Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2017 i History Extra

“When we think of the defining dates in English and British history, years such as 1066, 1649 and 1914 often spring to mind. But should we also be adding 1660 to that list? That is the view of historian Ian Mortimer who argues that the restoration of Charles II had implications far beyond the upper echelons of power. All of society, he believes, was transformed by the return of the monarchy. You can explore his arguments in our cover feature, which begins on page 35. Across the Atlantic, one of the most important dates of recent times was 1917 when the United States entered the First World War and began the process that led to it becoming the dominant global player of the past century. On the centenary of this…

For Mae West, the events of 19 April 1927 were a public-relations coup beyond price. A year earlier, the 33-year-old performer had launched her first play, Sex, at Daly’s 63rd Street Theatre in New York City. West herself played a prostitute, Margie La Monte, and as the title suggests, the treatment could hardly have been more risqué – at least by the standards of the time. Not surprisingly, the city’s cultural conservatives hated it. By contrast, the public seemed delighted, and despite damning reviews and religious protests, demand for tickets was high. But then, in February 1927, the police raided the theatre, arrested the entire cast and charged West with obscenity. For someone with West’s natural flair and eye for a photo opportunity, the ensuing trial was a wonderful chance…

“In the century before the Pazzi conspiracy, the Medici family had built a power base in Florence thanks to wealth from the wool trade and banking. But they were not without their challengers. In 1433 opponents managed, through political manoeuvres, to force Cosimo de’ Medici, Lorenzo’s grandfather, into a short exile. By 1478, however, the Medici and their allies had strengthened their grip on the city’s institutions. They set up special committees to vet candidates for office, and used military emergencies to justify creating structures that functioned outside the normal rules. As their bank faltered, their power became more and more dependent on the state. It is hardly surprising, then, that this time their opponents looked to overthrow the regime by conspiracy and murder. Their hand was strengthened by the…

Vikings invaded for a fresh start Research published in the journal Antiquity suggests that the ninth-century Viking invasion of England was due to economic migration, with 35,000 leaving Denmark for new lives in England from AD 800-900. Male plague victims buried hand in hand The skeletons of two men buried, apparently hand in hand, in the early 15th century after succumbing to the Black Death have been discovered in London. Buried in a double grave, it is thought the men may have been related by blood or marriage. Britain’s first female professor? Emma Ritter-Bondy, professor of piano at Glasgow Athenaeum School of Music from 1892, was Britain’s first female professor, research suggests She was given the title 16 years before Edith Morley of Reading University. Iron Age gold discovered What…

What do you think was history’s greatest mistake? @DIorioNathaniel Austria-Hungary’s decision in 1914 to use the assassination of Franz Ferdinand as a pretext for war with Serbia Michael Oliver World War 1. No true victors, and it spawned World War 2. The west will never recover from that sanguinary conflict Alan C Co The burning of the Library at Alexandria. All that knowledge lost that we may never know again @DeverCarl German army halting the advance on Dunkirk for 3 days which allowed allies to organise the evacuation @macuaidh83 The Four Pests Campaign (China). Mao’s plan to rid China of sparrows caused an ecological imbalance and exacerbated famine Thomas Iverson The dividing up of the Ottoman empire by the western countries based on geographic lines without regard to historical tribal…

1914: America stands aside On 4 August, as war begins to rage across Europe, American president Woodrow Wilson (left) proclaims a policy of neutrality, asking Americans to be “impartial in thought as well as in action”. In September, the American Red Cross sends its first ‘Mercy Ship’ to Europe carrying medical staff and supplies. 1915: Roosevelt rattles his sabre One hundred and twenty eight Americans are drowned when a German U-boat sinks the British liner the Lusitania on 7 May. Former president Theodore Roosevelt condemns Wilson’s neutrality and calls on America to join the war on the Allied side. 1916: The military grows In June, in response to Mexican raids across its border and growing tensions with Germany, America passes the National Defense Act to expand the army and navy.…

The Dawn of Christianity: People and Gods in a Time of Miracles and Magic by Robert Knapp Profile Books, 320 pages, £25 Robert Knapp offers a detailed account of how a small Judaic cult developed into Christianity, to be eventually embraced by the emperor Constantine in AD 312. He begins by taking the two apparently competing traditions of the relevant religious divide in the ancient world – monotheistic Judaism and pagan polytheism – and shows how they shared many concerns and interests. Both, for example, were aware of powerful, unpredictable, supernatural forces at work, which needed a response by prayer and ritual. The main difference between the two was Yahweh and the covenant he established with the Jews, guaranteeing them his favour – if they kept to the path of…

Heartthrobs: A History of Women and Desire by Carol Dyhouse Oxford University Press, 288 pages, £20 Romantic fiction is opium for the (female) masses. Whether it is a Mills and Boon paperback, a historical epic like Gone With the Wind, or, in my case, Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying (which I really did think was about airplanes), romances are irresistible. Like Jong’s “zipless fuck”, they allow women to turn their lustful gaze towards men, without guilt or responsibility. They encourage us to daydream. As Carol Dyhouse proposes here, icons of desirability tell us a great deal about the role and status of women, as well as about their sexuality. These icons of masculinity are born within the female imagination. While some feminists and many self-designated ‘intellectuals’ sneer at ‘shop-girl romances’…

Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore Hutchinson, 416 pages, £18.99 Lizzie Fawkes, the narrator of Helen Dunmore’s fine novel (her 15th), is a spirited young woman, living in Bristol in the 1790s. Her mother Julia is a pioneering feminist thinker and writer, not entirely unlike Mary Wollstonecraft. Her stepfather is Augustus Gleeson, a political pamphleteer. She has grown up in a household committed to the need for a radical transformation of society, and events in France, where the revolution is under way, seem to offer magnificent hopes for the future. Even as news of terrible bloodshed in Paris reaches the West Country, Augustus and his friends cling to the belief that a new and better world is in the making. As the novel opens, Lizzie has just married John Diner Tredevant,…

Surrealism: The Art of Dreams & Desire TV BBC Four, scheduled for April Thanks to surrealism, lobster telephones and melting clocks have insinuated their way into the wider culture. But, according to psychotherapist Philippa Perry, many of the radical ideas that inspired these images have become rather lost along the way. As part of a short season on surrealism, Perry explores how the political upheavals of the 1920s inspired new ways of understanding the human psyche. She also sets up a bureau of surrealist research in Paris and discusses the proto-surrealism of Hieronymus Bosch with film-maker Peter Greenaway.…

German Concentration Camps Factual Survey – Special Archival Edition DVD (BFI, £29.99, cert 18) On 29 September 1945, a rough cut of a film was screened at the Ministry of Information in London. Assembled by Sidney Bernstein, who later founded Granada Television and led a team that included Stewart McAllister, Richard Crossman and Alfred Hitchcock, it showed the horrors of the Nazi death camps. The aim of the film was to create a visual report that would shame the German people into accepting Allied occupation. But with the conflict over, the documentary was ultimately left unfinished. Now, Imperial War Museums (IWM) has restored the six reels that are said to have caused an awed hush from those who saw them. Moreover, IWM has completed the film, including adding a newly…

1 The Italian Chapel LAMB HOLM, ORKNEY Where Italian prisoners worshipped In 1943, former Italian PoWs at work on allied sea defences on Orkney were given permission to build a Catholic chapel on Lamb Holm. Created from two Nissen huts joined end to end, it is now one of Orkney’s most-visited attractions. visitscotland.com 2 Cultybraggan Camp NR COMRIE, PERTHSHIRE Where top Germans were held Britain’s last remaining high-security PoW camp. Notoriously tough, and once home to SS officers, members of the Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe and Marine Corps, it was dubbed the “Black Camp of the North”. Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess is said to have stayed here after crash-landing in Scotland in 1941. visitscotland.com 3 The Hayes Conference Centre SWANWICK, DERBYSHIRE Where a great escape took place In December 1940, five German…

BEST TIME TO GO Verona is at its hottest during July and August with average highs of 24°C. The Shakespeare and jazz festivals run from June into August, while the main opera season at the arena runs from late July to early September. The city is quieter in winter and spring. GETTING THERE Many of the UK’s airports offer direct flights to Verona. If you arrive at the railway station it is easy to find a bus to Piazza Bra. WHAT TO PACK Your copy of Romeo and Juliet (you might like to read an act at a time in five different places around the city). Comfortable footwear because it’s a great city for exploring on foot, especially around the castle, and walking across the bridges. WHAT TO BRING BACK…

Benazir Bhutto served two terms as prime minister of Pakistan, from 1988–90 and 1993–96. The eldest daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who also served as prime minister, she was the first woman to become head of state of a Muslim nation. Born in Karachi, she was educated at Harvard and Oxford, but was later jailed for five years by her father’s political opponents. As prime minister, she pushed forward Pakistan’s atomic weapons programme, but her two terms of office both ended with her being dismissed by the Pakistani president for alleged corruption. After a number of assassination attempts, she was killed in 2007, the victim of an apparent suicide bomb attack. When did you first hear about Benazir Bhutto? I must have been six or seven. My father left Pakistan…

Jonathan Hogg The 1980s is a fascinating period for contemporary historians. In a world where nuclear weapons still exist, I am interested in tracing their social, cultural and political roots. • Jonathan explores the impact of nuclear tensions on 1980s culture Janina Ramirez History is a subject bursting out of the seams. There’s a new generation of women’s voices coming through with some really refreshing new research, which is incredibly exciting. • Read our interview with four leading female historians Ian Mortimer The late 17th century fascinates everyone who studies it. There were so many fundamental changes – it can seem both modern and medieval at once. • Ian takes us back to the seismic events of 1660…

2 April 1801 At the battle of Copenhagen, Horatio Nelson (right) ignores an order to withdraw by deliberately holding the telescope to his blind eye. 15 April 1071 After a long siege, Bari, the last Byzantine possession in southern Italy, falls to the Normans. 16 April 1912 After a flight lasting 59 minutes, the American aviator Harriet Quimby (left) becomes the first woman to fly across the English Channel. By the spring of 1882, Jesse James’s career was in deep decline. Perhaps the most famous outlaw in American history, a former Confederate veteran who had slid into a life of paramilitary violence, bank raids and train robberies, James was now 34 years old. His famous gang had largely broken up, while Missouri’s new governor, Thomas Theodore Crittenden, had persuaded the…

What is the aim of the project ? The impact of the Civil War on everyday life was immense, with a larger proportion of the British population believed to have died during the conflict than in the First World War. We want to find out how ordinary men and women remembered the conflict and how victims of the war negotiated with authorities for charitable relief in its aftermath, as well as to examine patterns of allegiance and wartime behaviour across the kingdom as a whole. What sources will you be studying and what can they tell us? We’ll be examining every petition for financial relief submitted by wounded veterans and war widows in the wake of the Civil War – between 1642 and 1700. These are currently housed in individual…

“We live in a world of nation states, most of which are very recent creations, born only in the aftermath of the age of European colonialism. Many in Africa, the near east and Asia are postwar creations (take Pakistan, Algeria or Iraq). Seven have come in the last 15 years. And in historical terms, even the USA is a young country. But some states are very ancient civilisational polities. And among them is China. The other day I attended an event at the new China Centre in Oxford, a magnificent building. I was there to talk about our Story of China series and it was a real pleasure to listen to great scholars who have spent their lives reflecting on their subjects. And for the historian, few subjects these days…

They motored along the road to environmental disaster The motor car traces its roots back to the 1860s, when Austrian inventor Siegfried Marcus built a pushcart powered by a gasoline-fuelled internal combustion engine. By the turn of the 20th century, cars were becoming increasingly popular, opening up rural areas and giving travellers a taste of true freedom. Today there are more than a billion cars worldwide, mostly powered by petrol or diesel engines, contributing to at least a tenth of global carbon dioxide emissions as well as other pollutants. On top of that, there are diesel-powered trains and ships, and those kerosene-burning jet planes. Yet the internal combustion engine wasn’t the only solution available to the Victorians. Stirling engines, powered by heat exchange, were a promising alternative. Running on any…

Russell shows how closely, in court, sex was allied to death Young and Damned and Fair: The Life and Tragedy of Catherine Howard at the Court of Henry VIII by Gareth Russell William Collins, 512 pages, £25 Gareth Russell opens his biography by quoting from the poet Stevie Smith, and comparing Henry VIII’s fifth queen to Scott Fitzgerald’s Daisy Buchanan. If you’re going to take those sorts of risks, you need some serious historical heft behind you. This Russell has, and in abundance. To the vivid phrasing of a novelist, he adds a forensic eye for fact and an encyclopaedic knowledge of the personalities of the late Henrician court. The date of Catherine Howard’s birth is debatable, like that of her kinswoman and predecessor Anne Boleyn, but she would have…

The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the 21st Century Churchill once said that while “the inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings, the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries”. In his remarkable new book, The Great Leveler, historian Walter Scheidel shows that this is even truer than Churchill realised. In fact, says Scheidel, reducing inequality has always been a miserable business. In this magisterial review he demonstrates that economic inequality normally expands as far as it can without driving (too many) of the poorest into starvation. The hunter-gatherer bands of early prehistory were very equal, but only because they produced too little surplus to make anyone rich; but as soon as farming began, the rich…

Fair Exchange Michèle Roberts (1999) Roberts’s rich, sensuous novel opens with a peasant woman in early 19th-century France asking her village priest for absolution from the most momentous sin of her life and opens out into a story of sexual passions both acknowledged and unacknowledged. Drawing on real incidents in the lives of William Wordsworth and Mary Wollstonecraft, but including characters of Roberts’s own creation, this is a cleverly constructed romance seen from a feminist perspective. Burning Bright Tracy Chevalier (2007) In 1792, the Kellaways arrive in London from rural Dorset and find a city nervously eyeing unfolding events in revolutionary France. Jem, the youngest boy, forms an unlikely alliance with streetwise Cockney girl Maggie and the two find an unexpected mentor in the Kellaways’ new neighbour – the radical…

TV Yesterday, scheduled for Sunday 16 April If the story of how, in 1914, British and German soldiers called a temporary truce and played football on Christmas Day is familiar, the wider story of sport during the First World War is far less well known. As this documentary explores, this was a time when the military authorities saw organised sport as a way to keep up morale. For the troops themselves, many from rural areas, this was often the first time they had been able to play football, to box or to take part in competitive athletics. Drawing on rarely seen footage, this one-off documentary explores the Great War’s key role in the history of sport.…

On Yesterday, there’s an excuse, if any were needed, to rewatch Blackadder. In the nightly ‘The History of Blackadder’ strand (Monday 10 April), the channel is showing all four series along with documentaries from shows such as Time Team, David Starkey’s Monarchy and Tracy Borman’s Private Lives of the Tudors to offer context. Another highlight on Yesterday is a channel premiere for The Underground War (Wednesday 12 April), which follows the hunt for one of the last Allied dug-outs, deep beneath the cornfields of Flanders, Belgium. On PBS America, American Experience: Walt Disney (Tuesday 11 April) is a portrait of the animator and filmmaker. Shown over four successive nights, the series promises “unprecedented access” to Disney’s archives, including footage featuring in a documentary for the first time. Mighty Uke (PBS…

New beginnings RE-OPENING / FREE ENTRY National Army Museum Chelsea, London From 30 March 020 7730 0717 • nam.ac.uk The National Army Museum has thrown open its doors to the public once more following a three-year £23.75m redevelopment project. Four floors now house five permanent thematic galleries, which explore the near 400-year history of the British Army. Visitors begin their journey in the Soldier gallery, which draws on individual stories and objects from the museum’s collections to explore the physical and emotional experience of soldiering throughout the army’s history. The Army gallery explores the history of the force as an institution, while the Battle gallery examines the British experience of conflict from the 1640s to the present day. The two final spaces – Society and Insight – examine the army…

1. THE KEEP MILITARY MUSEUM, DORCHESTER 300 years of the history of our Regiments in an extraordinary castle like building. Highlights include a reconstructed WW1 trench and four Victoria Crosses. keepmilitarymuseum.org | 01305 264066 2. MAIDENHEAD HERITAGE CENTRE A fabulous Spitfire simulator helps tell the story of Air Transport Auxiliary and its intrepid male and female pilots who ferried warplanes from factories to RAF airfields throughout the war. maidenheadheritage.org.uk | 01628 780555 3. EREWASH MUSEUM Erewash Museum, Derbyshire Museum of The Year 2011, 2012 and 2016. Visit our fascinating local history museum and art gallery. Explore our gardens or try afternoon tea in our brand new tea room. erewashmuseum.co.uk | 01159 071141 4. MUSEUM OF WITCHCRAFT & MAGIC Contains the world’s oldest and largest collection relating to witchcraft. magic and the occult in…

1. What links Frenchmen Jean Nicot (pictured below, died 1600), Pierre Magnol (d1715) and the Marquis de Sade (d1814)? 2. Where in London would you find buried a copy of Bradshaw’s Guide, a portrait of Queen Victoria, a box of cigars and the 1878 Whitaker’s Almanack? 3. It was called The Original and was launched at South Shields in 1789. What was it? 4. Which of the following English court painters was born in Britain? a) Hans Holbein b) Anthony van Dyck c) Peter Lely d) Godfrey Kneller 5. How did the mysterious Ferguson’s Gang hit the headlines in Britain in the 1930s and 40s? 6. What did Jane Taylor write after looking 6 out of the window of this house in Lavenham? QUIZ ANSWERS 1. They are all eponymous,…

Even as he was led towards the scaffold, Nicolas-Jacques Pelletier can never have imagined that his name would go down in history. A violent criminal in his early thirties, he had been arrested in October 1791 for a brutal attack on a man in the streets of Paris. At the end of the year he was sentenced to death. But for months, nothing happened. Unknown to Pelletier, he had been chosen to become a guinea pig for France’s latest invention – the guillotine. On a warm afternoon in April, Pelletier was led into the square outside the Hôtel de Ville in Paris, where for hours a large crowd had been waiting for the fun to begin. Dressed in a blood-red shirt, Pelletier was palpably shocked by the sight of the…

A few months ago (in Social Media, February), you asked whether history programmes are up for the chop – following an article in the Guardian newspaper arguing that this was the case. I replied, via Twitter, that history programmes will survive but must find new approaches to history to ensure their survival. Well, I think the BBC has taken a great step forward with the reboot of Roots. The first episode was dramatic, heart-wrenching and educational. This shows that a history programme does not have to be another Tudor court intrigue drama or documentary. I say let’s move on from the well-trodden path of the British 16th century and explore alternative paths. They need not be foreign or fictional dramas – perhaps do a historical drama set in Mughal India,…

1. Born-again biker A Victorian entrepreneur found a new lease of life – and all-conquering bikes – in the backstreets of Nottingham The story of British cycling’s rise to global domination begins with the adventures of Frank Bowden, a young British lawyer, born in Exeter in 1848. He made his fortune in property development in Hong Kong during the 1870s, but became seriously ill. When he returned to England he was told by his doctor he probably only had six months to live, but that riding a bike might prolong his life. Frank took up cycling with a passion and, a year later, was healthier than ever before. In the true spirit of the Victorian entrepreneur, he wanted to share the health benefits of the bicycle – and at the…

We can’t be sure what was going through Edward’s mind as Seymour lurched from one disaster to the next in the autumn of 1549. But an extract from his diary gives us a clue. In it the king relates how the London councillors sent him “A very gentle letter… to declare [the Protector’s] faults, ambitions, vainglory, entering into rash wars in my youth… enriching himself from my treasure, following his own opinions and doing all by his own authority, etc. [The next day] the lords came to Windsor, took him and brought him through Holborn to the Tower.” Edward’s tone is emotionless, with no suggestion of regret for his uncle’s fate. So did he resent Seymour’s control? Edward was an orphan. The boy’s only close relatives were his uncles, Edward…

Britain entered the 20th century complacently resting on the laurels of its empire The Locomotive of War: Money, Empire, Power and Guilt by Peter Clarke Bloomsbury, 432 pages, £25 Professor Peter Clarke’s intention, he tells us, is to examine the impact of the two world wars – the First World War in particular – on liberal western democracy, through the prism of five major players: Lloyd George and Churchill, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D Roosevelt, who led their countries through the wars, and the economist John Maynard Keynes. The problem is that his declared theme too often gets lost in the detail. Nonetheless, the book is a richly rewarding feast of facts and arguments. The “locomotive of war” – the term is attributed to Trotsky – took the societies that…

He brings to life a cast of characters who changed the nation’s capital forever London’s Triumph: Merchant Adventurers and the Tudor City by Stephen Alford Allen Lane, 336 pages, £20 We are a nation obsessed with the Tudors. Our fascination with this notorious royal dynasty is understandable. It was a dramatic and colourful age, with a king who married six times, a Virgin Queen, seismic events such as the Reformation… and so the list goes on. And yet, as Stephen Alford argues, the real triumph of the Tudor age was the evolution of London from medieval backwater to dynamic global metropolis. It is an unusual angle on an extensively studied period, but one that is far from niche. Indeed, the themes that the author uncovers hold such relevance and interest…

Manifest destiny was “a programme that benefited primarily European whites” The Invention of America RADIO Radio 4, scheduled for Sunday 9 April The way a nation sees itself, in the estimation of award-winning journalist Misha Glenny, grows in great part from “historical myths, truths and half-truths”. In the case of the USA, its superpower status means its “self-perception” is often of pressing concern to the wider global community. This is especially the case in 2017, as the world considers the Trump administration’s promises to break with recent history. It’s therefore an opportune moment for Glenny to look Stateside, uncovering – in a three-part series – fascinating 19th-century stories that are perhaps not familiar to British listeners. Each show deals with key themes, such as borders. In the 1840s, Texas was…

Prisoners sent to Eden Camp weren’t here to see out the war behind barbed wire; they were here to work It’s not much to look at: a cluster of 34 tin-roofed one-storey huts, hunkered down on the agricultural flatlands of Ryedale, halfway between York and the coast. The flags surmounting a redbrick tower in the middle of the complex snap in the wind beneath a blustery blue sky. Eden Camp is an award-winning museum of the Second World War – ‘the people’s war’, as the museum calls it. There are exhibits here covering everything from Bomber Command and the U-boat menace to George Formby and ‘Dig For Victory’. Vintage military hardware and signposts in army stencil crowd the footpaths. But the camp is more than just a museum: as an…

“At Casa di Giulietta you can pay homage to – and perhaps even enact – the idea of the famous love story” It was my late father who first mentioned Verona to me, while we were on a family holiday at nearby Lake Garda. “It’s famous for its opera,” he said, “and for Romeo and Juliet.” I was 11, and already those two lovers had a mythical reality entirely of their own. But we never made the trip. In fact, I did not visit Verona until 23 years later, just after my father had died. By then I had taught and seen Romeo and Juliet many times, and I’d even played Valentine in Shakespeare’s other Veronese play, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. The Italian city has now become a delightful…

Devilled kidneys Devilled kidneys, traditionally a Victorian breakfast dish, have made quite a comeback in recent years. Devilling food began in the 18th century and refers to the dish’s sauce, usually made with spices or condiments. love the idea I of kidneys for breakfast but I’ve always been a bit squeamish about cutting up offal. I’m glad I gave it a whirl though; it’s delicious! The kidneys were beautifully tender and the rich, boozy, spicy sauce was perfect for mopping up with some bread. This recipe was from River Cottage and worked very well. I think the beauty of this dish though is you could experiment quite easily and add a little more or less of what you fancy. If you want to avoid the unappetising smell of urine while…