Heroic Failure and the British

Barczewski was my professor in college, and the woman is brilliant! I highly recommend anything she writes.

What is possibly most remarkable about this totally engrossing book is that it is exciting. It turns out to be a collection of (disastrous) adventure stories that keep you glued to the page even though you already know it’s going to end badly for the hero. From Artic and African explorers to military battles, the stories are gripping. And they aren’t even the point of the book.The point is that the British have a history of extolling failures more than they value successes. In case after case, those who blundered, stumbled and fell become the subjects of monuments, books and fables. Those who had real accomplishments – not so much. In the period of Empire, this was the norm.The why is hard for Barczewski to explain. Everyone has a theory, or combination of theories, but none of them is satisfying. My own position has always been this is a symptom of Empire. Empires cannot be seen to be weak or imperfect. Mao swam the Yangtze at the age of 80 faster than any Olympic swimmer in history. The Alamo was a total massacre, as was Custer’s Last Stand. Everything coming out of North Korea makes it the leading paradise on Earth. Armies couch reports in glowing terms, despite massive death tolls and failure to accomplish their goals. It is face saving, and the British public took the bait for 150 years, celebrating failures in monuments, poems, books, plays and song. The failures needed validation far more than the successes did. The successful could take care of themselves; failures required proper framing. So myths were propagated, almost instantly. And very quickly, even those who knew better believed them.From the Charge of the Light Brigade to Dr. David Livingstone, bad choices, lack of skills and silly missions created embarrassing failures worthy of legend. Livingstone for one, was a total failure as a missionary, having converted one person in his life. As a missionary explorer, he managed to murder at least eight people, firmly discovered nothing, and was buried in Westminster as a hero of the Empire.The one weakness in Heroic Failures is the failure to provide maps. The text provides endless exotic rivers, islands and territories as we follow our heroes to their doom, but no maps to follow along and make sense of it all. Instead, Barczewski provides about 50 photos of memorials and monuments back in the UK, which provide little critical information.David Wineberg

A much needed look into the British psyche and the subject of heroic failure, particularly from a foreign vantage point.