader as well as Etonians, old and new, though the focus of their interest may not be the same. For the former, it is above all a fascinating social history with its insights into changing values and ways of thinking in both the country's most famous school and the broader society that determined its destiny. Etonians, on the other hand, are likely to be interested in how the Eton they knew came to be, or if they are old enough, ceased to be. I, for example, was delighted by what he said about the house books in which successive house captains recorded their thoughts about each of the other boys, having given them a significant role in my novel about Eton. I became aware they are no longer used and some of my readers imagined I had made them up, so I was bound to be interested in the story of their rise and suppression and relieved to hear the implication that suppression has not amounted to destruction, since Card has quoted from them. Potentially explosive at the moment, they will surely be a goldmine for both future social historians and biographers of Etonians of the middle half of the twentieth century.
I suspect Card is most likely to be criticised by historians for his readiness to impose his own views on the past, and by others for also imposing them on the present. Eton Renewed is peppered throughout with school-masterly judgements and criticisms. Fortunately, these are mostly well-considered and he does not always come down on the side of modern opinion. Discussing the boy-organised games of 1860, for example, he says "by comparison modern school games dominated by masters seem to have far less educational value." His history is thus saved from being one of the insufferably patronising looks into the past that judgmental histories usually are.
Card is at his most enthralling in the chapters vividly reconstructing life at particular periods rather than recounting the course of events. "Eton in 1860" and "Eton between the Wars" stand out particularly. Eton in 1860 was a very much kinder place than it been earlier in the century, when flogging and bullying were still rife, and yet it offered boys a freedom that is staggering by the standards of any age, a freedom largely used by them to create their own society. Combine this with youthful idealism, some inspiring masters and the possibilities for fun afforded by wealth and one sees something approaching an adolescent paradise. A generation later, just thinking about the day he left in 1870 could reduce the eminent courtier Reggie Brett to tears. Unsurprisingly, his feelings were not untypical.
One Eton father wrote in a biography of his son killed in the 2nd World War: "I do not think there are many schools where a boy would have been allowed such freedom of expression; where his disregard of discipline and convention would have met with such indulgence." Though this freedom has steadily declined with the general decline in adolescent freedom, comparatively it holds true of the entire period covered and has been a major key to its success. I think it should have given Card cause for hesitation in his evident anxiety to show Eton has not been resistant to change, though to be fair it is hard to write about Eton without becoming overly sensitive to the criticism and even hatred it engenders.
Edmund Marlowe, author of Alexander's Choice, a novel set at Eton, https://www.amazon.com/dp/191457107X
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September 4, 2021Interesting .
The results of being under special measures show .
Eton still exists .
May 30, 2021
Purchased with a TSB Card. Vice provost
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews