Enrichment – something to listen to. In Our Time – William Cecil

All,

Something rather special for you today. If you click here you will get to last night’s In Our Time on Radio 4. In it, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the impact on the British Isles of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, the most poweful man in the court of Elizabeth I. He was both praised and attacked for his flexibility, adapting to the reigns of Protestant and Catholic monarchs and, under Elizabeth, his goal was to make England strong, stable and secure from attack from its neighbours. He sought control over Ireland and persuaded Elizabeth that Mary Queen of Scots must die, yet often counselled peace rather than war in the interests of prosperity.

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With;

  • Diarmaid MacCulloch
    Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford
  • Susan Doran
    Professor of Early Modern British History at the University of Oxford
  • John Guy
    Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge

Enjoy,

Mr Kydd.

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History Society – something to discuss – Halford Mackinder and Geo-politics.

Geopolitics is the study how geography informs politics ( and thus history). In the aftermath of the First World War, is was particularly associated with a British thinker – Halford Mackinder. He famously argued;
“Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland;
who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island;
who rules the World-Island commands the world.”
(Mackinder, Democratic Ideals and Reality, p. 150)
Heartland

 

Many think that Mackinder’s ideas influenced Hess, Hitler and the Nazis. This is explained below in part one. Some argue with the decline in the power of the USA, it is again coming to the fore. This is explained below. See what you think.

Mr Kydd.

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Something to discuss in History Society. One in twenty Britons do not think that the Holocaust happened…

In the turmoil of recent years, it is perhaps hard to be shocked anymore. However, today’s HMTD poll showing that Five per cent of UK adults do not believe the Holocaust took place and one in 12 believes its scale has been exaggerated has genuinely left me flabbergasted.

I do not fully understand how we have got here, and this is perhaps something we should discuss in History Society. For now, the videos below seem to be the best way to rebut this ignorance…

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Enrichment – places to go – Ian Hislop’s “I Object” exhibition at the British Museum

p06hzgh2All,

There is still a little time to get along to the “I object exhibition” at the British Museum. I can strongly recommend it, and would suggest that you look out for the Stonyhurst Salt if you want a link to our Later Tudors course. If you click here you can also listen to Ian Hislop talking on radio 4 about how he made his selections.

Happy New Year.

Mr Kydd.

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Enrichment – things to read.

2018bookIf you have book vouchers from Christmas burning a hole in your pocket, then click here and you will get to the BBC History magazine’s recommended history reads from 2018. There is something for everyone. Can I recommend American Empire: A New Global History by AG Hopkins (Princeton University Press).

Happy New Year.

Mr Kydd.

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Enrichment – something to watch. Simon Sharma – A history of Britain

p022h4t1All,

I am really pleased that you all enjoyed Sharma’s comparison of Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth in History Society today. The episode is “Heart of a Queen”. It was certainly very different to anything we have watched to date.

In case you want to watch the whole series – please click here. I also have these on DVD, and I am happy to lend them to you if this is helpful.

Enjoy…

Mr Kydd.

 

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Enrichment – something to discuss – historians put forward rogues’ gallery of pet hates from the last millennium

oswald-mosleyIf you click here, you will get to Jon di Paolo’s article in The Guardian discussing the worst Britons of the last thousand years.

Britain’s biggest cads, rogues and evil-doers from the past 1,000 years have been given special recognition by historians. Academics have put together a list of 10 rogues whose deeds and behaviour they feel sets them apart as the worst of the worst. Kings, politicians, archbishops and mass murderers all feature in the run-down, which sees one villain nominated for each of the past 10 centuries…

One for History Society I feel. Have a read and see who you would pick, I think I would select the chap above.

Mr Kydd.

 

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Understanding success evening

boring-lectureMany thanks to you and your parents for coming tonight – we very much hope it was helpful.

As promised, please find below the PowerPoint we used below.

Understanding success evening

Mr Kydd.

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Centenary of the Armistice – Year Nine research a soldier project

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Year Nine,

The following letter and PowerPoint will be  available on the school Gateway in the near future. However in case you have problems with it, I have added them here as well.

My PowerPoint

 

 

As you may be aware, Year Nine students are studying the First World World War in the run up to the centenary of the Armistice in November. To mark such a significant anniversary, we are going to ask each student to research one person involved in the war. Typically this will be a soldier who died, however we are open-minded to other suggestions. This work will take place in three history lessons from Monday 8th October, and the school has paid for a license to the https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ website. Mrs Keeler in the LRC has a background in genealogy, and she will help the students develop their research skills as part of this project. The department intends to focus upon the names found the Ascot War Memorial (https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/147923/).

 I am writing to you however, in case you have a family member involved in the First World War, who your son or daughter would like to research instead. If so, they will need their full name, and any family or military information that you have about them. In particular, an electronic photograph would be very helpful. You may like to look at the attached PowerPoint presentation that we will be using with the students. In it, I model how I researched my relative, who died at the Battle of the Somme. Could I please ask however that no family records are brought into school for obvious reasons. In this digital age, scanned documents are ideal.

 

I hope very much that your son / daughter enjoys these lessons, and that it helps them to make sense of the forthcoming anniversary. Please contact either me or your child’s history teacher if you have any further questions.

Yours sincerely,

 Alan Kydd.

Head of History.

 

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I just liked this.

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