History

Anything to do with History

Zetta @Zetta - over 2 years 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

Muriel @Muriel - over 3 years ago

William Cecil’s Perilous Year | History Today

William Cecil served as Elizabeth I’s senior minister from her accession in 1558 to his death in 1598. He ceaselessly counselled, planned and manoeuvred, the solid foil to a brilliant and complex woman. In 1571, the queen rewarded him with a peerage, creating him Baron Bu...continued

6 minutes read

Madalyn @Madalyn - 12 days ago

The Value of Wills to Historians

A last will and testament does not, in and of itself, possess the value of, say, the family silver. But it is a vital document for all involved: the testator and the legatees, but also, later, for the historian. Where inventories can be more detailed in their lists of pos...continued

6 minutes read

Zackery @Zackery - 10 months ago

Good for Nothing | History Today

The Bull, etching by Paulus Potter, Dutch, 1650. Album / Alamy Stock PhotoSir John Romilly, the Master of the Rolls – one of the highest judicial offices in England – declared in 1859 that, even where a charitable trust was of the ‘most useless description’, the Chancery ...continued

1 minute read

Sandrine @Sandrine - about 3 years ago

Meeting an Urgent Need | History Today

During the First World War the British government persistently rejected calls to legalise marriages between a man and the widow of his brother killed in action. Drawing no distinction between blood bonds and those acquired by marriage, sections of the Church of England re...continued

5 minutes read

Jerrold @Jerrold - over 2 years ago

Can’t Go On | History Today

‘We just cannot go on living like this’, Mikhail Gorbachev tells his wife, Raisa, on the eve of his nomination as Soviet leader. Nor did they. Gorbachev was to be the last leader of the Soviet Union. Instead of solving the moribund Marxist-Leninist system’s many problems,...continued

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Jeffrey @Jeffrey - about 2 months ago

‘Revolusi’ by David Van Reybrouck review

‘The apologies for the history of slavery and the police actions, as made by the king, will be withdrawn.’ So promised the Netherlands’ right-wing firebrand lawmaker Geert Wilders ahead of the country’s 2023 election. On this subject, Wilders is no far-right outlier. Earl...continued

5 minutes read

Gregoria @Gregoria - almost 3 years ago

Trading Places | History Today

When the government of England and Wales created the National Debt in 1694, those from the higher echelons of society were given opportunities to invest money. Through government bonds, lotteries and eventually publicly listed companies the stock exchange was born, effect...continued

6 minutes read

Grayce @Grayce - over 3 years ago

Making Massacre | History Today

Dunblane, Manchester Arena, Sandy Hook: the place names evoke grief and horror, a cry of anguish pinned to a map, each the site of a massacre. Such atrocities might seem as old as time, but the word itself is not. Massacre worked its way into the English language in the l...continued

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Juliet @Juliet - over 2 years ago

Sophisticating the Past | History Today

The antiquary has had some mixed reviews over the past couple of centuries. At best, they have been depicted as dogged but dull, forever in pursuit of armorial bearings and genealogies that stretch back to Noah and beyond. At worst, they are lampooned as bad-tempered cran...continued

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Immanuel @Immanuel - 3 months ago

‘Daughter of the Dragon’ by Yunte Huang review

Anna May Wong’s stardom has surged in the 20 years since her ‘rediscovery’. Arguably the first Chinese-American film star, following her death in 1961 her place in Hollywood history was overlooked until 2004, with the release of Graham Russell Gao Hodges’ biography Anna M...continued

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Pablo @Pablo - almost 3 years ago

A Well-Woven Tale | History Today

Textile terminology proliferates throughout the English language. Words related to cloth and its manufacture are woven into the fabric of our lives. In her ambitious and fascinating history of the world through textiles, Virginia Postrel reminds us just how deeply investe...continued

5 minutes read

Marjory @Marjory - about 3 years ago

A World Without Touch | History Today

'Those Who Go', by Umberto Boccioni, 1912 © Bridgeman Images.Imagine, if you can, a world where humans live in isolation. People rarely leave their homes, connecting with each other only at a distance. Technology mediates every aspect of life: communication takes place vi...continued

1 minute read

Angus @Angus - 3 months ago

‘As Gods Among Men’ by Guido Alfani review

The rich, like the poor, are always with us. In fact, over many centuries – as this wide-ranging and ambitious book tells us – the richest in society have captured more and more of the overall wealth of Western societies. Since the time of classical Greece, as empires hav...continued

6 minutes read

Elaina @Elaina - almost 2 years ago

The Hebrew Insurgency | History Today

A Haganah fighter dashes across a human bridge over barbed wire, Tel Aviv, 1948. Everett Collection Inc/Alamy.In the years between 1945 and the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, the British struggled to rule Palestine. At the centre of their problems were four hig...continued

1 minute read

Minnie @Minnie - almost 3 years ago

Polling in a Pandemic | History Today

This May, English, Scottish and Welsh voters go to the polls in the first UK elections held during a pandemic since 1918. That year, amid an influenza epidemic which claimed the lives of tens of millions globally, David Lloyd George led his coalition government to a crush...continued

6 minutes read

Jarod @Jarod - about 3 years ago

The Romantic Reputation of John Keats

Two hundred years ago, on 23 February 1821, John Keats died. He had suffered from tuberculosis since early 1820 and, after months of distress and pain, finally succumbed to the disease at the age of just 25. Keats was a failed medical student, who had swapped operations f...continued

6 minutes read

Emmie @Emmie - over 3 years ago

The Crowd-Funded War | History Today

An Incident in the Spanish Armada, by George Vicat Cole, 19th century © Bridgeman Images.Commercial interests often have a place in war, from the sales of dead soldiers’ teeth after Waterloo to the possible connection between the Iraq War and Big Oil. However, no war was ...continued

1 minute read

Anderson @Anderson - over 2 years ago

Before the Taliban | History Today

The many generations of international reporters who have encountered the Afghan conflict have always tended to frame it through the eyes of the fighters they travelled with. Sandy Gall of ITN was the pioneer of reporting from the frontlines of the mujahideen war against t...continued

6 minutes read

Gregoria @Gregoria - over 3 years ago

Rejecting the New Normal | History Today

The experience of Rhodesia, the former white power settler state, appears newly relevant as a surge of global isolationism and nativism undermines liberal norms. Dylan Roof, the perpetrator of the 2015 massacre at a historic black church in South Carolina, wore a jacket b...continued

5 minutes read

Joe @Joe - over 2 years ago

A Rebel with Every Cause

On 20 October 1870, George Francis Train – an American adventurer in the middle of a global voyage – disembarked at Marseille and addressed the crowd that had gathered to receive him. France was facing a revolutionary moment. The war with Prussia that had begun months ear...continued

5 minutes read

Angus @Angus - almost 2 years ago

Confess Your Sins | History Today

In a confessional box in Tuscany in 1639, a priest named Francesco Mei took a confetto and put in his mouth. He then he told 17-year-old Brigida Gorini to take it in her own mouth and suck it, before forcing her hand on his penis. Gorini reported his abuse anywhere betwee...continued

6 minutes read

Alexandro @Alexandro - over 3 years ago

Celibacy, Misogyny, and Sodomy | History Today

In 1475 John Stocker, a chaplain of the cathedral of Basel, was convicted by an ecclesiastical court for committing sodomy with John Müller, a chorister who was also Stocker’s lodger. The cleric justified his behaviour by saying that, while relations with a woman would no...continued

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Pablo @Pablo - about 2 years ago

Billiard Balls | History Today

Anyone who has studied international relations will be familiar with ‘realism’ and its metaphor of nation states as billiard balls, practically identical and always colliding. The gist of it is that material realities – the economy and the structure of the international s...continued

5 minutes read

Pablo @Pablo - about 2 years ago

Echo Chamber | History Today

Joseph Johnson is not a household name. I’ll wager that for every person who can quote a line of William Blake’s, or recognise a painting by Henry Fuseli, fewer than one in 20 has heard of their friend Johnson. No: make that one in 50. That is, of course, how it should be...continued

6 minutes read