Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2021 i History Extra

“Turn on the news nowadays and there’s a fair chance the headlines will be dominated by stories about the pandemic, climate change, migration, and the transformations being wrought by information technology. These might seem like very modern preoccupations, but they are centuries old. As Dan Jones highlights in this month’s cover feature, our medieval forebears faced very similar challenges to us, with equally dramatic results. Turn to page 22 for that. Dan is also one of the contributors to a fascinating new book, edited by the historians Helen Carr and Suzannah Lipscomb, entitled What Is History, Now? I well remember reading EH Carr’s seminal What Is History? during my student days, and now, on the 60th anniversary of its publication, the topic is being revisited for a new generation. On…

EYE-OPENER A window on the past This stained-glass image of the prophet Nathan is one of a series of panels in the windows of Canterbury Cathedral depicting the Ancestors of Christ. New analysis has revealed that they are much older than previously thought – and may be among the oldest stained-glass windows in the world. University College London experts used a “windolyser” – a specially adapted portable X-ray fluorescence device to analyse chemical clues in the glass and more accurately date the windows. The results suggest that, rather than being created in the 13th century as previously believed, some of the panels were made between 1130 and 1160, before being removed and then reinstalled along with the other, later sections. They would therefore have been in place when Thomas Becket…

Style revolution I loved your feature about the legacy the French Revolution had in Britain (Shockwaves of Revolution, August). I have a degree in fashion journalism, so particularly enjoyed reading about how clothes inspired by the silhouettes worn by the ancient Greeks and Romans made a comeback after the revolution. However, it’s worth pointing out that this shape of dress is commonly known as the “empire line”, in homage to Napoleon Bonaparte’s first wife, Josephine de Beau- harnais. She popularised this style of straight, neoclassical dress in Paris, and it was named after France’s First Empire, formed shortly after the revolution of 1789. Josephine would usually wear white empire line dresses – again linking to the ancient Greeks, but also because Napoleon liked to see his wife in that colour.…

“It was astonishing bravery – and cold-blooded bravery, too” Rob Attar: Could we begin by discussing the genesis of this book? The story of how it came about is a little unusual. Saul David: It’s very unusual. A couple of years ago I was contacted by my agent, who asked me if I would be interested in writing the authorised history of the Special Boat Service (SBS). And of course my initial reaction was: who wouldn’t? But the reason my agent asked me is that they also happened to represent Paddy Ashdown, who was a former member of the SBS and had been commissioned to write the book. Very sadly, Paddy died rather suddenly towards the end of 2018, before the book was finished. So the question was: what happens…

Heiresses: The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies by Laura Thompson Apollo, 384 pages. £25 To paraphrase Jane Austen, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman in possession of a good fortune is in need of a husband. Historically, marriage was virtually the only career open to the aspiring female. Even the plainest Jane gained allure if it was known that she was an heiress. However, inherited wealth brought its own problems. How could any girl be sure that it was her personal qualities, rather than her fortune, fuelling the ardour of potential spouses? In this witty, wide-ranging and intelligent social history, Laura Thompson explores the changing experiences of moneyed women between the 17th and 21st centuries. Some deployed their fortunes to achieve bold, independent lives, often to…

@mrbwteach Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages, sure to be another rip-roaring read from Dan Jones. @dandiedinmont Tracy Borman’s Crown and Sceptre: A New History of the British Monarchy, exploring the institution of the monarchy from 1066 to the present day, and anticipating the platinum jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. Everyone is fascinated by royal history, and this is sure to be a must-read! @emrysolivaw I am on the edge of my seating waiting for Sarah Gristwood’s The Tudors in Love: The Courtly Code Behind the Last Medieval Dynasty. Her exploration of the 16th century is refreshing. @richwillco1 Kilmichael: The Life and Afterlife of an Ambush by Eve Morrison, an analysis of an ambush on RIC [Royal Irish Constabulary] Auxiliaries in November 1920 during the Irish…

“If you’re locked in your house, the question of who lived there in the past becomes even more acute” Broadcaster and historian DAVID OLUSOGA talks bricks-and-mortar genealogy as he discusses the new series of A House Through Time. He explains why Leeds makes a great location and the impact of lockdown on local history Why have you chosen a house in Headingley, a suburb of Leeds, for the new series of A House Through Time? We wanted to do Leeds because we wanted to find a house that had been absorbed into the city. We wanted to show how cities in the late 18th century and 19th century expanded enormously and swallowed up what were suburban or rural areas. The house was built as part of the process by which…

1. TV was turned off for toddlers I had not heard before of the so-called Toddlers’ Truce, where, until 1957, TV transmissions were paused to help parents get their kids to bed (page 56). No such luck today… 2. Globalisation began early A stand-out fact for me from Dan Jones’ feature is the assertion that in around AD 1000 goods could, theoretically, travel between every continent, except Antarctica (page 27). 3. Princes poured tea Among many arresting details in the article on the royals in the First World War is the story of Prince Albert (the future George VI) carrying a teapot around at Buckingham Palace parties for wounded soldiers (page 37).…

Having made it to the US earlier this summer, American-born historian and author Hallie Rubenhold (@HallieRubenhold) observed on a visit to a bookshop that she “never ceases to be amazed by the American obsession with the ‘founding fathers’. Same stories, told over and over. Much like the UK’s obsession with the Second World War, it really is time to get people interested in other aspects of our rich historical human experience.” An innocuous observation, one might think – but that’s not how it went down on Twitter. Amid genuinely shocking abuse of Hallie, some interesting intercontinental conversation ensued. One strand of the debate considered how helpful it was that the two nations’ histories are dominated by those two stories. Lauren (@starlingspecks) commented: “there are so many myths attached to our…

England’s football dream may have been dashed when the team was narrowly defeated by Italy in the Uefa European Championship final at Wembley in July, but the most concerning outcome of the match was the racist abuse directed at the three young black players – Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka – who missed England’s penalties. A barrage of racist comments were posted on social media, a mural dedicated to Rashford in Manchester was vandalised, and several youth players at Portsmouth FC were sacked for sharing discriminatory comments about the trio in a private group chat. The response of the England players – who, in “taking the knee” before each match, had demonstrated a willingness to challenge such racism – was typically forceful. Rashford tweeted that he was sorry…

In the middle of the 16th century, the historian John Foxe looked back at the great sweep of time since the birth of Christ, and decided that it could be sliced into three chunks. History, he suggested, began with the “primitive time”, when Christians were persecuted and had to hide in catacombs from wicked Romans. More recently came the “latter days”, Foxe’s own times – the age of the Reformation. Sandwiched between these two was an era of about 1,000 years, which were neither fish nor fowl. Foxe called these centuries “the middle age”. Today we call them the Middle Ages, or the medieval period. That vast slab of history stretched from the fall of the western Roman empire in the fifth century AD to the European voyages to the…

EUROPE Children of the Night: The Strange and Epic Story of Modern Romania by Paul Kenyon (Head of Zeus, 496 pages, £25) A scarred century From absolute monarchy to fascist ally of Hitler and then communist dictatorship, 20th-century Romania oscillated between regimes in quick succession, each leaving deep scars. Paul Kenyon’s book delves into this history, bringing to life a rogues’ gallery of characters including unstable playboy King Carol II, charismatic far-right mystic Corneliu Codreanu and the corrupt and deluded Ceaușescu. SOCIAL HISTORY Class of ‘37: Voices from Working-Class Girlhood by Hester Barron and Claire Langhamer (John Blake, 272 pages, £16.99) Voices from the past In 1937, a class of 12 and 13-year-old girls from Bolton wrote a series of essays on subjects including their dreams for the future, holidays…

Heather Jones “The term ‘For King and Country’ kept appearing in the First World War documents I was working on. I became curious as to what the monarchy actually meant to people during the conflict.” Heather considers how the royals emerged from the horrors of war stronger than ever on page 34 Tristram Hunt “As an MP for Stoke-on- Trent, I was surrounded by the memory of Josiah Wedgwood in statues, streets, descendants and pottery workers. Now, as director of the V&A, I have the privilege of admiring his design brilliance every day at work.” Tristram shines a light on the radical messages the potter planted on his ceramics on page 42 Sarah Gristwood “I’ve long been fascinated by the enduring ideal of courtly love – and when I realised…

Liverpool has lost its World Heritage status, with Unesco asserting that recent development of the city’s Victorian waterfront had led to a “serious deterioration” of the site. The ruling, made following a secret ballot by a Unesco committee in July, cited plans for a new stadium for Everton Football Club, to be built at Bramley-Moore Dock, as one of the developments reducing the heritage value of the city’s waterfront. Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City was added to the World Heritage List in 2004, allowing it access to UN conservation funding and protection under the Geneva convention. It’s only the third site in the world to be stripped of its status, following Oman’s Arabian Oryx Sanctuary in 2007 and the Dresden Elbe Valley in Germany in 2009. Responding to the decision,…

“Let’s cherish this shining light of the great Bronze Age civilisations” I’m just about to hop on the train to Leicester, to visit friends in the Tamil community in what is Britain’s most multicultural city. A feast for the mind and body – especially for a vegetarian! But we will also be celebrating the riches of south Indian culture and history with a generation of Leicester children born outside India. And though this may sound rather grand, it set me thinking about the history of civilisation. The 20th century saw the end of most of the traditional civilisations of the ancient world. The Tamil poet and freedom fighter Subrahmania Bharati, who died 100 years ago this September, spoke of the “terrible onslaught of European Christianity and European materialism”. We can…

“Merriman-Labor’s searing satire of the British was not well received” In 1904, an accomplished young Krio man from a middle-class family in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, set sail from the west African coast to London. Aged just 26, his aim was to make his mark on the literary world. Augustus Merriman-Labor had every reason to be optimistic. He was hard-working, gifted and successful, with a rising profile in his home country, and moving to London to take advantage of the opportunities the city afforded was a logical but brave next step. As scholar Danell Jones writes: “The Sierra Leone Weekly News had assured him that his colour would be no obstacle there,” and he could “go anywhere, wherever his merits... will take him”. The Krios have a fascinating…

Two centuries after jousting went out of fashion in Britain, the Eglinton tournament of 1839 once again saw knights in full armour thundering towards each other down the lists, hoping for a trophy that was to be awarded by the Queen of Beauty. The Victorian revival of chivalry had its roots in the Romantic rediscovery of all things medieval and the novels of Sir Walter Scott, and it was ultimately co-opted into the service of Victorian morality. Victoria and Albert were painted as Queen Philippa and Edward III; Disraeli would later call Victoria “the Faery”, in reference to Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. Baden-Powell urged his Boy Scouts to protect ladies, and a picture of Sir Galahad (preferred to Lancelot for his “purity”) hung in the chapel at Eton. Tennyson’s Idylls…

Fatima Manji on Britain’s historical relationship with the eastern world “I believe that Britain has been schooled out of its love for the region that I describe as the Orient. My book takes you on a journey from Elizabe-than England to the First World War, and I found many fascinating, intriguing and sometimes disturbing stories about how Britain interacted with that part of the world. For me, it reveals something about British history that we have forgotten.” Anna Neima on bids to build utopian societies after WWI “A manifesto, a good decision-making process and some kind of sustainable economic model are all very important in setting up a ‘utopian’ community. But I think that all of these communities do end up having a lot of internal friction.” Sarah Ferguson, Duchess…

Across 7 Marcus ______, Roman emperor noted for his Meditations on Stoic philosophy (8) 8 Central Anatolian city captured by the Ottoman ruler Orhan Ghazi in 1354 (6) 10 Queen of Egypt in 14th century BC, the chief wife of Akhenaten (9) 11 Elizabeth______, business name of the 20th-century founder of a cosmetics empire in the USA (5) 12 Hampshire town, scene of a 1643 battle that ended in victory for the parliamentarians over the royalists (5) 13 Organisation founded during the reign of Henry VIII, opening up to the public in 1635 and gaining its present name in 1784 (5,4) 15 The last _______ of Germany was Wilhelm II (reigned 1888-1918) (6) 17 British air force officer, deputy commander in chief under Eisenhower of the Allied Expeditionary Force (6)…

Janusz Korczak 1878–1942 IN PROFILE Janusz Korczak, born Henryk Goldszmit, was a Polish Jewish educator and children’s author, and the founder and director of two Warsaw orphanages, one for Jewish children. He insisted on accompanying the Jewish children to the ghetto and then to Treblinka extermination camp, where all were murdered by the Nazis. A monument to Korczak stands in the Jewish Cemetery on Okopowa Street in Warsaw. “He suffered deprivation and danger for the sake of the children in his care, and chose to die with them rather than save himself” When did you first hear about Janusz Korczak? I wandered into an exhibition about him in Rome, and was overcome by the heroism of this ordinary man. I say ordinary – he was actually quite well known as…