Pateman, Roy 1935-

views updated

PATEMAN, Roy 1935-

PERSONAL: Born August 15, 1935, in Leicester, England; son of Harry (a printer) and Elsie (a seamstress; maiden name, Pearson) Pateman; married Carole Bennett, February 27, 1960. Ethnicity: "White." Education: University of Nottingham, B.Sc., 1958; University of Reading, M.Phil., 1971. Politics: Democratic Socialist. Religion: Zen Buddhist. Hobbies and other interests: Opera, fitness, wine, books.

ADDRESSES: Home—Turin, Italy. Agent—c/o Author Mail, University Press of America, 15200 NBN Way, P.O. Box 191, Building B, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17214-0191. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Economics teacher at schools in Oxfordshire, England, 1961-69; National Farmers' Union, London, England, lobbyist and economist, 1969-72; University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, tutor in politics, 1972-89; University of California—Los Angeles, professor of politics, 1990-2002; retired. Also taught at Princeton University. Workers' Educational Association, Sydney, president, 1980-82; Eritrean Relief Association, chair, 1980-89. Military service: British Army Intelligence Corps, 1958-61. British Army Reserve, 1961-64.

MEMBER: Eritrean Studies Association (chair, 1998-2000), Wagner Society of New York.

WRITINGS:

Eritrea: Even the Stones Are Burning, Red Sea Press, 1990, 2nd edition, 1997.

Chaos and Dancing Star: Wagner's Politics, Wagner's Legacy, University Press of America (Blue Ridge Summit, PA), 2002.

(With Lyda Favali) Blood, Land, and Sex: Legal and Political Pluralism in Eritrea, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 2003.

Residual Uncertainty: Trying to Avoid Intelligence and Policy Mistakes in the Modern World, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 2003.

Author of scholarly articles.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Empty Lands, Empty Titles, with Lyda Favali; research for a literary biography of Ben Traven.

SIDELIGHTS: Roy Pateman told CA: "I seem always to have been scribbling if I have not been reading. In 1951, at the age of fifteen, I thought that I would start a list of every book I read to the finish. Anthony Powell once wrote that he wished he had [done the same]. Unlike Powell, more than fifty years later I am still adding to my list. I reached the 3,000 mark early this year, and over the years I expanded the categories of my list to include cinema (1,750 films since 1961), theater, and opera, and finally gardens, stately homes, exhibitions, and art galleries. I also keep a short list of the finest talks I have heard—the most memorable remains one by Eduardo Mondlane, the leader of the Mozambique liberation movement FRELIMO, speaking in Oxford in the 1960s. Later I started a short, exclusive list of my most loved wines (top of the list, Australian Henschke Hill of Grace, 1961) and restaurants (the Manoir a Quatre Saisons in Oxfordshire).

"While I may seem to be extraordinarily eclectic in my literary interests and writing, many of my books were at the back of my mind for many years. Chaos and Dancing Star: Wagner's Politics, Wagner's Legacy grew from my interest in opera—encouraged from the earliest age by musical parents—and in anarchism—through reading and activism in the 1960s and 1970s. I have always been fascinated by quotations and aphorisms and collected apt political examples for many years. Eventually I put some order into them and found many very appropriate to the life of my favorite composer, and a man I consider the most creative to have lived. The main reason I wrote it is that I hadn't found a satisfactory account of Wagner's complex politics and the legacy he bequeathed to many brilliant men and women. Having a Jewish grandmother also spurred me to come to terms with Wagner's gross anti-Semitism.

"My first book, Eritrea: Even the Stones Are Burning, came about because of my active involvement in liberation politics and as chair of a major Australian organization, the Eritrean Relief Association, in the 1980s. I visited Eritrea several times during its thirty-year struggle for independence, was enormously impressed by the people and country, and looked around for an adequate account of why the Eritreans had fought so long and how they seemed to be winning in spite of considerable odds against them. I didn't find one, so I set about writing articles that were eventually edited rigorously and put into a book. Here I am reminded of one of my first loves as a writer, who said when he wanted to read a book, he wrote one. The first edition of my book was launched providentially just as Eritrea had finally beaten the Ethiopians, and the second edition came out after five years after it became a sovereign state. Both editions have almost sold out, so I am writing two further chapters to go into a third edition. Political conditions no longer look as promising in Eritrea, so I expect to be working on this book for the rest of my life!

"The book Blood, Land, and Sex: Legal and Political Pluralism in Eritrea was written with my intimate friend and companion, the Italian lawyer Lyda Favali. It started life when she translated one of my articles so eloquently that I wanted the cooperation to continue. In the course of her doctoral research, she had collected a large number of Italian documents dealing with state, traditional, and religious law in the colony of Eritrea in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These documents had been gathering dust for years and were virtually unknown to the non-Italian-reading scholar. We translated them, and during some extended field work found that traditional and religious laws were very much alive in Eritrea. We are very excited to have breathed new life into a very important area and hope it will appeal to lawyers, historians, anthropologists, and political scientists, among other readers.

"Another book, published in 2003, is Residual Uncertainty: Trying to Avoid Intelligence and Policy Mistakes in the Modern World. My interest in intelligence and security matters dates back to my army days, when I spent two very formative years in Kenya, dabbling in counterintelligence. During the past twenty-five years most of my income came from teaching classes in international relations and comparative politics at universities. One of my most successful courses was an investigation of the importance of intelligence in the formulation and execution of foreign policy (often with unfortunate consequences). The book ranges wider than the usual discussion of Central Intelligence Agency covert action to deal with the work of our allies and the opposition since the end of World War II. One modest aim is to assist our masters in avoiding more disasters.

"I have a number of other books planned. With my coworker Lyda I hope next to write a broad comparative study of 'Terra Nullius,' the doctrine of empty lands that has been used by settler regimes from the United States, Australia, South Africa, Russia, and Israel, to name only five, to justify their expropriation and exploitation of land from indigenous inhabitants or weaker actors.

"Coming from a working-class background, I am fond of proletarian writers, and Ben Traven has fascinated me for thirty years. While in Australia I wrote a long review of his life and work, and I want to expand this into a full-scale monograph. I will use the format of my Wagner book. Part One will be an examination of the influences on Traven as a man and writer. Part Two will be a full account of his politics through an examination of his life, activity, and writing. Part Three, which will be the longest, will look at how Traven has influenced the life and work of a number of socialist, nationalist, and anarchist writers, activists, and artists.

"After this I hope to write a short monograph on two of my forebears: Isabella (Bella) Pateman, a significant actress in Edwardian times (and, like so many, reputed to have been a mistress of Edward VII), and Izzy Bon, the well-known Jewish comic of the music halls in the 1930s and 1940s. Finally I trust I will be spared to write a self-indulgent autobiography. I have two alternative titles: Opera: Its Part in My Downfall or I Shouldn't Have Stopped Running."