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The rise and fall of Nauru
Historian article
Aadam Patel offers an insight into the complexities of the recent economic history of a remote Pacific island.
Nauru is an isolated island located in the Pacific Ocean approximately 4,400km north-east from Australia and 1,300km north-east from the Solomon Islands. With an area of just below 21 squared kilometres, it is...
The rise and fall of Nauru
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The Fall of Singapore 1942
Historian article
Churchill called it "the worst disaster and the largest capitulation in British history" and the Fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942 has certainly gathered its own mythology in the past 70 years. Was it all the fault of General Percival; were the guns pointing the wrong way; did the...
The Fall of Singapore 1942
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The secret diaries of William Wilberforce
Historian article
John Coffey shows us what insights can be gained from the diaries of leading abolitionist, William Wilberforce.
The diary is a distinctively modern genre... In English, the first diaries date from the Tudor era, but it is in the seventeenth century that the trickle becomes a flood. Alongside the famous...
The secret diaries of William Wilberforce
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History Abridged: The City of Alexandria
Historian feature
History Abridged: This feature seeks to take a person, event or period and abridge, or focus on, an important event or detail that can get lost in the big picture. Think Horrible Histories for grownups (without the songs and music). See all History Abridged articles
One of the oldest cities...
History Abridged: The City of Alexandria
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‘Zulu’ and the end of Empire
Historian article
In this article, Nicolas Kinloch examines the 1964 film Zulu. He suggests what it might tell us about the reality of the British Empire and asks if it has anything to say about the era in which the film was made.
One of the most successful British films of 1964...
‘Zulu’ and the end of Empire
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Origins of the European financial markets
Transcribed podcast lecture
This article is transcribed from a 2015 podcast given by Dr Anne Murphy of the University of Hertfordshire. In it Dr Murphy looks at the early origins of the European financial markets from the Italian Renaissance to the present day, as well as providing a useful introduction to finance, the stock market and the bond market....
Origins of the European financial markets
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Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs
Historian article
David Smith investigates how the USA made such a big mistake in the Bay of Pigs.
In his inaugural address, President Kennedy attempted to balance the demands of Cold War rhetoric with setting out a vision of a post-Cold War world. Praise for the speech came across the political divide, with the Republican minority leader Senator...
Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs
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Architecture within the reach of all
Historian article
Roisin Inglesby introduces us to the life and work of a lesser known member of the Arts and Crafts movement, Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo, who helped to change the face of European architecture and interior design.
Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo (1851–1942) may not be a household name, but he is arguably one of the most significant figures in British design...
Architecture within the reach of all
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Beyond the boundaries of the Lake District
Historian article
This article responds to recent changes in the size and status of the Lake District National Park by considering the historical interconnectedness of the Lake District with the region that surrounds it. Drawing on visual and verbal responses to the landscape of the Lakes region, Christopher Donaldson reveals how historical...
Beyond the boundaries of the Lake District
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The Tale of Two Winstons
Historian article
Winston Churchill is generally regarded as one of the most prominent figures of the twentieth century. As Prime Minister he led Britain to victory against the Nazi war machine, leading Time to name him ‘Man of the Year' in 1940 and ‘Man of the Half Century' in 1949. As recently...
The Tale of Two Winstons
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Opinion: The Sarajevo Assassination and the Perilous Limits of the 9/11 Analogy
Historian article
Historians love making analogies to the present day, and in 2014, during the 100th anniversary of the Sarajevo assassination and outbreak of the First World War, many were tempted to see parallels to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But not only is this analogy mistaken, it conceals the blundering true nature...
Opinion: The Sarajevo Assassination and the Perilous Limits of the 9/11 Analogy
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Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, 918-2018
Historian article
Many fascinating individuals appear in the British Library’s Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms exhibition – Bede, Alfred, Canute, Emma, William the Conqueror – but one deserves to be much better known, especially in this her anniversary year: one of the most important women in British history, hers is a classic case of the...
Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, 918-2018
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The end of the Roman Empire
Historian article
Guy de la Bédoyère considers whether the Roman Empire ever really fell or simply went through endless processes of change that makes it an integral presence in our lives today.
The fall of the Roman Empire is like the end of the dinosaurs. It’s one of the vast dramatic crisis moments we love...
The end of the Roman Empire
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The End of Germany’s Colonial Empire
Historian article
Daniel Steinbach asks why the loss of the German colonies in Africa was perceived as a powerful symbol of Germany’s deliberate humiliation at the end of the First World War.
Famously, Germany’s first and last shots of the First World War were fired in Africa. From its beginning to its...
The End of Germany’s Colonial Empire
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Decolonising the Partition of British India, 1947
Historian article
Amrita Shodhan explores the complex legacy of Partition in India and the difficulties faced by historians in unpicking these narratives. She re-evaluates the events of August 1947 through personal stories and popular memories.
The Partition that we have inherited from 1947 has a complicated lineage. It was born out of...
Decolonising the Partition of British India, 1947
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The development of the Department of Health
Historian article
Health as a specific feature of central government strategy is a relatively recent phenomenon and Hugh Gault identifies how this feature of everyday headlines in our newspapers has been managed until the present time.
At the start of the twentieth century Lord Salisbury’s Cabinet comprised four Secretaries of State –...
The development of the Department of Health
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Medical aspects of the battle of Waterloo
Historian article
Michael Crumplin explores the medical facilities of the British Army and asks how likely soldiers wounded at Waterloo were to survive.
The road to Waterloo
One of the very few benefits of conflict is the advancement of medical practice. The recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistanhave been dealing with relatively...
Medical aspects of the battle of Waterloo
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The Story of the African Queen
Historian article
Where fact and fiction intercept: the story of The African Queen(s) by C.S. Forester
When the Königin Luise was hull down over the horizon and the dhow was close in-shore the lieutenant left his post and went down to the jetty to meet his senior officer. The dhow ran briskly in,...
The Story of the African Queen
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Strange Journey: the life of Dorothy Eckersley
Historian article
Meeting in Berlin
Three days before the outbreak of the Second World War, William Joyce, the leader of the British Nazi group, the National Socialist League, was in Berlin. He and his wife, Margaret, had fled there fearing internment by the British government if war broke out. Yet as war...
Strange Journey: the life of Dorothy Eckersley
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The success of the Salford General Strike of 1911
Historian article
As we approach the centenary of Britain’s only national general strike, this article by Steve Illingworth tells the story of a successful local sympathetic strike in Salford in 1911. He analyses the reasons for the success of the Salford workers and considers why this kind of concerted industrial action could...
The success of the Salford General Strike of 1911
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Castle of Convergence: the Muslim settlement of Lucera
Historian article
The later medieval period can often be seen as a time of bitter ideological and military conflict between Christians and Muslims. In this article Paola Laviola tells the story of the southern Italian city of Lucera, where occasional religious division was interspersed with periods of toleration between faiths that allowed...
Castle of Convergence: the Muslim settlement of Lucera
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Doing history: Remembering the Wars of the Roses
Historian feature
This article examines how the Wars of the Roses have been remembered through memorials and presents the Battlefields Trust’s Wars of the Roses Memorial Database Project, launched in 2023. The open-access, crowd-sourced database maps monuments, plaques, battlefield markers and local commemorations linked to the conflicts. David Grummitt shows that remembrance...
Doing history: Remembering the Wars of the Roses
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Archaeology on the edge
Historian article
Major archaeological projects can be complex affairs, in terms of their funding, governance and the wide range of historical and technological expertise they require. Here National Trust archaeologist Kathy Laws describes the intricacies and successes of a multi-organisational project at an Iron Age site in north Wales. The challenges of the...
Archaeology on the edge
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Opinion: the populist politics of Joseph Chamberlain and Donald Trump
Historian feature
What are the pitfalls and pluses of comparing historical figures with contemporary politicians? Chris Godden argues that recent comparisons of Donald Trump with one of his predecessors may be wide of the mark, but that a more illuminating parallel may be found with one of Britain’s most controversial nineteenth-century politicians.
Opinion: the populist politics of Joseph Chamberlain and Donald Trump
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Piecing together the life and times of Charles I
Historian article
In this article, Chris R. Langley discusses the sources we use to reconstruct the life and times of Charles I. He explains how historians can use a wide range of sources in creative ways to understand different aspects of political, cultural and religious change in the mid-seventeenth century...
Piecing together the life and times of Charles I
