Summer Reads from Aspects of HistoryAlan Bardos Author of The Dardanelles ConspiracyQueen High by CJ Carey is the sequel to Widow Land and a counter factual/dystopian novel; in a similar vein to 1984, Fatherland and Brave New World. It is set in a 1950s Britain that...
Ancient Greece
Luxury & Power: Persia to Greece at the British Museum
Persia to Greece: Luxury & Power at the British Museum When the Spartan general Pausanias came across Xerxes’ tent, leant to the commander Mardonius, after the victory over the Persians at Plataea in 479BC, according to Herodotus: He commanded the bakers and chefs...
What the Greeks Did For Us, by Tony Spawforth
What The Greeks Did For Us, by Tony Spawforth. Any academic standing up for Classics (Latin and Greek, no definite article) in 2023 does so knowingly entering a minefield of epic proportions. Since the Renaissance the appreciation of Classics has been a mark of...
Tony Spawforth on What the Greeks Did For Us
Tony Spawforth, surely the impact on our world today by the Greeks is significantly limited - after all the Romans would surely claim the ancient influence, if there is any? In many ways the Romans were simply conduits for the older and greater Greek civilisation that...
Three Epic Battles That Saved Democracy, by Stephen P. Kershaw
Stephen P. Kershaw’s new book has been published at the right time, what with an autocratic ruler recently invading a European democracy with overwhelming odds. There are always problems with direct comparisons, but one can’t help thinking of Ukraine when reading...
The Young Alexander, by Alex Rowson
When visiting the Royal Tombs of the Argead dynasty at Aigai, Vergina in northern Greece, one descends a slight declining ramp, in bright sunlight with multi-coloured oleander on either side, towards a doorway at the end that is cloaked in darkness. On entering the...
Medea @Soho Place – Review
Medea @Soho Place - Review Euripides' Medea is one of the more affecting tragedies emanating from 5th century Athens. For those unfamiliar, it's a sequel to Jason and the Argonauts - but if you're thinking it's in the style of the Hollywood version with Todd Armstrong...
Aspects of History Day: Two Years On
As we all celebrate Aspects of History Day – I thought I’d reflect on where AoH is after two years. The whole project: magazine, website and podcast has been hugely rewarding. After all, for the four years previously I’d worked in an obscure office at a large American...
Making History, by Richard Cohen
Early in Richard Cohen’s excellent Making History he quotes his distinguished predecessor, the late John Burrow: ‘Almost all historians … have some characteristic weakness … It is often the source of their most interesting writing’. Cohen’s weaknesses are for story,...
Books of 2022 From Aspects of History
Books of 2021 from Aspects of HistoryTimothy Ashby Author of Elizabethan Secret AgentAt the top of my favourites list of recent historical books is Leanda de Lisle´s Henrietta Maria. Although non-fiction, the book reads like a historical novel, with fascinating...