britain

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• SOURCE: Al Jazeera
  7/4/2020
  

  UK Historian David Starkey Quits Cambridge After Slavery Remarks

  The British historian caused outrage by saying 'slavery was not genocide' in a recent interview.

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• SOURCE: BBC
  7/3/2020
  

  David Starkey Criticised over Slavery Comments

  A popular British historian faces criticism for saying that the slave trade was not genocidal because "so many damn blacks" survived.

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• SOURCE: The New York Times
  6/29/2020
  

  A Surprising Role Model Emerges for Boris Johnson: F.D.R.

  The British prime minister, trying to regroup in the coronavirus pandemic, wants to bury Thatcherism and embark on a program of ambitious public works.

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• SOURCE: History
  6/16/2020
  

  The Secret British Campaign to Persuade the U.S. to Enter WWII

  Henry Hemming writes that British intelligence services planted made-up episodes of heroic military raids on Nazi-occupied Europe and fabricated Nazi plans to invade South America to try to overcome prevailing isolationist sentiments among Americans. 

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• SOURCE: The New York Times
  6/8/2020
  

  ‘Get Rid of Them’: A Statue Falls as Britain Confronts Its Racist History

  When demonstrators dumped the monument to a slave trader into Bristol Harbor, they galvanized a debate that echoes conversations happening in the American South about statues of Confederate generals.

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• SOURCE: Reuters
  6/8/2020
  

  Felling of Slave Trader Statue Prompts Fresh Look at British History

  Protesters took direct action to remove a monument to slave trader Edward Colston after officially sanctioned discussions failed to yield action. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  3/29/2020
  

  How to Survive the Blitz

  Five lessons from 1940s Britain about national resilience and social solidarity during a crisis.

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• SOURCE: BBC News
  1/6/20
  

  Did Britain meddle in a US presidential election?

  When US President George HW Bush craved "a smoking gun" in 1992 to politically kneecap his White House challenger Bill Clinton, the British government delved into its files for damaging information. 

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• SOURCE: The New York Times
  September 12, 2019
  

  William Dalrymple’s Case Study: “The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire”

  by Ian Morris

  Every M.B.A. program includes classes on business ethics. William Dalrymple’s superb account of Britain’s East India Company shows why: “The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire” is a case study in what can go wrong when corporate leaders lack a sense of decency.

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• SOURCE: NYT
  12-29-2018
  

  British Design for D-Day Stamp Gets Address Wrong by 8,000 Miles

  An error in a design for a stamp to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day — it showed American troops on the wrong beach, in Asia instead of Europe — has spurred an apology to veterans and their families.

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• Were the Russians Behind Fake News that Helped Bring Down a Labour Government in 1924?

  by Gill Bennett

  Maybe yes, maybe no. But either way there are lessons to be learned from this story.

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  11-7-18
  

  10,000 Years of British History to Be Unearthed in Excavations in Advance of Planned Rail Line

  Initial finds include hunter-gatherer site on outskirts of London, Wars of the Roses battlefield, Industrial Revolution burial guard.

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• SOURCE: NYT
  10-25-18
  

  200 Years On, U.K. Hunts for Grave of Man Called World’s 1st Black Sports Star

  One of London’s main rail stations is being redeveloped, prompting the excavation of a burial ground containing the remains of an estimated 45,000 Londoners, including the boxer Bill Richmond, a freed American slave.

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  10-15-18
  

  The Roman ‘Brexit’: how life in Britain changed after 409AD

  by Will Bowden

  One of the remarkable things about the first decades of the 5th century was the apparent speed with which the things we associate with Roman life disappeared.

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  5-25-18
  

  Stanley Baldwin asked Britain’s rich to help pay off the national debt after World War I – but it didn’t work

  by Kevin Stagg

  The issue is in the news as the government decides what to do about a donation made in 1927 to pay off the national debt.

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  4-24-18
  

  Historian: Why destroying archives is never a good idea

  by Dora Vargha

  Case in point: What Britain did with files showing records from Caribbean immigrants.

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  4-1-18
  

  The shame of antisemitism on the left has a long, malign history

  by Philip Spencer

  The origins of today’s crisis in Labour date back to the 19th century, and ever since Jews have been seen as a problem by a strain of socialist thought.

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  2-12-18
  

  The UK Treasury’s tweet shows slavery is still misunderstood

  by David Olusoga

  The modern equivalent of £17bn was paid out to compensate slave owners for the loss of their human property. Some people believe the British should be proud.

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• SOURCE: Time Magazine
  2-6-18
  

  What 100 Years of British Women’s Suffrage Says About Women’s Rights Today

  The U.K. marks the 100th anniversary of British women gaining the right to vote. While it may seem like distant history, the centenary is a cause for both celebration and reflection on the parallels between international women’s movements of the past and of the present.

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• SOURCE: The Daily Beast
  2-7-18
  

  DNA Tests on an Ancient Skeleton Reveal the First Briton Was Black, Not White

  "It really shows up that these imaginary racial categories we have... are not applicable to the past at all," said one project worker.