Year: 1989
Type: other
Abstract: He was also the biographer of Jan Smuts, and therefore a major exponent of Smuts' remarkable worldview, and an influence-perhaps not yet fully-on the future of South Africa.In September 1978, my attention was drawn to an interview with Hancock, in which he spoke of historical studies' influence on environmental policy-making in Australia.I was at that time studying decision-making about siting dams on the river Murray at either Dartmouth or Chowilla, as part of a wider study on legislative and other processes connected with the solution of environmental problems, in several different countries.Hancock very kindly responded to my inquiries and it became evident that we had many common interests; so that during the last ten years of his life I was in frequent touch with this benevolent, industrious seer.When his obituary was published in The Times (August 16 1988), some letters referred to a quizzical statement he had made when at Birmingham on the view that history only shows us that it teaches us nothing.Hancock asked his question again, when he was 83.In an essay "Our interests and obligations in peace and war," which appears in his Perspective in History, ANU (1982), the first section is headed "Are there 'lessons of history?'"Hancock's answer is that peace and war are won or lost "years before the righting breaks out."Hancock states that Britain won the war by the decisions in 1935-1936 to develop Radar, Spitfires and Hurricanes.He then observes "Peace, similarly, or the pursuit of it, is a continuing activity of the human spirit."His conclusion for Australia was that "the lucky country" should increase its co-operation in the development of less lucky neighbours in regard to land use, animal husbandry, and water reticulation, for example.This essay does not argue for any reliance on deterrence theory, however (Professor Donald Read's letter, The Times, August 30).Hancock specifically refers to the destabilising effects of such strategy and
Author: M. R. Brett‐Crowther
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4238868583