Written by Chris Spencer Image: Photograph of the 2018 Labour Conference, https://www.rt.com/op-ed/439492-uk-labour-party-conference-corbyn/, accessed 21 October 2018. Keynote speeches at this year’s Labour Party conference were especially notable for their use of history. Speeches were littered with anniversaries that, supposedly, socialists should celebrate. The centenary of female suffrage in Britain was an unsurprisingly consistent feature, but then there was John McDonnell’s vague allusion to the Parliamentarians of … Continue reading The Use of History in the 2018 Labour Conference

Written by Martha Stutchbury Image: Rita Willaert’s 2008 photograph of the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan. https://www.flickr.com/photos/rietje/2903021240/, accessed 21 October 2018. On 10 October 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged and condemned the Armenian Genocide during a speech delivered at the Yerevan Memorial, continuing France’s longstanding policy of officially recognising the disaster. However, global acknowledgement of the genocide remains unachieved. This article re-examines the mass slaughter … Continue reading The Armenian Genocide: Revisiting Turkish Denial

Written by Laila Ghaffar Image: Still from Jodhaa-Akbar (2008), https://www.timeout.com/london/film/jodhaa-akbar, accessed 21 October 2018 While browsing Netflix the other day, I noticed a new addition to my ‘suggested’ list. The thumbnail displayed two well defined side profiles of two of Bollywood’s biggest stars: Hrithik Roshan clad in silver armour, and Aishwariya Rai in an ornate gown. Above their heads, the title: ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ is scrawled in golden cursive. … Continue reading Jodhaa-Akbar: Bollywood’s historical farce or romantic epic?

Written by Lisa Doyle Image: Bust of Euripides. Marble, Roman copy after a Greek original from c. 330 BC. There are many manifestations of divinity in the work of Euripides, the fifth century BC Athenian tragedian. For example, in his plays we see numerous depictions of the Olympian gods, the appearance of other minor deities, and mortal characters in pursuit of divine status. I believe it … Continue reading Gods of Euripides

Written by Carissa Chew   Editorial note: The first part of this article appeared in our printed edition named ‘Individuals and Communities’ (Issue No. 21) and is available through the journal archive on this website. Unfortunately we were unable to publish the rest of the article in the printed journal and it slipped through the cracks in being published online. The author published the full … Continue reading An Oral History of the Bangladesh War of Independence, 1971 (continued)

Written by Bella Howard-Vyse   South Africa is a country particularly rich in fascinating historical events. One such is the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, caused when the British Empire came into conflict with the Zulu Kingdom. This war became famous on account of the unusual nature of the outcome of the battles within it. There were two main conflicts that took place on the 22 … Continue reading An Account of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879

Written by Daniel Sharp         Everyone knows of Alexander the Great and whilst some idolize him as a great leader, others regard him as a brutal conqueror. This debate is common to all such figures in history, from Alexander through Napoleon and Stalin. Such debates are not likely to be settled anytime soon, but they do indicate one thing: there is an enduring fascination … Continue reading A Recommendation of Mary Renault’s ‘Alexander’ trilogy

Written by Mia Partridge   In December 2016, my family and I finally went on a trip that we had been planning for years. We visited Sri Lanka, the beautiful country where my father was born and spent the first years of his life. His father had moved from England to Sri Lanka to manage a tea plantation, and his mother’s family had been part … Continue reading Pondering family, community and history in Sri Lanka

Written by Fay Marsden        Stepping off the bus that had taken us from Brussels to Bruges, the difference between the two cities was immediately discernible. Brussels seems to be somewhat sterile – too cosmopolitan for a medievalist. Bruges, in contrast, felt older and more historical. It is much smaller, with rows of short canal-style houses sitting atop the waters, countless lace and … Continue reading In Bruges

  Written by Eleanor Hardy   Tarnished by endless doping scandals, riddled with corruption and in the deep midwinter, can Russians find a reason to keep their passion for sports alive and are they still being punished by the West for the Cold War? The current outside air temperature here in St Petersburg is a balmy -16 degrees Celsius and I can’t say it is tempting … Continue reading Crime and Punishment: The Saga of Sports in Russia Today

By Anna Nicol It is 3.30pm on Thursday in La Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires, and from the crowd of busy tourists and locals, emerges a sea of white headscarves. These are the Madres (Mothers), women who first came to this square in 1977 with questions, many still unanswered. They have come to represent the relatives and the lives of thousands of ‘disappeared’, men and … Continue reading Argentine Voices