The best websites of 2009: your advent favourites

Christmas is fast approaching! We end our ‘advent favourites’ series with your nominations of the top five websites of the past year…

http://www.georgianlondon.com/ – This year’s clear winner…
‘It's an erudite but entertaining read covering all aspects of Georgian London from fascinating family life, medical practices, sporting pastimes, to the downright raunchy. All the posts are quirky and interesting and not the predictable fodder served up by some other history sites. I always look forward to the next enthralling blog and it never disappoints.’ (Trish Phillips)

‘A steady flow of fascinating, bite-sized insights into Georgian London. What's brilliant about this web log is the sustained quality, readability and pure curiosity of the articles. It keeps prompting me to seek out these forgotten corners of London.’ (Martin McDonald)

‘I greatly enjoy Lucy Inglis's Georgian London. For many years I have been a keen student of the 18th century and a stalwart member of the Georgian Group. Lucy's blog, however, introduces me to aspects of the period that I have not known or little understood. The frequency of her posts amazes me and her approach is frequently very amusing.’ (Patrick Baty, paint analyst who runs the paint business Papers and Paints in London)

http://www.livius.org/
‘A veritable encyclopaedia of the ancient world, especially Roman times.’ (Lindsay Powell, writer on the ancient Greek and Roman worlds)

http://www.daintyballerina.blogspot.com/ (Michael Power)

http://www.quackdoctor.wordpress.com/ (Michael Power)

http://www.historytoday.com/
‘Not such a hard decision! I've been using the History Today archives for all of my research for history, classics and even some English too.’ (Kathryn Parsons, A-level student)

The Sassoon Archive’s new home

by Kathryn Hadley

On Friday, December 18th, Cambridge University Library took delivery of the personal archive of Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), marking the culmination of a six-month campaign to restore the collection for the nation.

The Sassoon Archive was in the possession of the poet’s son until his death in 2006. It went on the market two years later. Siegfried Sassoon studied as an undergraduate at Cambridge University and later became an Honorary Fellow of Clare College. The library already held an extensive collection of Sassoon’s manuscripts and letters and thus seemed a particularly suitable home for the Sassoon Archive. It launched a campaign to raise the necessary £1.25 million to purchase the collection. Prior to its purchase, the archive was the most important collection of any First World War poet’s papers still in private hands.

The collection includes the war diaries which Sassoon kept on the Western Front and in Palestine from 1915 to 1918, drafts of his autobiographical trilogy The Old Century, The Weald of Youth and Siegfried’s Journey, as well as a series of notebooks, which range from records of his schoolboy cricket scores to journals charting the progress of his literary career in the aftermath of the First World War.

In the words of poet Sir Andrew Motion:

‘The Sassoon Archive that has been acquired by the University Library is of the
greatest importance, nationally and internationally. As a memoirist and as a
poet, Sassoon occupies a unique place in the history of writing in English –
someone who combines writerly, political and social significance to an
exceptional degree. Their purchase is wonderful news.’

The Sassoon Archive is now due to be conserved, sorted and catalogued in preparation for a major display in the library’s Exhibition Centre in July 2010, which will bring together documents from the newly acquired archive and a selection of manuscripts and letters from the pre-existing collections.

In Between the Lines: First World War Correspondence, one of our latest feature articles published in November, Anthony Fletcher considers what the letters sent by British soldiers to their loved ones back home reveal about the men’s inner lives.
For an insight into why the First World War captured literary imagination, read First World War Literature by A.D. Harvey.

Christmas presents for history enthusiasts

If you have not yet done all your Christmas shopping and are stuck for ideas, here are our suggestions of some of the best historically themed presents...



Elizabethan Architecture: Its Rise and Fall, 1540-1640, Mark Girouard (Yale University Press, £45)
'The coffee-table book in excelsis, this beautifully designed and illustrated volume is the fruit of almost half a century’s learning by the pre-eminent scholar of Elizabethan (and Jacobean) architecture. It provides remarkable insights into the social structure that gave birth to the great houses of England, examining the foreign influences as well as the way that architects called on native English traditions. What is most wonderful is that these ‘speaking buildings’, as Girouard calls them, still exist, in superb condition, and can be visited once one has consumed Girouard’s offering: Robert Smythson’s Hardwick Hall, William Arnold’s work at Wadham College, Oxford and John Thorpe’s Aston Hall. The latter has particular resonance for me because it was in the shade of the recently and magnificently refurbished Aston Hall that I used to munch on sandwiches and crisps before heading in to Villa Park, literally on the other side of the road, to watch football. This is a book to return to again and again, to luxuriate in its magnificence just as one does with its subject matter. Girouard makes us realise that Elizabethan and Jacobean architecture rivals the literature of the time in its brilliance. And at £45, this book is a bargain.' (Paul Lay)


'An annual subscription to the London Library costs £395 (only £200 if you’re 16-24) so is probably more than most people want to spend on a Christmas present just now, but a day pass costing £10, or a weekly pass at £30, offer a wonderful opportunity to spend some time browsing the shelves of this historic library in the centre of London.' (Sheila Corr)


'Of the many historically-themed Christmas gifts one could give or receive, top of the pops is quite obviously a subscription to History Today. I received my first 12 issues from my grandparents as a teenager, and remember the pleasure each month of delving into digestible slices of 'grown up' history ahead of my class mates. The rest as they say is history! Over the years I've given many subscriptions as presents to friends and family, young and old, a hit every time.' (Charlotte Crow)


Che – Part One and Two – The Complete Story (DVD)
'This DVD set makes an excellent present for anyone with an interest in Latin American history. For those who saw the films in cinemas at the beginning of last year, and for those who did not, both Steven Soderbergh’s films can be seen over and over again. They are fast-paced, full of suspense and highly entertaining with excellent performances by Benicio del Toro as Guevara. They provide a good introduction to the Cuban revolution and raise many questions about the legacy of Guevara and the accuracy of the image which they put forward. Guevara’s memoirs, Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War and The Bolivian Diary of Ernesto Che Guevara would make a good complement to the DVD set for a slightly larger gift.' (Kathryn Hadley)

The best books, plays and films of 2009: your advent favourites

Books
Live from the Moon, Michael Allen (I.B. Tauris) - ‘I've just started PhD research looking at the impact and influence of the media on US space policy. There are many great narratives around the Cold War Space Race, but most of the new material written to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Moon Landing was derivative and/or hagiographic. While Allen is not perfect, and his facts are a little shaky at times, he does put a new lens (quite literally) on the Mercury-Apollo achievements of the Americans, and presents a neat contrast with the Russian competition. His narrative is lively, his love of film and TV obvious, and his sociological musings make sense. Not the best-ever academic history book, but accessible and a good read.’ (Marc Shanahan, Research Student in Politics and History, Brunel University)

Agincourt, Juliet Barker (Abacus) - ‘The book not only brings history alive and the campaign of Henry V, but details the whole amazing effort involved in taking a force from the English shore to France and the incredible management of the job.’ (Richard Vobes, entertainer, film maker and professional podcaster, The Vobes Show)

Fidel and Che: A Revolutionary Friendship, Simon Reid-Henry (Sceptre) – ‘It helped me to understand that period of Cuban history.’ (Sidonie Sakula-barry, A-level student)


Plays
The House of Bernarda Alba by Federico Garcia Lorca at the Theatro Technis in Camden – ‘A really tense and gripping play about the life of a family of women in Andalucía, written three years before Franco came to power and Lorca’s last play.’ (Kathryn Parsons, A-level student)

War Horse by Michael Morpurgo – ‘I took my family to see it at the National before its transfer to the New London Theatre. We were a group aged 8-40-several and all of us found something deeply moving and rather wondrous in the production. Great acting - and puppetry doesn't even begin to describe the way the horses are brought to life on stage. This play will live long with me and my family.’ (Marc Shanahan, Research Student in Politics and History, Brunel University)

Prick Up Your Ears by Simon Bent at the Comedy theatre – ‘The play got the balance between comedy and tragedy just right. Despite Matt Lucas not starring, Con O'Neil did a great job - probably better than Matt Lucas would have done.’ (Sidonie Sakula-barry, A-level student)


Films
‘Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon is a brilliant study of how one generation's neuroses and pathologies shape those of the next. Set in Germany in the months before the First World War, it suggests that malice, envy and random brutality were the stuff of everyday life, reinforced by the baleful influence of religion and class. Masterful.’ (Hugh Costello)

The History of Parliament

The last seven volumes in the monumental History of Parliament series, History of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1820-1832, edited by D.R. Fisher, were published yesterday, December 16th, by Cambridge University Press. The volumes contain biographies of the 1,367 Members of the House of Commons from 1820 to 1832 and surveys of the elections and politics in the 383 constituencies of Great Britain and Ireland which sent them there.

The period encompassed four Parliaments and general elections in 1820, 1826, 1830 and 1831 and saw a series of crises which brought an end to Tory political dominance and the Old political system. Among the major issues of the times were the ‘trial’ of Queen Caroline in 1820-1; the demands for reform and retrenchment in the costs of government led by the Whig Joseph Hume and backed by many Tories angry at agricultural depression; the campaigns of Daniel O’Connell for Catholic emancipation, and its final concession in 1829 splitting the Tory party; and the final crisis of 1831-2 over Parliamentary reform, which saw the Lords browbeaten into accepting the measure.

The constituency articles provide a comprehensive picture of electoral politics in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland on the eve of reform: the influence of the aristocracy, the challenge of radical agitation and the venality in many boroughs. They catalogue the tens of thousands of pounds spent in county elections in England, including the £30,000 spent by Thomas Macqueen in Bedfordshire which contributed to his ruin.

Biographies include those of political giants of the period, such as the Tories Lord Castlereagh, Robert Peel and Lord Palmerston, and the Whigs Henry Brougham, George Tierney, Lord John Russell and Lord Althorp. The volumes also shed new light on many of the workhorses of Parliament: men as varied as Henry Goulburn, Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1828 to 1830, and ‘Black Billy’ Holmes, chief Tory whip. Among the more obscure characters whose lives have been illuminated for the first time are men at opposite extremes of fortune: James Morrison, the son of a Wiltshire publican who emerged as a silk merchant on a grand scale, went into merchant banking and was probably the richest commoner of the 19th-century; and the Newfoundland merchant and gambler Christopher Spurrier, who was reputed to have wagered and lost his last silver teapot on a maggot race.

For further information, visit the History of Parliament website.

Judith Herrin's top history moments of 2009

Judith Herrin shares her best history moments of the past year.

Book

'The best book, for me, was Travels with Herodotus, by Ryszard Kapuscinski (Penguin), an elegant and wistful account of how the great Greek historian inspired the Polish traveller. He used a similar combination of eye-witness evidence, curiosity about the oddest things, and a brilliant capacity to provide a context for each new experience, which is particularly revealing of his grasp of whole continents like Africa, or vast regions such as India, in all their variety.'

Exhibition

'The best exhibition for me must be Byzantium 330-1453 at the Royal Academy, even though the labels on the objects were too brief to be much help. The presentation of such a sweep, from early Christian to late Byzantine and Renaissance art, provided an opportunity to look at constant features as well as changes and novel developments. With a glistening array of courtly objects, ivory boxes, enamels, coins and silks, as well as objects in daily use, spoons, clothing, ceramic bowls etc, the secular component of Byzantine art with decoration inspired by ancient myths, could be contrasted with the better known religious art, primarily through the great collection of icons in the last rooms. To see the icons from the collection of St Catherine’s monastery, both the early encaustic and late gilded, was a real treat.'

History Today article

'Losing the Plot: Lloyd George, F.E. Smith and the trial of Alice Wheeldon in which John Jackson exhumes the extraordinary case of a middle-aged woman from Derby convicted of plotting to murder the Prime Minister.'

History moment

'The commemorations of the fall of the wall in 1989, with so much evidence of how this has shaped our world.'

Judith Herrin is Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at King’s College London. Her most recent book is Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire (Allen Lane, 2007). She is also the author of Women in Purple. Rulers of Medieval Byzantium (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2002).

In The Fall of Constantinople Judith Herrin tells the story of the final moments of Byzantine control of the imperial city.
In The Byzantine Secrets of Procopius she considers the Jekyll-and-Hyde output of Justinian's court historian, alternately respectful official chronicler and tabloid-style exposer of imperial scandal.

Paul Cartledge's top history moments of 2009

Paul Cartledge shares his top history moments of the past year.

Exhibition
‘2009 was for me the year of three anniversaries, in particular, the 800th (pseudohistorical) of Cambridge University, and the 200th/150th (birth/Origin of Species) of Darwin. The trio were brought together as a unity spectacularly in Endless Forms, a Fitzwilliam Museum exhibition exploring Darwin's reception of the visual arts and Darwin's impact upon them. The exhibition catalogue, edited by the co-curators Diana Donald and Jane Munro (Yale U.P.), is a minor masterpiece fitted to survive long beyond its immediate originating environment.’

Book
‘My ancient Greek history book of the year is The Landmark Xenophon’s Hellenika (Pantheon Books), a new translation of Xenophon's Hellenika ('Greek History') by John Marincola, with an introduction by David Thomas and edited by Bob Strassler.’



Paul Cartledge is A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Cambridge. His latest book Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities was published in October by Oxford University Press.



In Alexandria the Great published in our October issue, Paul Cartledge celebrates the city that fused Roman, Greek and Egyptian culture.
In Olympic Self-Sacrifice he explores the differences between today’s interpretation of the Olympic Games and their significance in the ancient world, and in To Die For? he argues that ancient Spartan society and its fierce code of honour is something still relevant today.

The origins of the modern-day image of Father Christmas

The origins of the modern-day image of Father Christmas
Coca-Cola claims to have created the modern-day image of Santa Claus when it began using images of jolly St. Nick in advertisements in 1931. Coca-Cola’s claims have, however, been refuted by the company White Rock Beverages, which used advertisements featuring a white-bearded and fat Santa Claus dressed in red as early as 1915. Read the article on BevNET.com. The website of the White Rock Collectors Association, White Rocking, features advertisements from the time.

Darwin’s mysterious illness diagnosed
The Australian doctor and associate professor at Monash Univerity in Melbourne, John Hayman, has recently suggested that Darwin suffered from ‘cyclical vomiting syndrome’, a rare inherited disorder. Darwin appears to have suffered from nausea, vomiting, headaches, and stomach and skin problems throughout most of his adult life. The results of Hayman’s study are published in the article ‘Darwin’s illness revisited’ in the Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal. The Guardian reports.

Father Christmas buried in Ireland
According to the historian Philip Lynch, the remains of St Nicholas, who inspired Father Christmas, are believed to be buried at Jerpoint Abbey in County Kilkenny, Ireland. St Nicholas of Myra was Bishop of Lycia, in what is now Turkey, in the 4th century. He was famous for leaving anonymous gifts for the poor and, shortly after his death in 346, he was declared a saint. He was initially buried in Myra, but it is believed that his remains were brought back to Ireland during the Crusades.
Read the article in The Telegraph.

China’s heritage destroyed
Tania Branigan reports in The Guardian on a recent survey carried out by the Chinese State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH), which has revealed that ten of thousands of historic sites have disappeared in China over the past 30 years as a result of the county’s rapid development. Some 30,995 items on a list of historic sites compiled in 1982 have vanished. Liu Xiaohe, deputy director of the survey, was interviewed by the Chinese newspaper China Daily.

Daily Express 100-year-old archive available online
The Daily Express has launched an online archive of every edition of the paper published since 1900. Over 1.7 million pages from the newspaper’s archive have been uploaded to ukpressonline. It is possible to view thumbnails of the newspapers’ pages, but users have to pay to have full access to the articles. 48 hours access costs, for example, £5.95.

Miles Taylor's top history moments of 2009

Miles Taylor is Director of the Institute of Historical Research and Professor of Modern History at the University of York. He is the author of Southampton: Gateway to the British Empire (IB Tauris, 2007) and is currently writing a book on the history of parliamentary representation in Britain since the late 18th century, and a study of the Victorian monarchy and India.


He shares his top history moments of the past year...


Exhibitions
‘The Taking Liberties exhibition at the British Library, which combined the poignant and tragic (the suffragette Emily Davison’s return train ticket to Epsom on the day she took her life at the Derby in 1913) with the epic (the original 1831 reform bill) and really made one think hard and long about how protracted and contested the evolution of democracy has been in the country.’

‘The Handel the Philanthropist display at the Foundling Museum – a timely reminder of how so much talent and wealth and philanthropy was put to a good cause in mid-18th century London – art in the service of humanity: wonderful.’

Museum
‘The Edo-Tokyo museum in the Japanese capital which conveys brilliantly through its large-scale reconstructions of architecture, mapping and film the ways in which Japan was catapulted through western contact, earthquake and war into the idiosyncratic modernity we know today – all in the space of 80 years. Amazing.’

Book
‘My favourite book was Alexander Waugh’s The House of Wittgenstein (Bloomsbury Publishing), which captured the contingency, chaos and eccentricity of a truly unique family and their time and place in history, and made sense both of a philosophy and of a fin-de-siècle middle European dynasty.’

The legend of Mitterrand’s opposition to German reunification

by Kathryn Hadley

What if Mitterrand’s alleged opposition to German unification was no more than a myth? Was Thatcher thus the only leader opposed to German unification? How far did Thatcher's views represent those of Britain as a whole? Maybe her alleged opposition to unification too was merely a legend? Or maybe these are the wrong questions to ask? If German unification was inevitable, perhaps the questions to be posed are slightly more complex.

These were some of the questions raised by an impressive panel of speakers at a conference held at the residence of the French Ambassador to the UK last week. The conference, entitled ‘France, Britain, German unification and European construction: Twenty years after the Fall of the Wall’, was organised to mark the launch of the latest book by Frederic Bozo, Mitterrand, the End of the Cold War, and German Unification. Bozo is professor in contemporary history and international relations at the Sorbonne. Speakers included Bozo himself, Professor Michael Cox from the LSE, Professor Patrick Salmon, chief historian at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and Jean Mendelson, the director of the French national archives. The hugely engaging and stimulating discussion was chaired by James Blitz, the Diplomatic Editor of the Financial Times.

In his book, Bozo argues, against the dominant view, that Mitterrand was against German unification, and that he sought to oppose it. The French president’s alleged opposition was a ‘legend’. French policies were undoubtedly different to German and American policies and these differences, at times, caused disagreement between the three countries. Historiography is also dominated by the American viewpoint, which has caused French policies of German unification, in favour of a unified Germany within a European framework, to be largely overlooked.

Mitterrand was thus not opposed to German unification. According to Bozo, he was ‘intellectually ready’ and the German question was at the heart of French policies. He did not try to block German unification, but merely sought to slow down and control the process in order to embed it in a European framework. Bozo quoted Mitterrand: ‘German unification is legitimate provided it is done peacefully and democratically’. In Mitterrand’s opinion, German unification should not be a takeover, and should be compatible with international defence arrangements. Mitterrand may not have actively sought to oppose the unification process; however, is Bozo’s study not overly positive? Moreover, if Mitterrand was in favour of German unification, was Thatcher then the only leader who voiced her opposition?

Following his study of British diplomatic documents for his work on Britain and German Unification 1989-90, Patrick Salmon was largely in agreement with Bozo: Mitterrand was in favour of German unification, albeit within a European framework. But, in his view, French opposition was not the only ‘legend’; British opposition was also a myth. Thatcher did not impede unification either, and he argued that there was a certain passivity about Thatcher and a fundamental gulf between her words and her actions. Her public rhetoric was, above all, ‘a way of letting off steam’ and the documents reveal how close British and French views were in reality. British and French views were divided primarily over Germany’s position in Europe. Another difference was that British diplomats had to work against the grain and wear down Thatcher’s opposition.

Neither Mitterrand, nor Thatcher, were thus opposed to German unification. The issue is, however, slightly more complex. The unification process was widely perceived as inevitable and, in this sense, it is unrealistic to think that Mitterrand or Thatcher would have publically opposed it. According to Michael Cox we are thus asking the wrong question. The question is not ‘did Mitterrand slow down the process of unification’. Indeed, in the face of the inevitability of German unification, it would have been an embarrassment to do so. Instead, the question should be: ‘was it reasonable for people to ask questions about a process that was already underway?’. A key issue was thus Gorbachev’s position within the process: would Gorbachev be brought down if the process got out of control? Was it important to keep Gorbachev within the unification process?

Finally, a key issue to consider is the extent to which Thatcher’s views were representative of those of British diplomats as a whole. What was Britain? With a strong leader such as Thatcher, there was a danger that her views obscured those of the policymakers who worked behind the scenes. Cox quoted a British draft paper on German unification to reveal an altogether different view to that publically voiced by Thatcher. The paper was admittedly only a draft; nevertheless, it stated that although there were ‘various disadvantages’ to reunification, ‘these aspects should not be exaggerated’ and ‘can be easily averted’. It argued in favour of unification provided that Britain could ‘exert influence over the speed and direction’ of the process.

Thatcher’s rhetoric was not just unrepresentative of British views in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO); Cox concluded that Thatcher’s attitude, in fact, put the FCO in a very difficult position: Thatcher was ‘embarrassing and complicating Britain’s position’.


In After the Cold War: The Private Side of German Reunification, part of our short series ‘After the Cold War’ looking at changing attitudes to history in the former Communist states, Paul Betts considers the consequences of the collapse of Soviet Communism in eastern and western Germany.
In The Berlin Wall: A Secret History Frederick Taylor asks whether the barrier between opposing sides of Berlin was more convenient to the Western democracies than their rhetoric suggested.

Kate Williams' top history moments of 2009

Our countdown to Christmas continues this week with our contributors' selections of the best history moments of 2009.
Today, Kate Williams shares her top history moments of the past year.

Film
The Young Victoria – 'The film, starring Emily Blunt, as the youthful Queen, and produced by Martin Scorsese and the Duchess of York, was lavishly staged, beautifully acted, and full of historical detail. Reminding us that there is more to our longest reigning monarch than a black-shrouded widow of Windsor, the film will hopefully only usher in more historical adaptations.'

Books
'My favourite books were Amanda Vickery's Behind Closed Doors (Yale University Press), Tracy Borman's Elizabeth's Women (Jonathan Cape) and Alison Weir's The Lady in the Tower (Jonathan Cape).'

Play
'My favourite play was Enron by Prebble - for the historians of the future.' (Enron will be on show at the Noel Coward Theatre from January 16th, 2010, until May 8th)

Exhibition
'As exhibitions, I thought the V & A's Baroque was fantastic - some wonderful pieces.'

History Moment
'My best historical moment was the opening of Agatha Christie's home (Greenway House near Brixham) by the National Trust in Devon.'

Kate Williams is the author of Becoming Queen (Hutchinson, 2008). She is currently writing a book about 19th-centuty France and a novel about historical murder. In Queen Victoria and the Palace Martyr , published in our April issue, she looks at the scandal that rocked court and parliament in the early years of Victoria’s reign, resulting in a personal and political crisis for the young queen.

Did the Empress Josephine teach France to drink?

Did the Empress Josephine teach France to drink?
In The Independent John Lichfield reports on the exhibition ‘La Cave de Josephine’, which opened last month at the Chateau de Malmaison.

Hitler’s skull: la suite...
At the end of September, researchers from the University of Connecticut concluded that the skull believed to have belonged to Hitler was in fact that of a woman. However, Russia’s intelligence service FSB has recently denied the American scientists’ claims. Read the article in Spiegel Online.
In The Times, Ben Macintyre argues that Hitler’s remains are ‘still the most toxic DNA in the world’.

1,900-year-old treasure trove in Scotland in danger of being washed away
The Iron Age rock shelter and midden, Uamh an Eich Bhric, also known as the Cave of the Speckled Horse at Fiskavaig, on the west coast of Skye, was discovered in 2005 when a pile of broken rock that had protected the cave from the sea was destroyed during the winter storms. It is believed to have been occupied in the Late Iron Age and stone tools, bone fragments and the top of a human skull have since been discovered on the site. However, the remaining treasure is being washed away on a daily basis. According to a report published by Highland Council's Historic Environment Record, at the current rate of erosion, the site will not last beyond 2010. Read the article in The Scotsman.

The horrifying story of one of Dr Mengele’s victims who refused to see another doctor for 65 years
In March 1944, Yitzhak Ganon and his family from Greece were transported to Auschwitz. Yitzhak Ganon was taken to the camp hospital where Mengele removed his kidney without any anaesthetics. In an article in the Spiegel Online he shares his story with a German reporter for the first time.

Juliet Gardiner's top history moments of 2009

Continuing our series of 'advent favourites', former History Today editor and reviews editor, Juliet Gardiner, shares her top history moments of the past year.

The best films of 2009
Winstanley – ‘A welcome BFI reissue of Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo's 1976 film about the 'Diggers' started by Gerrard Winstanley. One of a number of non conformist groups that emerged during Oliver Cromwell's Interregnum, the 'Diggers', a group of agrarian communists, aimed to 'level' distinctions of wealth and property. Stunning images, if an occasionally young man's manifesto masquerading as dialogue.’
An Education – ‘An enchanting debut for Carey Mulligan playing Jenny (aka the journalist Lynn Barber) in an autobiopic of Barber's lower middle class suburban teen years, which beautifully - if chillingly - captures early 1960s Britain pre feminism. Fantastic performances from Mulligan and Rosalind Pike, but the dark side of those years (Barber's con man seducer worked for the notorious slum landlord Peter Rachman) does not figure very much.’

Play
Waste by Harley Granville Barker at the Almeida
‘A prescient, lyrically written, serious play banned by the Lord Chamberlain for 30 years, Waste deals with a man of high ideals, Henry Trebell, and his affair with a married woman which society is prepared to condone until it is made public and Trebell insisted on a woman's right to choose - abortion.’

Exhibitions
Wild Thing: Epstein, Gaudier-Brzeska, Gill, Royal Academy (on show until January 24th, 2010)
‘A key moment in modernism - and Vorticism - in which three young men transformed the form of sculpture on the eve of the Great War - and ways of seeing the world, particularly its ruptures, violence and disjunctions.’
Surburbia, London Transport Museum (on show until March 31st, 2010)
‘There is a recent growing appreciation for the suburbs as the people's choice, nests tailored for humanity rather than 'machines for living' and this exhibition recreates the golden years of the Tudorbethan and beyond, and, unsurprisingly, given the venue, the key role that London Transport played in suburban development - think Metroland - and more.’

Book
Family Britain, David Kynaston (Bloomsbury)
‘The second instalment of 'Tales of a New Jerusalem' a compelling evocation and interrogation of British society between 1951 and 1957 - years when Britain came to affluence but didn't change much about its class structure or fixed and narrow view of the world - smog and formica along with Angel Delight, homophobia and capital punishment.’

TV programme
A History of Christianity (BBC4) - ‘The series told me so much that I didn't know with quiet erudition and wit - and peerless locations.’
Mad Men (BBC4) - ‘Sheer pleasure - a wallow in the 1960s US - crisp, sharp, glamourous and deeply perceptive about a culture that would spread across the Western world - for a time.’

Website
The Royal Historical Society Bibliography
‘An invaluable tool for historians, at present a resource for the public - celebrate it now because in January, it will no be longer free for those in search of the past.’

History Today articles
'It seems particularly hard to choose among so many first rate articles and I certainly wasn't able to select just one. But I found three particularly interesting. There was Michael Hunter's timely rescue of Robert Boyle and his Air Pump from the oppressive weight of Newton in Genius Eclipsed: The Fate of Robert Boyle (November). Whatever Eamon Duffy writes is illuminating and The Queen and the Cardinal: Mary I and Reginald Pole (May) was no exception, plotting the tangled revival of the Roman Catholic 'true church' engineered by Mary I and her Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Pole. While Richard Overy's Parting with Pacifism in the 1930s (August) added an important dimension to our understanding of the 1930s and the sometimes confused impetus to appeasement and resistance to fascism.'

Top history moment
‘The death of Harry Patch, the last British veteran from the First World War and an independent, clear eyed man who made easy sentimentality about the carnage of war hard to sustain.’

Mass cannibalism in Germany and the mystery of the Herxheim settlement

Mass cannibalism in Germany and the mystery of the Herxheim settlement
Herxheim is a small town in south-western Germany. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of 500 Stone Age corpses, the bones of which bear the same marks as slaughtered livestock. They believe that the dead of Herxheim may have been prepared as meals. Read the article in the Spiegel Online.

Scotland’s oldest book on display tomorrow
The Celtic Psalter, believed to be Scotland's oldest book, will go on public display for the first time, tomorrow, in a new exhibition entitled ‘Masterpieces 1’ at Edinburgh University’s main library. The book dates from the 11th century and contains hand-written psalms in Latin, with Celtic and Pictish illustrations. The exhibition will run until March 14th. The Edinburgh Evening News reports.

Timeline of the history of climate change
The New York Times features an interactive timeline of the history of climate change providing useful background information to the Copenhagen climate change summit.

New light on Battle of Bannockburn
According to the latest research by Robert Ferguson, an American lawyer, a band of Templar knights who arrived in Scotland from overseas may have helped Robert the Bruce to defeat Edward II’s army at the Battle of Bannockburn. Ferguson’s claims are made in his latest book The Knights Templar and Scotland, due to be published in the New Year by The History Press. Read the article in Scotland on Sunday.

Saving Europe’s largest Jewish graveyard
The Spiegel Online reports on the launch of a project to restore Europe’s largest Jewish cemetery in north-eastern Berlin’s Weissensee neighbourhood. The cemetery also applied for UNESCO status, last month, in order to secure the additional financial backing required for the total completion of the project. The size of the cemetery, which extends over 42 hectares (103 acres) and contains 115,000 tombstones, is testimony to the role that Jews once played in German society. Prior to the Second World War it is estimated that there was a community of around 600,000 Jews in Germany; after the Holocaust, the number was reduced to 14,000.

Last chance to send us your nominations!

Having featured our nominations of the best history films, exhibitions, books, plays, websites, TV programmes, History Today articles and 'history moments' of 2009 over the past few days, next week we will be revealing yours!

If you would like to nominate your favourite history film, book, play, website etc. of the past year, please email k.hadley[at]historytoday.com with your choice and a sentence explaining why before Monday December 14th.

At the end of the month, we will send ten lucky participants a selection of the best history books of 2009 to thank you for your contributions.

We look forward to receiving your nominations!

The top history moments of 2009

Andy Patterson:
‘I loved the story of the discovery of the lost Persian army in the sands of the Sahara. How careless of 50,000 people to lose themselves in the sand like that.’

Kathryn Hadley:
‘The death of Harry Patch was more than the death of just one man. Harry Patch was the last surviving Tommy and his death marked the loss of a whole generation of British servicemen who fought in the First World War. For the first time, this year, no British veterans were there to attend the Remembrance Day celebrations.
Harry Patch repeatedly featured in the news over the past year. He was awarded the French Legion d’Honneur in March and celebrated his 111th birthday on June 17th.
The only other two surviving British veterans, Bill Stone and Henry Allingham, who was an air mechanic during the First World War, both died this year. Allingham died exactly a week before Patch, on July 18th. Claude Choules is now the only surviving British veteran. He served in the Royal Navy during the First World War, but now lives in Australia.’

Paul Lay:
‘The discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard came at a moment when Anglo-Saxon England, arguably the most important period of the country’s history, was in danger of permanent neglect. It will inspire a new generation of Anglo-Saxon scholars.
Personally, I was also privileged to meet and interview Charles Arnold-Baker, author of the Companion to British History (Loncross Denholm) just a few months before his death. The CBH is a remarkable testimony to a remarkable and much loved man, and no home should be without a copy.’

Derry Nairn:
‘I enjoyed the News blog’s review of Moctezuma, at the British Museum. I neither visited the exhibition, nor am I an expert on the topic. But I thought Kathryn asked some pretty searching questions of both the curators, and of the British Museum's Great Leaders series.’

Shelia Corr:
‘It has to be the Staffordshire Hoard - an astonishing and breathtakingly beautiful collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and the rather cheering story of its discovery.’

The best documentaries and TV programmes of 2009

Pinar Sevinclidir:
The Lost World of Tibet (BBC4)

' A wonderful documentary that brought rarely seen colour films of Tibet from the BFI archives to our front rooms. The film was produced by the BBC and presented by Dan Cruickshank. The archive footage was shot before the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950 and provides glimpses of the daily lives of Tibetans and the Dalai Lama as a child. Seeing the footage is interesting in itself, but what made this film even more enjoyable was having the 74-year-old Dalai Lama watching himself on his laptop and bursting into laughter whenever he saw his six-year-old self on the screen.'

Andy Patterson:

Mud, Sweat and Tractors: The Story of Agriculture (BBC4)

'A fascinating documentary on the history of milk production in the UK. Weird but true.'

Sheila Corr:
The Devil’s Whore (Channel 4)
'Our fictional heroine ‘whores’ her way across the great divide of the English Civil War in this lively four-part drama which manages to shed considerable light on the period, showing us how close the two sides often were. That at times it can be hard to tell a roundhead from a cavalier is actually a tribute to the accuracy of costume research.'

Paul Lay:

A History of Christianity (BBC4)
'Diarmaid MacCulloch’s reassuringly traditional, authoritative and impishly told account of Christianity’s ‘first’ 3,000 years.'

The bright lights of Lyon

by Kathryn Hadley

Today, Tuesday December 8th, is the last day of the annual Festival of Lights, ‘Fete des Lumières’, in Lyon, where I spent the weekend. Over the past four days and nights, sound and light displays, processions and special church services were organised to mark the event. The ‘Fete des Lumières’ was originally a religious festival and was first celebrated 157 years ago, in 1852.

The festival is a tribute to the Virgin Mary, the origins of which date back to the 17th century. In 1643, there was an outbreak of plague in Europe and the magistrates of the town of Lyon appealed to the archbishop for the protection of the Virgin Mary. In return, they agreed, every year, on September 8th, to climb the colline de Fourvière, a small hill to the west of the town and the site of a 12th-century chapel devoted to Mary, to pay homage to the virgin.

In 1852, a bronze statue of the Virgin Mary was due to be inaugurated, on September 8th, at the top of the chapel’s bell tower. That year, however, the river Soane burst its banks and the foundry where the statue was being sculpted was flooded. The inauguration was postponed until December 8th, the day of the Festival of the Immaculate Conception. When the planned celebrations could not take place, once again, due to bad weather, the inhabitants nevertheless all lit lanterns in the windows of their homes to mark the event. Church leaders also lit up the Chapel of Fourvière. From that year on, the inhabitants lit candles and the town was illuminated, every year.

The Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière, which replaced the original medieval chapel, was built in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War. In 1870, threatened by the advance of the Prussian troops in eastern France, the inhabitants of Lyon appealed to the archbishop, once more, and vowed to extend the existing church if Lyon was spared.

For further information on the festival, visit www.lumieres.lyon.fr/lumieres/sections/en

For further information on the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière, visit http://www.fourviere.org/

Photos:

- the opera of Lyon

- view of the Lyon from the colline de Fourvière

Advent Favourites: the best history websites

Sheila Corr:
The British Museum's Collection database search
'An extremely useful research tool covering all British Museum departments (especially strong on Prints & Drawings, which otherwise has a somewhat impenetrable cataloguing system) giving full museum information and in many cases a picture of the object, intelligently keyworded for searching.'

Kathryn Hadley:
The Iceman Photoscan website
'A terrifying and gory website, but fascinating and revolutionary nonetheless. The website enables the user to view the entire mummified body of the Oetzi Iceman and to zoom in to examine specific parts in incredible detail. The preservation conditions of the mummy prevent the public from having close access to the body and the project thus provides an opportunity to discover the 5,300-year-old mummy without compromising its preservation.' Read our full review.

Paul Lay:
'Apart from http://www.historytoday.com/? Mercurius Politicus, Nick Poyntz’s erudite early modern coffee shop.'

Derry Nairn:
'So simple a beginning: The Origin of Species at 150 years - 2009 was also the year of Darwin (and what a lovely page design too!). There are also tons of brilliant archive projects: the Times of London, the Daily Mirror and The Irish Times at 150. I loved Justin Pollard’s Secret Britain, Ian Visits, The House Historian, and many, many more.'

The best History Today articles of 2009

Derry Nairn:
‘Too many to list! Having said that, I’m a sucker for the big and often provocative questions asked by our ‘Today’s History’ writers: in Beyond the Great Divide (May), Daniel Lord Smail wondered why history and archaeology still exist as independent disciplines; the following month saw Chris Wickham attack the image of the medieval world as the ‘Dark Ages’ in In the Medieval (June); and Leo Hollis brought us up to date on 800 years of the London Bridge in Spanning Centuries: London Bridge (July). That month also saw two of my favourite feature articles: the tragicomic tales of would-be Hitler, Engelbert Dollfuss, in Austria’s Diminutive Dictator: Engelbert Dollfuss by A.D. Harvey, and the garrotting panic that gripped Victorian Britain in Stranglehold on Victorian Society by Emelyne Godfrey.’


Paul Lay:
‘So many to choose from, but how about Beyond the Great Divide (May), Daniel Lord Smail’s appeal for the reunification of history and archaeology; and Genius Eclipsed: The Fate of Robert Boyle (November), a compelling reappraisal of the great scientist by Michael Hunter, the world’s leading authority on Boyle.’


Kathryn Hadley:
‘Just before Karadzic’s trial was due to begin, in Conflicting Truths: The Bosnian War (August) Nick Hawton, the BBC’s correspondent in Sarajevo and Belgrade from 2002 to 2008, reflected on his time reporting in the region. Over 100,000 people lost their lives and it is estimated that 20,000 Muslims were missing after the war. The article provides a fascinating insight into the complexities and conflicting interpretations of the horrific conflict, which are bound up with the history and politics of the region.’


Andy Patterson:
‘Two articles, chosen because I learnt something new and unexpected from both: Vercingetorix and the Failure of Gallic Resistance by John Haywood (September) and Africans in the Indian Mutiny by Rosie Llewellyn-Jones (December).


Sheila Corr:
‘So many good ones, but it’s hard for me to separate my enjoyment of an article from the experience of researching pictures and how difficult and/or rewarding it has been. In April, we published Elizabeth Tollet and her Scientific Sisters , an excellent article by Patricia Fara about Elizabeth Tollet, an overlooked 17th century scientist and poet, of whom there were no known likenesses. Serendipity plus a combination of googling and traditional research (contacts, persistence) lead to the discovery of a portrait in a private house, which had been previously unidentified as her, even by the owners.

Advent Favourites: The best books of 2009

Andy Patterson:
The Pain and the Privilege, Ffion Hague (HarperPerennial)
'A sweeping, emotional and thoroughly researched account of the women in Lloyd George’s life. No less than a social and political history of early 20th century Britain.'

Paul Lay:
The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000, Chris Wickham (Penguin)
'A magisterial account of the formation of the continent in its widest sense; essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand Europe’s present-day machinations.'

At the Bright Hem of God: A Radnorshire Pastoral, Peter J. Conradi (Seren)
'A beautiful, lyrical history of the Welsh Marches, notable for its accounts of the lives of the great Anglican mystics Thomas Traherne, George Herbert and Henry Vaughan.'

Sheila Corr:
The Winter Ghosts, Kate Mosse (Orion)
'The brother of a young soldier killed in the Great War travels to France in an attempt to come to terms with his grief and loss. In the snowy forests of the Pyrenees he stumbles upon medieval ghosts still mourning their own tragedy. Short and haunting, underscored by solid historical research.'

Derry Nairn:
Empires of the Sea, Roger Crowley and John Lee (Faber and Faber)
'All too rare a thing: a proper work of history that is nevertheless as gripping as the best of thriller novels. Of course, it helps that the subject matter – the Knights of Malta’s epic, century-long battle against the naval might of the Ottoman empire – would provide enough action for a dozen Hollywood blockbusters.'

Pinar Sevinclidir:
We Saw Spain Die, Paul Preston (Constable)
'A detailed account of foreign correspondents and writers in the Spanish Civil War. Paul Preston’s passion for his subject captures the reader straight away. The book details how battles of propaganda created a new war inside the war. Food was scarce in Madrid during the civil war, but not love. Florida hotel, a compound for journalists, accommodated plenty of famous love affairs.'

What were your favourite books of the past year? Please send us your nominations.
Visit our Books Blog for summaries of the books released in 2009.

Advent Favourites: The best plays of 2009

Derry Nairn:
The Mountaintop by Katori Hall
'By far and away the best historical play I was lucky enough to see this year. Performed in a tiny and stiflingly sticky London theatre by a cast of only two, the play successfully re-imagined the fateful last night in the life of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King’s life.' Read the full History Today review.

Sheila Corr:
Moliere or The League of Hypocrites by Mikhail Bulgakov at the Finborough Theatre
'Wonderfully staged and excellently acted by the National Theatre Studio, this play, about court favourite Moliere, writer, actor and theatre manager, brought down by the power of the king (Louis XIV) and church. Seen from the perspective of Stalin’s equally challenging Russia, but can be enjoyed on many levels.' Read the full History Today review.

Pinar Sevinclidir:
Avon Calling by Louise Platt at Camden People’s Theatre (performed by The Other Way Works theatre company)
'The story of two women. The famous “Ding Dong Avon Calling” fanfare was first heard on US televisions in 1950s. Since then Avon has promised beauty and glamour to women around the world. You can almost smell the powder in the air while Lou tells you the story of herself and her mom.'

Kathryn Hadley:
The Mountaintop by Katori Hall
'Immensely powerful with excellent performances by David Harewood as Luther and Lorraine Burroughs as Camae, the mysterious maid who comes to visit him in his motel room the evening after he gave his ‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop’ speech. Luther was assassinated the following day. The play goes beyond the myth of Martin Luther to reveal him as a man like any other: he has his weaknesses and is a frightened man.'

Charlotte Crow:
A New World, by Trevor Griffiths at Shakespeare's Globe
'As founding fathers, slaves and revolutionaries American and French mingled energetically among the brave punters who endured standing in the pit for three hours, my spirits lifted. Although sprawling in places, the ambition to convey to a modern audience the story of Paine’s life, interwoven with some sense of his ideas and their impact in the 18th century and beyond seemed in itself a radical endeavour in these days of celebrity slush and cultural naval-gazing.' Read the full History Today review.

Advent Favourites: The best exhibitions of 2009

Our countdown to Christmas continues with our selection of the best exhibitions of the past year...

Paul Lay:
Henry VIII: Man and Monarch, British Library. David Starkey’s uncompromising, document heavy, revelatory exhibition told us all we will ever need to know about the old tyrant. In doing so, Starkey demonstrated to the public exactly what it is that an historian does – and how difficult it is to do well.

Andy Patterson:
Not an exhibition but a house. Waddesdon Manor in Hertfordshire. Just goes to show what you can do with a bit of Rothschild cash.

Sheila Corr:
Points of View: Capturing the 19th Century in Photographs (on show until March 7th, 2010)
The British Library’s first ever photographic exhibition gathers together an astonishingly wide range of 19th century prints and books from across its various collections to show the development and influence of early photography. A timely reminder for our digital age.

Derry Nairn:
Madness and Modernity at the Wellcome Collection compellingly charted the often intimate relationship between insanity and creativity in pre-First World War Vienna. What is this extraordinary fin de siècle world’s most provocative legacy? Mental faults of one type or another - addiction, obsessiveness, depression, self-harm, insomnia - now mascarade as self-identity for not only the artistic population, but for most people, in most developed countries.

Kathryn Hadley:
Louis XIV, l’homme et le roi (on show until February 7th, 2010)
Grandiose, superb and breathtaking. This exhibition explores Louis XIV’s personal tastes and his public image created by artists of the time. It is the first time that the chateau de Versailles has devoted a major exhibition to the Sun King and the display unquestionably lives up to the splendour of Louis XIV’s court and persona.

Charlotte Crow:
Bonaparte et l'Egypte, Institut du Monde Arabe. A brilliant exploration of the imperialist ambitions of Napoleon and the interaction between France and Ottoman Egypt, the exhibition also investigated the lingering cultural and political impact of this episode in the 19th and 20th centuries. A highlight was being able to view at close quarters the detail in the vast canvases by French masters Lejeune and David of Aboukir and other desert battles.