The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
Crime Writers of the World Unite. The Launch Of A New Magazine And Website: Aspects of Crime It is with a great sense of both delight and pride that we can announce that Aspects of History will be launching a sister site, Aspects of Crime. AoC will be dedicated to...
Opening A New Path to Emancipation My debut novel, The Better Angels, centers on the plight of 10,000 former slaves on the Sea Islands of South Carolina during the Civil War. Abandoned by their plantation owners in 1861 after the Union’s occupation, the slaves became...
Have you ever thrown a coin into the Trevi Fountain in Rome? You probably stood with your back to the fountain, as advised by everyone around you, but when you turned back, you may well have caught a glimpse of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. He is the armoured gentleman...
Mary, Queen of Scots has traditionally been perceived as a queen who let her emotions overcome her reason, as someone who let her heart rule her head. It’s a dismissive attitude that is often used to compare her, unfavourably, to Queen Elizabeth I, who is seen instead...
Ghosts of the English Civil War Open the pages of almost any anthology of English ghost stories and, sooner rather than later, you will encounter the figure of a grim-faced Roundhead, a forlorn Cavalier or a pretty maid ravished by some rambling soldier, or...
Not every distinguished historian announces his arrival by the roar of a V8 engine, but Robin Prior is no ordinary historian and - for me at least - this was to be no ordinary lunch. I was planning a new book, the final volume in my Finest Hour trilogy about Britain...
Cicero, the greatest public speaker of the Roman Republic, started life with a handicap. The name “Cicero” was obscure. While Rome was a republic, with all of its magistrates selected in annual elections, a hereditary nobility dominated politics. To be a Scipio, a...
My recent book Who Will Rescue Us? represents over ten years of historical research on a group of primarily Jewish children who fled Nazi Germany and Austria. The goals of my study were multiple: I wanted to grasp- to the extent possible- what it felt like to be a...
By the summer of 1097 the armies of the First Crusade had captured the Seljuk Turk capital of Nicaea and were moving on towards Jerusalem. In their way stood the fortress city of Antioch. They could not simply march around the city as this would leave a secure,...
Epic tales: the surprising search for identity and origins in Virgil and Dante At times of trouble and transition, communities will often find a story that brings them together. From the Iliad to the Shahnahmeh, from ʿAntar to Beowulf, epic tales take familiar ideas...
