Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2021 i History Extra

“In October 1964 the athlete Yoshinori Sakai lit the flame at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. He had been born just over 19 years earlier, on the same day that the US dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. This was no coincidence. Sakai was chosen for the role to symbolise Japan’s journey from the dark days of the war to its triumphant reconstruction as a modern, technological and welcoming nation – a thread that ran throughout the Games. As the second Tokyo Olympics is about to begin, Christopher Harding revisits the 1964 Games, showing how it reshaped the country’s reputation at home and abroad. You’ll find his piece on page 50. Reshaping reputations is also the theme of this month’s cover feature, where Ronald Hutton is taking a…

SUBSCRIBE Save when you subscribe today See page 38 for details ENGAGE historyextra.com The website of BBC History Magazine is filled with exciting content on British and world history, and includes an extensive archive of magazine content. Find content relating to this issue at historyextra.com/ august2021 Social Media @historyextra historyextra @historyextra LISTEN The HistoryExtra podcast Our award-winning podcast is released six times a week. Why not check it out today, and explore our archive of more than 1,000 previous episodes. Download episodes for free from iTunes and other providers, or via historyextra.com/podcast USPS Identification Statement BBC HISTORY (ISSN 1469-8552) (USPS 024-177) August 2021 is published 13 times a year under licence from BBC Studios by Immediate Media Co Bristol Ltd, Eagle House, Colston Avenue, Bristol BS1 4ST, UK. Distributed in…

Following the broadcast of Unremembered, I was asked to work with a newly established special committee of experts and community representatives to investigate historical inequalities in commemoration. We were looking for divergence, particularly from the CWGC’s core principle of equality in death. Much of what we found came as a surprise, and there is no doubt that the report we published makes for difficult reading. But it is also a document of which the CWGC can be proud: of the fact that the organisation is willing to confront a difficult past with honesty, integrity and transparency, and also that it was not an exercise in academic catharsis but a catalyst for positive action. The global former battlefields of the First World War were not alike. During this study we saw…

Seventy-five years ago, on the morning of 16 August 1946, crowds of Muslims made their way to a park in central Calcutta (now Kolkata). They were gathering to observe Direct Action Day, called nationwide by the All-India Muslim League to protest what it saw as the abandonment of India’s Muslim minority by the British colonial government and the Hindu-dominated Indian National Congress. The general strike and rallies planned were intended to imitate Congress’s tactics of mass protest but, while the day passed off peacefully elsewhere, in Calcutta large-scale violence broke out between Hindus and Muslims, resulting in thousands of deaths. These riots are seen as marking a turning point after which the country’s partition into India and Pakistan became inevitable. Earlier in the year, a British Cabinet Mission hoping to…

One fine day, late in 1790, a wedding was held at the church of Saint-Sulpice in the Parisian Latin Quarter. The groom, Camille Desmoulins, was a revolutionary journalist; his bride, Lucile Duplessis, a girl of 20 whom he had loved hopelessly for years, without prospect of having enough money to marry. Among the 60 guests were many radical revolutionaries, all the groom’s friends. Desmoulins told his father how many guests wept with joy, declaring himself “the happiest of men who desires nothing more in the world”. Less than four years later, many of the people present at that wedding, including the bride and groom, had died under the guillotine, victims of a factional struggle that ripped through the leadership of a revolution that had begun in a spirit of liberty,…

1 Reform appears on the horizon When reports of the early stages of the French Revolution reached Britain in May 1789, the news was welcomed by many different sorts of people. Whig politicians, idealistic middle-class reformers and working-class agitators all saw reasons to believe that constitutional change in France was an indicator of a wider spirit of reform. Organisations that had been calling for the extension of the parliamentary franchise in Britain for some years, such as the Society for Constitutional Information, were inspired to take up their old struggle with renewed vigour. Corresponding societies were newly founded in London, Norwich, Manchester and other large towns with the aim of giving ordinary people representation in parliament. “Annual parliaments and universal suffrage” was the call of the London Corresponding Society. Gradually,…

On Friday 16 October 1964, a small section of Tokyo’s business district was treated to a meticulous cleansing. Young men in white lab coats and face masks dabbed at the pavement with cotton buds. Others scrubbed away with tiny brushes. And one man crouched down low, inspecting the results of their efforts with a magnifying glass. A signboard nearby bore the legend sōjichū – cleaning in progress. Photographs of the scene suggest that passers-by were happy enough with this explanation, the team’s eccentric approach to their task notwithstanding. Two words written in English on the sign explained why: “Be Clean!” It was a familiar injunction that by then ran broad and deep in the minds of Tokyoites. Their city, and indeed their whole country, was in the midst of one…

Phony phenomenon In 1813, a man named CHarles Redheffer invited New Yorkers to pay money to see what he claimed was a miraculous perpetu al motion machine. One visitor to the exhibition, Robert Fulton (pictured), inventor of steamboats and submarines, was suspicious. Noticing a long cord hidden behind the machine, Fulton followed it up some stairs where he found an old, bearded man eating a crust of bread while turning a hand-crank. His scam revealed, Redheffer fled the city and his machine was destroyed. Holy hold-up The 17th-century highwayman Jack Collet often committed his crimes while dressed as a bishop. His career was interrupted when he lost his religious robes in a game of dice – but, according to The Newgate Calendar, he hastened to replace them by holding up…

Researchers recover Spanish Civil War victims An initiative to identify the remains of people executed during and immediately after the Spanish Civil War is under way in a civil cemetery south of Madrid. Experts from institutions including Cranfield University and Complutense University of Madrid have joined forces to find and exhume 26 bodies interred at Almagro, in southern Spain. The war began in 1936 with a military revolt, supported by conservative political groups, against the country’s Republican government. The following three years were marked by bloody brutality and mass executions of political opponents; nationalist forces under Francisco Franco eventually claimed victory in 1939. The victims being identified in the current project were buried in 1939, the year the war ended, and 1940, while Franco ruled as dictator. The team is…

Being dubbed “the queen of slime moulds” might seem a dubious accolade, but Gulielma Lister (1860–1949) was the world expert on these extraordinary organisms that are now at the cutting edge of research into artificial intelligence – their trial-and-error decision-making processes are informing solutions for networking problems, for example. Not animals, plants nor fungi, slime moulds can creep around to explore their neighbourhood and track down food. One of them is the star attraction at a Paris zoo, where it is nicknamed le blob after the American horror movie. (In a quirk of serendipity, Alfred Hitchcock, the director of numerous other famous American horror films, lived for many years in the same road as Lister.) We treat the soil beneath our feet as dirt, yet in a single teaspoon, there…

In 1405 Christine de Pizan, a historian, poet and author - the only woman in France earning her living as a professional writer - composed The Book of the City of Ladies. It was a utopian dreamscape where female artistry, inventiveness, courage, creativity and thought were revered and celebrated. Behind the walls of her allegorical city, women and their accomplishments - both contemporary and historical - were protected from the rampant misogyny that permeated literature of the Middle Ages. Early in the book, Christine, the narrator, is visited by three virtues in the guise of ladies who guide the creation of her city. With Lady Reason, Christine discusses the “vile and disgusting things” that certain male authors had claimed about women’s bodies. One anonymous offender wrote a popular treatise around…

Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy by Anne Sebba Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 304 pages, £20 On a sultry summer’s evening in June 1953, a woman named Ethel Rosenberg was prepared for execu tion in the high-security Sing Sing prison in New York state. She displayed a steely composure as she was strapped into the electric chair, closing her eyes as the electrodes were attached to her head. She had vowed to die “with honour and dignity”, but the execution did not go according to plan. After three massive charges had been sent through her organs, her seemingly lifeless body was lifted from the chair. But prison doctors were horrified to notice that her heart was still beating, so she was strapped back into the chair and given a further two…

TASTE “Mock apricot” carrot jam Carrot jam has been a staple in Middle Eastern cuisine since the 12th century, and it historically proved popular in Britain too. Once a Victorian treat, carrot jam experienced a significant resurgence during the Second World War, because carrots were not subject to rationing, could be grown at home, and – according to the Ministry of Information – even helped people see in the dark. INGREDIENTS 500g carrot puree, made from boiled carrots 500g raw sugar Juice of one lemon Zest of half a lemon, grated or cut into fine strips Five apricot kernels Two tablespoons brandy METHOD Put the carrot puree in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the sugar, lemon juice and zest, and apricot kernels. Boil until the mixture…

Anne Boleyn: colour-blind casting and historical accuracy From its first announcement last autumn, Channel 5’s drama Anne Boleyn has hit the headlines for its colour-blind casting of English actress Jodie Turner-Smith as the Tudor queen. But, say historians including Dan Jones and Miranda Kaufmann, the adaptation is offering a fresh take on an old story and paving the way for new approaches to historical drama. bit.ly/AnneBoleynDrama Your guide to Catherine de Medici Often regarded as brutal and calculating, the powerful Catherine de Medici is much maligned. But how should we regard her actions and power? Estelle Paranque considers the life and legacy of the fascinating royal, from her historical unpopularity to her influence on the history of Europe. bit.ly/CatherineDeMedici Historical fiction recommendations for children What are the best historical novels…

In April, the UK’s secretary of state for defence, Ben Wallace, announced in parliament the findings of a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) report. It found that the organisation had failed to commemorate large numbers of Indian, Egyptian and other African troops after the First World War, either to the same standard as those who had fought on the western front, or even at all – with the number possibly being as high as 400,000. Wallace offered an official apology on behalf of the government of the time, the current government, and the CWGC, and made a commitment to put things right. The story attracted extensive coverage, much of which quoted the report’s reference to the “pervasive racism” of the time. The apology followed a 2019 Channel 4 documentary, Unremembered,…

9 AUGUST 378 Goths slaughter the Eastern Roman emperor Valens Butchery heralds the demise of Rome’s overwhelming military might Perhaps the Eastern Roman emperor Valens should have seen what was coming. “After many true predictions of seers and augurs,” wrote the historian Ammianus Marcellinus of the summer of 378, “dogs leaped back when wolves howled, night birds rang out a kind of doleful lament, the sun rose in gloom and dimmed the clear morning light.” Yet when Valens marched out from the Balkan town of Adrianople (now Edirne, in north-western Turkey) to face the invading Goths, he was confident of victory. Instead of waiting for reinforcements from the west, the experienced Valens, emperor in Constantinople for the previous 14 years, was determined to finish off the barbarians himself. Rising early…

Initial velocity Your interview with Jonathan Dimbleby in the May issue (Books) reminded me that, when I worked in London in the 1960s, a colleague had a German friend who had been involved in the Second World War Barbarossa campaign. This friend had told my colleague that, when they attacked Russia, his unit first advanced 20, 30 or 40 miles a day. This went on for weeks. In the end, they paused and were called into the commandant’s HQ for a briefing. The commandant had a map of the whole of Russia spread out. He pointed at it and said: “We are here.” It was at that moment that the German friend had a revelation about the scale of the operation: he saw in a flash that they had not…

Historical trends may ebb and flow but Oliver Cromwell never goes out of fashion. This brilliant general and statesman has proved a source of enormous fascination to generations of historians – and, more than 350 years after his death, that interest shows no sign of dimming. There can be few, if any, heads of the English state who have been studied as often and intensely as Cromwell. In the past three decades alone, he has been the subject of five full-length biographies, three studies of his career as a soldier, and a further three major collections of essays. Piled around these are numerous books and articles dissecting every episode of his remarkable career – from the causes of his radical Puritanism to his role in the execution of King Charles…

It could well be the history of most beers, actually. Beer is one of the world’s oldest alcoholic drinks, and in many different periods and places it wasn’t particularly potent. We all “know”, for instance, that even children consumed beer in medieval England because it was safer than water. In truth, though the ingredients were boiled, they might then have been kept in unwashed containers; any hygiene advantage was as likely to come from the drink’s microbial stew, which would tolerate few outside pathogens. Our ancestors often considered beer to be as much food as drink. “Small beer” or “table beer” was rarely clear, often looking like thin porridge. Commonly made with ingredients already used for a stronger brew, its alcohol content was “small”; an adult could consume a gallon…

1 Wandering womb In ancient Greek discourse on female bodies and health, including the Hippocratic Corpus, many illnesses of the female body were attributed to the womb “wandering” from its rightful place and impacting other vital organs such as the heart and liver. Thought to be caused by the womb becoming dry and stifled from lack of moisture, women who were not having marital sex or bearing children were most vulnerable to afflictions of the “wandering womb”. In the fourth century BC, Plato likened the womb to a creature that hungered for intercourse and conception, while around the second century AD, the physician Aretaeus described it as an “animal within an animal”. Although the belief that the womb could wander unbidden was dispelled, these classical physicians set the precedent for…

Where are the Bronzes today? These artefacts are scattered across more than 161 museums and private collections. Two-thirds of these museums are in Europe; artefacts from the 1897 raid are also held in 38 US collections, museums in Australia, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, and nine Nigerian museums. What are the arguments against their return? In the years following the looting, many museums argued that they were ideal repositories for these artefacts, which would be looked after more safely in their care than they would in private collections. Some of the Bronzes were purchased by the museums that currently hold them; others were loaned or donated subject to specific conditions which, those museums say, can make repatriation problematic. For a long time, experts expressed concerns that there was no…

VISIT Cultural celebration Iran was the cradle of one of history’s greatest civilisations – yet its exquisite artworks remain unknown to many. A new V&A exhibition is set to change that, exploring the past 5,000 years of Iranian culture through the lens of art. A vibrant array of more than 300 objects captures some of the key themes woven through Iran’s history: empire and kingship, the rise of Islam, and writing and poetry. We see its beginning as a fledgling civilisation, brought to life via pottery decorated with cavorting animals; the sprawling Persian empire and its fall at the hands of Alexander the Great; and Iran’s place in the world today. Highlights include illustrated depictions of parts of the Shahnameh, or “Book of Kings” – a poem completed in the…

“So you’re off to the town that time forgot?” a Welsh friend joked when I said I was going to Llandrindod Wells in hilly mid-Wales for the weekend. He wasn’t being mean, it just slipped out – but in a weird sort of way he was right... and wrong. Anyone travelling back in time, Doctor Who-like, to the “Llandod” (as locals refer to it) of the 1900s would have come across the proud, self-styled “Premier Spa of Wales” – its “hygienic capital” – in its heyday. The “healing qualities” of the spring waters began attracting visitors to the area in the 18th century. But it was the coming of the railway in the 1860s that really spurred on its growth, and led to the construction of a string of lavish…