History

Anything to do with History

Delia @Delia - over 2 years ago

Lynching the British | History Today

‘An Englishman is Lynched to Save Expense’, detail from the Illustrated Police News, 11 July 1896 © British Library Board.The mob took no chances. Acting under cover of darkness, all of them masked and some wearing women’s dresses to further conceal their identities, they...continued

1 minute read

Hank @Hank - about 2 months ago

‘Sparta and the Commemoration of War’ and ‘The Killing Ground’ review

These are books of very different kinds, not exactly chalk and cheese, but certainly apples and oranges. All three authors are military historians, if of dissimilar stripes and with very varying direct, practical experience of warfare. (Full disclosure: born in London in ...continued

6 minutes read

Bart @Bart - about 1 month ago

William Adams: English Adviser to the Shogun

In 1600 a Dutch galleon arrived on the shores of a small fief on Kyushu, the westernmost of Japan’s four main islands. It was the first Dutch ship to reach Japan. Among the crew was an English navigator, William Adams, who managed to gain the trust of Tokugawa Ieyasu, a p...continued

7 minutes read

Iva @Iva - over 1 year ago

Cuban Missile Crisis: the View from Havana

Cuban soldiers stand by an anti-aircraft gun, Havana, 1962. Bettman/Getty Images.On the morning of 29 May 1962 Cuba’s leaders welcomed a delegation of ‘hydrotechnic specialists’ from the Soviet Union. To the Cubans’ surprise, the Soviet delegation also included top milita...continued

1 minute read

Marlon @Marlon - over 2 years ago

The Sin King | History Today

William II, ‘Rufus’, kneeling before Archbishop Lanfranc, from the Chronique de Normandie, French, 15th century © British Library Board/Bridgeman Images.A group of floppy-haired youths flaunt their bodies and flirt with one another. A religious leader in his sixties berat...continued

1 minute read

Teagan @Teagan - almost 3 years ago

Solving the Insoluble | History Today

This is the final volume in Charles Townshend’s trilogy tracing Ireland’s path to independence from Britain, which sets his earlier works on the Easter Rising and the revolutionary period in greater context. The partition of Ireland, seen by some as the only possible sett...continued

6 minutes read

Zetta @Zetta - over 1 year ago

The Cold, Cold War | History Today

Explorer Robert E. Peary and husky aboard the Roosevelt, c.1909 © Archive Pics/Alamy Stock Photo.In 325 BC, the Greek explorer Pytheas attempted to sail to the frozen north, a place that he called Thule. He reached Brittany, then Cornwall, eventually travelling past the n...continued

1 minute read

Anderson @Anderson - over 3 years ago

When They Get to the Border

A breathless account of a furtive and perilous border crossing appeared in 1905 in a Hebrew-language literary journal published in Warsaw. Its author, Yosef Haim Brenner, was an aspiring writer and intellectual, self-educated in Russian literature, philosophy and the soci...continued

6 minutes read

Bobby @Bobby - about 1 month ago

William Adams: English Advisor to the Shogun

7 minutes read

Wilmer @Wilmer - over 2 years ago

The Darien Scheme | History Today

Map of Darien by Herman Moll (detail), engraved c.1730 © National Library of Scotland.In 1698 an ambitious new Scottish trading company established an outpost on the narrow isthmus between North and South America. A colony there, it was thought, would unlock trade between...continued

1 minute read

Elian @Elian - 16 days ago

When Nostalgia Was Deadly | History Today

In 1688 a young Swiss milkmaid clambered over a rocky outcrop. She was halfway up an Alpine slope when she slipped and tumbled down several feet. Seriously injured, she was carried away to hospital in the nearby town where she lay, unconscious, for days. Physicians plied ...continued

6 minutes read

Jany @Jany - almost 3 years ago

A Feather in her Cap

Settled into a comfortable married life in Didsbury, then a leafy part of Manchester, Emily Williamson held a succession of afternoon teas in 1889. Yet, while serving tea and fruitcake in her drawing room filled with ladies, Williamson, by all accounts a gentle and compas...continued

6 minutes read

Garnet @Garnet - almost 3 years 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

Jany @Jany - over 3 years ago

To Frame a Painter | History Today

De László in his London studio, 1937, de László Archive © de László Foundation. By kind permission of The de László Archive Trust: www.delaszlocatalogueraisonne.com The ‘spy fever’ generated by the First World War placed many of Europe’s immigrant communities under suspic...continued

1 minute read

Elian @Elian - about 3 years ago

Stakhanovite Shopping | History Today

On 3 August 1935 Aleksei Stakhanov mined a record-breaking 102 tonnes of coal in six hours. He became an overnight celebrity. Towns were renamed in his honour, his face graced the covers of international magazines, including Time, and a movement was created in his name: S...continued

6 minutes read

Juliet @Juliet - over 1 year ago

Filthy Food | History Today

Milk is watered down and sand is added to sugar, detail from an engraving of ‘London improvements’, 1845. Mary Evans Picture Library.Adulteration of food with potentially harmful substances and cheap substitutes is an old problem with a recent solution. In the 19th centur...continued

1 minute read

Colin @Colin - over 2 years ago

Armenia’s Warrior Queen | History Today

During the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, the Republic of Armenia established its first all-women military detachment. This was the latest in a series of developments that won women the right to serve in the Armenian armed forces since military academies first opened their do...continued

6 minutes read

Maureen @Maureen - over 2 years ago

Think of the Children! | History Today

‘Obscenity’, writes Christopher Hilliard in this fascinating study of censorship in modern Britain, has often been ‘a definition that does not do much defining’. The question of what is fit to be seen, and what is deemed unacceptable, has depended far more upon audiences ...continued

6 minutes read

Casper @Casper - almost 3 years ago

Baby Boom or Bust? | History Today

When the pandemic sent the world into lockdown in March 2020, many commentators quipped that a mini baby boom would follow nine months later. The reality was entirely different. Financial insecurity, increased parental responsibilities and anxiety about the future, along ...continued

6 minutes read

Zetta @Zetta - almost 2 years ago

Law of the Land | History Today

Nigel Farage’s Bayeux Tapestry tie, 20 November 2014 © REUTERS/Alamy.On 24 September 2019 the Supreme Court handed down a judgment on the recent prorogation of Parliament – more accurately, its purported prorogation, because the judgment pronounced the attempt to prorogue...continued

1 minute read

Hank @Hank - over 3 years ago

The Original Anti-Vaxxers | History Today

Anti-vaccination protests are nothing new, although in the past they did have some justification. When Edward Jenner introduced smallpox inoculation at the end of the 18th century he was widely derided as yet another quack trying to make a quick fortune. Envious rivals we...continued

6 minutes read

Alexie @Alexie - over 2 years ago

The Doctor Is In | History Today

The British love the National Health Service. In early 2020, people emerged from their homes every Thursday evening to applaud healthcare workers and show support for this treasured national institution. While the strength of feeling might have grown during the pandemic, ...continued

6 minutes read

Gregoria @Gregoria - over 1 year ago

Opium for the Masses | History Today

Opium farmers in a poppy field in Yunnan, China, c.1900 © Pictures from History/Bridgeman Images.In October 1938, with Guomindang soldiers hammering on her door, Chen Xuying was in her bathroom frantically feeding drugs into the toilet. Though opiates were her livelihood,...continued

1 minute read

Joe @Joe - over 2 years ago

Kings of the Pacific in an Age of Revolution

Tongan men with canoes, French 19th-century engraving © Bridgeman Images.It was October 1793. Four days had passed and there was still no news of the naval officer, Count de Trobriand. The French ships Recherche and Espérance lay moored impatiently 25 miles outside the Du...continued

1 minute read

Meggie @Meggie - over 3 years ago

On the Wrong Side of History

Mrs Humphry Ward (Mary Ward), by Herbert Rose Barraud, 19th century © Bridgeman Images. In February 1912 a capacity crowd of 9,000 filled London’s Royal Albert Hall, which had been decorated for the occasion in the black, white and pink colours of their cause. Some 20,0...continued

1 minute read