Recently added articles from History Today:
From the editor.(editorial)(Editorial)
Jun 01, 2009; ... In the bleak winter of 1776, George Washington ordered the retreat of his bedraggled army from its position at Fort Lee in New Jersey to its headquarters in Hackensack. The young republic of the United States was sure to be stillborn if the rampant British troops under their ...
The Koran on 'Christian' paper: paper was used in the Islamic world long before it appeared in the Christian West. But when Renaissance Europe mastered its manufacture, writes Matt Salusbury, it presented Muslim scholars with some theological conundrums.(FRONTLINE)
Jun 01, 2009; ... The Muslim world adopted paper centuries before Christian Europe. Knowledge of its production spread from Moorish Andalusia across Europe in the 13th century. But, as cheaper western technology took the Mediterranean paper industry away from the traditional Muslim centres and 'Christian' ...
England's first castle: a Herefordshire village near the border with Wales is the site of a major landmark of military history.(FRONTLINE)
Jun 01, 2009; ... It has long been thought that the first castle ever built in England was in existence before September 1051, when the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that 'the Frenchmen had built aene castel in Herefordshire'. Yet until now we have been no closer to unravelling the many mysteries ...
Handel's hidden life: a new exhibition at the London home of the German composer gives Wendy Moore an insight into the troubled personal circumstances of the man behind the soaring music.(FRONTLINE)(George Frideric Handel)
Jun 01, 2009; ... During the 49 years that he lived, worked and performed in London, the composer George Frideric Handel was one of Georgian Britain's most public characters. But behind the walls of his house in the heart of the capital's West End, Handel the man remained a solitary and private individual. ...
John Hope Franklin dies.(History as it Happens)(Obituary)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... The historian and civil rights activist John Hope Franklin died at the end of March, aged 94. Well known for his work on the 1954 Supreme Court decision which overturned America's legalised 'separate but equal' race laws, he was the author of From Slavery to Freedom, first published in ...
Mein Kampf popular.(History as it Happens)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... Over the past six months, more than 10,000 copies of Hitler's autobiography, Mein Kampf (My Struggle), have been sold in the Indian capital New Delhi. Indian booksellers claim that the book is seen by many business students as a management guide similar to Spencer Johnson's Who Moved My ...
Hands across the water.(History as it Happens)(growing popularity of National Palace Museum )(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... In April, we reported on the first-ever formal visit by a delegation from Taipei's National Palace Museum to its counterpart in Beijing's Palace Museum as a result of which China agreed to loan 29 of its national treasures to Taiwan. Since then the popularity of the National Palace Museum ...
Churchill's dislike of plane food.(History as it Happens)(Winston Churchill )(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... A menu heavily annotated by Sir Winston Churchill and revealing his dissatisfaction with the breakfast provided on board a BOAC flight to the US was sold by Mullock's Auctioneers for 4,800 [pounds sterling] on April 23rd. The sale price was over three times higher than initial estimates ....
Cleopatra's chamber.(History as it Happens)(tomb discovery)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... It has never been found and its location remains uncertain but archaeologists believe they may be on the path to the discovery of the tomb of Cleopatra and her lover. The suggestion follows the recent discovery of 22 bronze coins inscribed with Cleopatra's name, an alabaster mask with a ...
The Prince and the Pope.(History as it Happens)(Prince Charles met Pope Benedict XVI )(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall met Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on April 27th. In the week preceding the meeting, there was some speculation about whether or not the Pope would give Prince Charles a copy of the 1530 appeal by English peers for the annulment of Henry ...
Confronting the rape of Nanking.(History as it Happens)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009 ... John Rabe, a co-produced German-Chinese film about the Nanking massacres, is to be screened at the Shanghai Film Festival this month. It is based on the diary of a German businessman and member of the Nazi party who was working for Siemens and helped to save thousands of Chinese during the ...
Round & about: June 2009.(FRONTLINE)(exhibitions)(Calendar)
Jun 01, 2009 ... Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur Until August 23rd The British Museum Great Russell St, London WC1B 3DG Telephone: 020 7323 8299 www.thebritishmuseum.org The first exhibition in Europe of works from the ...
The German battle fleet scuttled at Scapa Flow: June 21 1919.(MONTHS PAST)
Jun 01, 2009; ... The handing over to the Allies of the German high seas fleet was one of the terms of the armistice that ended the First World War in November 1918. The arrangements for the surrender were worked out a few days later between Admiral Sir David Beatty for the Allies and a German rear-admiral ...
Blondin's first tightrope-walk across Niagara Falls: June 30 1859.(MONTHS PAST)(Jean-Francois Gravelet )
Jun 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Jean-Francois Gravelet was the most spectacular funambulist, or tightrope-walker, of his day or probably any other day. Born in 1824, he was the son of a veteran of the Grande Armee who was nicknamed 'Blondin' for his fair hair. The family lived at Hesdin ...
Lee Kuan Yew becomes Singapore's Prime Minister: June 3 1959.(MONTHS PAST)(Brief article)
Jun 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] After the expulsion of the Japanese in 1945, British plans for a united Malaya left Singapore, the island at the foot of the Malay peninsula, out because its population was heavily Chinese, not Malayan. It became a separate British colony run by a governor ...
The gain from Paine: Thomas Paine, who died 200 years ago, inspired and witnessed the revolutions that gave birth to the United States and destroyed the French monarchy. A genuinely global figure, he anticipated modern ideas on human rights, atheism and rationalism. David Nash looks at his enduring impact.
Jun 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] At the end of President Obama's inaugural address in January 2009, he alluded to a small passage that appeared in Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense. Faced with an American economy wracked by nervousness and self-doubt ...
In the medieval moment: the past is more than a set of events with an inevitable outcome. Historians must strive to capture it in all its fascinating strangeness, argues Chris Wickham, as he ponders the problems of writing about the Middle Ages.(TODAY'S HISTORY)
Jun 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When did the modern world begin? To Renaissance intellectuals, it was obvious, it was right then; and thinkers distinguished their own time as 'modern' in comparison with the ancient world which they saw themselves as reviving. The 1,000 years between were ...
China's interesting times: this year sees a remarkable coincidence of anniversaries that tell the history of modern China. Some will be celebrated by the authorities on a grand scale, others will be wilfully ignored, but all reveal important aspects of the country's past, as Jonathan Fenby explains.(Cover story)
Jun 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If there is one major country where history is a political instrument, it is China. The treatment of the past has been a function of power since the centuries of imperial rule when new dynasties would set officials to ...
Unsaddling a horseman: famines are less likely today than at any time in history, although climate change, economic crises and regional wars mean they will never disappear completely. Cormac O Grada looks at the causes of famine, their horrific effects and the considerable problems historians have in recording them.(TODAY'S HISTORY)
Jun 01, 2009; ... History teaches us that nearly all famines are caused by varying combinations of economic backwardness and human agency. Sometimes, as in medieval Europe or late Qing China, factors such as poor communications and the high cost of storage have been more important; at other times, as with ...
The peasants' revolt: in 1381 England witnessed a 'summer of blood' as the lower orders, emboldened by the labour shortages that followed the Black Death, flexed their muscle. Dan Jones tells the story of one of medieval England's most dramatic yet curiously neglected events.(THE PEASANTS' REVOLT)
Jun 01, 2009; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Between May and August 1381 England experienced a rebellion b of dramatic severity and suddenness. The lower orders rebelled against the lawmaking and landowning classes and the incompetent minority government of the 14-year-old Richard II. They murdered ...