Anyone getting their results today?

[Paralytic]

How is Boris repeating the history of Pericles?

he didn't even die from the pandemic.

His political career certainly should have died as a result of his handling of the pandemic. Perhaps the dissertation should be about that paradox, rather than the parallels.

[d000hg]

Pericles is a famous historical figure. Boris is just another rich posho PM. Here today, gone tomorrow. In a century nobody is going to be doing a dissertation on how their PM compares to BJ.
We have this desire to inflate our current-day events to be world-shattering, the biggest/best/worst ever when generally they are pretty mundane. People like to think they are making changes which will reverberate through history but they're (99% of the time) not. Covid will be talked about for a long time but Boris is a future footnote.

[DaveB]

Pericles is a famous historical figure. Boris is just another rich posho PM. Here today, gone tomorrow. In a century nobody is going to be doing a dissertation on how their PM compares to BJ.
We have this desire to inflate our current-day events to be world-shattering, the biggest/best/worst ever when generally they are pretty mundane. People like to think they are making changes which will reverberate through history but they're (99% of the time) not. Covid will be talked about for a long time but Boris is a future footnote.

No they won't. But they will still be talking about how modern events are shaped by the past, how modern leaders are influenced by historical ones and how lessons from history are applied to the modern world, or not. Part of the pint of classical studies is that through understanding the ancient world it informs our view of the modern one.

[d000hg]

No they won't. But they will still be talking about how modern events are shaped by the past, how modern leaders are influenced by historical ones and how lessons from history are applied to the modern world, or not. Part of the pint of classical studies is that through understanding the ancient world it informs our view of the modern one.

Ta, that makes much more sense. I suppose I view a dissertation as something 'for the ages' so I find it odd hearing one about a contemporary figure who we'll forget before he's even dead (IMO obviously but I don't think he'll even have the significance of Thatcher in the grand scheme of things).

[SueEllen]

Ta, that makes much more sense. I suppose I view a dissertation as something 'for the ages' so I find it odd hearing one about a contemporary figure who we'll forget before he's even dead (IMO obviously but I don't think he'll even have the significance of Thatcher in the grand scheme of things).

Boris will be talked about due to Covid and B*****

[vetran]

His political career certainly should have died as a result of his handling of the pandemic. Perhaps the dissertation should be about that paradox, rather than the parallels.

The government (there is enough blame to go around) fumbled the travel, care home & hospital lockdowns but aced immunisation and following the science. Other countries made similar mistakes.

Macaroon,
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...kdown-mistakes
Merkel
https://www.ft.com/content/bc5a3b02-...1-1bada29feba2

People already compare previous PMs with current ones, Bevin, Disraeli and Churchill are normally the yardsticks. I suspect in 100 years time PMs will be measured against Blair, Brown, Cameron, May & Boris at least in the press.

Comparison to historical figures and events has always happened in history via literature and reporting.

[d000hg]

Boris will be talked about due to Covid and B*****

Will he though? Covid is a global issue so it will be talked about as a world event and the national leaders at the time mostly bit-players who happened to be there. He won't be talked about as a major part of the story I reckon.
As for the B word... well firstly he didn't preside over the vote he was just the one who inherited the job of doing it. And secondly, I know many feel strongly but it really isn't that big a deal on the world stage. It isn't changing the world. I studied the development of the EC -> EEC -> EU at school and the individual national leaders involved don't get a lot of coverage. I guess we're first to leave but people join and leave blocs all the time.

[d000hg]

People already compare previous PMs with current ones, Bevin, Disraeli and Churchill are normally the yardsticks. I suspect in 100 years time PMs will be measured against Blair, Brown, Cameron, May & Boris at least in the press.

We'll still be comparing to Churchill. Brown and May are already largely forgotten!

[SueEllen]

The government (there is enough blame to go around) fumbled the travel, care home & hospital lockdowns but aced immunisation and following the science. Other countries made similar mistakes.

Macaroon,
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...kdown-mistakes
Merkel
https://www.ft.com/content/bc5a3b02-...1-1bada29feba2

People already compare previous PMs with current ones, Bevin, Disraeli and Churchill are normally the yardsticks. I suspect in 100 years time PMs will be measured against Blair, Brown, Cameron, May & Boris at least in the press.

Comparison to historical figures and events has always happened in history via literature and reporting.

May won't be talked about.

Brown will be mentioned only because he was chancellor under Blair and then went on to be PM. His actual own leadership won't be mentioned.

Cameron will be mentioned due to B****

[Gibbon]

She is. Currently pondering doing her dissertation on the parallels between Boris Johnsons rise to power and that of Pericles et al in the ancient world. Seriously, if you know anything about it it's creepy stuff.

Nice one, I finished mine two years ago. Think she may struggle with that one as there won't be that many scholarly articles comparing Boris and Pericles. The MA asks you to engage in scholarly discussion, you need other stuff to argue against and for and you need lots of it, to show depth to your argument. So you need stuff that would say B is not like P, which there is probably not a lot of. At best she could look for stuff that shows historic politicians using P as a model and probably half a chapter on B. It needs to be a question like 'To what degree has P been used as a model of democratic leadership?'. Quite a lot of people who struggled in my cohort had thin plans for their dissertation and had to change them causing much angst. Highly recommend joining a local uni library through the OU, then she'll have access to loads of lit. Good luck to her and say goodbye now for the next two years !