Reading time: 3 minutes
The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitlerās Ghetto, by Judy Batalion – an unforgettable true tale of war, the fight for freedom, exceptional bravery, female friendship, and survival in the face of staggering odds.
Reading time: 7 minutes
For service or for gallantry, almost all modern militaries ā especially Western militaries, have issued war medals for a very long time.
But who decides who gets these medals and awards, and how?
Recent examination has brought to light a distinct lack of minority soldiers within Western militaries winning bravery awards, across many different countries, all throughout the 20th century and beyond.
Read More
Reading time: 2 minutes
A look at Crusaders: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands, by Dan Jones – A major new history of the Crusades with an unprecedented wide scope, told in a tableau of portraits of people on all sides of the wars, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Templars.
“Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast” by Marjoleine Kars: an astonishing original work of history,Ā Blood on the RiverĀ will change our understanding of revolutions, slavery and of the story of freedom in the New World.
Read More
Reading time: 22 minutes
The Battle of Pinios Gorge was a pivotal part of the Battle of Greece and a close run thing. The Australians and New Zealanders held the Germans off for long enough to allow the British and Commonwealth forces to withdraw in good order.
Visiting a battlefield is the best way to understand what took place there. Walking the ground gives you an appreciation that no amount of reading can.
Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet by Lyndal Roper – a magisterial new biography which goes beyond Lutherās theology to investigate the inner life of the religious reformer who has been called āthe last medieval man and the first modern one.ā
Read More
Who Discovered What When? Five hundred years of great scientific discoveries by David Ellyard: an absorbing and easy-to-readĀ book about the growth of scientific ideas and knowledgeĀ since 1500.
Read More
Reading time: 2 minutes
Landāwhether meadow or mountainside, desert or peat bog, parkland or pasture, suburb or cityāis central to our existence. It quite literally underlies and underpins everything. Employing the keen intellect, insatiable curiosity, and narrative verve that are the foundations of his previous bestselling works, Simon Winchester examines what we human beings are doingāand have doneāwith the billions of acres that together make up the solid surface of our planet.
Reading time: 6 minutes
In December 1953, Dr. Charles W. Jones, a University of California professor hailed as one of the worldās foremost scholars on St. Nicholas of Myra, gave a speech to the New-York Historical Society that was published the following year in the societyās quarterly under the title āKnickerbocker Santa Claus.ā The premise of Jonesā speech was that author Washington Irving invented Santa Claus in an 1809 satire,Ā A History of New York, that was purportedly written by a completely fictional Dutch historian, Diedrich Knickerbocker. āWithout Irving there would be no Santa Claus,ā Jones wrote. āSanta Claus was a parasitic germ until the Knickerbocker History in 1809; after 1809 Santa Claus spread like a plague which has yet to reach its peak.ā
Part of the Australian 6th Division, these field artillery regiments were formed in 1939. They...
Read More
Reading time: 12 minutes
One of the most unusual forces ever to join the fighting in Europe: the 25,000 Brazilian soldiers and pilots of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force. An idea born out of political necessity, the āSmoking Snakesā played a brief, important, and fascinating role in the fighting in Europe.
By David Ellyard Who Discovered What When? is an absorbing and easy-toreadĀ book about the growth...
Read More
By Simon Winchester Landāwhether meadow or mountainside, desert or peat bog, parkland or pasture,...
Read More
Reading time: 5 minutes
Built by Amenhotep III and then used by his grandson Tutankhamen, the ruins of the city were an accidental discovery. In September last year, Hawass and his team were searching for a mortuary temple of Tutankhamen.
Reading time: 6 minutes
Religious orders such as the Benedictines and Jesuits became expert winemakers. They stopped only because their lands were confiscated in the 18th and 19th centuries by anti-Catholic governments such as the French RevolutionāsĀ Constituent AssemblyĀ and GermanyāsĀ Second Reich.
Reading time: 4 minutes
On June 3 1992, the High Court of Australia handed down its decision in theĀ long-running case of Eddie Koiki MaboĀ and his compatriots from the Torres Strait island of Mer. Together they challenged the authority of the Queensland government to claim not just sovereignty but also ownership of the land comprising their ancestral home.
Reading time: 5 minutes
In the autumn of 2020, I was contacted by the field archaeology unit of the Swedish National Historical Museums, who are also known as the Archaeologists. They were excavating at a Viking-age settlement at Viggbyholm just north of Stockholm. During routine metal detecting of the site, they had located a very exciting find: eight silver necklaces and other silver jewellery along with 12 coins, everything delicately wrapped up in a cloth and deposited in a pot. In other words, a genuine Viking silver hoard.
1. How many Allied vessels were lost during Operation Dynamo, the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation?
Try the full 10 question quiz.
1. Which King did Simon de Montfort overthrow in 1264?
Try the full 10 question quiz.
Reading time: 5 minutes
Escape was a romantic ideal rather than a rational expectation. Gunter Pluschow, who escaped from another PoW camp at Donington Hall, in Leicestershire, wasĀ the only GermanĀ to make it home in World War I, largely because he managed to adopt a disguise and stow away on board a cargo ship at Harwich.