Enrichment – something to discuss – are we witnessing Britain’s Reichstag Fire moment?

Posted on September 5, 2019 by Mr Kydd

Screenshot-2019-08-29-at-16.02.14-e1567093260841Welcome back,

Something to debate in History Society. If you click here you will get an excellent essay in Prospect magazine by Richard Evans.

In it he compares the collapse of Weimar Germany to world (and British) contemporary politics.  He argues that “Weimar warns us about what happens when politicians give up on their own parliaments“, and suggests”the ground rules of democratic politics in many countries, including Britain and the US, are more in danger than they have been at any time since the early 1930s“.

  • What are the main strands of his argument?
  • How far do you agree with him?

Mr Kydd.

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Enrichment – places to go. The “Last Supper In Pompeii” exhibition at the Ashmolean.

Posted on August 30, 2019 by Mr Kydd

lastsupperinpompeiiashmoleanI have just booked my tickets for this exhibition at the Ashmolean in Oxford. I know I am always banging on about education being about intellectual independence, but it is true, and one of the real advantages of living in the South East is our proximity to some of the greatest museums in the world. Last Supper In Pompeii has received outstanding reviews, and the topic is perhaps the greatest archeological site in the world. Entry for you guys is £6.00. Not bad. Try something different, and remember “carpe diem”.

If you click here, then you will get a full and very well written review of the exhibition from the Oxford Student newspaper. I have included an extract below.

The beauty of some of the artefacts on display is excuse enough for you to find the time to experience this exhibition for yourself.

“The Roman world completely surrounds visitors in this exhibition. From backdrops of Italian countryside to sounds of rippling water, the curators have certainly made the effort to add a Roman ambience to the setting of these artefacts. Most of the exhibition is held in a space which incorporates features of a Roman villa. Large doorways and window openings separate different areas of the home, with artefacts subsequently arranged in ‘atrium’, ‘garden’, ‘dining room’ and ‘kitchen’ sections.

The decision to construct separate spaces within this exhibition creates a flow between areas and guides the viewer on a beautiful and informative journey through Roman life. The beauty of some of the artefacts on display is excuse enough for you to find the time to experience this exhibition for yourself. A stunning sea creature mosaic and a richly coloured dining room fresco were some personal highlights of mine.”

Mr Kydd.

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Caxton’s paywall

Posted on August 28, 2019 by Mr Kydd

paywall2

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Enrichment – old fake news. The 80th anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet Pact

Posted on August 24, 2019 by Mr Kydd

8-13Today marks the 8oth anniversary of the the Nazi-Soviet Pact. You have probably all seen Low’s magnificent “Rendezvous” cartoon, and arguably after this, the Second World War was inevitable. The cartoon is especially prophetic because the corpse representing Poland reflected the secret clauses that led to the Katyn Massacre. katyn-massacre-map

Below however you can see how the Communist-supporting Daily Worker reported the event. It shows two things;

  • There is nothing new in “fake news”
  • People often believe what they want to believe; regardless of the facts.

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Mr Kydd.

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Enrichment – marking the bi-centenary of Peterloo

Posted on August 21, 2019 by Mr Kydd

peterlooI hope very much that you remember our work on Peterloo from our voting and democracy work in the lower school. This month marks its bi-centenary, and there has been some excellent journalism on its significance. I have hyper-linked them here.

 

You might also like to read Shelley’s “Mask of Anarchy” – a poem that he wrote in response to the massacre. You can do so by clicking here (an extract is included below). Victorian radicalism was very real.

"Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number—
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you—
Ye are many—they are few."

Finally last year Mike Leigh made a film about Peterloo. The trailer and a review can be found below.

Mr Kydd.

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St Swithin’s Day

Posted on July 15, 2019 by Mr Kydd

ssIf you you have ever wondered about the St Swithin’s Day legend, then click here you will get an answer from historic-uk.com. Failing that you can listen to Billy Bragg’s take in the video below.

“Little is definitively known about Swithun’s life although he is said to have been the spiritual adviser of Æthelwulf, who donated much of his royal land to Swithun to build and restore numerous churches.

With his dying breath Swithun is said to have requested that his final resting place be outside, where his grave could easily be reached by both members of the parish and the rainfall from the heavens. Swithun’s wishes were met for over 100 years. However, in 971 when the monastic reform movement had been established and religion was once again at the forefront, Æthelwold of Winchester, the current Bishop of Winchester, and Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, decreed that Swithun was to be the patron saint of the restored Cathedral at Winchester where an impressive shrine was built for him.

Swithun’s body was removed from its simple grave and interred in the new Cathedral on 15 July 971. A shrine to the Saint remains in the modern Winchester Catherdral to this day.

According to legend, forty days of terrible weather followed, suggesting St Swithun was none too happy with the new arrangements! Ever since, it has been said that the weather on 15 July supposedly determines the weather for the next forty days, as noted in the popular Elizabethan verse:

“St Swithin’s day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St Swithin’s day if thou be fair
For forty days will rain na mair”

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The last word on Norman Stone – from today’s The Times

Posted on July 9, 2019 by Mr Kydd

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Obituary – Eva Kor

Posted on July 6, 2019 by Mr Kydd

3424If you click here you will get to The Guardian’s obituary for the remarkable Eva Kor. She was the victim of Joseph Mengele at Auschwitz, who became a forgiveness advocate, deadicting her life to Holocaust awareness. She testified in 2015 trial of SS officer Oskar Groening. Below she explains the importance of forgiveness, and in the video, discusses her experiences in the camp.

For us historians, her passing raises the question of how we address Holocaust denial when it finally passes from living memory.

“Forgive your worst enemies,” Kor said in a video recording of her last visit to the Auschwitz Museum. “The moment I forgave the Nazis, I felt free from Auschwitz and from all the tragedy that had occurred to me,” she added.

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Enrichment – obituary Norman Stone – perhaps the rudest historian…

Posted on June 30, 2019 by Mr Kydd

stoneIf you click here you will get to The Guardian’s review to Margret Thatcher’s favourite historian – Norman Stone. Right-wing, undoubtedly brilliant, his survey texts were perhaps his real strength. I have also included one of his last lectures below. He was also one of that line of historians who got himself into many rows with his peers.

His books can be found here.

“At a time when malice and rudeness were highly prized by some right-wing Cambridge dons, Stone outdid them all in the abuse he hurled at anyone he disapproved of, including feminists (“rancid”), Oxford dons (“a dreadful collection of deadbeats, dead wood and has-beens”), students (“smelly and inattentive”), David Cameron and John Major (“transitional nobodies”), Edward Heath (“a flabby-faced coward”) and many more.

Stone was undoubtedly clever. He could write entertainingly and could summarise complex historical circumstances in a few pregnant sentences, gifts which brought him a flourishing career as a journalist and commentator. He was a talented linguist who read and spoke more than half a dozen languages, including Hungarian. Yet his career was also dogged by character flaws that prevented him from fulfilling his early promise as a historian.”

Have a read and see what you think.

Mr Kydd.

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Enrichment – Understanding the significance of D Day. Something to read, watch and listen to.

Posted on June 6, 2019 by Mr Kydd

_107227180_d_day_beaches_v2_640-ncThere have been so many moving articles written to mark the 75th anniversary of D Day it is hard to know where to start. The following BBC interviews with  survivors might be as good a good place as any. Below is a brief interview with Colette Marin-Catherine. She was 16-years-old when the Allies landed on 6th June 1944. She was one of the volunteers at Bayeux Military Hospital who helped with the 14,000 civilians killed or wounded by the bombings.

Perhaps what D Day meant to the oppressed of Nazi-occupied Europe can be best understood by reading Anne Frank’s reaction. She wrote “my dearest Kitty. This is D-Day, the BBC announced at 12. This is the day. The invasion has begun. Is this really the beginning of the long-awaited liberation?” 

You can listen to this for yourself in this BBC Radio programme.

Mr Kydd.

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