Enrichment – something to listen to – Spin the globe

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Mr Kydd

p01lb4t6Click here for the excellent Spin the globe series from Radio 4. Each programme looks at a familiar historical date and finds out what was happening away from the geographical centre that makes them so familiar to us.

It is an attempt to see the globe as an historic whole and so break out of the modular way in which historic dates are traditionally drummed into us. At the same time it tries to  connects previously diverse events in cultural, political and economic history all over the globe.

Have a listen and see what you think.

Mr Kydd.

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Enrichment – something to discuss – the history of medicine

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Mr Kydd

_78954010_frontiscloseSomething a bit different for you – an article and slideshow on an aspect of the history of medicine. I have posted this to accompany the work that we have been doing in the history society on the Black Death. If you click here you will get a webpage from the BBC News magazine about Andreas Vesalius’s medical text books and the place that they occupy in scientific history.

At our next meeting I will ask the question  why might the history of medicine be useful to us as students of the past ?

Have a look and see what you think.

Mr Kydd.

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The Real Kaiser Bill: Wilhelm II of Germany – something to watch.

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Mr Kydd

Upper Sixth students,

An excellent documentary on Wilhelm II which will be very useful for your early essay work, and our present historiography on the origins of the First World War.

Useful links

Please also bookmark these;

http://fccfromkaisertofuhrer.blogspot.co.uk/

http://fhshistory.weebly.com/unit-3-from-kaiser-to-fuhrer.html

 

Mr Kydd.

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37 days: Countdown to the First World War

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Mr Kydd

KAISER_WILHELM_2Upper Sixth,

As I showed you in the lesson, please click here for the excellent BBC timeline of the countdown to war. This chronology will really help you as you practice / get confident with with the gobbets and typicality.

You may also like to to look at the Youtube videos shown below (they get harder as you go).

1. An extract from the Jeremy Vine Show 11 June 2013 All Germany’s fault?

Neil Faulkner (a marxist) debates Max Hastings (who isn’t!)

2. The British Library debate – The Origins of  the First World War

Gary Sheffield, Annika Mombauer, Dan Todman, and Neil Faulkner.

 

3. A Yale University lecture on the topic.

00:00 – Chapter 1. Tangled Maps of Empire: Diplomatic Origins of the First World War
07:24 – Chapter 2. A Delicate Balances: The Shifting Alliances of the Great Powers
19:26 – Chapter 3. The British Empire on the World Stage: Capabilities on the Continent
32:29 – Chapter 4. Mounting Tensions in Alsace-Lorraine: The Saverne Crisis
40:14 – Chapter 5. War Expectations and Enthusiasm.

I hope that they are helpful.

Mr Kydd.

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Enrichment – The Tudors as we’ve never seen them before.

Posted on September 28, 2014 by Mr Kydd

This gallery contains 1 photo.

If you click here you will get to Alastair Smart’s article in the Daily Telegraph review of the National Portrait Gallery’s “Real Tudors: Kings & Queens Rediscovered” exhibition. “The curators are keen to stress how coloured our vision of the Tudor monarchs has … Continue reading →

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Making history

Posted on August 9, 2014 by Mr Kydd

MedlicottMedal2All,

The Making History website, developed by the Institute of Historical Research, is dedicated to the history of the study and practice of history in Britain over the last hundred years and more, following the emergence of the professional discipline in the late 19th century.

It has a number of pages that might be useful to the A level historian. Click here for the journals section, here for useful associations, and here for the historians page. You might like to also look here for a consideration of the different approaches to the discipline.

Really useful stuff.

Mr Kydd

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The lie that started the First World War ?

Posted on June 29, 2014 by Mr Kydd

gavrilo_2957116bThe 28th June marked the 100th  anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. This event is usually seen as the trigger that set off a chain of events that culminated in the First World War. However, the long term causes of that war are of course much more complex. You can find a good account of what happened that day in an article from the Daily Telegraph here. You might also like to watch this 5 minute Youtube clip with Dan Snow below.

Beyond the events of 28th June 1914, this History on the Net article is a nice introduction to the different causes, whilst in this excellent BBC magazine article historians discuss who should be blamed for war starting. Finally, watch the great AJP Taylor stressing the importance of the railway timetables.

Mr Kydd.

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Or alternatively – can history textbooks make peace ?

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Mr Kydd

asiaAfter you have read the article from the Financial Times below, you might like to have a look at this BBC report on an Asian project where “educationalists and historians have been meeting across borders to attempt the seemingly impossible – a common history textbook for South East Asia. Not only will aim to accommodate diverse countries and a tangle of overlapping disputes, they will have to contend with countries wanting to revise their history books to reflect territorial claims. This ambitious task is taking place within the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) group of countries – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Textbook experts from the region met in Bangkok in Thailand last year to look at the idea of a common history.”

Have a look and see what you think.

Mr Kydd.

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Can wars can be started by history textbooks ?

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Mr Kydd

ftIf you click here you will  find Gideon Rachman’s article from the Financial Times. In it he argues that “the imposition of an authorised version of events turns education into brainwashing“, and continues “politicians, like academics or ordinary citizens, will naturally have competing views about how to view their national history. But the abuse of political power to impose a single, authorised version of history on a nation’s schools and mass media is when education crosses the line into brainwashing. As we are seeing in Russia today, a public in the grip of a nationalist version of history can be a dangerous thing.”

Have a read and see what you think.

Mr Kydd.

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Europe’s changing borders

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Mr Kydd

Satirical_map_of_Europe,_1877If you click on the excellent satrical map of Europe on the left, then you will be familiar with most of the countries that are represented. However, if you click here you can see the extent that Europe’s borders have hugely altered over the last 1000 years. Countries and empirese have risen and fallen under the tide of forces such as industrialisation, nationalism and liberalism. You might also like to look here to see a similar webpage from the BBC.

Mr Kydd.

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