U3A Alexandra - John Drummond Session 1

Speaker: John Drummond

 John Drummond was Blair Professor of Music at the University of Otago from 1976 to 2014 and also served as a Dean in the Division of Humanities. His main professional work has been in the field of opera, as a scholar, translator, editor, stage director and composer. His book Habitation of Dreams, published in September last year, tells the story of his involvement in opera and his quest to understand why opera is such a powerful art-form. John has also worked internationally in music education. For a long time, John has had an interest in alternative history - which is what this series is all about -and over the years he has given presentations to U3A and on Radio New Zealand about alternative histories in music. This time he is concerned with broader historical events.

For Want of a Nail

“For want of a nail the shoe was lost. 

For want of a shoe the horse was lost. 

For want of a horse the rider was lost.

 For want of a rider the battle was lost.

 For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.”  

This poem attributed to George Herbert (1593-1632) points to the impact on the grand sweep of history of seemingly insignificant details. In this series we explore moments in history in which one small difference at a crucial moment could have meant a different result, with major implications for the world as we know it today. 

History is full of turning points, moments when circumstances could easily have gone another way.  Often an apparently trivial factor can be the most significant in determining results. In this course we explore moments in world history and speculate how things might have turned out if things had gone another way.

Topic:  Different Europe's  This session will explore how different Europe might have been due to these two events. The first event being in Athens, 480 BC: The Battle of Salamis, where the Athenian fleet defeats the Persian fleet, aided by the change in the wind. What If the Persians had won? How would Europe have been different? The other event was in Teutoburg Forest, 9 CE: Three roman legions are ambushed and destroyed by German tribes under Arminius, preventing Germany from becoming a Roman province. What if the ambush had failed and the Germans had been integrated into the Roman Empire?