History
Anything to do with History
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
Kristina
@Kristina -
almost 3 years ago
Disney Dreams | History Today
In a touching afterword to her history of heterosexual love and romance since the Second World War, Carol Dyhouse faithfully reproduces the story of Cinderella, as narrated by the author aged five. The plot – if not the spelling – is familiar. Heroine and prince meet, fal...continued
4 minutes read
Jaydon
@Jaydon -
about 3 years ago
Make Believe | History Today
In 1987 one of my great historical heroes, Natalie Zemon Davis, published Fiction in the Archives. It focuses on the ‘fictional’ elements of royal letters of pardon and remission in 16th-century France, by which Davis meant how the tales in such letters were crafted into ...continued
4 minutes read
Marjory
@Marjory -
over 3 years ago
Continental Drift | History Today
Olivette Otele’s African Europeans: An Untold History begins in 23 BC and ends in the present day, spanning two continents, from Sweden to Senegal, from Portugal to St Petersburg. Inevitably such ambitious scope requires a focus. Otele, who became the UK’s first female Bl...continued
4 minutes read
Moises
@Moises -
5 months ago
‘Jane Austen’s Wardrobe’ by Hilary Davidson review
In her fiction, Jane Austen rarely made use of descriptions of clothing. The contemporary reader was assumed to understand exactly what her characters ought to be wearing and how much clothing they would possess: the difference between the wardrobes of the wealthy Emma Wo...continued
4 minutes read
Immanuel
@Immanuel -
4 months ago
‘In the Shadow of Quetzalcoatl’ by Merilee Grindle review
‘If Mexicans will make stupid laws and try to prevent archaeology in the North from growing, then these rules will be broken’, wrote the American archaeologist Alfred Tozzer from the Yucatán Peninsula in 1904. ‘It is almost a duty to take everything one can from the count...continued
4 minutes read
Cyril
@Cyril -
over 3 years ago
Illyria Found | History Today
Johann Georg von Hahn is not a fluent and engaging travel writer. From the evidence of these selected translations from the original German, his journeys into the mountain valleys of central Albania (extracted from his three-volume Albanian Studies) and his last expeditio...continued
4 minutes read
Liliane
@Liliane -
over 2 years ago
Camp America | History Today
A friend’s proudest possession is a T-shirt with the motto: ‘I Love Not Camping.’ The shirt works as a marker of identity for my American friend because many of her fellow citizens, as Phoebe S.K. Young’s new book Camping Grounds: Public Nature in American Life from the C...continued
4 minutes read
Jessika
@Jessika -
over 2 years ago
Take me to the Church
Everyone was meant to go to church in medieval England. Not everyone did. Not everyone could. There were those who needed to work; those who lived too far away; those who had better – or, any rate, other – things to do; those who were not allowed to attend until they had ...continued
4 minutes read
Torey
@Torey -
about 2 years ago
In Defence of her Sex
Christine de Pizan is known as a pioneering woman writer, one of the earliest feminist authors, whose poetry rang out loudly in 15th-century France and continues to echo across the centuries. In The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir described her as the first ‘woman to take ...continued
4 minutes read
Elliott
@Elliott -
over 2 years ago
East Meets West | History Today
For reasons that cover geopolitics, economics, the environment and human rights, the modern history of Central Asia has never been more relevant. In Xinjiang the Chinese government has worked to achieve nothing less than the cultural elimination of the Uyghurs, the Turkic...continued
3 minutes read
Geovany
@Geovany -
over 2 years ago
Absolute Legend | History Today
In 1891 the Dictionary of National Biography, that great historical reference epic, published an entry on Robin Hood – even though the famous outlaw of legend was portrayed entirely as a character of fiction. The hunt for the ‘real’ Robin Hood has nonetheless been the fix...continued
4 minutes read
Maureen
@Maureen -
about 3 years ago
Dead Ends | History Today
London’s terminus stations were to be the final, crowning, pieces in the capital’s railway system. But they took their time to arrive. In 1836, passengers coming into Spa Road from Deptford on the London and Greenwich line, clambered down a rickety stair off the viaduct, ...continued
4 minutes read
George
@George -
about 3 years ago
On the Defensive | History Today
We all know, or think we do, that Russians have ‘empire’ lodged deep in their genes. The Russian Empire is said to have expanded faster and further than any other in history. Russia today may occupy an area smaller than at any time since the 17th century, but many believe...continued
4 minutes read
Joe
@Joe -
over 2 years ago
The Ghastly Truth | History Today
After his overthrow in 1952, King Farouk of Egypt predicted that soon there would be only five kings left in the world: the kings of Clubs, Hearts, Spades and Diamonds – and the King of England. There may still be monarchs around in the 21st century, but as the travails o...continued
4 minutes read
Elvie
@Elvie -
over 2 years ago
Escape to the Country | History Today
You think you know Essex? But as a test laboratory for social and political change? Communal ‘experiments in living’ in pre-1965 Essex were built on the religious and political ideals of the ‘Prophets of the New World’: William Blake, Walt Whitman, Leo Tolstoy and D.H. La...continued
3 minutes read
Kristina
@Kristina -
almost 3 years ago
More Heat and Light | History Today
So fundamental is thermodynamics to modern science that C.P. Snow, in his landmark 1959 essay ‘The Two Cultures’, made ignorance of the Second Law of Thermodynamics the scientific equivalent of never having read any Shakespeare. ‘This law is one of the greatest depth and ...continued
3 minutes read
Giles
@Giles -
about 3 years ago
In Plain Sight | History Today
Tolerated for centuries of European history, only in the last few decades has sex between adults and children become an absolute taboo. In Unspeakable, Rachel Hope Cleves uses the life of one self-identified ‘pederast’, the writer Norman Douglas, to explain the conditions...continued
3 minutes read
Grayce
@Grayce -
over 2 years ago
London Burning | History Today
In this, his eighth book on London’s history, Jerry White gives us a fresh and masterful account of how Londoners responded to the impact of the Second World War. This is well-trodden territory, but White offers a distinctive perspective on the appalling toll from the air...continued
3 minutes read
Muriel
@Muriel -
over 2 years ago
It’s Exhausting | History Today
This past year or so has revealed the multiple dimensions of fatigue. It is one of the many possible symptoms of Covid-19 and it can linger. Lethargy can last for weeks, even months, after the more common identifying markers, like fever and a cough, have abated. Even thos...continued
3 minutes read
Alexander
@Alexander -
about 3 years ago
Dedicated Followers | History Today
The fashionable man is something of a shape-shifter in the history of British dress. Alternately worshipped and reviled, he has represented – across various centuries – the vain ‘Fop’, the ridiculous ‘Fribble’, the flamboyant ‘Macaroni’, the posturing ‘Peacock’ and, most ...continued
3 minutes read
Gregoria
@Gregoria -
over 2 years ago
Go with the Flow | History Today
Terje Tvedt’s study of the Nile is a mixture of history, journalism and travelogue. Originally published in Norwegian in 2012, now translated into English for the first time, the author seeks to show how the river has exerted a significant influence on the lives of those ...continued
4 minutes read