Retrospect
Journal.

EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY'S HISTORY, CLASSICS AND ARCHAEOLOGY MAGAZINE

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  • Book Review – The Earth Transformed by Peter Frankopan

    Peter Frankopan’s The Earth Transformed explores the role of the climate across a vast span of history. Ailsa Fraser discusses the book and its contributions to environmental history.

  • A Rainy Day at the British Museum

    The British Museum is an iconic- and controversial- tourist attraction. Naomi Wallace explores the issues surrounding it in this fiction piece.

  • Cowboy Communism: Dean Reed’s Tour of the Eastern Bloc

    While Elvis was receiving vast applause in the US, Dean Reed was garnering similar levels of fame and stardom from the Eastern Bloc. Sam Marks explores his how this American musician found fame brought country music to Soviet states.

  • Poppyheads

    In this fiction piece, Ailsa Fraser imagines the situation of a family living in the English Fens, a century after the Draining of the Fens.

  • Beyond the Beads and Feathers: Unpacking the Subversive Potential of Carnival in the Atlantic World

    Beyond the colour and conviviality, Carnivals have served as a means for participants to challenge oppression through performance. Angela Davis explores the history of this tradition and the sociocultural changes it has driven.

  • The History of Sex, Scandal and Society: Betwixt the Sheets with Kate Lister 

    In “Betwixt the Sheets”, historian Dr Kate Lister takes listeners on a journey of sex, scandal, and society throughout history, whilst tackling themes that are incredibly pertinent today. Naomi Wallace shares her review of the podcast.

  • The Duchess of Suffolk

    Victoria Male presents an imagining of the first encounter between Catherine Willoughby – a woman known for her wit and a prominent supporter of the English Reformation – and her first husband’s best friend, King Henry VIII.

  • On John Berger’s Ways of Seeing

    John Berger’s seminal text, “Ways of Seeing”, remains a critical work in the study of art, five decades after its publication. Georgia Smith provides an insightful discussion of his discourse on the “male gaze” and the spectator-subject relationship.