English history

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/8/2023
  

  Amateur History Sleuths Decode Letters from Mary Queen of Scots

  57 coded letters held by the French national library were mistakenly identified as Italian. A team of codebreakers found they were the prison correspondence of the ill-fated cousin of Queen Elizabeth I. 

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  1/31/2023
  

  Exhibition: Church of England's Links to Slavery

  The exhibition is an acknowledgment of the church's investments in the transatlantic slave trade, but critics argue that the church remains obligated to pay reparations. 

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• SOURCE: Jacobin
  1/10/2023
  

  William Longbeard, the Unjustly Forgotten Radical of 12th Century London

  by Dominic Alexander

  The rebellion sparked by William Fitz Osbert, the bearded holy man of London, presaged the growing assertiveness of the rural and urban poor in English politics. 

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• SOURCE: History Today
  11/5/2022
  

  What Explains the Enduring Fervor for Guy Fawkes Night?

  British historians explain the enduring appeal of a festival commemorating a failed coup-by-explosion—a fortuitous combination of spectacle, seasonal change, and anti-catholicism. 

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  7/14/2021
  

  The Many Myths of the Term ‘Anglo-Saxon’

  by Mary Rambaran-Olm and Erik Wade

  References to America's "Anglo-Saxon heritage" are often racist dogwhistles, and usually fully detached from the history of the Anglo-Saxon people. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  6/1/2021
  

  The Push to Preserve Where Wilde Was Jailed for Being Gay

  The local council in Reading has been thus far rebuffed in its efforts to purchase Reading Jail, the site of Oscar Wilde's incarceration for "gross indecency," to make it publicly accessible as a historical monument. 

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• SOURCE: TIME
  4/21/2021
  

  The 'America First Caucus' Is Backtracking, But Its Mistaken Ideas About 'Anglo-Saxon' History Still Have Scholars Concerned

  "They’re just picking up on these words and terms and phrases that have been used and misused for so long—but I do appreciate that people were really pushing back."

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• 1/31/2021
  

  Poverty, Politics and Pandemic: The Plague and the English Peasant's Revolt of 1381

  by Alfred Thomas and Peter Rutland

  Seen in a historical context of pandemic-induced paranoia, antisemitic conspiracy, and broad-based resentment, the English rebels start to look less like the innocent victims of tyranny and more like the Trump supporters who invaded the Capitol.

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• 10/25/2020
  

  The Queen's Two Bodies

  by Ed Simon

  Queen Elizabeth's speech to English soliders in anticipation of the Spanish invasion of 1588 rallied the troops for a battle that never happened. But it anticipated today's cultural battle over the stability of gender categories. 

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• SOURCE: The Times
  4/6/2020
  

  If You Thought Byron Was Bad You Should Have Met His Family

  The scandal-prone poet came from a family mired in cuckoldry, cowardice and killing.

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• 12/19/19
  

  Reform or Revolution: England’s Lessons of 1688 for Today and Tonight's Democratic Debate

  by David Walter Leinweber

  As we go forward into the holidays, and then a contentious election, the English example in 1688 continues to provide an important lesson. We can cherish our history and institutions, while still being clear-eyed about necessary changes.  

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• SOURCE: History.com
  11/15/19
  

  The 1969 Documentary That Tried to Humanize Queen Elizabeth II and The Royal Family

  The idea was to show the royal family in their day-to-day lives. The results were mixed.

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• 10/20/19
  

  Trump and the Divine Rights of Kings

  by Ed Simon

  Nobody feels sorrier for themselves than a monarch who discovers that their divine right is an illusion; nobody is more liable to lash out and project the blame for their predicament.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  

  Why the queen said yes to Boris Johnson’s request to suspend parliament

  by Laura Beers

  So why isn’t the Queen taking more criticism for giving Johnson what he wanted? One answer is that she had no choice.

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• 8/25/19
  

  Chocolate and the History Behind Historical Fiction

  by Karen Brooks

  The history of chocolate in England and how a 17th century diary and a chance encounter with public history inspired The Chocolate Maker's Wife. 

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• August 4, 2019
  

  How Two Regicides Escaped to America and Became Folk Heroes

  by Matthew Jenkinson

  How Edward Whalley and William Goffe went from household names to forgotten historical figures. 

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• 7/28/19
  

  Is Stonehenge a Tourist Rip-Off?

  by Ken West

  If Stonehenge is to be restored to its rightful heritage then it must be reengaged with the River Avon and its tribal lands. Only then can we interpret the astounding achievement of these prehistoric people.   

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• 6/30/19
  

  The Declassified History of Hitler's British Traitors

  by Tim Tate

  For all the genuine unity and determination of the vast majority of the British population to defeat Hitler, there was also a small – but dangerous – sub-stratum which yearned for the day when his troops could goose-step down Whitehall amid an orgy of swastika flags.

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• 3/10/19
  

  Robinson Crusoe’s Wall

  by Geoffrey Sill

  We can look to history, especially literary and cultural history, to explain the passionate desire of many Americans to build a wall.

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• 3/3/19
  

  The English Diggers, the "Commons," and the Green New Deal

  by Ed Simon

  The idea of the “commons” as a space of collective ownership, responsibility, engagement, and possibility must be a metaphor that the left draws from rhetorically.