History

Anything to do with History

Moises @Moises - 9 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

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Immanuel @Immanuel - 8 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 - almost 4 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

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Liliane @Liliane - almost 3 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

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Jessika @Jessika - almost 3 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 - over 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

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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

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Maureen @Maureen - over 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

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George @George - over 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

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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 - over 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 - over 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

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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

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Muriel @Muriel - about 3 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

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Alexander @Alexander - over 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

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Gregoria @Gregoria - almost 3 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

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Casper @Casper - over 2 years ago

Beware the Milkmen | History Today

When wiretaps were first used in British military campaigns in the 1880s, soldiers called the practice ‘wire milking’ and the tappers themselves were known as ‘milkmen’. By 1955 the technology had developed substantially, spreading to domestic use. In that year an anonymo...continued

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Kristina @Kristina - about 4 years ago

Family Chemistry | History Today

Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork (1566-1643), the ‘Great Earl’ as he was known, was not only immensely powerful in Irish politics but was constantly active in seeking advantageous marriage alliances for his numerous offspring. Profuse evidence concerning the affairs of his...continued

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George @George - almost 4 years ago

Grim Outlook | History Today

On the eve of its demise after the First World War, the Ottoman Empire could still claim to be one of the largest empires in the world. It owed its impressive size not to the feats of its most famous sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, but rather to his father, Selim the Gr...continued

3 minutes read

Assunta @Assunta - almost 3 years ago

Y Byd Newydd | History Today

Wales’ relationship with the United States is less obvious and far less culturally celebrated than that of Ireland or Italy, but, as Vivienne Sanders reveals in Wales, The Welsh and the Making of America, Welsh migrants also had a part to play in the country’s development...continued

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Rose @Rose - almost 3 years ago

Ultimate Sacrifice | History Today

When Ethel Rosenberg was awaiting trial at the Women’s House of Detention in 1951, she would often, after lights were out, belt out songs in her high soprano voice. Miriam Moskowitz, a fellow prisoner, recalled that Ethel was treated ‘like a lady’ and well liked, even by ...continued

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Emmie @Emmie - almost 3 years ago

Hitler’s Men in the States

Frederick the Great once said that his French military opponent, Marshal de Soubrise, was always followed by a hundred cooks: ‘I, on the other hand, am always followed by a hundred spies.’ The Nazis, inspired by the Prussian king, constructed a spy ring in the United Stat...continued

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Assunta @Assunta - over 2 years ago

No Dinner Party | History Today

As Mao Zedong put it, a revolution is ‘not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture’, but ‘an act of violence by which one class overthrows another’. Lenin would not have disagreed but preferred to extol revolution as ‘the festival of the oppressed and t...continued

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