History
Anything to do with History
Gregoria @Gregoria - over 2 years ago
What Chips did Next | History Today
The second volume of the unexpurgated diaries of the parliamentarian and social butterfly Chips Channon covers the period spanning Chamberlain’s meeting with Hitler in October 1938 to the fall of Mussolini in July 1943. Channon not only records momentous world events, but...continued
3 minutes read
Anderson @Anderson - almost 2 years ago
Normal Normans? | History Today
For many, the Normans epitomise the medieval period: known today for their actions as conquerors, castle-builders, kings and warriors, our perceptions of this most prominent of medieval peoples continue to shape our understanding of European history between 900 and 1200.H...continued
3 minutes read
Delia @Delia - over 2 years ago
In the Thick of It
In this highly readable series of essays, the American foreign correspondent Virginia Cowles chronicles her coverage of European conflicts from the Spanish Civil War to Britain’s ‘Invasion Weekend’ of 1941. First printed that year and a bestseller, this reissue opens with...continued
3 minutes read
Cameron @Cameron - about 3 years ago
The Invisible | History Today
The First World War centenary gave us a better understanding of the vast contribution made by the Indian Army to that conflict. The focus, though, was on the soldiers and little was made of the thousands of Indians who travelled to France and Mesopotamia as ‘followers’ an...continued
3 minutes read
Giovanni @Giovanni - almost 3 years ago
All Change | History Today
‘There had been dramatic changes in outlook in the course of this remarkable century’, writes Margarette Lincoln in her vast and vivid account of the 100 years that took London from the Gunpowder Plot to the Toleration Act, through civil wars, plague and fire, terrorism a...continued
3 minutes read
Alexander @Alexander - over 2 years ago
Beginning at the End | History Today
Picture a little girl clinging to the legs of her childhood hero. The man is long dead, so she holds on to his crumbling bronze image. The statue is battered and dented; somebody has sawn off its head. The wry smile underneath the fatherly moustache is gone, so is the mir...continued
3 minutes read
Webster @Webster - over 2 years ago
Half a Life | History Today
This memoir by one of the world’s foremost philosopher-economists promises enormous intellectual delights, until one sadly discovers that it trails off in 1964, well before his receiving the Nobel Prize or his reign as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. What it does of...continued
3 minutes read
Americo @Americo - almost 3 years ago
Rebels in Rubber Soles | History Today
He was known at different times and in different places – from Singapore to West Ealing – as Nguyen Tat Thanh, Nguyen Ai Quoc, Bac Ho, or simply ‘Bac’, meaning ‘uncle’. He was a poet, journalist and political agitator. In June 1919 Nguyen Ai Quoc (‘Nguyen the Patriot’) ci...continued
4 minutes read
Webster @Webster - over 2 years ago
Forging Ahead | History Today
Our ability to judge a medieval charter’s authenticity is comparatively new, dating from the advent, in the 19th century, of the study of the development of medieval script and of charters’ formulaic, legal language. Early medieval attempts at forgery, with their generall...continued
3 minutes read
Wilmer @Wilmer - almost 2 years ago
Scotland Too | History Today
Scotland’s involvement with transatlantic slavery has become increasingly well known in recent years, but remains something of a controversial topic. Some Scots still prefer to characterise the history of their nation in terms of victimhood (of English imperialism), while...continued
3 minutes read
Allene @Allene - over 2 years ago
Things, Many and Varied | History Today
On the founding of the Society of Indexers in 1957, prime minister Harold Macmillan took time out of his busy day to write a letter of support, in which he shared some of his favourite anecdotes about indexes (in his defence, his grandfather was the founder of the Macmill...continued
3 minutes read
Jeffrey @Jeffrey - almost 3 years ago
Ghetto Girls | History Today
Judy Batalion introduces her groundbreaking study of Polish resistance against the Nazis by describing her 12-year search for the Jewish women who played a vital role. What she uncovers, in excoriating and poignant detail, are the stories of the ‘ghetto girls’ who paid of...continued
3 minutes read
Pablo @Pablo - about 3 years ago
Turn on, Tune in, Fight Back
Southern Africa was among the last battlefields of the Cold War, a region where colonialism dug in its heels, eager to outlive its day. Whether it was the Zimbabwe African National Union’s armed struggle in Rhodesia, the Nelson Mandela-led ANC’s fight against Apartheid in...continued
3 minutes read
Jessika @Jessika - over 2 years ago
Neither a Borrower Nor a Lender Be
How did Elizabethan England produce someone like Shakespeare? Glyn Parry and Cathryn Enis look for answers in the politically charged and financially precarious world of Stratford-upon-Avon. Life here in the 1570s and 1580s shows how legal administration, family ties, cre...continued
3 minutes read
Jaydon @Jaydon - 7 days ago
Rehabilitating the East India Company’s Nabobs
Anabob, Town and Country Magazine reminded its readers in 1771, ‘is a person who in the East-India Company’s service has by art, fraud, cruelty, and imposition obtained the fortune of an Asiatic prince and returned to England to display his folly and vanity and ambition’....continued
1 minute read
Wilmer @Wilmer - over 3 years ago
On the Spot: Natalie Zemon Davis
Why are you a historian of the early modern period?I like the interchange between new religious and social forms and traditional ones; and the expansion of contact between European and non-Europeans. What’s the most important lesson history has taught you? Never give up h...continued
3 minutes read
Allene @Allene - 5 months ago
On the Spot: Penelope J. Corfield
Why are you a historian of the 18th century?I began to study the ‘long’ 18th century for the challenge of researching a period that was comparatively understudied.What’s the most important lesson history has taught you?Not to rush to judgement.Which history book has had t...continued
2 minutes read
Roger @Roger - over 3 years ago
On the Spot: Sujit Sivasundaram
Why are you a global historian? Because I was born and educated in Sri Lanka, which was a magnet for a range of global forces and invaders. What’s the most important lesson history has taught you? The past has not gone. Which history book has had the greatest influence o...continued
3 minutes read
Alexzander @Alexzander - 4 months ago
On the Spot: Chris Clark
Why are you a historian of 19th-century Europe?I began as a passionate medievalist, so it was a long journey to the 19th century. Once I got there, it wouldn’t let me go.What’s the most important lesson history has taught you?That there is always more than one perspective...continued
2 minutes read
Jerrold @Jerrold - over 3 years ago
The Death of Seneca | History Today
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Roman philosopher, orator, politician and tutor to the Emperor Nero, stands in a bowl of warm water, preparing for death. Though retired from public life, the Spanish-born ‘Roman Socrates’ had been implicated in the Pisonian Conspiracy of AD 65 agai...continued
3 minutes read
Mariano @Mariano - about 3 years ago
On the Spot: Priya Satia
Why are you a historian of the British Empire?It shaped my family’s history and so much of the world, and I felt I could contribute – and correct influential myths – from the United States.What’s the most important lesson history has taught you? That struggles matter in a...continued
2 minutes read
Bart @Bart - almost 5 years ago
On the Spot: Emma Smith
Why are you a historian of Shakespeare?A history of Shakespeare is a cultural and political history of the last 400 years: it enables me to think about topics from cross-gender casting to political theory. What’s the most important lesson history has taught you?We can’t s...continued
2 minutes read
Cameron @Cameron - over 3 years ago
On the Spot: Vincent Brown
Why are you a historian of slavery?I found my calling when I heard Bob Marley sing about black people: ‘We’re the survivors, like Daniel out of the lion’s den.’ What’s the most important lesson history has taught you? How it unfolds in discernible but unpredictable patter...continued
3 minutes read
Casper @Casper - about 3 years ago
The Dead Christ | History Today
‘One could lose one’s faith from that picture.’ Those were the words of Fyodor Dostoevsky to his wife Anna on seeing this painting of a ‘startlingly dead’ Christ in the Swiss city of Basel in 1867. She dragged the great Russian novelist away from the image, fearing the sh...continued
3 minutes read
Adelia @Adelia - over 2 years ago
On the Spot: Clare Jackson
Why are you a historian of 17th-century Britain?As an undergraduate, I became fascinated by the experiments in union and disunion attempted in these islands during the 17th century.What’s the most important lesson history has taught you? Perspective.Which history book has...continued
2 minutes read