U3A Alexandra - John Drummond Session 3

Speaker - John Drummond 

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 Leaders

This session explores the ideas of what would have happened if British rifleman Patrick Ferguson didn’t fail to pull the trigger at George Washinton at Brandywine Pennsylvania in September 1777. Could the Americans  have won their independence from Britian without George Washington? Another moment was in September 1898 in Sudan when Winston Churchill takes part in the charge of  the 21st Lancers in the Battle of Omdurman, what would have happened if he had died? Who would have taken over the leadership of Britian in June 1940?