This year people in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and plenty of other nations will mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta. The document will be lauded for establishing one vital principle. A new book about Magna Carta is published today which claims to offer new insights into one of the most famous documents…
Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for the New Year
Dear Readers, I want to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and most wonderful wishes for the New Year. I will be leaving for holiday vacation until the New Year, and so e-Storia will not have any new posts between now and the New Year. Please remember to check back…
The search for an explanation for why Britain was the first nation to industrialise
Many observers of modern social science are convinced of the maxim: ‘There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics’. Yet good historical scholarship has always used statistics as the antidote to the ‘damned lies’. This is especially useful with the Industrial Revolution, where wild theories dominate. Below I examine three famous theories…
The Wreck Detectives
Vietnam’s Cham Islands, renowned for tropical beaches, granite cliffs and the swallows now circling dizzily overhead have a ominous history. The names for these islands reflect their shape and character – one is called “East Wind”, another “Tomb”. That is the first clue to the history of these waters. This is the story of the coast that…
What do dictators like to eat?
You are what you eat – but also how you eat and who you eat with. Food can affect your mood, your bowels and your world-view, write Victoria Clark and Melissa Scott, authors of Dictators’ Dinners: A Bad Taste Guide to Entertaining Tyrants. In this age of the foodie, the gourmand and the gourmet, we have…
The Most Accurate Prediction in History?
Twenty years ago, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall came down, and with it fell the Soviet Union and its empire of tyranny throughout Eastern Europe. In August 1977, the British journalist and broadcaster Bernard Levin had predicted what eventually happened. He was right about why it would happen, how it would happen, and…
A Surprising History of Turkey in America
How do you get from Christopher Columbus to Butterball by way of Constantinople? Just ask Ataturk. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently made the news when he claimed that Muslim seafarers “discovered America” and that when Christopher Columbus arrived in Cuba in 1492 he found a mosque, built there by the natives, who were also…
The self-publicist whose medical text books caused a stir
Published nearly 500 years ago, Andreas Vesalius’s medical text books occupy an important place in scientific history. Intricate art, unlike anything that had been seen before, sits alongside detailed text that sought to change the way bodies were dissected post mortem. Cambridge University Library holds well-preserved copies of the Fabrica, and its companion piece the…
A Distant Corner of the Eastern Front, 1914
Two Jews stand disconsolately among the ashes of wooden houses burnt to the ground in their Galician town in 1914, only brick chimney stacks left standing. A photograph that was probably taken in August or September during or shortly after what was known as the Battle of Galicia, which ended in a crushing Russian victory…
Monsieur Romieu – a ‘man of talents’
At a time of international conflict two centuries ago, did Britain assassinate an enemy agent while the world was looking the other way? Matthew Teller delves into a story of intrigue and possible skulduggery in Persia. September 1805. Britain and France are at war. Napoleon is massing an army at Boulogne, ready to invade England….
Archaeologists find skeleton in Alexander the Great-era tomb
Archaeologists in Greece have uncovered a skeleton from a tomb dating back to the era of Alexander the Great. The excavation has refueled rumors about the Greek conqueror, whose final resting place remains a mystery. An archaeological team digging roughly 600 kilometers (370 miles) north of Athens near the city of Amphipolis in recent months discovered…
Remembering the Fall of the Berlin Wall 1989
Today marks an important and influential event in European and global history. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 is a defining moment symbolizing not only the path to German reunification, but a genuine psychological end to the Cold War and WWII particularly for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe – who had fallen under…
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