December: Site update, books of the year and misuses of history
Tuesday 17 December 2019
Latest updates on the site, books of the year and an interesting BBC radio programme on how British politicians have been 'misusing' history.
(Illustration by Shaylyn Esposito)
Site update
Paper 2
We have now completed the case study of the Thirty Years' War for Topic 6 on Early Modern Wars:
Case study: The Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest armed conflicts in the Early modern period and one of the most devastating - though it can also be viewed as a series of wars fought by many different nations...
Paper 3
We have added more pages to Topic 7 of Asia and Oceania region:
2. The Chinese tribute system and western trade missions
The 'tributary system' operated by the Qing dynasty assumed that China was culturally and materially superior to all other nations. Thus any nations which wished to trade with China had to come as vassals...
3. First and Second Opium Wars
In mid-19th century, two conflicts, known as the First and the Second Opium Wars were fought between Britain and Qing China. The ‘unequal’ treaties that were subsequently imposed on the defeated...
7. Challenges to East Asian societies: Essay planning
On this page you will find essay frames and essay planning exercises for this topic. Task One: Essay planning. In pairs review the information and tasks on this page: 1. The nature and structure of imperial...
And we have added more ATL pages to Topic 17 of Africa and the Middle East region:
4. Post-war Iran
Post-war Iran was ruled by Mohammad Reza Shah. He was supported by the West and he focused on secularisation and modernisation. However, his autocratic rule and the unpopularity of his policies led to...
5. Lebanon's Civil War
The Lebanese Civil War was one of the most devastating conflicts of the late 20th Century. It was both an internal Lebanese affair and a regional conflict involving a host of regional and international...
History books of the Year
This is a good time to review the best history books of the year. Here are some sites with their choices:
The Ten Best History Books of 2019 (Smithsonian)
Our favorite titles of the year resurrect forgotten histories and help explain how we got to where we are today.
The Best History Books: 2019 Wolfson Prize | Five Books Expert Recommendations (Five Books)
Which were the best history books of the past year? The books shortlisted for the 2019 Wolfson History Prize is a great place to start.
37 books for history lovers: BBC History Magazine's Books of the Year 2019 (HistoryExtra)
From medieval princesses and nomadic warriors to Hungarian football and the Falklands War, this year's best history books have tackled a mind-boggling array of topics and timeframes. BBC History Magazine asked a panel of historians to nominate their favourite historical page-turners published in 2019.
History in the news
Those of you teaching the First World War may be interested on this recent archaelogical find:
German WWI wreck discovered off Falklands (BBC News)
Armoured cruiser SMS Scharnhorst was sunk by the British in the 1914 Battle of the Falkland Islands.
And, this BBC radio programme is very interesting on how key events in British History are being used by British politicians to explain contemporary events - but how they may not have an accurate understanding of these events and why historians are very unhappy about this...
Analysis - The uses and misuses of history in politics - BBC Sounds (BBC)
How well do our politicians understand British history?
Anniversaries
The last key event in the collapse of Communist rule in the Eastern satellite states in the momentous year of 1989 was the bloody overthrow of Nicolae Ceaușescu in Romania which culminated in his and his wife Elena's execution on Christmas Day. Here is an eyewitness account of these events from the BBC 'Witness History' series.
When Romanians stood up to tyranny (BBC News)
In 1989 a wave of protests in Romania led to the fall of the communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu
And this is a good end of year overview of the key events of 1989 with links to other articles:
When crowds toppled communism's house of cards (BBC News)
The BBC's John Simpson recalls witnessing the communist bloc's collapse in three revolutions.