British history

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• 7/3/2022
  

  The Traitor King: Edward VIII and The Future of the British Monarchy

  by Andrew Lownie

  The author of a new book on the post-royal lives of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson says that the hard lesson they learned—the brand comes before the family—will see the Royal Family through to a future despite scandal and resignation. 

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• SOURCE: London Review of Books
  6/9/2022
  

  The Enduring Appeal of the BBC's "Desert Island Discs" – the Longest Running Interview Show

  The famous and would-be famous have faced the dilemma of telling the world about themselves by listing the records (and luxury items) they'd want with them on a desert island; post-1951 episodes are now available as podcasts.

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• 6/12/2022
  

  As an Island, Britain Became a Stage for Roman Politicians

  by Richard Hingley

  The conquest of Britain mattered to Roman emperors not for the island's strategic significance, but because it signaled a ruler's mastery of the ancient deity Oceanus and thus his worthiness in domestic politics. 

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• 4/3/2022
  

  Remembering the Falklands-Malvinas War 40 Years Later

  by Yoav J. Tenembaum

  Britain's successful repulsion of Argentina's invasion of the disputed islands resulted as much from diplomatic maneuver as military. 

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• SOURCE: Slate
  3/24/2022
  

  "Bridgerton" Keeps Perpetuating the Hollywood Corset Myth

  by Hilary Davidson

  Hollywood tends to portray women's historical fashions through a lens formed by today's ways of dressing, and ignore the more complex material and social history of clothing. 

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• 3/27/2022
  

  Brexit and European War Mark Another Chapter in the Saga of Reinventing Britishness

  by Dominic Selwood

  The good news for Brits struggling with national identity in the wake of Brexit and under the threat of war? Britishness has been a constantly negotiated and evolving idea for centuries. 

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  3/13/2022
  

  How London Became the Oligarchical Cesspool of "Londongrad"

  by Geoffrey Wheatcroft

  From football to real estate to politics, British institutions have been willing to welcome Russian cash for decades without regard for its potential moral taint. 

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• 2/20/2022
  

  The Strangely Forgettable Burial Place of Henry VIII

  by Emma Levitt

  Though the monarch's grandiose plans for his own tomb were never fulfilled, they reveal much about Henry VIII's ideas of power and masculinity, and pose an ironic contrast to the austere slab that marks his resting place today. 

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• SOURCE: Sunday Post
  2/13/2022
  

  20 Year Of Research Led to the Truth about Mary Seacole, the Scottish-Jamaican Nurse and Rebel

  Helen Rappaport's biography of Seacole began with a fortuitously discovered portrait, and pushed past the respectability-driven narrative she presented of her own life. 

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• 2/6/2022
  

  Art's Historical License in Netflix's "The Edge of War"

  by Yoav Tenembaum

  The recent Netflix film's treatment of the Munich Accords reads backwards from the outcomes of Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy to argue, wrongly, that the Prime Minister's intent was to buy time for the British to rearm. 

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  1/23/2022
  

  Reviewed: The BBC: A People's History

  David Hendy's book was built on complete access to BBC archives, but a reviewer finds that it's long on bureaucratic history and short on analysis of the programming that made the Beeb a national institution. 

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• 1/30/2022
  

  Neville Chamberlain: Unsung Hero of WWII

  by Luke Reader

  A new Netflix film should prompt a reassessment of the legacy of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who arguably succeeded in saving Britain and the European opposition to Hitler through a two-pronged strategy that used appeasement to buy time for rearmament. 

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• SOURCE: The Economist
  1/24/2022
  

  New Film "Munich" Offers Revised and (Somewhat) Sympathetic Portrait of Chamberlain

  The film portrays Chamberlain as less weak-willed and more overconfident in his ability to secure peace. 

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• 1/9/2022
  

  A Walk Around the "Wood that Built London"

  by C.J. Schüler

  The remnants of the North Wood outside London posed a mystery of cartographical history to the author: how to reconstruct the forest that was timbered to build the metropolis.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/4/2022
  

  Britain to Enable Pardons, Expunge Records for Persons Convicted of Same-Sex Contact Under Repealed Laws

  “It is only right that where offences have been abolished, convictions for consensual activity between same-sex partners should be disregarded too,” British Home Secretary Priti Patel said in a statement.

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• SOURCE: New Statesman
  12/8/2021
  

  Historians are Soft Targets in the Culture War. They Need to Fight Back

  by David Olusoga

  "Historians should repeatedly point out that the 'rewriting of history' is not some act of professional misconduct but literally the job of professional historians."

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  11/15/2021
  

  Colin Morris, 1928-2021

  Colin Morris identified the beginnings of the concept of individualism two centuries earlier than had previously been believed, part of a career of groundbreaking scholarship on the Middle Ages. 

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• SOURCE: Foreign Policy
  11/1/2021
  

  Boris Johnson’s Roman Fantasies

  by Mateusz Fafinsky

  Boris Johnson's recent statements that the collapse of Rome was caused by open borders are well out of step with historical understanding of the fragmenting of the Roman empire, but in line with a long legacy of political misappropriation of Rome as an allegory for the danger of immigrants.

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• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  10/12/2021
  

  Academic and Amateur Historians Clash over Location of 1,000 Year-Old Battle

  "In Britain, historians love to fight over battle sites, but few elicit such stridence and obsession as Brunanburh. There are more than 30 proposed locations for the battle, which took place in 937, and helped shape what would become England."

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  9/28/2021
  

  Who Owns the Legacy of a Notorious Women's Prison?

  Caitlin Davies' "Bad Girls" tells the history of London's Holloway Prison, which is now in jeopardy from a pending redevelopment plan.