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History Today
History Today is a monthly magazine published by History Today, Ltd. Founded in 1951, it is owned by Andy Patterson and has a circulation of roughly 30,000 subscribers. Headquarters are based in London, England.The magazine, which is geared towards teachers, students, and those with an interest in history, publishes essays written by some leading history scholars covering myriad periods, regions, topics, and themes in history. It is available in print and online.The print version was founded by Brendan Backen, who worked as the Minister of Information during World War II. He was also the publisher of the Financial Times. Currently, both print and online versions are published under the vision and guide of editor-in-chief, Paul Lay.History Today offers readers articles ranging from atomic medicine to the rise and fall of empires. Each essay comes with illustrations selected by picture editor Sheila Corr. The web edition includes a news digest from web editor, Kathryn Hadley.Subscribers can buy an annual subscription for either the web or print version. Web subscribers can also purchase access to articles from the publication's archives dating back to 1980. The magazine also has a sister publication, History Review, which is aimed at students and is published three times each year.
Articles from Vol. 52, No. 5, May
Access the 19th-Century. (Frontline).(The 19th Century Short Title Catalogue) <Subdivision>(audio-Visual review)</Subdivision>
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ANYONE RESEARCHING ALMOST any aspect of nineteenth-century history will be grateful to have access to The 19th Century Short Title Catalogue (NSTC). The fruit of twenty years' labour by Avero Publications, the Catalogue project, detailing 1,500,000...
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples: Andrew Roberts Reintroduces Us to Churchill's Long-Delayed Epic Work, Which Was Written with the Assistance of a Former Editor of History Today. (Cross Current)
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IN BROAD PRINCIPLE I shall be willing to undertake to write "A History of the English-Speaking Peoples", their origins, their quarrels, their misfortunes and their reconciliation for the sum of 20,000 [pounds sterling],' wrote Winston Churchill...
An American Tragedy: The Shotgun Wedding of Moscow and Hollywood: Thomas Doherty Examines a Series of Conflicts between Left-Wing Artists and Movie Moguls at the Time of Sergei Eisentein's Brief Sojourn in Tinseltown in the 1930s
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IN 1930, INITIATING ONE of the stranger episodes in the history of Soviet-American relations, the president of Paramount Pictures, Jesse L. Lasky, lured the Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948) to Hollywood with a $100,000 contract. That...
Ancient History and archaeology.(Brief Article)(Bibliography)
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The range of quality titles on all periods and aimed at every level continues to grow. Here we preview this season's leading titles, and review some of the best recent history. Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilisation by Graham Hancock...
Censoring Winston: Ruth Ive Describes How, as a Young Woman, Her Job Was to Interrupt the Wartime Conversations between Churchill and Roosevelt. (Cross Current)
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INCREDIBLE AS IT NOW SEEMS, during the Second World War no conventional international telephone service operated between Britain and the United States. In July 1940 the underwater cable running across the Atlantic was fractured on the instructions...
Christopher Dyer: Daniel Snowman Meets the Historian of Life and Living in Medieval Britain. (Today's History)
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ONE OF THE CHARMING THINGS about Christopher Dyer is that many of his articles and all his major books -- including a new 400-page volume just published -- have `life' and `living' in their titles. Thus, Dyer writes about getting a living, about...
Culture or Plunder? Russell Chamberlin Assesses Claims for the Return of Cultural Treasures. (Cross Current)
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A FEW YEARS AGO, Bernie Grant MP demanded that Great Britain should `return' the Crown Jewels to Africa. He did not specify which African country should receive the Jewels; neither did he specify exactly which Crown Jewels should be returned. ...
Death of Maria Montessori: May 6th, 1952. (Months Past).(Brief Article)
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MARIA MONTESSORI ended her life sitting in the garden of a house owned by friends in Noordwijk an Zee, a village on the Dutch coast, discussing with her faithful son and chief assistant Mario whether or not to go to Africa. She had been told that...
Digging Up the Past: Liverpool. (Frontline).(history of Meols Sea port)(Brief Article)
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SCHOLARS are rediscovering Liverpool's earliest predecessor as north-west England's leading commercial sea port. The research is revealing how the port -- just six miles west of the city -- came into existence two and half millennia ago. A two-year...
Digging Up the Past: Sheffield. (Frontline).(Brief Article)
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ONE OF BRITAIN'S GREATEST historic monuments -- a massive, but almost totally forgotten medieval castle -- is being re-discovered beneath what is usually seen as one of the country's least historic cities. New research suggests that the fortress...
Early Modern Europe.(recent publications)(Brief Article)(Bibliography)
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Although also covering earlier and later developments, The Emblem by John Manning (Reaktion, 25 [pounds sterling]) discusses the emergence in the 16th century of an enduring pictorial tradition in art and literature: an image above a mot, to or...
Eleanor of Aquitaine Marries Henry of Anjou: May 18th, 1152. (Months Past).(Brief Article)
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TWO MORE STRONG-MINDED, forceful and determined people could hardly have been matched. Eleanor, who was about thirty, had already been queen of France for fifteen years through her first marriage and by her second she would soon be queen of England....
Emmeline Pankhurst: Leader of the Militant Suffragettes: June Purvis Offers a Fresh Look at the Career of the Suffragette Leader. (Deeds Not Words).(Cover Story)
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EMMELINE PANKHURST is remembered as the heroine of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU or the Union), the most notorious of the groups campaigning for the parliamentary vote for women on equal terms with men in Edwardian Britain. She founded...
Explorers and Empire.(recent publications)(Brief Article)(Bibliography)
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The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade by Robert Harms (Perseus Press, 17.99 [pounds sterling]), uses the private journal of an officer on a French slaver of 1731 to provide a richly detailed and rounded portrait of the,slave...
Frank Matcham, Theatre Builder. (Frontline).(Brief Article)
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THE LATE VICTORIAN AND EDWARDIAN PERIODS may be considered the golden age of theatre building. Imperial prosperity produced audiences keen to sample thespian delights and able to afford to. It also produced the developers and capital needed to build...
Heart of Britain? (Frontline).(historical Role of the monarchy)(Brief Article)
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WITH TYPICALLY UNCOMFORTABLE TIMING, the fiftieth anniversary of the Queen's accession to the throne has been marked not just by the deaths of her sister and mother, but also by the revelation of the insouciant way in which her successive governments...
Ideal Types. (Letters)
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Harold Perkin's model of `surplus extraction' is a valid and quite exciting analytical tool in the study of change in civilisation. However, such ideal-type formulae, by their necessarily generalised nature, possess a crudeness that usually causes...
Missing from History: Jeannette Lucraft Recovers the Identity and Reputation of the Remarkable Katherine Swynford.(wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster)
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KATHERINE SWYNFORD (1350?-1403) is most often remembered as the lover of John of Gaunt (1340-99) and a temptress who diverted the powerful Duke of Lancaster from his political duties. However, it would seem from the perspective of modern scholars...
Nelson's Mill Housing. (Frontline).(historic Significance of Row Houses in North West of England)(Brief Article)
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A PUBLIC INQUIRY INTO the proposed clearance of 400 terraced houses has highlighted the dilemma facing many local councils, particularly in the North West of England where regional planning bodies say at least 70,000 pre-1919 houses need to be cleared...
`Never Where' and the Afro-Saxons: Margaret Kekewich Points to the Value of Prehistory at School as a Key to National Unity. (Today's History)
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TWO KEY DEBATES are currently taking place about England's future: on the absence of a strong national identity (a problem even more associated with England itself than with Britain as a whole), and on the alienation of ethnic minorities from society,...
On the Record: Sarah Tyacke, Keeper of Public Records and Chief Executive of the Public Record Office, Makes a Personal Record of Her Own Abiding Interest in History, Maps and Archives. (Point of Departure)
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IF THERE WAS A MOMENT when I did not want to be `doing' history I cannot remember it now. It seemed that all my family were interested in history and so was I from a very early age. In my case it was an eclectic interest ranging from archaeology...
Portolan Charts: Vital Tool of the Age of Discovery.(sailing Guides)
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ECONOMISTS TODAY TELL US that the drivers of great economies are advanced technology, efficient finance and productive manufacture. It is true that throughout history these factors have always been the sine qua non of successful economies. However,...
Religious History.(recent publications)(Brief Article)(Bibliography)
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The range of works covering religious topics includes The Cambridge Illustrated History of Religions by John Bowker (Cambridge University Press, 27.95 [pounds sterling]), which provides a detailed study of every religion from prehistoric to modern...
Round and About: May 2002. (Frontline)
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LONDON Memories of 1952 & 1953 May 7th, 11am to 4pm Harris Museum & Art Gallery Market Square, Preston, Lancashire PR1 2PP Tel: 01772 905411 As part of Local History Week, the Harris Museum in conjunction with the North West Sound...
The 18th Century.(recent publications)(Brief Article)(Bibliography)
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A number of new books cover aspects of 18th-century warfare. The technology and sea battles of the Napoleonic wars are brought to life in A Brief History of Fighting Ships by David Davies (Constable and Robinson, 6.99 [pounds sterling]). [ILLUSTRATION...
The Americas.(Brief Article)(Bibliography)
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Linkings exploration and American history, Erikson, Eskimos and Columbus: Medieval European Knowledge of America by James Robert Enterline (Johns Hopkins, 31 [pounds sterling]) examines the notion that long before Columbus `discovered' America,...
The Early 20th Century.(recent publications)(Brief Article)(Bibliography)
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A Brief History of The Boxer Rebellion by Diana Preston (Constable and Robinson, 7.99 [pounds sterling]) explains the uprising of Chinese peasants against foreigners in Beijing and the Chinese countryside at the turn of the century. Meanwhile...
The Peace of Vereeniging: May 31st 1902. (Months Past).(Second Boer War)(Brief Article)
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THE SECOND BOER War between Britain and the two Afrikaner republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State lasted a little over two-and-a-half years from October 1899. The Boers were inevitably outmatched, but even in the last phase, from September...
The Second World War.(recent publications)(Brief Article)(Bibliography)
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Though not specifically a work on the war itself, Hitler's Children by Guido Knopp (Sutton, 18.99 [pounds sterling]) nevertheless charts the rise and nature of Nazi youth movements and their role in the. Third Reich. The Unwritten Order: Hitler's...
The Wars of the Poppies; Leslie Marchant Sees the Opium Wars as a Philosophical Clash between Two Cultures and Two Notions of Government and Society
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THE ANGLO-CHINESE Opium Wars of 1839-42 and 1856-60, and the later Cold War that resulted in the 1876 Chefoo Convention, were doctrinal in origin. They involved, on the one side, a European power driven by a doctrine of action -- the belief that...
Trading Places: The East India Company and Asia
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FOUR HUNDRED YEARS ago this year, four English ships arrived in the Javanese port of Bantam. The following summer they sailed for home laden with a cargo of pepper. They left behind a small force to form a permanent trading post (or factory). This...
