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Culture Shock: The Arrival of the Conquistadores in Aztec Mexico
Historian article
When the Spanish Conquistadores arrived in Mexico during the early sixteenth century there were many repercussions for the indigenous people. Their conversion to Christianity and the sacking of their temples are two of the most well known examples. However, it is often forgotten that the Aztecs had only a pictorial...
Culture Shock: The Arrival of the Conquistadores in Aztec Mexico
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The Historian 106: President Barack Obama and the State of the Union Address
The magazine of the Historical Association
4 Editorial
5 The President's Column - Anne Curry
6 President Barack Obama and the State of the Union Address - Michael Dunne (Read Article)
13 Remembering Neville Chamberlain - Brent Dyck (Read Article)
15 Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust? - Sarah Newman (Read Article)
20 The Advent of Decimalisation in...
The Historian 106: President Barack Obama and the State of the Union Address
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Verdun: the endless battle
Historian article
Most can agree that the battle of Verdun started 100 years ago, on 21 February 1916, when the Germans began attacking French positions north and east of the old fortress town on the Meuse river. Few can agree on when it ended. The Germans might draw a line under it...
Verdun: the endless battle
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From tragedy to triumph: The courage of Henrietta, Lady of Luxborough 1699-1756
Historian article
Why is Henrietta Luxborough, who was born in 1699, of interest today? In the first place because of whom she was; in the second because of what happened to her; and in the third because of her courage which enabled her to overcome adversity and lead a life utterly different...
From tragedy to triumph: The courage of Henrietta, Lady of Luxborough 1699-1756
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The Historian 104: Culture Shock
The magazine of the Historical Association
5 Editorial
6 Culture Shock: The Arrival of the Conquistadores in Aztec Mexico - Jenni Hyde (Read Article)
13 The President's Column - Anne Curry
14 Hammer, House of Horror: The making of a British film company, 1934 to 1979 - John Springhall (Read Article)
20 Men's Beards and Women's...
The Historian 104: Culture Shock
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MOOCs and the Middle Ages
Historian article
Deirdre O’Sullivan explains how history courses such as England in the Time of Richard III are now freely available to people anywhere in the world who have online access. She reports that in the past two years 40,000 learners have followed this course.
MOOCs (Massive Open Access Online Courses) are...
MOOCs and the Middle Ages
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The Historian 101: The snobbery of chronology
The magazine of the Historical Association
The snobbery of chronology: In defence of the generals on the Western Front - Mark Mortimer (Read Article)
President's Column - Anne Curry
The strange death of King Harold II: Propaganda and the problem of legitimacy in the aftermath of the Battle of Hastings - Chris Dennis (Read Article)
Winston Churchill and the Islamic...
The Historian 101: The snobbery of chronology
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The Historian 103: The Road to Dunkirk
The magazine of the Historical Association
The road to Dunkirk: Chamberlain, Baldwin and Appeasement - Trevor Fisher (Read Article)
The President's Column - Anne Curry
The ‘Penny Dreadful' publishing business in the City of London from 1860 - John Springhall (Read Article)
St Deiniol's Library: The National Memorial to William Ewart Gladstone - Annette Lewis (Read Article)
Towards reform in 1809 -...
The Historian 103: The Road to Dunkirk
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Twickenham as a Patriotic Town
Historian article
Twickenham from the 1890s onwards grew as a town with a special sense of history. Nobody in authority on the local council could quite forget the reputation which the district had acquired as a rural arcadia. The aristocrats and gentry who built villas in the parish in the late 17th...
Twickenham as a Patriotic Town
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The origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Historian article
On 29 January 1949 there was a debate in the British House of Commons. When Winston Churchill, the leader of the opposition, interrupted Ernest Bevin’s history of the Palestine problem he was told by the Foreign Secretary: ‘over half a million Arabs have been turned by the Jewish immigrants into...
The origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
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Why did the Dome fail?
Historian article
History gives us a basis for understanding the groups which people belong to, the countries people live in and the institutions which govern them. It provides a sense of continuity and identity. However, on 31 December 1999 the Queen and Prime Minister opened an exhibition which made no reference to...
Why did the Dome fail?
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Benjamin Jesty: Grandfather of Vaccination
Historian article
Commonly hailed as a discovery or a ‘medical breakthrough', vaccination against smallpox with cowpox exudate was a development of variolation i.e. inoculation with live smallpox matter - a technique popularised amongst the gentry in the early eighteenth century by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu who had observed the procedure in Turkey...
Benjamin Jesty: Grandfather of Vaccination
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The Tower and The Victorians: Politics and Leisure
Article
At the beginning of the nineteenth century about 15,000 people visited the Tower of London each year to enjoy a spectacle which had taken shape over the previous century and a half. Patriotic tableaux, trophies of victory, vast arrays of arms and armour, the menagerie and the Crown Jewels were...
The Tower and The Victorians: Politics and Leisure
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Home Rule for Ireland - For and against
Historian article
At a time when the United Kingdom continues to review its internal constitutional arrangements, Matthew Kelly explores how this constitutional debate can be traced back to Gladstone's decision to promote Home Rule for Ireland and how these proposals evolved over time and were challenged.
Irish political history decisively entered a...
Home Rule for Ireland - For and against
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War Plan Red: the American Plan for war with Britain
Article
John Major discusses an astonishing aspect of past Anglo-American history. All great powers have developed contingency plans for war with each other, and the United States in the early twentieth century was no exception. Each of Washington’s schemes was given a distinctive colour. Green mapped out intervention in neighbouring Mexico,...
War Plan Red: the American Plan for war with Britain
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Travelling the Seventeenth-Century English Economy: Rediscovery of Celia Fiennes
Article
Pam Sharpe reflects on the journals and expeditions of a 17th-century traveller. I first encountered Celia Fiennes (1662-1741), early modern traveller and journal writer, when I was an undergraduate. Being a keen traveller myself and studying social and economic history, Fiennes’ journeys fascinated me1. Here was a woman who travelled...
Travelling the Seventeenth-Century English Economy: Rediscovery of Celia Fiennes
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Real Lives: Surviving the War in the Soviet Union: recollections of a child deportee
Historian feature
This 'Real Lives' piece is based on a series of interviews Annette Ormanczyk carried out in 2019 with Mrs Irena Persak, who was deported as a five-year-old child with her family in February 1940. As well as offering a fascinating personal account of life in the Soviet Union during the Second...
Real Lives: Surviving the War in the Soviet Union: recollections of a child deportee
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Real Lives: Harry Daley
Historian feature
Our series ‘Real Lives’ seeks to put the story of the ordinary person into our great historical narrative. We are all part of the rich fabric of the communities in which we live and we are affected to greater and lesser degrees by the big events that happen on a daily...
Real Lives: Harry Daley
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The Historian 102: 'Catch me if you can'?
The magazine of the Historical Association
5 Editorial
6 ‘The end of all existence is debarred me': Disraeli's depression 1826-30 - W. A. Spech (Read Article)
11 President's Column
12 Cartoons and the historian - Roy Douglas (Read Article)
19 Anorexia Nervosa in the nineteenth century - A. D. Harvey (Read Article)
20 "Catch Me Who Can"? Richard...
The Historian 102: 'Catch me if you can'?
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How Nelson Became a Hero
Article
The fittest man in the world for the command' of the Mediterranean, Lord Minto declared of Horatio Nelson on 24 April 1798, following Nelson's inventive assault on Spanish ships off Cape St. Vincent. 'Admiral Nelson's victory [at the Nile]… is one of the most glorious and comprehensive victories ever achieved...
How Nelson Became a Hero
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The Last Duke of Lorraine
Article
The Place Stanislas in Nancy has a high reputation. But expectations are far surpassed as one surveys the beautifully proportioned square, with its imposing buildings such as the Hôtel de Ville and the Governor's Palace, its Arc de Triomphe and its magnificent iron work. It is a reminder of how...
The Last Duke of Lorraine
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Smithfield's Bartholomew Fair
Historian article
On the north-western side of the City of London, directly in front of St Bartholomew's Hospital near the ancient church of St Bartholomew the Great, there once lay a ‘smooth field', now known as Smithfield. This open space of around ten acres had a long and turbulent history. In medieval...
Smithfield's Bartholomew Fair
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The Historian 100: A medieval credit crunch?
The magazine of the Historical Association
A medieval credit crunch? - Adrian R. Bell, Chris Brooks and Tony Moore (Read Article)
Fascists behind barbed wire: political internment without trial in wartime Britain - Stephen M. Cullen (Read Article)
Child labour in eighteenth century London - (Read Article)
Hats on Headstones - A. D. Harvey (Read Article)
Out and...
The Historian 100: A medieval credit crunch?
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The myths about the 1745 Jacobite revolution
Historian article
The harsh reality
The 1745 Rebellion has become part of the romantic heritage in both British and Scottish history. At the time there was little romance to it. The many myths and misconceptions about Bonnie Prince Charlie and his followers need to be corrected and the glamorous image of the...
The myths about the 1745 Jacobite revolution
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Dean Mahomet: Travel writer, curry entrepreneur and shampooer to the King
Historian article
The National Portrait Gallery in London is home to many thousands of portraits, photographs and sculptures of the great and the good, as well as those who travelled on the darker side of history.
In 2007 it hosted a small exhibition in the Porter Gallery entitled Between Worlds: Voyagers to...
Dean Mahomet: Travel writer, curry entrepreneur and shampooer to the King