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The right hand and the left hand of history Introduction

Article  in  Laterality · September 2009

DOI: 10.1080/13576500903201818 · Source: PubMed

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Ian Christopher Mcmanus Michael (Mike) Nicholls

University College London Flinders University
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Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition

ISSN: 1357-650X (Print) 1464-0678 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/plat20

Introduction: The right hand and the left hand of

history

Chris McManus , Mike Nicholls & Giorgio Vallortigara

To cite this article: Chris McManus , Mike Nicholls & Giorgio Vallortigara (2010) Introduction:
The right hand and the left hand of history, Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and
Cognition, 15:1-2, 1-3, DOI: 10.1080/13576500903201818

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13576500903201818

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LATERALITY, 2010, 15 (1/2), 13

Introduction

The right hand and the left hand of history

On 10th April 1998, Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, and Bertie
Ahern, the Irish Taoiseach, signed the Belfast Agreement (the ‘‘Good Friday
Agreement’’), which, after three decades of what were known as, ‘‘The
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Troubles’’, resulted in peace in Northern Ireland, and began a period of

economic growth and prosperity that has survived to this day. In signing the
agreement, Tony Blair, in his typically felicitous way, said that, ‘‘I feel the
hand of history upon our shoulders’’. The ‘‘hand of history’’ was a
compelling phrase, and would seem to be originated by Blair himself, who
later said, ‘‘it had just popped into his head’’.1
In signing the documents, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern showed the hand
of history in their own separate ways, for while Tony Blair signed with his
right hand, it was with his left hand that Bertie Ahern signed.2 It is only a
small detail, but the fact of it being worth commenting on at all, reveals how
left-handers are, to a large extent, a people without a history. Despite one in
ten individuals nowadays being left-handed, there is little historical study of
the role of left-handers in history, their treatment by right-handers, their
problems, or even their prevalence. The occasional exceptions, such as
Pierre-Michel Bertrand’s Histoire des Gaucheurs (Bertrand, 2001), emphasise
the scarcity of such studies.
Bertrand subtitled his book, ‘‘Des gens à l’envers’’*a people who are
back to front*a quotation from a French translation of Los Sueños
(Visions), written between 1606 and 1622 by the Spanish writer Francisco
de Quevedo (15801645). De Quevedo’s book was first translated into
English as The Visions of Dom Francisco de Quevedo Villegas in 1667 by Sir
Roger L’Estrange (16161704).3 The entire passage, from the Sixth Vision,

1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/mar/19/northernireland.northernireland
2
The image itself is distributed by Associated Press (www.apimages.com) as number
AP98041001694. Unfortunately it is only available for distribution in North America, and can
only be seen at the website by firstly registering as a user (which is free), when the serial number can
then be entered.
3
The full text is available at http://books.google.co.uk/books?idcsMPAAAAQAAJ&printsec
frontcover&dqrogerl%27estrangequevedo&clientfirefox-a
# 2009 Psychology Press, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
http://www.psypress.com/laterality DOI: 10.1080/13576500903201818
2 INTRODUCTION

from which Bertrand took his excerpt, merits complete quotation, for it is
little known in the literature of handedness and lateralisation, and shows
well a particular historical view of left-handers. The narrator on a
nocturnal walk finds two paths, the one being hard and difficult, whereas
the other path, which is broad and easy, is that which leads to Hell. Not
surprisingly it is, ‘‘the Left-hand way’’. The narrator describes how,

. . . my next Discovery was, of a great many People, Grumbling and Muttering,

that there was no body lookt after them; no, not so much as to Torment them: As
if their Tails were not as well worth the Toasting as their Neighbours. Answer was
made, that being a kind of Devils themselves, they might put in for some sort of
Authority in the Place, and execute the Office of Tormentors. This made me ask
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them what they were. And a Devil told me (with Respect) that they were a
Company of Ungracious, Left-handed Wretches, that could do nothing Aright.
And their Grievance was, that they were Quarter’d by themselves: But not
knowing whether they were Men or no, or indeed what else to make of them, we
did not know how to Match them, or in what company to put them. In the World
they are lookt upon as Ill-Omens; and let any Man meet one of them upon a
Journey in a Morning, Fasting; ‘tis the same thing as if a Hare had cross’d the way
upon them; he presently turns Head in a Discontent, and goes to Bed again. Ye
know that Scævola, when he found his Mistake, in killing Another for Porsenna,
(the Secretary, for the Prince) burnt his right Hand in Revenge of the Miscarriage.
Now the Severity of the Vengeance, was not so much the Maiming or the Cripling
of himself, but the Condemning of himself to be for ever Left-handed. And so ‘tis
with a Malefactor that suffers Justice; the Shame and Punishment does not lye so
much in the Loss of his Right Hand, as that the other is Left. And it was the Curse
of an old Bawd, to a Fellow that had vext her, That he might go to the Devil by the
stroke of a Left-handed Man. If the Poets speak Truth, (as ‘twere a wonder if they
should not) the Left is the Unlucky Side; and there never came any Good from it.
And for my last Argument against these Creatures; the Goats and Reprobates
stand upon the Left Hand, and Left-Handed Men are, in Effect, a sort of Creature
that’s made to do Mischief; nay whether I should call them Men, or no, I know
not. (L’Estrange, 1708, pp. 178179)

It was clearly not always the case that left-handers such as Bertie
Ahern, or for that matter, Barack Obama and his fellow left-handed
American Presidents, could have risen to positions of power and status.

The papers in this special issue of Laterality are not a systematic review of
the field, but instead are a group of studies that came together at the same
time in the editorial offices, and it was realised that they would make more
sense published as a group, to emphasise the general paucity of such
material. Three of the papers in particular are by Lauren Harris, who is
undoubtedly the doyen of historians of handedness and lateralisation, and
we are particularly proud to publish these papers of his. Together we hope
INTRODUCTION 3

that the various studies will stimulate further research in this neglected but
important area.

Chris McManus
Mike Nicholls
Giorgio Vallortigara

REFERENCES
Bertrand, P.-M. (2001). Histoire des gauchers. Paris: Imago.
L’Estrange, R. (1708). The Visions of Dom Francisco de Quevedo Villegas, Knight of the Order of
St. James (Tenth Edition, corrected). London: Richard Sare.
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