Is the Russian Revolution something celebrate or regret?

Posted on November 5, 2017 by Mr Kydd

1509890406693A couple of nice enrichment articles from the BBC to mark the centenary of the October Revolution.

  • If you click here you get a small video asking the question – is the Russian Revolution something celebrate or regret?
  • If you click here you will get to ten propaganda posters from 1917.
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History in the news – JFK files: What do the newly released records tell us about Kennedy’s assassination?

Posted on October 27, 2017 by Mr Kydd

leeharveyoswald2610b If you click here you will get to the Evening Standard’s summary of the recent release of the 2,800 new Kennedy documents. If you click here you will get the BBC’s analysis. Of course, they do not settle the conspiracy debate either way (see the two videos below) – but perhaps they are most useful to us as they reflect paranoia and fear of the post-Cuban Missile Crisis Cold War. Both sides seemed to fear that the assassination was a precursor to a nuclear attack from the other side.

Have a read / watch and see what you think.

Mr Kydd.

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Enrichment – something to watch – Elizabeth’s secret agents

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Mr Kydd

The first of the four part series aired tonight. You can watch them here. Please do – it is excellent enrichment for our course. The trailer below gives you a taste.

The full program can be found below.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x661amo

If you want more from the BBC’s Tudor season David Starkey’s contribution be found below.

Mr Kydd.

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Enrichment – History in the news – Ursula Haverbeck: 88-year-old Holocaust denier historian given six-month prison sentence.

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Mr Kydd

Ursula HaverbeckOne for History Society.

If you click here you will get to The Independent’s account of the jailing of Ursula Haverbeck for Holocaust denial. This is a criminal offence in Germany, carrying a sentence of up to five years in jail.

“Ursula Haverbeck, who has been branded the “Nazi grandma” by German press, was sentenced by a Berlin court on Monday for denying the holocast at an event in Berlin back in January 2016.

She claimed the Holocaust did not take place and there were no gas chambers at the Auschwitz Nazi death camp. Auschwitz is the largest mass murder site in human history and an estimated 1.1 million people died there.

Ms Haverbeck, who once declared the Holocaust was “the biggest and most sustainable lie in history” in a TV interview, has never spent time in prison before despite having several previous convictions for holocaust denial.”

It does of course raise the classic debating question of free speech Vs the well being of the state. Whilst we historians think of this in terms of the collapse of Weimar Germany,  the rise of the far right AfD in Germany’s recent elections perhaps make this a more modern political issue.

Have a read and see what you think.

Mr Kydd.

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Enrichment – Places to visit (soon) – The Greenwich Maritime Museum to see the Armada Portrait

Posted on September 8, 2017 by Mr Kydd

If you click here you will get to the Greenwich Maritime Museum page on the famous Armada Portrait. Recently saved for the nation, this iconic portrait of Elizabeth I commemorates the most famous conflict of her reign – the failed invasion of England by the Spanish Armada in summer 1588. The Armada Portrait is currently off display for essential conservation work, to preserve its fragile painted surfaces which are over 400 years old. The work is expected to take until the autumn.

The follow three minute clips explains the restoration work.

The Armada Portrait is an outstanding historical document, summarizing the hopes and aspirations of the state as an imperial power, at a watershed moment in history. But the Armada Portrait transcends this specific moment in time. Scholars have described it as a definitive representation of the English Renaissance, encapsulating the creativity, ideals and ambitions of the Elizabethan ‘Golden Age’.

Why not go an visit when it is back on display.

Mr Kydd.

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Obituary – Denis Mack Smith

Posted on July 20, 2017 by Mr Kydd

MAck SmithIf you click here you will get to a lovely obituary for the great Denis Mack Smith in the Oxford Mail by Stuart Rust .

“He challenged some of the myths that had built up around the Risorgimento, in part due to fellow historian George Macaulay Trevelyan. Mr Trevelyan celebrated the Risorgimento as an example of liberal idealism and patriotism coming together. Prof Mack Smith, however, viewed the Risorgimento in a very different light, claiming it was the result of strong political and personal rivalries in the nation. Other notable works Mr Mack Smith published during his lifetime include Italy: A Modern History, first penned in 1958, revised in 1986, and finally completely revised and reprinted as Modern Italy: A Political History in 1997.”

It is well worth a read.

In truth, I am a little disappointed that the passing of the great man (albeit at a very respectable 97!) has received so little press. He was an original thinker, and he wrote with a beautiful and lucid style. Any A level historian could do a lot worse than read Mack Smith if they want to learn how to structure an argument with clarity and without pretension.

Perhaps Mack Smith’s most important work was Cavour and Garibaldi As Jonathan Steinbeck commented he “told many Italians what they did not want to hear, but told them at a special point in their history when they had no choice but to listen. Denis Mack Smith became and has remained one of the most important historians of Italy. His confrontations with Renzo De Felice over their respective interpretations of Mussolini have taken place before huge audiences of Italian television watchers and his books are widely available everywhere in Italy”.

Mr Kydd

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Enrichment – things to discuss – How valid are the parallels between the Trump administration and 1930s Germany ?

Posted on July 20, 2017 by Mr Kydd

Trump KongIf you click here you will get to an Independent write up of historian Timothy Snyder’s article for  The Guardian (it can be found here  but is not the easiest of reads). Snyder is a leading Yale historian, who suggests that Republicans today “risk  remembered like the conservatives of 1930s Germany, who were overcome by the radical right in Adolf Hitler’s ascension to power”.

  • How valid are his arguments ?
  • Is this good history / helpful ?

We will discuss this in a History Society session in September. For now, have a read and see what you think.

Mr Kydd.

“Writing in The Guardian, Timothy Snyder, Housum professor of history at Yale University, claims the “mendacity-industrial complex of the Trump administration makes conservatism impossible, and opens the floodgates to the sort of drastic change that conservatives opposed”. 

He examines the language of the President’s campaign and of his staff, from Chief Strategist Steve Bannon to the administration’s acknowledgement of Holocaust Remembrance Day, and its relation to the far-right in 1930s Germany and America.

Mr Snyder claims Mr Bannon wants to undo the legacies of 1940s America, which saw a fight against fascism and the results of President Roosevelt’s New Deal, which provided jobs and financial support for millions of Americans affected by the Great Depression…”

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Enrichment – things to watch – treasures of the Anglo-Saxons

Posted on July 20, 2017 by Mr Kydd

A little summer treat for you all from the BBC (in four 15 minute sections). A bit of art history and archaeology combine to explore Sutton Hoo. If you want to see the artifacts, they are on display in the British Museum.

Mr Kydd.

“Dr Nina Ramirez reveals the codes and messages hidden in Anglo-Saxon art. From the beautiful jewellery that adorned the first violent pagan invaders through to the stunning Christian manuscripts they would become famous for, she explores the beliefs and ideas that shaped Anglo-Saxon art. Examining many of the greatest Anglo Saxon treasures – such as the Sutton Hoo Treasures, the Staffordshire Hoard, the Franks Casket and the Lindisfarne Gospels – Dr Ramirez charts 600 years of artistic development which was stopped dead in its tracks by the Norman Conquest“.

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If you are still undecided…

Posted on June 5, 2017 by Mr Kydd

840x4501Year Thirteen,

If you want access to some of those How should I vote ? quizzes, then please click on the links below…

 

Now go and do some revision.

Mr Kydd.

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Year Nine holocaust prep

Posted on May 22, 2017 by Mr Kydd

_80480260_80480259All,

Following on from today’s lesson, for prep I would like you to do the following.

  •  Explore the three BBC web pages below.

This account of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz II-Birkenau (here).

The audio slideshow from the Auschwitz Museum explaining the problems of preserving the ageing and crumbling 191-hectare site, with limited funds (here).

Two experts on Auschwitz arguing for and against the idea that the former Nazi death camp should be allowed to crumble away (here)

  • Then post which view you agree with more (and why) below. One paragraph please.

Please note, for your post to appear, I will need to approve it – so don’t worry it is does not show up straight away.

You can of course discuss this with people at home.

Mr Kydd.

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