History
Anything to do with History
Elliott
@Elliott -
over 3 years ago
A Historic Turning Point? | History Today
Few of us would have believed at the end of 2019 that the coming year would be more awful than the year past. But 2019 had one final gift for us: 31 December was the day that authorities in Wuhan, China confirmed they were treating dozens of cases of an unknown illness. T...continued
5 minutes read
George
@George -
about 2 years ago
History of a Memory | History Today
In Milan, St Ambrose (c.339-97) is the ubiquitous anchor of civic identity. Every year the city honours its most deserving inhabitants with a prestigious gold medal named after the saint. A basilica, institutions and public celebrations such as the Ambrosian Carnival all ...continued
4 minutes read
Muriel
@Muriel -
over 2 years ago
Do You Exist? | History Today
In Britain we pride ourselves on our freedom. We don’t let the government issue us with identity cards, except in wartime. It’s a fiction, of course: we’re unlikely to get through the day without producing a photo ID. Elsewhere in the world, having the right identity docu...continued
4 minutes read
Roger
@Roger -
almost 2 years ago
Concrete Plans | History Today
The fame of Albert Speer, the minor classical architect who rose to become the industrial boss of the Third Reich, has brought about a notion that each dictator has an architect on hand to translate his dreams into built reality. Actually, Hitler was fairly exceptional in...continued
4 minutes read
Erik
@Erik -
about 3 years ago
Writ in Water | History Today
Europe’s longest river weaves through what has come to be seen as Russia’s heartland, from the Valdai Hills north-west of Moscow to its delta near Astrakhan where it empties into the Caspian Sea. The Volga also links numerous peoples, including Bashkirs, Mari, Tatars, Udm...continued
4 minutes read
Giovanni
@Giovanni -
about 2 months ago
Beware the Lides of March
March is the month which proverbially ‘comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb’. That proverb, which dates back to the 17th century, is just one of many traditional sayings about the tempestuous nature of this month’s weather. This stormy month, part winter and part...continued
4 minutes read
Garnet
@Garnet -
over 2 years ago
Missions and Misunderstandings | History Today
The Perils of Interpreting opens with the 1793 meeting of Lord George Macartney and the Qianlong emperor, an infamous embassy in the history of East-West relations. Typically viewed as a moment where China’s ignorance of the West was thrown into sharp relief, the Macartne...continued
4 minutes read
Erik
@Erik -
over 2 years ago
Open Access, Closed Minds | History Today
The sort of history books that excite readers of History Today are probably those that combine original research with elegant, accessible prose: perhaps a book such as Christopher Clark’s The Sleepwalkers or Lyndal Roper’s Martin Luther or Peter Frankopan’s The Silk Roads...continued
4 minutes read
Manley
@Manley -
over 2 years ago
A Revolutionary of Letters | History Today
Scientist, traveller, revolutionary. That’s the portrait of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara that emerges from a new collection of his letters that uses material long guarded in Cuban archives. I Embrace You with All My Revolutionary Fervor: Letters 1947-1967 begins with Guevara as ...continued
4 minutes read
Sandrine
@Sandrine -
about 3 years ago
Recalling Forgotten Voices | History Today
For those in 2020 who did not support the removal of statues (the Secretary of State for Culture among them, you’ll remember), their dismantling constituted a form of erasure: cancel culture’s elimination of the past, the rewriting of history. Of course, the truth is that...continued
4 minutes read
Abbie
@Abbie -
about 3 years ago
Our Before and After | History Today
This past year has introduced many of us to new ways of measuring time. The cancellation of so many events means it has become difficult to mark time in the usual ways, as weekends and work-days, school terms and holidays have merged into each other. In place of our usual...continued
4 minutes read
Roger
@Roger -
4 months ago
How to Revive Wassailing | History Today
When I give talks about the medieval festival year, one of the questions people most often ask me is ‘are there any medieval traditions you think we should revive?’ I’m never quite sure how to answer. Reviving old traditions can be a lot of fun, but it’s also a tricky iss...continued
4 minutes read
Geovany
@Geovany -
over 3 years ago
Serendipity of the Scholars | History Today
One aspect of life which has been radically curtailed this year has been the chance encounter. When everyone is trying to limit their contact with other people, all kinds of passing interactions have become necessarily brief and often fraught. Now that every activity requ...continued
4 minutes read
Devin
@Devin -
over 2 years ago
The Long Legacy of a Short Life
One of the most intriguing pieces of lost medieval art was a work of embroidery made in the second half of the tenth century, now known only from a written description. It was an alb, a clerical vestment, adorned with gold, gems and pearls, and it showed the Apostles, all...continued
4 minutes read
Hulda
@Hulda -
almost 3 years ago
Non-essential Freedoms | History Today
Bookshops are back and that’s something to celebrate. Among all the kinds of ‘non-essential’ activities prohibited over the past year, browsing second-hand bookshops may not have been high up everyone’s list of yearned-for normality, but it was pretty high up on mine and ...continued
4 minutes read
Ezequiel
@Ezequiel -
4 months ago
History Today Review of the Year
Ukraine War One Year On With 24 February marking the first anniversary of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine (Crimea and Donbas having been occupied in 2014), William Rees looked at the precedents for Vladimir Putin’s narrative of Western collapse (‘Decline and Fall...continued
4 minutes read
Giovanni
@Giovanni -
almost 3 years ago
The Historian Embodied | History Today
When TV producers suggest that I put on historical costume, I tend to recoil. In part this is so as not to step on Lucy Worsley’s toes and I’m sure it’s partly vanity; certain I really wouldn’t suit a gable hood (the Tudor headdress that looks like a jewel-encrusted birdh...continued
4 minutes read
Maida
@Maida -
almost 3 years ago
Out of Time, But Not Out of Tune
A few months before the first lockdown I was browsing through a book I’ve often read before. It’s a collection of poems by the 15th-century friar James Ryman, who wrote a large number of English carols and hymn translations. It includes poems for all seasons of the year, ...continued
4 minutes read
Priscilla
@Priscilla -
over 3 years ago
On the Streets Where They Lived
During the spring lockdown I discovered a Roman road. Well, not exactly: its antiquity has been known for many years and it never really needed to be discovered, since it was never lost. It has been in continuous use for many centuries, but I’m new to the area, so it was ...continued
4 minutes read
Jimmy
@Jimmy -
over 2 years ago
A Ventriloquist Act? | History Today
The 14th-century Bishop Richard de Bury wrote, according to Mary Wellesley’s wonderful new book, Hidden Hands (riverrun), that ‘in books I find the dead as if they were alive’. The role of the historian is to do this, too – to perform a form of necromancy and bring the de...continued
4 minutes read
Ismael
@Ismael -
over 3 years ago
Interspecies Violence | History Today
This is a history of violence. Thoughtful, probing and deeply researched, Between Light And Storm chronicles, in themed chapters, an abusive relationship – between people and the animals we have hunted, slaughtered, skinned, stuffed, subjected to experiment, imprisoned an...continued
4 minutes read
Immanuel
@Immanuel -
over 2 years ago
Fishing for the Facts | History Today
Sixty years ago E.H. Carr published What is History? In it, he argued that history is largely a work of interpretation, that historians have no choice but to be subjective and that historical facts are not as objective as they appear. Carr was reacting to the 19th-century...continued
4 minutes read
George
@George -
over 2 years ago
The Never-ending Process | History Today
I am currently in the final stages of proofreading my next book and so – in between hunting for wayward commas – I’ve been reflecting on what a strange process it is. It becomes impossible to think about anything but the very smallest details. A project which started off ...continued
4 minutes read
Assunta
@Assunta -
almost 5 years ago
History Today Quiz: July | History Today
The History Today monthly quiz is back! Questions are multiple choice, and there are no penalties for an incorrect answer. There are 10 questions across a wide range of periods and themes in history, three of which relate to articles from this month's magazine. Good luck...continued
1 minute read
Delia
@Delia -
almost 3 years ago
Revolutionary Cut Short | History Today
Amílcar Cabral was one of the most important revolutionaries of the 20th century. Leading the independence war against Portuguese colonialism in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, Cabral became a global figure in anticolonialism. Supported by Fidel Castro, he led the most succ...continued
4 minutes read