The Bible, the true representation of God’s word and will, a book with unparalleled influence on world history that shows no sign of abating, has proved to be one of the largest sources of ethnic, racial, and gendered conflict. Ever since Eve deceived in the Garden of Eden, the Bible has been the chief literary […]
During the later years of the empire, the Ottomans were overtly portrayed by Europeans as callous and tyrannical autocrats who subjugated Christians in the Balkans. Such narratives portrayed the Ottomans as a brutish Islamic empire, whose only ambition was to persecute its Christian minority. Such a notion is not entirely accurate, as it fails to […]
Working class histories threaten the ideology of the ‘good old days.’ To tell a story that is unafraid of discussing the realities of poverty is to rebel against the narrative of the ‘good old days’ which is used to romanticise oppression using false nostalgia. Tito’s wife, Jovanka Broz, recently died in her home state of […]
Babi Yar, a name synonymous with the Holocaust. On the 29th and 30th of September 1941 alone 33,171 Jews were killed by SS Einsatzgruppen death squads, assisted by the Wehrmacht and Ukrainian collaborators. The mass shootings continued until November 1943. The final death toll, which also includes non-Jewish victims, Romani, Soviet Prisoners of War and […]
As yet another state breaks international law, chemical weapons are again at the forefront of the debate about human rights. Tom Oliver looks at how has the rhetoric of human rights developed since its inception.
The history of European integration can be traced back to 1306, and the idea proposed by Pierre Dubois that European princes should form an assembly in order to attempt to secure a lasting European peace. 706 years later, much of the continent is tied, to some degree, to the European Union evidenced by Greece’s recent […]
The history of tabloid press finds its origins in the chapbooks of the early modern period. Johannes Gutenberg’s 1450 invention of the printing press introduced printing to the Western World, although the first ever movable type printing technology is credited to Bi Sheng, who developed the technology in c. 1041-1048 China. Gutenberg’s western invention remained […]
Angela Davis, Wikimedia Commons Angela Davis is undoubtedly an iconic figure in 20th century American history. The Rolling Stones’ Sweet Black Angel was dedicated to her, and it was reported last year that a biopic of her is now in the works. Yet, the same Angela Davis was fired from her professorship by Ronald Reagan […]
After a long, cold winter the weather the Spring of 1915 was unusually warm. Among the trampled soil and burnt out carcasses of trees, the poppies grew. Of all the symbols which stand as testimony to the First World War, the red poppy is at the forefront. In May 1915 Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, who was […]
The Battle of Hastings took place in 1066. The town 7 miles from the site of the battlefield and the year of the battle hold iconic status in British history, not simply because Norman forces led by William the Conqueror successfully invaded and took a stronghold of England, but also because the disposition from the […]
Simon Tseko Nkoli (1957 – 1998) was an anti-apartheid leader and gay rights campaigner in South Africa. He has a legacy of intersectional activism, winning victories against both racial and homophobic discrimination. When Pêro Vaz de Caminha arrived in Brazil on the 22nd of April 1500 aboard Pedro Alvares Cabral’s voyage of ‘discovery’, he was […]
In the wake of Donald Trump’s inauguration, thousands of women across America and the UK took up their signs and expressed their desire for change at the Women’s March on Washington. Marching on Washington is not a newly invented tactic for protest, as it was widely exhibited through the Civil Rights Movement in America. The […]
The 28th June 1914 not only marked the anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo in which the Ottoman army defeated the Serbians at tremendous human cost, it commemorated the 14th wedding anniversary of Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie. Crucially, it would also mark the beginning of the July Crisis in the lead up to […]
As yet another state breaks international law, chemical weapons are again at the forefront of the debate about human rights. Tom Oliver looks at how has the rhetoric of human rights developed since its inception.