History

Anything to do with History

Jimmy @Jimmy - about 3 years ago

How Important was the Battle of Lepanto?

‘Philip II’s chief minister hailed it as “the greatest naval victory since Pharaoh’s army drowned in the Red Sea” Geoffrey Parker, Andreas Dorpalen Professor of History at Ohio State University and author of Imprudent King: A New Life of Philip II (Yale University Press, ...continued

8 minutes read

Raoul @Raoul - over 3 years ago

Pandemics in the Parish | History Today

Fear of Plague in the House of Fitzeisulf, a detail from Trinity Chapel window, Canterbury Cathedral, 14th century. Alamy.In the summer of 1348 the Chronicle of the Grey Friars at Lynn recorded the arrival in England of the Black Death. It described how sailors from Gasco...continued

1 minute read

Sandrine @Sandrine - over 3 years ago

What Makes a Puritan Society?

‘Puritan societies were often better than the kinds of societies that they replaced’Crawford Gribben, Professor of History at Queen’s University, BelfastThere weren’t very many puritan societies, and none of them were especially enduring, but they were often better than t...continued

8 minutes read

Sandrine @Sandrine - over 3 years ago

The New Tourists | History Today

‘England & Scotland East Coast Route’ (detail), poster, c.1900 © SSPL/Getty Images.The Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel, a small inn at the foot of the Llanberis Pass in North Wales, seems an unlikely arena for class warfare. Built around a farmhouse, the hotel was a popular tourist...continued

1 minute read

Delia @Delia - over 3 years ago

Is There Too Much Military History?

‘With all that has been written, there are still many questions worth addressing’Beatrice Heuser, Professor of International Relations, University of GlasgowAny visitor to a British airport bookshop will come away with the impression that business management and military ...continued

8 minutes read

Maida @Maida - 5 months ago

Babylon’s Mystery Goddess | History Today

The Queen of the Night is today best known for her leading role in The Magic Flute, but for Babylonian historians the star of the show is an ancient goddess with the same name. Although almost 4,000 years old, she was only given her evocative title in 2003, soon after the...continued

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Maureen @Maureen - over 3 years ago

Germany United | History Today

The Reichstag 1886, coloured print © akg-images.When the freshly elected members of parliament met on 14 April 1871, at their temporary home of the Palais Hardenberg in the centre of Berlin, there was an air of excitement that engulfed all of those present, as well as the...continued

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Roger @Roger - over 3 years ago

Is Nationalism still Europe’s Dominant Political Ideology?

‘The nationalist dream – of a world composed of self-contained nation states – remains powerful’Edin Hajdarpašić, Assistant Professor of History at Loyola University, Chicago What’s distinctive about nationalism is not so much its alleged dominance as its proven adaptabil...continued

8 minutes read

Gregoria @Gregoria - about 4 years ago

Was there a Women’s Renaissance?

‘Don’t be born a woman in Florence, if you want your own way’Dale Kent, Professorial Fellow, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne and author of Cosimo de’ Medici and the Florentine Renaissance (Yale, 2000). The Renaissance was a rebirth ...continued

8 minutes read

Marlon @Marlon - about 3 years ago

How did 9/11 change the way the world sees the United States?

‘With Iraq in flames, America’s standing in the world was at rock bottom’Fawaz Gerges, Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and author of Making the Arab World (Princeton, 2018) The morning after the terrorist attacks on the US, the Frenc...continued

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Madalyn @Madalyn - almost 4 years ago

Was Thomas Becket a Saint or an Arrogant Troublemaker?

‘Medieval sanctity was usually not equivalent to a life of cherubic sweetness’Rachel Koopmans, Associate Professor of History, York University, Toronto A saint? Yes. Citizens of Canterbury began mopping up Thomas Becket’s blood as martyr’s relics almost before his body wa...continued

8 minutes read

Alexander @Alexander - almost 3 years ago

Did the Attack on Pearl Harbor Cost the Axis Powers the War?

‘The attack would signal the beginning of the end of Japan’s empire in Asia and the Pacific’Satona Suzuki, Lecturer in Japanese and Modern Japanese History at SOAS, University of LondonOn 7 December 1941 Japan launched a surprise attack on the naval base of Pearl Harbor i...continued

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Zackery @Zackery - almost 4 years ago

Catherine dei Medici and the French Wars of Religion

Portrait of Catherine de' Medici by François Clouet, c.1580. Walters Art Museum.The year 1598 marked the conclusion of the four anarchic decades of French history known as the Wars of Religion. It ended an epoch in which France was the battlefield of the forces of Reforma...continued

1 minute read

Kristina @Kristina - over 5 years ago

Oil and Water: The Tanker Wars

The war between Iran and Iraq, which lasted for most of the 1980s, was one of the bloodiest conflicts of the late 20th century. Casualties on both sides numbered in the hundreds of thousands. At times the combat zones bore more than a passing resemblance to First World Wa...continued

1 minute read

Josiah @Josiah - about 3 years ago

The Road less Travelled | History Today

Mary Wollstonecraft, by John Opie, c.1797 © National Portrait Gallery, London.Women travellers performed remarkable feats in the 19th century. Marianne North criss-crossed the world, painting flora in the Middle East, Asia, Australasia and the Americas. Isabella Bird roam...continued

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Alexander @Alexander - almost 4 years ago

Was German Unification Inevitable? | History Today

‘The unity of the German-speaking lands goes back a long way’Len Scales, Professor of Late Medieval History, Durham University.There was once a time when German historians searched avidly for the emergence of the ‘first German state’ or ‘first Reich’. Usually they discove...continued

8 minutes read

Americo @Americo - about 3 years ago

Why has the Gunpowder Plot Been Remembered for Centuries?

‘The newly Protestant nation was remarkably bare of regular festivity’Ronald Hutton, Professor of History at the University of Bristol Guy Fawkes’ Night, the ‘Fifth of November’, has been popular and long-lived for two different reasons. The first is the spectacular natur...continued

8 minutes read

Cameron @Cameron - about 5 years ago

The Female Rulers of Medieval France

Eleanor of Aquitaine is widely accepted to be exceptional: ‘an incomparable woman’, one of a kind, notable not just as the mother of kings Richard I and John of England, but as one of the most powerful women of medieval Europe. But there is another 12th-century female rul...continued

1 minute read

Erik @Erik - about 1 year ago

How to Leave the House of Lords

Appointments to the House of Lords have long been a sore on the British body politic. In 1922 David Lloyd George was exposed for egregiously selling peerages in exchange for donations to the Liberal Party. The Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act followed in 1925, but the b...continued

8 minutes read

Alexander @Alexander - over 5 years ago

The Civil War’s ‘Martyr of Peace’

As Brexit Britain rediscovers the cleansing fervour of political purity and concomitant division, the protagonists of the country’s 17th-century Civil Wars are enjoying renewed attention. But the well-known combatants who exemplify the extremes of history obscure more ap...continued

1 minute read

Rowan @Rowan - about 5 years ago

Enemies of the Habsburgs | History Today

Louis XIV was a national leader committed to expanding the borders of France: the acquisition of Alsace, Franche-Comté and half of Flanders are among his most lasting achievements. Equally he was a European, dedicated to improving France’s position in what was then called...continued

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Cyril @Cyril - over 3 years ago

What has been the Impact of the Creation of Bangladesh?

‘The “nation state” is the poisonous gift of European colonisation’Sarmila Bose, Author of Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War (Hurst, 2011).The creation of Bangladesh was a missed opportunity for India to reverse the British partition of Bengal. It was an...continued

8 minutes read

Rowan @Rowan - over 3 years ago

Faking It | History Today

Members of an RAF bomber crew preparing to drop propaganda leaflets over enemy territory, early 1940s © Hulton Getty Images.In Can You Ever Forgive Me?, the 2018 film of biographer-turned-forger Lee Israel, we see the subject, played by Melissa McCarthy, visiting a specia...continued

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Teagan @Teagan - 11 months ago

How Has Gandhi Influenced Indian History Since His Death?

‘Gandhi’s ideas seem consigned to the past’Anindita Ghosh is Professor of Modern Indian History at the University of ManchesterOnce a powerful persona and concept, Gandhi is largely a lonely and forgotten figure in today’s India, awash with its new found wealth and assert...continued

7 minutes read

Elvie @Elvie - almost 2 years ago

Stealing a Living | History Today

Queuing in front of a cooperative in Leipzig, 1970s © Cornelius Paas/Imagebroker/Bridgeman Images.On 13 April 1972, East Germany’s Attorney General Josef Streit wrote to Erich Honecker, then leader of the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED), to request that the state’s cri...continued

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