Enrichment – somewhere to go – Alexander the Great: The Making of a Myth

Posted on January 13, 2023 by Mr Kydd
At the British Library until 19th February

If you click here you will get to information from the British Library about their exhibition on Alexander the Great. I thought it was great, and I warmly recommend it to you.

Mr Kydd.

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Enrichment – Something to discuss – What are historians for?

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Mr Kydd
What are historians for?
Contemporary commentary or timeless reflection?

If you click here you will get to Jack Nicholson discussing the purpose of historians. He quotes, and then rejects David Cannadine’s argument that historians could have steered Liz Truss from her disastrous mini-budget if they had been consulted.

Have a read of the article, and then decide if you agree will Nicholson or Cannadine more. In short, are we about contemporary commentary or timeless reflection?

Mr Kydd.

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Enrichment – something to discuss – How should history view Oliver Cromwell?

Posted on December 14, 2022 by Mr Kydd

If you click here you will get to an article from The Guardian about an Irish amateur historian who is on a mission to save ‘bogeyman’ Cromwell from genocide charges.

The Irish historian has spent three decades attempting to convince his compatriots that Oliver Cromwell, the 17th century English conqueror, was honourable, decent and not genocidal.

Reilly’s contention that Ireland needs to rewrite its history books appears all the more quixotic because he is from Drogheda, the County Louth town and site of Cromwell’s most infamous slaughter. “We should apologise to Cromwell’s family for blackening his name, for making him a monster,” Reilly, 62, said last week. “We are teaching our children propaganda that perpetuates anti-English prejudice.” The Puritan leader is, in fact, about to come under renewed scrutiny. Oxford University Press will publish The Letters, Writings, and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, a multi-volume tome of more than 1,000 texts written and edited by leading British and Irish historians.

HAve a read and tell me what you think.

Mr Kydd.

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Enrichment – something to read – the best one hundred history books of all time (perhaps)…

Posted on December 2, 2022 by Mr Kydd

If you click here you will get to a list of what are meant to be the best one hundred history books of all time. Such lists are of course subjective, but there really is something for everyone here. Moreover, whatever one thinks about Amazon, you can probably pick a second-hand copy up of one that might interest you for a couple of pounds.

Arnold Toynbee’s A Study of History is his magnum opus. In it he analyses the rise and fall of all 26 of the great world civilizations. Toynbee traces general themes focussing on the genesis, growth, and disintegration of civilisations.

Mr Kydd

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Enrichment – map histories

Posted on November 28, 2022 by Mr Kydd

Map histories are a good way into new topics, and I have included here two different examples as a start. They are often most helpful in military history. The first here explains the origins of the American Civil War, whilst the second shows the mistakes that led to the Axis defeat in the Second World War.

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History in the news – Charles V: French scientists decode 500-year-old letter.

Posted on November 27, 2022 by Mr Kydd
Letter from 1547 reveals the Spanish king’s fears of a French assassination plot against him

If you click here you will get to a news article from The Guardian, explaining how “a team of researchers in France have cracked a five century-old code that reveals a rumoured French plot to kill Charles V. It took the team from the Loria research lab in France six months to decipher the letter, written in 1547 by the emperor to his ambassador in France. Bearing the signature of Charles V, it was at once mysterious and utterly incomprehensible, she told reporters on Wednesday.“

Mr Kydd

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Enrichment – something to listen to – BBC Witness clips

Posted on November 24, 2022 by Mr Kydd

It is a bit late for Black History Month, but you may like to explore / listen to the various interviews with people who were there at key moments in civil rights history, from Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech, to surviving Robben Island with Nelson Mandela. There is plenty of good British content too. For example, as this controversial world cup kicks off, have a listen to Viv Anderson taking about being the first black man to play for England.

These programmes are taken from the BBC World Service programme Witness, 2009 – 2013 and can be found by clicking here.

Mr Kydd.

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UCAS taster days search engine link / a day in the life of an undergraduate historian at Oxford.

Posted on November 24, 2022 by Mr Kydd
Lower Sixth – following on from our conversation about taster days and Oxbridge, this is the UCAS search engine. There are over a hundred pending taster days for history alone.

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Book Review –

Posted on November 18, 2022 by Mr Kydd

Personality and Power:

Builders and Destroyers of Modern Europe

If you click here you will get to The Spectator’s review of Personality and Power: Builders and Destroyers of Modern Europe by Ian Kershaw. The review is by
Jay Elews.

What brings strong personalities to power?’ asks the historian Ian Kershaw. ‘And what promotes or limits their use of that power?’ Those two questions are at the centre of this book, a study of some of the 20th century’s most important leaders. The result is partly an analysis of character, but also an attempt to gauge how much history’s main players directed world events, and how much events directed them...

Have a read and see if you want to borrow my copy (Kershaw is particularly rude about Lenin).

Mr Kydd.

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Enrichment – somewhere to go. The 2022 Stenton lecture

Posted on November 7, 2022 by Mr Kydd
The University of Reading’s Stenton lecture is an annual event. It is a lecture that is open to the general public, and is excellent enrichment. This year it is on 17th November from 6.00. If you are interested, it is free, but you do need to register. Click here for details.

Mr Kydd

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