BBC World Histories Magazine Issue 21

Will Brexit mark a new dawn for the UK? Or will it fuel the kind of rift that has torn other states apart? As the United Kingdom sets out into its brave new post-EU world, questions persist about the form it will take in the years and decades to come. In January, prime minister Boris Johnson rejected calls for a second Scottish independence referendum, but there are those who argue that Brexit marks a major shift in circumstances for Scotland since it last voted on its future in 2014. This issue, we explore the history of the ‘nation state’, and examine the forces that have threatened the survival of such states around the world, from eastern Europe to the Middle East. What are the roots of these crises? And why…

BBC World Histories explores the history behind the headlines, and offers fresh perspectives on our global past MORE FROM US historyextra.com The website of BBC World Histories and our sister magazines, BBC History Magazine and BBC History Revealed, is packed with thought-provoking world history content. The History Extra podcast You can now listen to three new episodes of our podcast, which feature historians including Mary Beard and David Reynolds, each week. All are available free via iTunes and other providers, or at historyextra.com/podcasts. Digital editions BBC World Histories is available for the Kindle, Kindle Fire, iPad/iPhone, Google Play and Zinio. You can find us in your app store. BBC History Magazine Britain’s bestselling history magazine is available around the world, and is published 13 times a year in print and…

Mary Beard What makes nude art different from porn? That’s one of the questions discussed on page 72 by the professor of classics and presenter of recent BBC TV series Mary Beard’s Shock of the Nude. “How do we explain why one painting of female genitalia is in a gallery, whereas we’d likely find similar photos in a not-wholly-salubrious shop?” David Edmonds “Is it possible that people do bad things just because they’re told to?” asks BBC journalist Edmonds, who from page 64 explores social psychology studies trying to make sense of the Holocaust. “One experiment revealed how easily humans divide into groups and then discriminate against other groups,” he explains. Mike Fu In writing about travels in Africa and beyond, one young Chinese-born woman revealed new horizons for her…

Expert opinions on historical issues that touch today’s world We are told that this will be the Asian century, during which China in particular will attain global economic and political supremacy – and perhaps cultural dominance, too. But many also believe that if there is to be a Third World War, it could begin in east Asia. Perhaps it might be sparked by some convulsion within North Korea, or a confrontation in the Taiwan Strait – which has long held the unenviable title of the world’s number-one military flashpoint. Or it might erupt on Dokdo (Takeshima in Japanese), islets off the east coast of South Korea claimed by Japan as well as both Koreas. Though Japan and South Korea would appear to have many mutual economic, military, diplomatic and cultural…

“Really? No Alexander, Scipio Africanus, Hannibal or Caesar? Not even Augustus? Justinian? Sid Ghosh, via Facebook “On the list I see Amilcar Cabral, who liberated African lands from Portuguese colonial rule, but not Gandhi, who liberated India from British colonial rule, nor Martin Luther King Jr, who led the civil rights movement in the US. Ritish Patel, by email “Abraham Lincoln’s reputation as the ‘Great Emancipator’ rests not only on the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment, with its unprecedented enforcement clause and unneeded presidential signature, but also on his request of Frederick Douglass to devise a plan to get as many slaves as possible out of the South while his re-election, the issue of the Proclamation’s constitutionality and the outcome of the war seemed in doubt. Lincoln also approved…

1 LAKE VÄTTERN SWEDEN Norse code The inscription on a ninth-century runestone may reveal Viking fears of climate catastrophe. Raised near Lake Vättern in Sweden, the Rök stone, which bears the world’s longest runic inscription, is thought to be a memorial to a slain son. Experts from three Swedish universities collaborating on a new study suggest that “the inscription deals with an anxiety triggered by a son’s death and the fear of a new climate crisis similar to the catastrophic one after [AD]536”, when volcanic eruptions led to crop devastation and mass hunger. 2 MEXICO CITY MEXICO Plunder proven A 2kg gold bar (below) unearthed in Mexico City four decades ago has been confirmed as being composed of Aztec gold plundered by Cortés’ Conquistadors. New fluorescent X-ray chemical analysis of…