Retrospect
Journal.

EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY'S HISTORY, CLASSICS AND ARCHAEOLOGY MAGAZINE

Blog: https://retrospectjournal.com/
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The Price of Peace: Tacitus’ Outlook Upon One-Man Rule

Ben Clarke writes that Tacitus, born under Nero, offers a sharp critique of one-man rule in Rome. Drawing on his senatorial background, he reveals how the principate eroded libertas, portraying imperial rule as a trade-off between stability and freedom, and condemning both tyranny and senatorial submission.
The Writing on the Wall: The Biblical Fall of Babylon in Art

John Martin and Rembrandt portray the biblical scene of Belshazzar’s Feast, emphasising different emotional depths and, as Arianna closely illustrates, both sharing a timeless moral warning.
The Arab Conquests and the Islamic World in the Early-to-High Middle Ages: A Global Centre for Exchange, Preservation, and Development of Ideas?

Harry Child discusses the Islamic world’s role in fostering cultural exchange, outlining the pivotal role of the Arab Conquests for intellectual and technological advancements in the Middle Ages.
Mao’s “Revolutionary” State or the Continuation of Imperial Rule? A Look at the Founding of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps

Roya investigates the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, established in 1954, which aimed to consolidate control over Xinjiang through civil-military integration.
The Painted Question, The Iconoclast Answer

Abby Hughes explores the history and slashing of Diego Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus.
Representations of Women Working in the NHS within Medical Romance Novels

Lauren Hood explores how romance novels from publishers like Mills & Boon have portrayed women in medicine since 1948.
Terracotta Warriors: The Conservation of the ‘World’s Eighth Wonder’

Emma Donaldson explores the history of the Terracotta and how they being preserved for the future.
Haunted by History: War and Rome in the work of Robert Graves

Robert Palmer explores how Graves’s experiences as a First World War poet and his later reimagining of Imperial Rome in I, Claudius and Claudius the God reveal the theme of surviving chaos.