Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2016 i History Extra

“The mud, the blood, the relentless machine gun fire: to many, the battle of the Somme has come to represent all the most terrible aspects of the First World War. And with good reason: casualty figures on both sides were appalling and 1 July 1916 represents the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army. Yet was it really just an exercise in futility – and does it stand apart from other battles Britain fought in two world wars? On the centenary, these are questions that Gary Sheffield, a leading expert on the battle, seeks to answer in our cover feature, on page 22. Accompanying articles consider the Somme from a German perspective (page 34) and from that of the ordinary soldiers (page 29). Another milestone we’re soon to…

In the summer of 1807, Napoleon Bonaparte was at the height of his powers. Having crushed his adversaries at Friedland in June, the French emperor now stood on the edge of Russia itself. Now, near the town of Tilsit on the river Neman (near the border between today’s Russian enclave of Kaliningrad and Lithuania), the emperor prepared to accept Russia’s obeisance. To spare the blushes of Alexander I, the peace conference was held on a supposedly neutral raft in the middle of the river. On the white marquee, the French side was adorned with a giant letter N, the Russian side with a colossal A. The story goes, however, that when the two emperors were ferried across, the French put on a spurt at the end, to make sure that…

“There is a straightforward financial explanation for Edward I’s expulsion of the Jews. By 1290 the Jewish communities had been so heavily taxed that there was little prospect of the crown squeezing any more money from them. The king had hoped with his Statute of Jewry of 1275 to persuade the Jews to abandon money-lending and to take up agriculture and lawful trade, but this had not worked. For those who had borrowed from Jewish financiers, including many in parliament, expulsion offered a solution to the problems of debt repayment, problems often made worse when the debts had been sold on to Christians. For the king, the tax agreed in parliament yielded far more than the Jews could ever have paid; it was the largest single tax collected in the…

One journalist, writing in 1907, concluded that Max the police dog was “no psychologist” In 1905, two new members joined the police force of a commune in northern France. Specifically chosen to deal with the area’s ‘brigands’, they were a special breed of crime-fighter whose skills included finding hidden wrongdoers, fending off attacks from assailants – and jumping over obstacles. These new recruits were police dogs, making French forces some of the first to use them for large-scale detective work (Britain adopted them soon after). Yet their debut was followed, just a few years later, by their almost complete absence from France’s streets. So what led to their disappearance? “There were high hopes that intelligent, well-trained dogs could help to reduce crime and protect policemen,” says Chris Pearson, author of…

@HistoryExtra: Do you agree that school history lessons only teach certain kings and queens, and if so, is it a good or bad thing? Dean Irwin While ‘great man theory’ is an abysmal way to study history, it is an excellent way to learn it. At this age focus on broad sweeps – the detail can come later Peter Tennyson I’m more worried about the narrowness of the curriculum, which seems to be purely about the Nazis and the Tudors. Without a broad grounding in the ‘basics’ of history the value of the subject is lost, and concentrating on narrow periods seems driven by the imperative to get good exam grades, not to deliver an education Carol Slifka McMichael History in school should teach just enough to whet your appetite.…

We call it the Cold War, but in October 1962 the world seemed about to incinerate. The Soviet decision to install nuclear missiles in Cuba triggered a crisis with the United States that threatened a global holocaust. How had it come to this? Two decades earlier, the USA and the USSR had been allies in the defeat of Nazi Germany. In March 1943, Life magazine lauded the Russians as “one hell of a people” who “look like Americans, dress like Americans and think like Americans”. As for the NKVD (Stalin’s dreaded secret police), Life declared it was “similar to the FBI”. In reality, though, the wartime alliance had been a marriage of convenience. The “main bond of the victors”, admitted Winston Churchill, had been “their common hate” towards Hitler’s Reich,…

April 1649 Three months after the execution of Charles I, an illegitimate son is born to the 18-year-old Charles II in Rotterdam. He is named James. 1658 The young James is kidnapped from his mother, Lucy Walter (right), on Charles II’s orders. July 1662 James is brought to England by his grandmother, Queen Henrietta Maria. His father gives him a rapturous welcome. April 1663 James (left) is made Duke of Monmouth and married to Anna, Countess of Buccleuch. The groom is 14 and the bride 12. June 1673 Louis XIV’s army besieges the stronghold of Maastricht. Monmouth leads the attack, fighting with the Comte D’Artagnan, and successfully takes the city. September 1679 Charles II expels Monmouth from court, as popular support for him to replace James, Duke of York as…

5 February The end of an era The last branches of the Boots lending libraries (like the one pictured below) close. The first had opened in 1899 and, at their peak, there were 440 branches 1 March New money Chancellor James Callaghan (left) announces that a new decimal currency will see the end of pounds, shillings and pence – the actual change is made five years later 31 March A bright new dawn The first stirrings of colour television – the BBC transmits live colour coverage of the general election but only to America and to a handful of experimental sets at home 1 May The Beatles bow out The Fab Four make their final stage appearance in Britain at the NME Poll-Winners’ show at Wembley (below). Their last ever…

The enslaved faced a hard, dispiriting path out of bondage The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition   by Manisha Sinha Yale, 784 pages, £25 The enslavement of millions of Africans was a central element in the shaping of the modern Americas. On the back of the enslaved, swathes of land were converted to profitable development: the west benefited incalculably, and in the process modern social habits were born. Millions smoked tobacco, developed a passion for sweetness in food and drink, and enjoyed the luxury of cheap cotton clothing: all courtesy of the slave gangs. In recent years, an army of scholars has explored every conceivable aspect of this story. Yet one of the most perplexing issues in the history of slavery in the Americas is the way that it…

Louis: The French Prince who Invaded England   by Catherine Hanley Yale University Press, 296 pages, £25 Louis VIII, son of Philip Augustus, king of France, and almost king of England, lived a short life packed with excitement. After King John reneged on Magna Carta, Louis was invited by the English rebel barons to invade and take the throne. Within months of landing on the Kent coast in May 1216, he had seized more than half the kingdom. Catherine Hanley’s account makes it clear why Louis won so much support. He was daring and skilled with a sword but also astute and honourable, keeping his word and protecting his supporters even at personal cost. He was even-handed with his patronage, a devout Christian and a chaste husband. In short, he…

Unearthing World War II TV Yesterday, Tuesday 12 July Military historian David O’Keefe and filmmaker Wayne Abbott travel around Europe visiting the scenes of key battles fought between 1939 and 1945 and then undertaking a dig or two. The sites the duo visit include Juno beach, where Canadian troops landed on 6 June 1944; and Monte Cassino, scene of more than 120 days of notoriously brutal fighting during the Allied push through Italy. The Canadian-produced show also traces events in Holland, where the 1st Canadian Army played a leading role in the country’s liberation from Nazi occupation.…

Mary Beard’s Ultimate Rome – Empire Without Limit DVD (IMC Vision, £11.99) We all think we know the story of the Romans, at least in the broadest terms. It goes something like this: republic, conquest and empire, decline and fall. Watch about, oh, five minutes of Professor Mary Beard’s four-part series on Rome, first aired on BBC Two in the spring, and the limitations of having such smidgens of knowledge soon become clear. That’s because, from the moment she tackles Rome’s founding myths in the first episode, it’s clear Beard isn’t just out to tell us what we ought to know about the Romans, their history and how they lived – but to do this and then to ask pointed, pertinent supplementary questions. She’s a restless presenter, constantly worrying at…

EXHIBITION Real to Reel: A Century of War Movies Imperial War Museum, London 1 July–8 January 2017 - 020 7416 5000 • iwm.org.uk This major exhibition explores how filmmakers have found inspiration in the personal stories and real events of wars of the past century. Going behind the scenes of some iconic war films that have captured the imagination of cinema-goers, it brings together film clips, costumes, props, scripts, sketches and designs, alongside original archival material and artefacts from ’s collections. IWM Enhanced by immersive audio-visual installations, the exhibition will explore the filmmaking process and consider how films have shaped popular views of conflicts. The programme kicks off on 30 June with a free late-night opening featuring music, art and poetry, to reflect upon the centenary of the battle of…

Perfectly Persian Sekanjabin, a historic Persian treat, is a honey and vinegar syrup used as a dip or diluted into a drink. The recipe dates to the 10th century when physician Avicenna (aka Ibn Sina) listed its medicinal benefits in The Canon of Medicine. In an anonymous Andalusian cookbook from the 13th century, the recipe for ‘syrup of simple sikanjabin’ states that “its benefit is to relax the bowels and cut the thirst and vomiting, and it is beneficial in bilous fevers”. One look at the internet and you see how popular this is today, with lots of recipes online and all sorts of versions. I’ve chosen the mint and cucumber recipe from theunmanlychef.com INGREDIENTS 2 cups white sugar 2 cups water ½ cup white vinegar A handful of mint…

Running this survey on an annual basis offers the chance to explore changing historical tastes: which individuals have bitten the dust in the past 12 months, and which are newly enjoying public interest? In the former category, few figures have suffered as badly as King John, now at number 81 after riding high at 7 in last year’s chart. And, in the latter group, Cicero and Harold II have done well. Our experts explore the possible reasons for these changes in the following pages. There is also a healthy crop of new entries. Anniversaries seem to be important: the centenary of the Easter Rising, for instance, perhaps explains the presence of several major figures from Irish history (including brothers Patrick and William Pearse, at number 67 and 92). TV and…

Nations with which the Hot 100 are most associated (Based on modern borders) COMMENT / Matt Elton The smaller numbers here are interesting: ancient Greece was an enormously influential culture, yet has yielded only Alexander the Great in this list. That’s fewer than Hungary (linked with king and emperor Mathias I, general and statesman John Hunyadi and politician Imre Nagy). Israel, India and Saudi Arabia all have one spiritual figure apiece, meanwhile.…

Top five... people born outside Britain 1 Eleanor of Aquitaine 2 Adolf Hitler 3 Napoleon Bonaparte 4 Alexander Hamilton 5 Henry II Top five... monarchs 1 Richard III 2 Elizabeth I 3 Henry VIII 4 Henry V 5 Alfred the Great Cut! Five high-profile casualties from 2015’s list (Position in 2015 listed in brackets) 1 Benjamin Disraeli (12) 2 William Gladstone (17) 3 Alan Turing (24) 4 Marie Antoinette (32) 5 Cleopatra (46) The most popular boys’ names... William Thomas Henry ...and the most popular girls’ names Elizabeth Anne Catherine…

“Four hundred years after his death, Shakespeare is more popular than ever – as proven by his elevated ranking on this year’s Hot 100 list. Interestingly, he is only beaten by two individuals who played an important role in his life and career. Elizabeth I, for instance, enjoyed Shakespeare’s plays over the Christmas seasons from 1594. Yet his works aren’t just for kings and queens: everyone who loves Shakespeare throughout the world inherits his legacy and can celebrate his life and works. In July we’re set to reopen New Place, Shakespeare’s family home from 1598. Come and join the party!” Paul Edmondson is head of learning and research at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust ( shakespeare.org.uk ) Sorry, Tudors... the Victorians reign victorious Top five centuries of…

“It has become a cliché to say that history in Britain, from the classroom to the BBC, is mostly about Tudors and Nazis. As with most clichés, this springs from a truth. The top five entries in the Hot 100 all have some connection to the Tudors: ranging from Richard III, whom Henry VII knocked off his perch at the battle of Bosworth in 1485, to Shakespeare, who entertained Tudor theatregoers in the 1590s by writing about that same incident. Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell, the three lead characters in Wolf Hall, occupy positions four, five and eight. Hot on their tails are Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler – reflecting our continuing fascination with the Second World War above all other conflicts, despite all the public remembrance that…

The most decisive date in British history, in my opinion, is not 1066, but 927: the year that Æthelstan conquered York. It was a feat that was the making of England – and entitles Æthelstan himself to rank as its first king. • Tom looks at the Anglo-Saxon king’s achievements on page 51 What I love about doing historical research is going straight to the primary sources: letters, diaries, account books. The picture that emerges from the raw material is often really surprising. • Anna says it’s time to revise our ideas about the Duke of Monmouth on page 46 I’ve been visiting the Somme for many years. Recently I’ve walked some of the key ground – it is difficult to get a sense of the battle unless you know…

“Anti-establishment rhetoric is designed to attract disillusioned voters. As dissatisfaction increases, so does the attraction of populist campaigns”MICHAEL CULLINANE There is a long tradition of populism and anti-establishment politics in US presidential elections. Candidates have endeavoured to characterise themselves as a person-of-the-people, although most have had considerable experience working in Washington. This year is different. The major political parties in the US have never seen an outsider like Donald Trump. Presidential candidates have regularly been heralded as populists. Andrew Jackson, often called the first populist, set the trend with his 1824 and 1828 campaigns to unseat the old party order. But Jackson was an insider masquerading as an outsider, a former congressman, Tennessee lawyer and military governor. He was a different kind of politician but indubitably establishment. Even the populist…

De Vere or not de Vere? It is unbelievable that the people who advocate Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford as the author of Shakespeare (Letters, June) do not look at the facts. De Vere died in 1604, before many of the greatest plays were recorded with the censor for publication. Oxford wrote comedies under his own name – why then would he not acknowledge the ‘other’ plays? The Tempest was based upon events that happened in 1609, when De Vere had been dead for five years. I could go on… The letter writer, Mr Kennedy, states that William’s whole family were illiterate. Not so. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust holds copies of the signatures of Mary Arden, his mother, and Susanna, his daughter. John Shakespeare, William’s father, was twice…

1 The BEF takes the lead Unexpectedly, it was the BEF and not the French army that contributed the most troops to the first stages of the Somme. The initial plan had the French taking the lead. However on 21 February 1916 the Germans attacked around the French city of Verdun. The fighting there sucked in large numbers of French divisions, forcing the progressive scaling back of the French contribution to the forthcoming offensive. If the battle-hardened French army had assumed the lion’s share of the fighting rather than the inexperienced British, what would the outcome of the Somme have been? It’s a fascinating counterfactual. 2 Blood and glory on 1 July The 1st of July 1916 was a day of mixed fortunes for the Allies. In the north of…

“Have you ever noticed,” joked Harold Wilson, “how England wins the World Cup only under a Labour government?” Sadly, it proved to be a very short winning streak. England were knocked out of the 1970 World Cup four days before Wilson was voted out of Downing Street and then failed to qualify for the next two tournaments, both held during a Labour government. But the ensuing decades of disappointment have only made the 1966 triumph even sweeter in retrospect. The names have become part of English folklore, from the on-pitch heroes – Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton, Geoff Hurst et al – to the peripheral figures: World Cup Willie, the Union Jack-wearing lion who served as mascot, and Pickles the dog, who found the trophy itself after it was stolen from…

Forget whisky and oil: the Jacobites could be Scotland’s biggest industry Jacobites: A New History of the ‘45 Rebellion   by Jacqueline Riding Bloomsbury Publishing, 608 pages, £25 Forget whisky, oil and tourism: the Jacobites could be Scotland’s biggest industry. The subject of hundreds of books, articles and films and the source of countless myths, their magnificent failure is enduringly fascinating. Now seen as a doomed romantic anachronism or a sort of emotive nationalism, post-1689 Jacobitism was a political and religious movement based on divine-right succession and dynastic loyalty. Often misunderstood as a Scottish independence movement, it was in fact an alternative claim to the British throne by the house of Stewart. By the time its last member, Queen Anne, died childless in 1714, the parliament in London had vested…

Realm Divided: A Year in the Life of Plantagenet England   by Dan Jones Head of Zeus, 304 pages, £8.99 Last year’s 800th anniversary of Magna Carta produced an entire library of new books. Some were dull, others excessively opinionated. Magna Carta appeals to many constituencies – scholars, lawyers, politicians, the general public – each of which needed its own particular telling of the story. Dan Jones’s version, aimed at a popular audience, is one of the more accomplished. Tracing John’s activities on a monthly basis across the momentous year either side of Runnymede, Jones achieves a balance between narrative and analysis. At key points, he turns aside to consider the king’s appearance, his clothes and banners, his obsession with hunting and the taking of life, and the ways in…

Nietzsche would have been “horrified” by the way his work was twisted Genius of the Modern World TV BBC Four, Begins mid-June At first glance, there’s something a little confusing about the idea of classical historian Bettany Hughes presenting a trio of biographical documentaries devoted to Marx, Freud and Nietzsche. But look again and you notice that the history of ideas has been a recurring theme in her work. “I’ve spent all my time looking at how big philosophical ideas don’t just stay on paper, or stay as abstract ideas, but play out in the here and now,” Hughes tells BBC History Magazine. She goes on to quote with approval Cicero saying of Socrates that he brought philosophy down from the skies and onto the street, where it belongs. Besides,…

“Bologna is so interesting that they named it thrice. The city rejoices in its descriptions as la dotta, la rossa, la grassa” New York, New York: so good they named it twice. Bologna: so interesting they nicknamed it thrice. The city rejoices in its descriptions as la dotta, la rossa, la grassa. La dotta, the learned, because Bologna is the seat of the oldest university in Europe. Both its red architecture and its postwar history of communist rule make the city la rossa, the red. And with a devotion to eating that is outstanding even in the context of food-crazed Italy, it’s little wonder that Bologna is la grassa, the fat. In spite of its many and varied cultural, intellectual and gastronomic attractions, Bologna is blessedly unchoked by the hordes…

1. What links Boscobel House, Moseley Old Hall and Heale House? 2. In November 1254, Louis IX of France gave Henry III of England an extremely large present. What was it? 3. Which British artist was arrested as a spy while sketching at Calais in 1748? 4. She was born in Lincolnshire in 1812, had 10 children, managed the world’s largest ironworks and translated the Mabinogion from Welsh into English. Who was she? 5. Henry VI and Richard of York were both knighted on 19 May 1426. But where? 6. a. Who was this daughter of an English peer? b. Who was her first husband? c. What position did she take up in May 1993? QUIZ ANSWERS 1. They were all used as hiding places by Charles II after his…

“He spent hours and hours alone on the beach with a club and a ball – hitting it, and fetching it, hitting it and fetching it – until he was an absolute master of his craft” Seve Ballesteros was one of the leading golfers of the late 20th century, and arguably the greatest ever continental European player. The Spanish sportsman won over 90 international tournaments, including the Open Championship three times (1979, 84 and 88) and the Masters twice (1980, 83). He also helped lead the European Ryder Cup team to five victories – although he struggled with form in the late 1990s due to back-related injuries. In 2008 he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour, from which he later died. When did you first hear about Seve Ballesteros?…

10 Adolf Hitler (+5) This survey features the historical figures that most interested you, which does not mean that they were liked – a fact perhaps most strikingly illustrated in our 10th-highest entry. “Hitler is profoundly significant historically, and a new biography and revelations about his private life mean that he has not been far from the news recently,” says expert Roger Moorhouse. And interest in the Nazi leader shows no signs of abating: indeed, he finishes five places higher than in our 2015 survey. 9 William Marshal (+1) Knight, advisor, tournament fighter: William Marshal (c1147–1219) had quite the CV – not to mention the five kings he called employers (Henry II, Henry the Young King, Richard, John and Henry III). “Two aspects of his life stand out,” says Thomas…

“The fall of King John and the rise of Harold II in this year’s Hot 100 comes as no real surprise. John enjoyed the limelight in last year’s chart (where he came seventh) because 2015 was the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta – the charter of liberties wrenched from him at Runnymede that later acquired global significance. This year is the 800th anniversary of John’s death at Newark in October 1216, but it was always going to be overshadowed by the 950th anniversary of the battle of Hastings, which occurred in the same month in 1066. Hastings, of course, is where Harold met his end, explaining his current celebrity. Being at the top of the historical agenda leads to reputations being reassessed. King John’s character and career were reviewed last…

Early Shakespearean theatre was oblong Excavations on the former site of a theatre, in which some of William Shakespeare’s plays may have had their first performances, show that the structure would have been rectangular in shape rather than oval as had been expected. The Curtain theatre, located in what is now the London borough of Hackney, opened in 1577 and seems to have been converted from a tenement block. Its shape was described as “a total surprise” by a leading Shakespeare expert. Chinese people brewed beer 5,000 years ago Beer may have been enjoyed in China as far back as 5,000 years ago, material found at a dig in the Shaanxi province suggests. Researchers found traces of barley and equipment used in fermentation dating from between 3400 and 2900 BC.…

The words “there seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today!”, after the catastrophic losses of HMS Queen Mary and HMS Indefatigable, were not just Vice Admiral Beatty’s wry frustration (Jutland: The Battle That Won the War, May). There was something wrong with his ships – his new battlecruisers to be precise. Although these ships were well armed and had excellent armour protection at the water line and upper hull, their Achilles heel was their thinly armoured main deck (1 inch). HMS Queen Mary was not hit by a classic close-range broadside but at a distance of 8.5 miles by high-trajectory gunfire, bypassing her hull armour, piercing her thin deck, starting fires, causing ammunition bunkers to explode and the ship to break in two. HMS Lion, though badly…

“ Recently I attended a memorial celebration for the historian John Gurney. John was an authority on the 17th-century English Revolution, especially the radical movements which came out of the Civil War when, after King Charles’s execution, for a moment there was ‘a world turned upside down’. John’s best-known works were a study of the utopian Digger movement, Brave Community, and the first biography of Gerrard Winstanley, their key figure. The memorial was especially poignant – and energising – because it took place in Cobham, where Winstanley had put spade into soil on the common land, announcing that the “earth is the common treasury of us all”. The commemoration was held in St Andrews Church where, ironically, in his later years the fiercely anti-clerical Winstanley was a churchwarden, his firebrand…

He helped transform his inexperienced army of volunteers and conscripts into a war-winning force Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig is one of the most controversial generals of all time, and his performance during the battle of the Somme is central to his reputation. He has become known to some as ‘The Butcher of the Somme’, although there is no evidence that anyone called him that while the war was going on. Interestingly, until the 1960s it was Passchendaele (properly, the third battle of Ypres) that was popularly regarded as the epitome of wasteful horror, rather than the Somme. Among the charges against Haig’s conduct of the Somme is that he was an old-fashioned cavalry general who failed to adapt to trench warfare. In reality, Haig was thoroughly conversant with modern war.…

Drenched with honours, made a duke and married to an heiress at 14, he became the most debauched teenager of the Restoration age On a warm summer’s evening in June 1685 an invasion army of just 83 landed at Lyme Regis in Dorset. The blue banners that flapped above them as they marched down Lyme’s main street read “For God, Freedom and Religion”. At their head, impeccable in purple silk and with the garter star glinting on his chest, walked their leader, James, Duke of Monmouth, the 36-year-old illegitimate son of Charles II. An onlooker described “many townsmen and others rejoicing and joining with the enemy crying out: ‘A Monmouth! A Monmouth! The Protestant religion!’” The uprising that began that day was designed to oust the new king, James II…

The setting could hardly have been more English. A summer evening, with a little light rain; a thatched, 17th-century cottage; a secluded country lane called Duck Street in the Essex village of Wendens Ambo. It was like something that the hit television series The Avengers might have made up as a parody of Olde England. Or perhaps the more appropriate cultural reference point would be the fictional world of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, as recently portrayed by Margaret Rutherford in a series of films. Because on Tuesday 21 June 1966, the Duck Street cottage became the scene of a murder investigation. The men involved were 37-year-old Reg Calvert and Oliver Smedley, a retired army major nearly 20 years his senior, the owner of the cottage. There had been a business…

Winchester York Juliet Barker Fact or Fiction? Mrs Gaskell and Her ‘Life of Charlotte Brontë’ Antony Beevor Ardennes 1944 Tracy Borman The Private Lives of the Tudors Jerry Brotton This Orient Isle: Elizabethan England and the Islamic World Paul Cartledge Democracy, Ancient Versus Modern: Ten Things You Really Ought to Know Barry Cunliffe By Steppe, Desert and Ocean: the Birth of Eurasia Jonathan Dimbleby The Battle of the Atlantic: How the Allies Won the War Peter Frankopan The Silk Roads: A New History of the World George Goodwin Benjamin Franklin: British Royalist to American Revolutionary AC Grayling Progress in Troubled Times: Learning from ‘The Age of Genius’ James Holland Burma ’44: The Battle that Turned the War in the Far East Tom Holland Æthelstan and the Making of England Tristram…

A Passing Fury: Searching for Justice at the End of World War II   by AT Williams Jonathan Cape, 496 pages, £25 In his new book, AT Williams examines the unique endeavour of the war crimes trials at the end of the Second World War, clearly showing how the anger unleashed by the discovery of multiple atrocities was dealt with in a complex, unwieldy legal process. This was hailed as a victory for civilised and rational behaviour. And thus, the author claims, the myth of Nuremberg was born. That’s because, Williams argues, for all of its lasting significance, Nuremberg – “the word, the idea, the trial” – could not capture more than a fragment of the history of the justice meted out by the British and their allies after the…

Crusade and Jihad   by Malcolm Lambert Profile, 320 pages, £20 Malcolm Lambert’s eminent place in medieval scholarship is assured by his indispensable Medieval Heresy (Edward Arnold, 1977). He has here written a very different book on the holy war phenomenon aimed squarely and successfully at the popular market. Eschewing reference notes, and with only a brief bibliography, he instead focuses on an accessible but highly knowledgeable overview of the struggle for power between Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land. Lambert suggests that crusade and jihad are not opposing forces that merely feed symbiotically off each other. Instead, he emphasises that both were very much products of their own societies and their own internal politics. For Lambert, the key figure in the deliberate development of jihad is the emir…

Tommies Radio Radio 4, ongoing On the first day of the battle of the Somme, the British suffered 57,470 casualties. One reason this figure was so high, suggests Jonathan Ruffle’s returning drama of front-line life, was because of a signalling error. Among other BBC programmes to mark the centenary, The Somme 1916: From Both Sides of the Wire (BBC Two, July) finds Peter Barton reappraising what happened, with the help of files held in German archives. There will also be full coverage of commemorative events in France (BBC One, 30 June and 1 July). Dawn on the Somme (Radio 3, 3 July) sees Dr Kate Kennedy exploring how the Somme affected the direction of 20th-century classical music.…

1 Cromford Mill DERWENT VALLEY, DERBYSHIRE Where the factory system was born This is one of the key sites of the world’s first industrial revolution, where Richard Arkwright brought together carding (the cleaning and straightening of the cotton fibres) and spinning machinery to establish the modern factory system. More than 200 years later, it is a Unesco World Heritage Site. cromfordmills.org.uk 2 Quarry Bank Mill, STYAL, CHESHIRE Where orphans were provided for Initially a water-powered spinning operation, Quarry Bank evolved over time, eventually becoming a steam-powered weaving mill. The idyllic site also includes workers’ accommodation and the Apprentice House, home to the orphaned children who worked at the mill. nationaltrust.org.uk/quarry-bank 3 Helmshore Mills Textile Museum, HELMSHORE, LANCASHIRE Where seven mills were sited This quiet village in Rossendale was, at one…

BEST TIME TO GO Thanks to Bologna’s miles of portico covered pavements, even wet winter days needn’t cramp your style. They give excellent sun protection too, but nonetheless I’d avoid visiting in July and August. GETTING THERE There are easy direct flights from the UK. Bologna airport is close to the city centre. WHERE TO STAY The Grand Hotel Majestic Già Baglioni is impressive old-school, high-style hospitality, as its name suggests. I prefer the slightly more low-key charm of the Hotel Corona D’Oro. WHAT TO PACK Comfortable shoes: it’s a terrific walking city. WHAT TO BRING BACK Most visitors return laden with Parmesan cheese, bottles of balsamic vinegar and boxes of fresh pasta. Food shops are accustomed to packing for visitors. READERS’ VIEWS Wander, eat, drink, enjoy. It is a…

  Welcome to this year’s BBC History Magazine Hot 100 list, featuring the historical figures that are grabbing your attention in 2016. We asked you to each nominate up to three people from any historical period, as long as they died more than 30 years ago. The full details are presented here, together with a look at how the results compare to last year’s inaugural list. They make for fascinating reading…Matt Elton , reviews editor The list: 100 11 (in reverse order) This year’s list features a diverse cast of historical characters, many of whom appear for the first time New entry Up (by number of places) Down (by number of places) Non-mover…

Top 10 new entries this year 1 Alexander Hamilton (15) 2 Mathias I (19) 3 Catherine the Great (30) 4 Katherine Parr (31) 5 John Hunyadi (34) 6 Tutankhamun (35) 7 Anne of Cleves (38) 8 Edward the Black Prince (42) 9 Thomas More (45) 10 Oscar Wilde (46) COMMENT / Simon Middleton “Alexander Hamilton served as one of George Washington’s key aides in the American War of Independence, going on to introduce financial plans that some suggest put US credit and manufacturing on a solid foundation in Washington’s first presidency. Others point to his admiration of aristocracy and suspicion of democracy as less wholesome traits. The Broadway musical Hamilton, based on Ron Chernow’s well-received and admiring biography, has doubtless moved him up the rankings.” Simon Middleton is…

Thirty per cent of the list is female Women Men COMMENT / June Purvis “The female figures in the list are overwhelmingly queens or members of the landed gentry, giving us a lopsided view of women in the past. Some important social reformers, such as Constance Markievicz and Emmeline Pankhurst, do feature. Yet other remarkable women do not: Mary Carpenter, who set up schools for children of the street, and Marie Stopes, who worked to free women from unwanted pregnancies. Mary Wollstonecraft, founder of Anglo-American feminism, does not make it either, while Karl Marx does. It will be interesting to see how things develop next year.” June Purvis , emeritus professor of women’s and gender history at the University of Portsmouth…

“So the Tudors have, once again, stolen nearly all of the top slots. They dominate the bestseller lists, are rarely off our screens, and make people flock to places such as Hampton Court. I freely admit to suffering from what one journalist recently termed ‘Tudormania’. So what is it about these monarchs that continue to hold us in such thrall 500 years later? Much of the appeal is obvious. The tales of these larger-than-life characters are so remarkable that they read like a far-fetched soap opera. And in the background are seismic events: the Reformation, revolution in government, overseas exploration and unprecedented vibrancy in the arts. It was a stridently self-confident era. Yet for me, one of the most compelling reasons for our love of all things Tudor is the…

“It’s no surprise that Richard continues to capture the popular imagination: even without the discovery of his body and reburial last year, his story is pure drama that rivals his Shakespearean caricature and makes him box-office material. Richard’s life and reign may ultimately have ended in failure, but he has inspired generations to fight against a ‘Tudor version’ of history and clear his name. I’m sure he will continue to fascinate and appeal in equal measure for centuries.” Chris Skidmore’s biography of Richard III is set to be published in 2017…