''Baden-Powell'' is a 1989
biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
of
The 1st Baron Baden-Powell by
Tim Jeal
John Julian Timothy Jeal, known as Tim Jeal (born 27 January 1945 in London, England), is a British biographer of notable Victorians and is also a novelist. His publications include a memoir and biographies of David Livingstone (1973), Lord Ba ...
. Tim Jeal's work, researched over five years, was first published by
Hutchinson in the UK and
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous.
, Yale Universi ...
. It was reviewed by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. James Casada wrote in a review for ''
Library Journal
''Library Journal'' is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional prac ...
'' that it is "a balanced, definitive assessment which so far transcends previous treatments as to make them almost meaningless."
Sources
Although Jeal's earlier biography of
David Livingstone
David Livingstone (; 19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, and pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, an explorer in Africa, and one of the most popular British heroes of t ...
had been highly critical, establishing that he had only made a single convert and had failed in many important geographical objectives, Jeal defended Lord Baden-Powell not just against accusations of racism, militarism, but of having starved the Africans at
Mafeking and stolen the basic idea for the Boy Scouts. Jeal relied on material from the archives of established Scout organisations and from Baden-Powell's own writings, diaries and private correspondence.
He also interviewed Baden-Powell's daughters and traced, along with Scouting colleagues, his last serving private secretary and many members of his domestic staff still alive in the 1980s. His use of the letters written to
Olave Baden-Powell
Olave St Clair Baden-Powell, Baroness Baden-Powell (''née'' Soames; 22 February 1889 – 25 June 1977) was the first Chief Guide for Britain and the wife of Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting and co-founder o ...
by her favourite niece, Christian Davidson (who lived with the Baden-Powells after her mother's death), enabled him to write in detail about Baden-Powell's relationship with his wife and with his three children. Jeal gives the only detailed account of Baden-Powell's marriage and his tragic relationship with his only son Peter, and his disagreements with his daughters about their marriages.
Reviews
Although Jeal's ''Baden-Powell'' "transcends previous treatments" and is exceptionally well referenced, as a "balanced, definitive assessment" it has come under criticism from academics who had earlier charged Lord Baden-Powell with militarism. Several of their books and articles on Baden-Powell had become critical and negative since the 1960s, culminating in
Michael Rosenthal's ''The Character Factory'' (1986)'','' which added to the charge of militarism one of antisemitism. Jeal rebutted these in his chapters 'Character Factory or Helping Hand' (409-415) and 'Baden-Powell and the Dictators' (543-553). The leading scholar and critic,
Ian Buruma
Ian Buruma (born December 28, 1951) is a Dutch writer and editor who lives and works in the United States. In 2017, he became editor of ''The New York Review of Books'', but left the position in September 2018.
Much of his writing has focused on ...
(international Erasmus Prize Winner 2008), assessed the relative merits of Jeal's and Rosenthal's arguments in the ''New York Review of Books;'' and on the charges that the
Boy Scouts
Boy Scouts may refer to:
* Boy Scout, a participant in the Boy Scout Movement.
* Scouting, also known as the Boy Scout Movement.
* An organisation in the Scouting Movement, although many of these organizations also have female members. There are ...
had been primarily militaristic in inspiration, and Baden-Powell antisemitic in the 1930s, came down on the side of Jeal's vindications both in his original article 'Boys Will be Boys' and in his response to Rosenthal's reply.
Allen Warren, a historian, and former provost of
Vanbrugh College
Vanbrugh College is one of the eleven colleges of the University of York.
History
It was opened in 1967 and is named after Sir John Vanbrugh, designer of Castle Howard.
In 2013 'Green Vanbrugh' was established. This group was created to incr ...
,
York University
York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...
, also supported Jeal's arguments in both fields in a four-page review.
Paul Fussell
Paul Fussell Jr. (22 March 1924 – 23 May 2012) was an American cultural and literary historian, author and university professor. His writings cover a variety of topics, from scholarly works on eighteenth-century English literature to commentar ...
in reviewing Jeal's book in the ''
Times Literary Supplement
''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp.
History
The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...
'' wrote stressing the civic rather than the military motivation behind Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts and opining that Jeal had done 'full justice to Baden-Powell's complexity and contradictions, his military delight and his pacifism, his fondness for groups and his stress on the individual...
nd his dictum that'the real way to get happiness is giving out happiness to other people.'
Sexuality
Particular attention in reviews has been given to Jeal's analysis of whether Lord Baden-Powell was
homosexual
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
. Nelson Block states: "While the professional history community generally considers Jeal's conclusions on this topic to be speculative, the mainstream press seems to have taken them as fact". He then notes that there has been no published scholarly critique of Jeal.
But Jeal devoted the whole of Chapter Three "Men's Man" to the subject of his sexuality and quotes from Baden-Powell's own account of his dreams and also considered many other intimate papers before reaching his conclusion that Baden-Powell had been a repressed rather than an active homosexual.
Content
The book comprises 18
introductory pages, and 670
editorial
An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK) is an article written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, suc ...
pages. It has 19 chapters, covering Lord Baden-Powell's life from birth and home, to his Indian and
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
n periods, the work he did on
Scouting
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hiking, backpacking ...
for boys, and his marriage. The text is
encyclopedically referenced with over 1,000
notes
Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to:
Music and entertainment
* Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music
* Notes (album), ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian
* ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) sho ...
.
Editions
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baden-Powell (Book)
1989 non-fiction books
British biographies
Hutchinson (publisher) books