Category: Features
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The Use of History in the 2018 Labour Conference
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…
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The Armenian Genocide: Revisiting Turkish Denial
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…
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Jodhaa-Akbar: Bollywood’s historical farce or romantic epic?
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…
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Gods of Euripides
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…
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An Oral History of the Bangladesh War of Independence, 1971 (continued)
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…
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An Account of the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879
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…
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A Recommendation of Mary Renault’s ‘Alexander’ trilogy
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…
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Pondering family, community and history in Sri Lanka
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…
Retrospect Journal 