History

Anything to do with History

Marlon @Marlon - 2 months ago

The End of Britain’s Weeks-Long General Elections

‘When it comes to the point’, wrote Roy Jenkins, ‘one of the clearest prerogatives of a Prime Minister is that of choosing the date of an election.’ Prime ministers agonise over the decision. But before 1918, the government only set the date of dissolution: the responsibi...continued

5 minutes read

Teagan @Teagan - over 3 years ago

‘Did You Hear the One …’

What should we do with old jokes? The question of whether to censor and recontextualise the now problematic humour of earlier generations is often characterised as a modern battleground in our ongoing ‘culture wars’, but a remarkably similar process unfolded at the beginn...continued

5 minutes read

Alexander @Alexander - 5 months ago

France’s Long March Against Racism

It is 40 years this December since the ‘March for Equality and Against Racism’ – better known as the ‘la marche des beurs’ – arrived in Paris. Having set out from Marseille on 15 October, the march was met in the French capital by president François Mitterrand on 6 Decemb...continued

6 minutes read

Jimmy @Jimmy - about 3 years ago

Beowulf the Bro | History Today

In the introduction to his 1952 translation of Beowulf, the Scottish poet Edwin Morgan ventured that in translation ‘communication must take place; the nerves must sometimes tingle and the skin flush, as with original poetry’. Morgan’s aim was to ‘interest and at times to...continued

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Raoul @Raoul - about 3 years ago

Reading Ruins | History Today

‘The ruins are still standing’, the writer Brian Dillon once quipped, ‘but what do they stand for?’ Martin Devecka, Professor of Classical Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is the latest in a long line of scholars to attempt to answer this question in h...continued

5 minutes read

Alexander @Alexander - almost 3 years ago

Fiume for Fiumians | History Today

Before the Habsburg monarchy’s collapse, the port city of Fiume (now Rijeka in Croatia) was a corpus separatum, or semi-autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Hungary. It had its own council under a governor appointed by Budapest, rather than being subordinate to Hung...continued

5 minutes read

Joe @Joe - over 2 years ago

More than a Memory | History Today

Set in a valley beside a meandering river in the rolling Limousin countryside, Oradour-sur-Glane was known for centuries as a quiet spot, ideal for weekend visits to fish or swim. General Charles de Gaulle later painted it into France’s collective memory as a lost idyll,...continued

6 minutes read

Nelson @Nelson - about 3 years ago

The Business of Books | History Today

It is now 55 years since Robert Darnton first became aware of the vast archive of the Société typographique de Neuchâtel (STN), one of the principal suppliers of books to the French market in the late 18th century. It is fair to say that this happy combination of remarkab...continued

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Elliott @Elliott - over 2 years ago

The Switzerland of Latin America

Latin America has been plagued by dictatorships and stark social and economic inequalities, but it has also produced some of the most visionary leaders of the past century. One such leader was José Batlle y Ordóñez of Uruguay, under whose guidance the country would become...continued

5 minutes read

Adelia @Adelia - almost 3 years ago

Who’s First? | History Today

In the popular imagination the two most common stories told about the ‘discovery’ of America are that it was by Christopher Columbus in 1492 and that, in fact, he was preceded by the Vikings, or Norse, 500 years earlier. Paradoxically, neither Columbus nor the Vikings act...continued

5 minutes read

Myles @Myles - 4 months ago

‘The End of Enlightenment’ by Richard Whatmore review

What was the Enlightenment? Damned if I know. There have been so many books devoted to that question in recent years that it would be churlish to venture a definitive answer. Anyone who has dared to keep up with the literature in this field will have read about radical En...continued

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Kari @Kari - over 3 years ago

Wishful Thinking | History Today

Popular histories of the Vikings have a difficult course to steer. The most reliable way to grab attention is still to invoke the familiar Viking stereotypes: violent, ruthless sea raiders, complete with their (long discredited) horned helmets. Yet scholars who devote the...continued

6 minutes read

Dayton @Dayton - about 2 years ago

Welsh Enough | History Today

Brittle With Relics takes its title from the irascible Welsh poet R.S. Thomas and closes with the actor and activist Michael Sheen drawing on lines from Dylan Thomas. This is testament to the degree to which ideas about Wales and Welsh identity find their roots in the cou...continued

5 minutes read

Abbie @Abbie - almost 3 years 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

Nelson @Nelson - 4 months ago

‘Bystander Society’ by Mary Fulbrook review

In 1939 three Harvard professors – Gordon Allport, a psychologist; Sydney B. Fay, a historian; and Edward Y. Hartshorne, a sociologist – ran an essay competition with the title ‘My life in Germany before and after January 30, 1933’. With a first prize of $500 – a substant...continued

5 minutes read

Mariano @Mariano - about 2 years ago

Licence to Crenellate | History Today

For John Goodall, the pre-eminent English scholar on castles, there is no such thing as a ‘real castle’. His aim in this clever account is to recalibrate a building type, clarify misunderstandings and remove distortions. Goodall has an easy turn of phrase and a graceful m...continued

5 minutes read

Maida @Maida - over 2 years ago

Unintended Consequences | History Today

My first reaction on finishing this book was despair, not at the quality of writing and analysis – both very high – but at the tale that it tells. The history of financial relationships between the four nations of the United Kingdom is one of over three centuries of muddl...continued

5 minutes read

Erik @Erik - almost 3 years 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

Allene @Allene - over 3 years ago

Backing Tyranny | History Today

In popular culture, perhaps the most enduring image of the German aristocracy in the Third Reich is embodied by Tom Cruise in Valkyrie, the Hollywood version of the plot that failed to kill Adolf Hitler in July 1944. At the end of the film, the man who planted the bomb, C...continued

5 minutes read

Erik @Erik - over 3 years ago

A Lost City in the North Caucasus

For practically all of its recorded history, the North Caucasus has been caught between empires. In the seventh and eighth centuries, the Arab caliphates fought the Turkic Khazar khaqanate for control of its strategic mountain passes, key choke points along the Silk Roads...continued

5 minutes read

Ericka @Ericka - almost 3 years ago

Desperate Measures | History Today

In 1676 the surgeon James Yonge was called to attend to an unusual injury. A young man was bleeding dangerously from the groin. This was no accident. Yonge discovered that his patient had ‘castrate[d] himself, by gripping up the Testicles, with the whole Scrotum in one ha...continued

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Kraig @Kraig - 4 months ago

‘The Life & Death of States’ and ‘Vienna’ reviews

In 1867 the Habsburg emperor Franz Joseph announced he was splitting his patrimony in two. For over a decade he had ruled it as a single Austrian Empire despite it being a collection of dozens of historical kingdoms, duchies and crownlands amassed by his family over the c...continued

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Mariano @Mariano - 5 months ago

‘One Fine Day’ and ‘Imperial Island’ review

Nobody writes small books about the British Empire any more. Whether defending or deriding Britain’s long history of colonialism, the vogue is for holistic accounts, from beginning to end, usually in pursuit of a moral reckoning of what it was all about. In different ways...continued

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Ryleigh @Ryleigh - about 2 years ago

Crimes in Africa | History Today

Over the last decade Ian Campbell has acted as the prosecutor of Italy’s imperial record in Ethiopia. In an appendix to Holy War he reviews its body count. Although admitting that ‘neither the Ethiopians nor the Italians maintained systematic records of Ethiopian fataliti...continued

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Jaydon @Jaydon - 4 months ago

‘Theoderic the Great’ by Hans-Ulrich Wiemer review

When Theoderic the Great died on 30 August 526 his fame spanned the Mediterranean world. The Ostrogothic king ruled over Italy, southern France and much of Spain. His was the most powerful Germanic kingdom to arise following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, and h...continued

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