Julkaisuseuranta
23.9.2022
As the National and University Library of Iceland commemorate the 250th anniversary of Joseph Banks’s expedition to Iceland with an exhibition, we are publishing a series of blogs on all things Icelandic in the British Library collections. For those who want to know more about Joseph Banks’s expedition to Iceland,...
20.9.2022
Helen DuncanBirminghamLiveThe last English execution for witchcraft was 1684. James I's statute was repealed in 1736 by George II. The Scottish church outlawed witchcraft in 1563; by the time of the last execution in 1722, 1,500 Scottish witches had been put to death. Parliament passed the 1736 Witchcraft Act repealing the old laws against witchcraft…
King Charles II was crowned at Westminster Abbey, 1661.WikiThere was a widely-held belief that British Catholics were actively plotting the overthrow of church and state, to establish Britain as a satellite state under the control of an all-powerful Catholic monarch.In the late 1670s, anxieties were raised by the succession issue. King Charles II (1630–85) had no legitimate…
22.8.2022
The following text is a transcript of a talk I gave in 2019 for the Decolonising Science Narratives workshop held at the Science Museum in London, UK. Although I have since changed my mind a bit on the topic (see my follow-up seminar talk I gave here), I feel like its important to have my…
Purple = Russian Empire, brown = Japanese Empire and yellow = Chinese EmpirePress to see Port Arthur and Sakhalin Island marked in blackThe Russians entered the region in the Sino/China-Japanese War of 1894–5. Along with Germany and France, Russia was a part…
26.7.2022
Map of Czech Republic,note Zlin near the eastern border with SlovakiaPress to expandThe small town of Zlín in SE Moravia dates back to the late C14th. More recently industries appeared in the mid-C19th. The town's connection with the wider world started to improve with the opening of a post office in 1848. Castle owner Baron…
22.7.2022
Crippen features on the front of the Mirror in 1910 The title Dr is in inverted commas.Executing a criminal is murder, by hanging, gas chamber, injection or firing squad. Firstly the executioner becomes a murderer himself, as destructive as the criminal he is killing. Secondly noone knows who was responsible for the crime with 100%…
12.7.2022
Sen Edward Kennedy in a neck brace, after Chappaquiddick July 1969,SmithsonianU.S senator from Massachusetts Ted Kennedy (1932–2009) was the last surviving son of Joseph Kennedy. After the wartime death of Joseph Jr and the assassinations of John and Robert, Ted was the family’s last hope for a run at the presidency. [I had liked the 3 brothers…
8.7.2022
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyivstill intact,, sofar!There were plenty of articles about Russia’s worst war crime i.e the slaughter of civilians. Now UNESCO’s Director-General has added a lesser war crime saying: We must safeguard the cultural heritage in Ukraine, as a testimony of her past and as a catalyst for future peace and cohesion. In…
5.7.2022
Leonard Warwick and his daughter on a hunting trip, c1982Guns in Australia were not illegal back then, but they were not a good look.In a progressive programme of the Whitlam Federal Government, the Australian Family Court started in Jan 1976. But despite the high idealism of the court's creators, they failed to realise one truth: that…
21.6.2022
Casanova, attributed to Francesco Narichi1760Many words have been incorporated into our normal vocabulary, to connote the qualities that their namesakes were noted for. In fact there are many names of historical figures and fictional characters that have become part of common parlance. Ruth Beloff went back to see who the men and women were, whose names…
During WW1 Richborough Camp was built on the River Stour, the starting point of a ferry service across the Channel for troops and munitions to France and Belgium. A railway was built from the main line to the banks of the Stour, so thousands of soldiers could be transported. But by late 1918, this British…
IsraAID search-and-rescue crew in blue t-shirts, earthquake Nepal, 2015Give LivelyFirstly two terms to be explained. A] Tzedakah is Hebrew for social justice, in which the donor benefits from giving, just like the recipients benefit. That’s because tzedakah builds trusts, and requires contributions of time and effort. My grandparents & parents gave 10% of their net…
7.5.2021
Guest post by Laurentius Alvin Laurentis Alvin is a Master’s student at Bonn University in Germany (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität). They hold a BA in history of art and musicology. Their academic […]
This is a guest post by Sherine Hamade with consultations from the Hades beta tester, Cian Sutherland. Sherine Hamade (they/them) is a graduate student studying Public History at the University […]