English history 
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
1/13/19
A Tyrant's Temper Tantrum
by Ed Simon
How the History of England's 17th Century Civil War, the American Revolution, and the American Civil War Shows the Shutdown's Potential to Spur Radical Change
-
SOURCE: Telegraph (UK)
1-13-13
Experts still fighting over the site of the Battle of Hastings
It is the most famous battle in British history, fought, as every schoolboy knows, in 1066 at a site now marked by Battle Abbey, near the town of Hastings.But while the date of the Battle of Hastings might still be universally accepted, the location has been called into question, with two experts proposing not one but two different sites for where the fighting actually took place.They believe that for almost a 1,000 years, the battle has been commemorated at the wrong spot, with one historian claiming the fighting actually occurred a mile to the north, on Caldbec Hill, and another stating it was two miles away, to the south, at a place called Crowhurst....
News
- These Portraits Revolutionized the Way Queer Women Were Seen in the 1970s
- “Decades in the Making”: How Mainstream Conservatives & Right-Wing Money Fueled the Capitol Attack
- What the FBI Had on Grandpa
- Franco: Melilla Enclave Removes Last Statue of Fascist Dictator on Spanish Soil
- Lawrence Ferlinghetti Obituary
- For Many, an Afro isn’t Just a Hairstyle
- With Free Medical Clinics and Patient Advocacy, the Black Panthers Created a Legacy in Community Health That Still Exists Amid COVID-19
- With a Touch of Wisdom: Human Rights, Memory, and Forgetting
- New Exhibit Reckons With Glendale's Racist Past as ‘Sundown Town'
- The Broken System: What Comes After Meritocracy?