History

Anything to do with History

Cynthia @Cynthia - over 4 years ago

The Nuclear Taboo | History Today

Why did the US not use nuclear weapons in Vietnam? We often assume that it was the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction that kept both superpowers from ever using them. But intelligence reports from the period paint a more nuanced picture, one where global abhorrence ...continued

6 minutes read

Manley @Manley - over 4 years ago

Which Marks? | History Today

The stunning landscape associated with the magnesium limestone rocks of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire border is scattered with narrow, steep-sided gorges or ‘grips’, containing caves and rocky shelters, the most famous of which is Creswell Crags. The Crags are known ...continued

6 minutes read

Mariano @Mariano - almost 2 years ago

No Army? No Problem | History Today

Epaminondas saves the life of Pelopidas during the siege of Mantinea 385 BC, from Ward and Lock’s Illustrated History of the World, c.1882 © akg-images/UIG/Universal History Archive.In the mid-fourth century BC, an experienced Greek general decided to spend his retirement...continued

6 minutes read

Jarod @Jarod - over 2 years ago

No Girl Left Behind | History Today

The lives of British women were transformed between 1870 and the outbreak of the Second World War. Among the changes, the arrival of female physicians in the medical profession signalled a new approach to women’s health and, in particular, how they should live their lives...continued

5 minutes read

Oren @Oren - about 4 years ago

Resetting the Clock | History Today

In the weeks and months that followed Notre-Dame’s fire on 15 April 2019, people have tried to grapple with the loss. Not just of the physical building, of course, but also the loss of the history. Notre-Dame was – and is – a physical timeline of the city and the fire bur...continued

6 minutes read

Maida @Maida - over 4 years ago

It Can't Happen Here | History Today

It is difficult to forget a work of history that begins with a discussion of the author’s dental history and ends with a reflection on the beret as symbol of the Vichy regime in France. Perhaps that is why Richard Cobb’s French and Germans, Germans and French has stuck wi...continued

6 minutes read

Iva @Iva - 9 months ago

The Bloody End | History Today

Henry III depicted in stained glass, chapel of the Maison Dieu, 19th century. Photograph by Jim LinwoodIt is ironic that probably the best documented medieval English king is also one of the least well known. With the second volume of his biography of Henry III, David Car...continued

6 minutes read

Myles @Myles - over 2 years ago

Monumental Record | History Today

Papyrus containing the diary of Merer from day 19 to 25 (read right to left) at the Wadi al-Jarf exhibition, Cairo Museum, 2016.In 2013 archaeologists uncovered what has since been called ‘the greatest discovery in Egypt in the 21st century’: hundreds of papyrus fragments...continued

6 minutes read

Alexie @Alexie - 9 months ago

Henry III, 1258-1272: Reform, Rebellion, Civil War, Settlement by David Carpenter

6 minutes read

Allene @Allene - about 1 year ago

A Perfect Storm | History Today

Stairwell entrance of Bethnal Green Underground station, by Colin Tait, 29 October 1953 © TfL from the London Transport Museum collection.On the night of Monday 1 March 1943, RAF Bomber Command dispatched 302 heavy bomber aircraft to Berlin. Carrying a mixture of 8,000- a...continued

6 minutes read

Myles @Myles - almost 2 years ago

Minority Report | History Today

A bazaar stall in Sarajevo, early 20th century. Lebrecht History/Bridgeman Images. In November 2017 the Pew Research Center published an eyebrow-raising report on Europe’s Muslim population: with Europe defined as ‘the EU plus Norway and Switzerland’, it showed the wester...continued

5 minutes read

Garnet @Garnet - almost 4 years ago

The End of the Old World?

Jonathan Scott is one of the leading historians of 17th-century England. Here he continues the admirable expansion of his horizons to include oceans and the power relations that transoceanic settlements and trade opened up. But the book’s main aim is to use this internati...continued

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Rose @Rose - about 4 years ago

Liverpool’s Slave Trade Legacy | History Today

In 1787 the Quakers of Portsmouth made their anti-slavery campaign official by forming The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, joining forces with prominent abolitionists such as William Wilberforce. So organised were they in their methods of activism,...continued

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Wilmer @Wilmer - about 2 years ago

The Search for Immortality | History Today

‘Putting the miraculous elixir on the tripod’, woodcut from Xingming guizhi (Pointers on Spiritual Nature and Bodily Life), by Yi Zhenren, 1615.The dietary supplement market in China is huge. In 2020 nearly 890,000 new enterprises were established, the largest annual incr...continued

5 minutes read

Moises @Moises - 10 months ago

Forging Ties | History Today

Portrait of Lu Xun by Situ Qiao, 1928. CPA Media Pte Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo.Almost 80 years after the end of the Second World War, China and Japan continue to battle over how to remember it, each emphasising their own victimhood, ensuring that this division is passed ont...continued

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Ryleigh @Ryleigh - almost 2 years ago

In the Penal Colony | History Today

Postcard showing ‘Ile des Pins – the place of exile for repeat offenders, formerly occupied by the deportees from the Paris Commune’, c.1900. Wiki Commons/Nuvolari.In Exiles William Atkins follows in the footsteps of three 19th-century dissidents sent overseas for their p...continued

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Elvie @Elvie - almost 2 years ago

War Orgasms | History Today

Winston Churchill with a Tommy Gun, Hartlepool, 1940 © Bridgeman Images.As the sensational subtitle – more befitting a penny dreadful than a biography – suggests, the Winston Churchill we meet in Tariq Ali’s new book is not the same person we know from Britain’s tabloid p...continued

6 minutes read

Marlon @Marlon - 11 months ago

The War on Dogs | History Today

‘Mad Dog’, hand-coloured engraving, 1826. Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo.There was outcry in March 2023 when ex-Deputy Health Minister James Bethell revealed that during the early stages of the Covid pandemic, when it was unclear how easily pets could...continued

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Anderson @Anderson - over 4 years ago

Interpreting the Ottoman Empire | History Today

In the summer of 1682, French warships appeared outside the harbour of Algiers. They had been dispatched to bombard the North African city in revenge for Algerian forces seizing French shipping, aiming to impose a new peace treaty upon the Dey. Algiers was pummelled. Hous...continued

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Colin @Colin - about 1 year ago

It’s Bliss | History Today

Hercules Protects Painting from Ignorance and Envy, Andries Cornelis Lens c.1763. Royal Museum of Arts, Antwerp/Wiki Commons.Ignorance can have its merits, not least for readers and critics of books. As the 18th-century satirist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg observed, ‘one ...continued

6 minutes read

George @George - almost 4 years ago

History Wars | History Today

History is always politics. For governments, as well as social and religious institutions, control of narratives about the past is a vital source of authority and legitimation in the present. In the age of the Reformation this became more evident than during any previous ...continued

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Gregoria @Gregoria - over 4 years ago

The Cows Behind the Cowboy

In August 2019, American Congressional representative Liz Cheney, arguing against the restoration of Endangered Species Act protections for grizzly bears on behalf of ranchers who claim the animals hunt their livestock, blasted ‘radical environmentalists intent on destroy...continued

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Alan @Alan - almost 4 years ago

Fortune’s Favours | History Today

In 1516, Niccolò Machiavelli, keen to earn the favour of Florence’s recently restored ruling family, arrived at the Palazzo Medici to present Lorenzo de’ Medici with a copy of The Prince. The occasion did not go to plan. Lorenzo – who had inherited his name from his grand...continued

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Jimmy @Jimmy - 9 months ago

The Emperors for the Job

The Colossi of Memnon, illustration from Wonders of the Past, 1910. © Look and Learn/Bridgeman ImagesHalfway up the inside of a church tower in central Italy, upside-down, is an epitaph of a ‘T. Flavius Clymenus’. A freedman of the imperial household, a former slave, his ...continued

5 minutes read

Maureen @Maureen - 9 months ago

Pax: War and Peace in Rome’s Golden Age by Tom Holland

5 minutes read