History
Anything to do with History
Ericka
@Ericka -
1 day ago
On the Spot: Gordon Campbell
Why are you a historian of culture?It allows me to range freely through the history of art, literature, gardens, religion and, most recently, the Norse.What’s the most important lesson history has taught you? That it is a means to understand the present. What book in your...continued
2 minutes read
Jerrold
@Jerrold -
1 day ago
Benjamin Banneker’s Broods of Cicadas
In the spring of 1749 Benjamin Banneker – the 17-year-old son of a freed slave – thought the world was about to be eaten whole. While working on his family’s farm in Oella, Maryland, he saw ‘thousands of locusts’ suddenly rise up from the ground and ‘creep …up the trees a...continued
11 minutes read
Zetta
@Zetta -
2 days ago
The Morality of Medicine | History Today
‘Modern medical science has given us a choice where there was once none.’ So said John Simon at the International Medical Congress in London in 1881. Simon, who had been the UK’s first Chief Medical Officer, was speaking about the purpose and value of state medicine, the ...continued
6 minutes read
Priscilla
@Priscilla -
2 days ago
Into the Unknown Region | History Today
International travel has been off the agenda for most during the pandemic, even the brief city breaks that are so easy to take in such a well-connected, diverse and compact continent as Europe. Yet, though some claim to have experienced a revelatory new relationship with ...continued
2 minutes read
Moises
@Moises -
3 days ago
Treacherous Waters | History Today
Britain’s intelligence agencies have come in from the cold. Scholars of the secret state have, over the past years, enjoyed several weighty, authoritative works on the secret services and their coordinating machinery in Whitehall. Fascinating though these contributions ar...continued
3 minutes read
Madalyn
@Madalyn -
3 days ago
The Battle of Cannae | History Today
By 216 BC, Hannibal’s Carthaginian army had already won victories against the Romans in the Second Punic War at Ticinus, Trebia and Lake Trasimene. But then came Cannae.According to Polybius, the Senate, terrified by Hannibal’s successes, sent eight legions against him. I...continued
2 minutes read
Muriel
@Muriel -
6 days ago
Marketing the Menace | History Today
It is 70 years since Dennis the Menace’s first appearance in the Beano. His evolution since 1951 reflects a changing historical landscape, as he has adapted to match the shifts in attitude and preference that have accompanied the comic’s long history. The Beano, an overlo...continued
6 minutes read
Nestor
@Nestor -
8 days ago
The Nazis Enter History | History Today
Adolf Hitler attends the Nazi harvest festival held at Bückeberg in central Germany, 1934 © Hulton Getty Images.Major historical events often change how we view others. It is sometimes said that Napoleon was the biggest tyrant Europe had known until Hitler came along. Som...continued
1 minute read
Wilmer
@Wilmer -
9 days ago
The Fall of Tenochtitlan | History Today
The destruction of Tenochtitlan, Spanish, 16th century © Bridgeman Images.Five hundred years ago, the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan fell. While this anniversary is being commemorated in Spain, Mexico has demanded apologies from the Vatican and from its former colonial master...continued
1 minute read
Jimmy
@Jimmy -
10 days ago
The Murder of an Emperor
In the late afternoon of 26 July 1533, Atahualpa, the last true emperor of the Incas, was led out into the public square of Cajamarca in Peru’s Andean highlands. Francisco Pizarro, his conquistador captor, had decided that he must die.Atahualpa had initially impressed the...continued
2 minutes read
Jany
@Jany -
10 days ago
Luther & Co. | History Today
Martin Luther, one of the towering figures of German history, was, Lyndal Roper tells us, ‘a man who truly pondered pigs’. One of the achievements of this wonderfully stimulating collection of essays is to close the gap between Luther the man, who lived alongside swine an...continued
5 minutes read
Delia
@Delia -
13 days ago
Revolutionary Cut Short | History Today
Amílcar Cabral was one of the most important revolutionaries of the 20th century. Leading the independence war against Portuguese colonialism in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, Cabral became a global figure in anticolonialism. Supported by Fidel Castro, he led the most succ...continued
4 minutes read
Hannah
@Hannah -
14 days ago
Facing the Terror: a witness to the French Revolution
To continue reading this article you will need to purchase access to the online archive.Buy Online Access Buy Print & Archive SubscriptionIf you have already purchased access, or are a print & archive subscriber, please ensure you are logged in.Please email digit...continued
1 minute read
Garnet
@Garnet -
15 days ago
Greek Myths | History Today
Statue of Mado Mavroyenous in Mykonos. Tibor Bognar/Alamy.The bicentenary of the Greek Revolution of 1821 has unleashed a frenzy of publications and patriotic displays in Greece and across the vast Greek diaspora. The revolution was certainly an event of major historical ...continued
1 minute read
Sandrine
@Sandrine -
16 days ago
The New Tourists | History Today
‘England & Scotland East Coast Route’ (detail), poster, c.1900 © SSPL/Getty Images.The Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel, a small inn at the foot of the Llanberis Pass in North Wales, seems an unlikely arena for class warfare. Built around a farmhouse, the hotel was a popular tourist...continued
1 minute read
Americo
@Americo -
17 days ago
Rebels in Rubber Soles | History Today
He was known at different times and in different places – from Singapore to West Ealing – as Nguyen Tat Thanh, Nguyen Ai Quoc, Bac Ho, or simply ‘Bac’, meaning ‘uncle’. He was a poet, journalist and political agitator. In June 1919 Nguyen Ai Quoc (‘Nguyen the Patriot’) ci...continued
4 minutes read
Ericka
@Ericka -
20 days ago
Dolphins of the Belfiore | History Today
Calliope, missing Muse of epic poetry? Or a lost Venus? Detail of a painting by Cosimo Tura, c.1455-60, National Gallery, London © Bridgeman Images.In the mid-15th century, Ferrara was one of the most glittering cities in Renaissance Italy. Under the rule of Leonello and ...continued
10 minutes read
Hulda
@Hulda -
22 days ago
Non-essential Freedoms | History Today
Bookshops are back and that’s something to celebrate. Among all the kinds of ‘non-essential’ activities prohibited over the past year, browsing second-hand bookshops may not have been high up everyone’s list of yearned-for normality, but it was pretty high up on mine and ...continued
4 minutes read
Erik
@Erik -
23 days ago
China’s First International Students | History Today
On 11 August 1872 China’s first batch of government-sponsored overseas students set out from Shanghai. Crossing North America by train, they arrived in New England to start their life of study abroad. According to the memoirs written in 1922 by one of the students, Lee Ya...continued
5 minutes read
Geovany
@Geovany -
24 days ago
Just a Book? | History Today
Ensconced in his Virginia estate, Thomas Jefferson had a secret project. It called for Enlightenment values, biological adhesives and a penknife. For decades Jefferson, the primary drafter of the Declaration of Independence, set his mind to producing another text: his own...continued
3 minutes read
Delia
@Delia -
27 days ago
Ulysses and the Sirens | History Today
A passage from book 12 of The Odyssey, in Emily Wilson’s acclaimed translation of Homer’s epic, sees the hero Odysseus, known in Latin as Ulysses, warn his men of an impending challenge:She [Circe] said we must avoid the voices of the otherworldy Sirens; steer past their ...continued
3 minutes read
Oren
@Oren -
27 days ago
On the Spot: Srinath Raghavan
Why are you a historian of modern South Asia?Because South Asia provides an extraordinary window on the making of the modern world.What’s the most important lesson history has taught you? That history doesn’t teach any lessons – only historians do. Which history book has ...continued
2 minutes read
Gregoria
@Gregoria -
28 days ago
Saint for All Seasons | History Today
James Comey, former director of the FBI, was questioned in June 2017 at a hearing of the US Senate Intelligence Committee by Senator Angus King. At issue was President Trump’s requests for Comey to drop an investigation into National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and his...continued
2 minutes read
Anderson
@Anderson -
29 days ago
Revolution in the air | History Today
This is a time of battles between international media organisations and national governments. Think of the decision by the BBC’s China correspondent, John Sudworth, to move to Taiwan after ‘threats’ and ‘increased surveillance and harassment’ because of his reporting of B...continued
9 minutes read
Abbie
@Abbie -
29 days ago
For Love or Money | History Today
Michael Burleigh begins his history of political murder with James Bond, who is licensed to kill bad men on behalf of the good. By the end, he has taken us from ancient Rome to modern Riyadh, a journey by way of Washington, Sarajevo, Tokyo, Malta and the Congo. The dead i...continued
6 minutes read