History

Anything to do with History

Joe @Joe - over 4 years ago

Holy Women and the Rise of Royal Power in France

As flames roared through the roof of Notre-Dame on 15 April 2019, onlookers struggled to express why the spectacle seemed so shocking. The sense of loss was rooted in history, but what history exactly? Commentators on French television spoke of Charles de Gaulle’s funeral...continued

2 minutes read

Kristina @Kristina - over 4 years ago

The Poet Who Saw Edith Cavell Die

Anyone familiar with biographers’ accounts of Edith Cavell’s trial and execution in October 1915 will probably be acquainted with the name Gottfried Benn. He was present at both as the 29-year-old senior doctor to the German military government in Brussels. Yet none of th...continued

2 minutes read

Maida @Maida - about 4 years ago

The Foundations of Liberia | History Today

The year 2020 is unlikely to be marked with particular fanfare in Liberia, but it was 200 years ago, on 31 January 1820, that 88 African American men, women and children boarded a ship in New York Harbor with the intention of creating a colony in Africa where they would b...continued

2 minutes read

Devin @Devin - about 4 years ago

Sin and Siege: The End of the Crusades

When the churchman Jacques de Vitry stepped ashore at the city of Acre in November 1216, he was appalled. Vitry had come to Palestine to take up his position as the city’s bishop with a mission to rejuvenate the spiritual fervour of its people in advance of a new crusade,...continued

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Pablo @Pablo - over 3 years ago

Death of a Philosopher Queen

Ahilyabai Holkar, queen of the Malwa kingdom in north-west central India, part of the Maratha empire, died on 13 August 1795, having reigned for nearly 30 years. She came to power in 1767, after the death of her father-in-law, Malhar Rao Holkar, and her young, sickly son....continued

2 minutes read

Raoul @Raoul - about 4 years ago

The State of the Nation

‘Societies, all societies, are constituted in a certain way, and this way is their constitution’, said the US public intellectual Philip Bobbitt in 2003. The connection between the life of a society and its constitution has only become more pronounced in the years since. ...continued

1 minute read

Izaiah @Izaiah - about 4 years ago

Shampoo Empire | History Today

Shampooing is part of everyday hygiene. But where did it come from? In the 19th century, the art of shampooing travelled from British India to the Empire’s heart, Britain. It did so thanks, in part, to one Indian immigrant, Sake Dean Mahomed (also spelled as Mahomet or Mo...continued

2 minutes read

Maida @Maida - almost 5 years ago

Memories of a Massacre | History Today

On Monday 16 August 1819, 60,000 men, women and children gathered for a mass rally in Manchester. They had progressed to St Peter’s Field on the southern edge of the town from the city’s working-class districts and the surrounding textile weaving regions, including Rochda...continued

1 minute read

Jaydon @Jaydon - almost 5 years ago

Apocalypse Then: When The World Didn’t End

In 1624, the poet and cleric John Donne declared in a sermon that ‘creatures of an inferiour nature, are possest with the present; Man is a future Creature’. With this remark, Donne managed to encapsulate the apocalypse fever that had been steadily overwhelming European ...continued

2 minutes read

George @George - over 4 years ago

That Terrible Thing Called Jealousy

The setting is Italy, soon after the end of the Second World War. Three sisters are about to marry and, in order to assure themselves of their future husbands’ love, they ask the men what they would do if the sisters were to betray them. Two of the sisters receive answers...continued

1 minute read

Emmie @Emmie - over 4 years ago

Slaves and Indians | History Today

In his autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), the American abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote: The slave finds more of the milk of human kindness in the bosom of the savage Indian, than in the heart of his Christian master. He leaves the man of the bible, and...continued

1 minute read

Ryleigh @Ryleigh - almost 4 years ago

Death and Sacrifice in the Franco-Prussian War

The Franco-Prussian War was the most significant European conflict between the Napoleonic Wars and the First World War, involving around two million soldiers and resulting in the deaths of more than 180,000 men. Triggered by a dispute over the candidacy of the Prussian Ho...continued

1 minute read

Alvah @Alvah - over 4 years ago

The Inca's Last Stand | History Today

We rode up a dried river bed near Salta, north-west Argentina, under a fast-rising sun. Above a shadowy bend, a rock face was printed with a cryptic series of red, white and black dots. Trains of llamas and alpacas wove among thunderbolts of earthen pigment. They were at ...continued

1 minute read

Liliane @Liliane - about 1 month ago

‘Deterring Armageddon’ by Peter Apps and ‘NATO’ by Sten Rynning review

‘Semisesquicentennial’ does not roll off the tongue, nor would such an occasion normally be marked by publishers. But the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 75th anniversary, which arrives on 4 April 2024, has already led to the publication of a brace of new books about...continued

8 minutes read

Marjory @Marjory - 4 months ago

The Scandalous Success of the Daily Mail

Proponents of the idea of the press as a ‘Fourth Estate’ have long championed the notion that democracy can only work when the media shines a light on the darkest corners of government (in 2017 the Washington Post went as far as to adopt it as a tagline: ‘Democracy Dies i...continued

8 minutes read

Immanuel @Immanuel - over 4 years ago

Solving a Renaissance Murder Mystery

It was a chilly winter morning on 26 February 1548, a day like any other. Florentine nobleman Lorenzino de’ Medici had just left the church of San Polo in Venice with his uncle. He was strolling along unsuspectingly when suddenly two hired killers wielding daggers stepped...continued

1 minute read

Dayton @Dayton - over 3 years ago

Distortions and Omissions | History Today

‘A unique, comprehensive account of people beheading one another’ was Liang Qichao’s pithy dismissal of Chinese history writing before 1900. It was only useful to instruct an emperor or a minister, he complained, and had no relevance to the people. Instead, Liang demanded...continued

9 minutes read

Jessika @Jessika - almost 3 years ago

Yemen’s Endless Wars | History Today

Mountainous and dry, with a tendency to anarchy in the ample spaces between its cities, Yemen has long been hospitable to insurgency. Yet in ancient times it was home to the Sabaeans and had claims to be the biblical land of the Queen of Sheba. Its fertility and beauty we...continued

9 minutes read

Kari @Kari - almost 4 years ago

The Early Life of Gibberish

For as long as the English language has been spoken, we have entertained the possibility of talking gibberish. While nonsense uses real words to make sentences that make no sense, gibberish is made of sounds and syllables which cannot be decoded. It may seem the most stup...continued

1 minute read

Elian @Elian - over 2 years ago

Governing Goliath | History Today

In October 2020 a 16-month investigation into ‘Big Tech’ by Democrats in the US House of Representatives reached unambiguous conclusions. The sector’s leading companies – Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook – originally thought of as Davids, have emerged as the Goliaths of...continued

9 minutes read

Elaina @Elaina - 3 months ago

Pasternak and Stalin: What Was Said?

On 13 June 1934 Boris Pasternak was at home in Moscow when the telephone rang. As one of Russia’s most famous poets, he was used to being interrupted; but what he heard when he picked up made his blood run cold. ‘I have Comrade Stalin on the line for you’, said the voice....continued

9 minutes read

Pablo @Pablo - over 3 years ago

Dissonant Horn | History Today

The recent escalation in the dispute between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) is an alarming development. Fighting between federal forces and Tigrayan militias is the result of a collapse in the relationship between Prime Minister A...continued

9 minutes read

Anderson @Anderson - almost 3 years 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

Jimmy @Jimmy - over 4 years ago

The Velvet Revolution In The Regions

In the words of the British historian Timothy Garton Ash, Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution was ‘swift, entirely non-violent, joyful and funny’. Garton Ash witnessed the Velvet Revolution – so called because of the gentle manner of its passing – in Prague and his descrip...continued

1 minute read

Roger @Roger - almost 4 years ago

The Colonels’ Failed PR Coup

In the modern era, relations between states have usually been conducted through diplomatic envoys. Since public opinion has become more important to policy makers, however, governments have increasingly resorted to outsourcing. Regimes with an image problem tend to hire p...continued

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