History
Anything to do with History
George @George - over 2 years ago
Explicit Content | History Today
Scene from The New Art and Mystery of Gossiping, Being a Genuine Account of All the Women’s Clubs in and about the City and Suburbs of London, c.1760. British Library Board.***What follows will be explicit because it is about expletives; it may also seem offensive, becaus...continued
4 minutes read
Immanuel @Immanuel - about 2 years ago
Total War | History Today
Vietnamese soldiers during the First Indochina War. Alamy.Christopher Goscha’s The Road to Dien Bien Phu is a brilliantly revised and expanded version of his 2011 French-language work Vietnam: Un État né de la guerre, 1945-1954. It explores the means, tactics and strategi...continued
4 minutes read
Joe @Joe - over 4 years ago
Horse Power | History Today
In the West, the 19th century was a frenetic one for the horse, which became ubiquitous and democratised, fetishised and consumed in multiple senses. Industrialisation and urbanisation required an army of equids, while leisure equestrianism opened up to a larger audience....continued
4 minutes read
Patrick @Patrick - about 1 year ago
Edmund of Abingdon’s Dream Job
Saint Edmund of Abingdon bringing about the reconciliation of Gilbert Marshal and Henry III, from Matthew Paris’ Historia Anglorum, 1250s. © British Library Board/Bridgeman Images.It was the early 1200s, and a young university lecturer had fallen asleep after a hard day’s...continued
5 minutes read
Monserrat @Monserrat - almost 2 years ago
The Best Articles of 2022
We’ve put together our annual selection of some of our favourite articles from the past twelve months, in which the Rosetta Stone is deciphered, shame is inflicted upon the condemned, and criminals are subjected to vigilante justice.Read for free for a limited time and do...continued
3 minutes read
Hank @Hank - over 4 years ago
An Epidemic of Shame | History Today
The global pandemic has sent journalists reaching for their history books: how have epidemics shaped history? What can the influenza of 1918-20 teach us? In what ways did the Black Death herald a new world and build a fairer society? But Covid-19 is producing another skei...continued
4 minutes read
Marie @Marie - over 1 year ago
Old Traditions and New Hopes
The coronation of Edward the Confessor, from Flores Historiarum by Matthew Paris, 13th century. Bridgeman Images.It is not often that publications in the field of medieval liturgy can be considered timely, but a new edition from the Henry Bradshaw Society, English Coronat...continued
4 minutes read
Eleanora @Eleanora - about 2 years ago
Ælfric the Teacher | History Today
A man ploughing with oxen from the Rochester Bestiary, c.1250-1350. British Library Board.Earlier this summer I found myself standing in front of a group of schoolchildren dressed as Anglo-Saxon warriors, along with a collection of civic dignitaries, clergy, press and int...continued
4 minutes read
Izaiah @Izaiah - about 3 years ago
Sun and Stone | History Today
Giuseppe Garibaldi during the landing of the Thousand at Marsala (details), 11th May 1860, by Gerolamo Induno, 19th century © Bridgeman Images.Throughout the history of the human race no land and no people have suffered so terribly from slavery, from foreign conquests and...continued
4 minutes read
Elian @Elian - over 1 year ago
Origins and Originality | History Today
Folio 153v of the Ellesmere Manuscript, illuminated manuscript of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, 1410. Wikimedia CommonsIn Chaucer’s great Trojan romance Troilus and Criseyde, there is a poignant moment when the hero, separated from his beloved by the misfortunes of...continued
4 minutes read
Minnie @Minnie - almost 3 years ago
New Year Knowns and Unknowns
Janus from Matfre Ermengaud’s Breviari d’amor, French, 14th century © Bridgeman Images.January is a month of doors and thresholds: the month of Janus, god of beginnings and endings, transitions and entrance ways, who looks both backwards and forwards. In medieval calendar...continued
4 minutes read
Giles @Giles - about 5 years ago
Louis the Missionary | History Today
Louis IX, king of France from 1226 to 1270, was an enthusiastic if unsuccessful Crusader. During his crusade to Egypt in 1248-54, he was captured and ransomed at great cost. On his crusade to Tunis in 1270, he contracted dysentery and died, along with a large number of hi...continued
4 minutes read
Hank @Hank - over 2 years ago
The Lost Generations | History Today
‘Here, a house is burned’, Bayeux Tapestry, 11th century. Bridgeman Images.The past two years of life in a pandemic have taken their toll on everyone, but not in the same way. As we all know, the impact of these years has varied greatly between different groups in society...continued
4 minutes read
Webster @Webster - over 1 year ago
The Birth of Time | History Today
Creation of the world, decoration from the Ål Stavkirke, Norway, late 13th century © A. Dagli Orti/NPL - DeA Picture Library/Bridgeman Images.‘Though all the months are adorned with various kinds of joy and honour, March is the most so.’ That was the opinion of an 11...continued
4 minutes read
Priscilla @Priscilla - almost 5 years ago
Brooklyn Baby | History Today
For a book that deals so rigorously with the gritty minutiae of its subject, Brooklyn: The Once and Future City has a curiously fantastical feel. Perhaps this is due to the cover image: the ‘steampunk orb’ of Samuel Friede’s Globe Tower. Perhaps it is the map in the book’...continued
4 minutes read
Iva @Iva - almost 2 years ago
The Hills Have Eyes | History Today
Excavation of the Taplow burial mound, 19th century © The Trustees of the British Museum.You can’t plan a journey in the past, or so the train app told me. That was its polite way of informing me that (as happens pretty often) I’d accidentally put in yesterday’s date when...continued
4 minutes read
Torey @Torey - about 5 years ago
Andreas Vesalius born in Brussels
The great Renaissance scientist is regarded as the founder of the modern study of human anatomy. His name in Flemish was Andries Van Wesel. The Brussels in which he grew up and went to school, in the former duchy of Brabant, was ruled by the Spanish Habsburgs and his fath...continued
4 minutes read
Meggie @Meggie - about 2 years ago
Winter and its Discontents | History Today
Snowball fights from the Hours of the Duchess of Burgundy, c.1450. Bridgeman Images.This summer, even in the midst of a record-breaking heatwave, many people were starting to feel anxious about the threat of the opposite seasonal extreme. Soaring energy prices have made t...continued
4 minutes read
Alexander @Alexander - over 2 years ago
Latest History Books | History Today
Normal Normans?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...continued
3 minutes read
Eleanora @Eleanora - over 2 years ago
It Was a Dark and Stormy Night...
A miraculous hail of rocks in 73 BC, from the Augsburg Book of Miracles, German, 16th century. Alamy.How much should we exercise our imaginations in writing about the past? As any historian knows, sometimes it has to be a great deal. Trying to reconstruct any episode in h...continued
4 minutes read
Zackery @Zackery - over 4 years ago
Worlds Little and Large | History Today
The events of the past few months have changed all our lives in ways we could not have imagined at the start of the year. Back in January, historians were playfully predicting what our version of the ‘Twenties’ might look like: would it be a repeat of the Roaring 1920s, o...continued
4 minutes read
Devin @Devin - over 4 years ago
Breaches and Bridges | History Today
Underneath York Minster, in a dimly lit part of the crypt which has been turned into an atmospheric exhibition space, a small book is displayed in a position of honour. It is a beautifully decorated Anglo-Saxon copy of the Gospels, made in Canterbury and brought north by ...continued
4 minutes read
Marie @Marie - almost 5 years ago
Poland’s Resistance | History Today
The purpose of this very valuable addition to the literature on the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 is straightforward. Roger Moorhouse insists that too little attention has been paid in the West to the heroic resistance of the Poles to German aggressio...continued
4 minutes read
Devin @Devin - about 5 years ago
Hungary's Golden Squad | History Today
When Hungary visited Wembley for a friendly in 1953, some of the English players thought they were in for an easy game. That impression lasted all of 45 seconds, when the Hungarians scored their first goal of a famous 6-3 victory. Led by the great Ferenc Puskás, Hungary u...continued
4 minutes read
Ezequiel @Ezequiel - almost 3 years ago
The Best Articles of 2021
We’ve put together our annual selection of some of our favourite articles from the past twelve months, in which a new language is invented, riot and rebellion stalks Restoration London, rivalries emerge over tourists and ghosts become politically partisan.Read for free fo...continued
2 minutes read