Is a hot dog a sandwich

Portrait of Captain James Cook by John Webber.

Is a hot dog a sandwich? If you divide the yeas and nays to this somewhat anodyne question into opposing focus groups, each group will set about expanding its own case and pouring cold water, and possibly vitriol, on the opposing one. Such was the opening gambit of Yascha Mounk, speaking at this year’s (2022) Hay Festival, as an introduction to his new book, The Great Experiment: why diverse democracies fall apart and how they can endure.

The hot-dog question is an easily replicable experiment in social anthropology to demonstrate both the propensity for humans to form groups and the ease with which they can factionalise. Individuals are the building blocks of society, and groups, in their myriad of guises, are the foundation of communal success. While the vast majority of society’s groups are uncontroversial and unlikely candidates for stigmatisation, there are some, sadly, which are prone to provoking in-group and out-group factions with fragile relationships.

It is plain that most western democracies are becoming more diverse with unprecedented rapidity and with widespread public acceptance. The downsides of this trend are that some people regard this as a problem and others use this fact to build political capital. In-groups naturally self-identify as ‘us’ but if this leads to their being identified as ‘them’ by out-groups, relations between them can become soured. For an in-group to expect protection from interference they should espouse transparency, freedom from coercion and acceptance of the concept of personal autonomy that is the foundation of modern democracies.

The basis of the diversification of 21st-century society lies in the personal realm, and so does the capacity for broadening it. The past can provide lessons for how things can go wrong, but it is building a future in which everyone can share that must be the primary focus. Cultural heritage is a component of society with a past that can divide opinions and a future that can provide ways to unite them, as recent IHBC (Institute of Historic Building Conservation) work on diversity and shared heritage has shown.

Next question: is a sandwich a sandwich?

Should the eponymous snack be named after someone merely for making off-menu food orders? The practice of using bread to wrap a filling has long histories in many cultures, so perhaps John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, does not deserve the honour any more than Arthur Wellesley, Dame Nellie Melba or Suzanne Reichenberg deserve to have lent their names to Beef Wellington, Pêche Melba and Crêpe Suzette. Diversity? Where are the memorials to those who actually created these culinary feats?

It is a bit hard on John Montagu that he is immortalised in this way because he was a statesman of considerable accomplishment. Historians are mostly lukewarm about him because he was a member of Lord North’s government, best remembered for ‘losing’ the American colonies. But as First Lord of the Admiralty he inherited a Royal Navy still depleted from the seven years war and succeeded in doubling its size to 500 ships, despite the American revolution and consequent war with the French and Spanish; and all that under a government with a low-taxation policy.

Sandwich’s portrait by Gainsborough in the National Maritime Museum was commissioned by Sir Hugh Palliser after his appointment by Sandwich as governor of the Greenwich Hospital. Sandwich is holding a document about the new infirmary building with Wren’s buildings in the background to make the connection clear. Captain Cook’s thank-you was to name new discoveries after Sandwich regardless of native opinion. But Cook’s high-handedness in matters of cultural diversity cost him his life and the ‘North Sandwich Islands’ soon became Hawaii again.

The South Sandwich Islands, though, have kept their identity: albatrosses and penguins tend not to express preferences. It was interesting to have a presentation from Laura Sinclair Willis, chief executive of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands at this year’s IHBC annual school, and heartening to know that, while there is scope for building conservation even in South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands are beyond the reach of built heritage altogether.

So, is a hot dog a sandwich? And while you are thinking, would you please pass the piccalilli?

Portrait of Captain James Cook by John Webber

This article originally appeared as ‘How we remember them’ in the Institute of Historic Building Conservation’s (IHBC’s) Context 173, published in September 2022. It was written by James Caird.

--Institute of Historic Building Conservation