American Archives

Where are All the Medals? Racial Bias in Military Bravery Awards

by History Guild | Sep 26, 2024 | Military History | 0

Reading time: 7 minutes
For service or for gallantry, almost all modern militaries – 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.

David Grann’s The Wager: a drama of murder, insurrection, escape and an empire at sea

by History Guild | Sep 16, 2024 | Historical Sites, History News, Military History | 0

Reading time: 7 minutes
In 1740, a modest squadron of ships from Britain’s Royal Navy departed Portsmouth in pursuit of an immoderate treasure. Commodore George Anson, who led the flotilla, was tasked with sailing south and west across the Atlantic Ocean, rounding Cape Horn, and interfering in imperial Spain’s lucrative trans-Pacific trade. But even before the mission got underway, its prospects of success appeared dubious. A sizeable proportion of the roughly 2,000 sailors and non-seamen under Anson’s command lacked suitable experience. Worse still was the fact that so many of them took up their posts already in a parlous state of health. It is little surprise, therefore, that Anson’s “famous” voyage around the world proved to be, for most of the men who undertook it, a journey of no return.

The first photograph of the entire globe: 50 years on, Blue Marble still inspires

by History Guild | Aug 26, 2024 | Military History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
December 7 marks the 50-year anniversary of the Blue Marble photograph. The crew of NASA’s Apollo 17 spacecraft – the last manned mission to the Moon – took a photograph of Earth and changed the way we visualised our planet forever. Taken with a Hasselblad film camera, it was the first photograph taken of the whole round Earth and is believed to be the most reproduced image of all time. Up until this point, our view of ourselves had been disconnected and fragmented: there was no way to visualise the planet in its entirety.

Why the Anthropocene began with European colonisation, mass slavery and the ‘great dying’ of the 16th century

by History Guild | Aug 13, 2024 | Advocacy, History News | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes
We’ve made enough concrete to cover the entire surface of the Earth in a layer two millimetres thick. Enough plastic has been manufactured to clingfilm it as well. We annually produce 4.8 billion tonnes of our top five crops and 4.8 billion livestock animals. There are 1.4 billion motor vehicles, 2 billion personal computers, and more mobile phones than the 7.8 billion people on Earth.

“Vinegar Joe” Stilwell: the Story of America’s Man on the Ground in WW2 China

by History Guild | Jul 1, 2024 | Military History | 0

Reading time: 12 minutes
As famed as American commanders like Dwight Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur are today, one of the most important is the relatively little-known Joseph Stilwell.
He was one of its leading experts on a country that was to play a pivotal role in the history not just of the war, but of the 20th century: China.

The Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS)

by History Guild | Jun 11, 2024 | Advocacy, Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes
The first Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea was prompted by the sinking of RMS Titanic. An attempt to establish basic rules became the most important international treaty about the safety of merchant ships and sea travel.

‘It bucked our lads up wonderfully’: the lightning-quick battle that marked the birth of the US-Australia military alliance

by History Guild | Jun 5, 2024 | Military History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership is not. As Australians reflect on the sacrifices of their soldiers on ANZAC Day, it’s worth remembering the first time Australian and American troops joined forces in battle – in northern France, in the final year of the first world war.

Dockyard incendiarist: The tale of ‘John the Painter’

by History Guild | Apr 15, 2024 | Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 10 minutes
Opposition to the British Crown during the American War of Independence took many forms, none more notorious than the malicious designs of James Aitken (alias ‘John the Painter’).

“The Best Show That Was Ever Staged”: Charles Ponzi’s Scheme

by History Guild | Apr 2, 2024 | Political and Economic History | 0

Reading time: 7 minutes
Having gambled away his life savings on the passage over, Italian immigrant Charles Ponzi arrived in America with next to nothing in his pocket. As he would later recount, “I landed in this country with $2.50 in cash and $1 million in hopes, and those hopes never left me.”

Virginia Hall, SOE Agent to CIA Pioneer

by History Guild | Mar 25, 2024 | Military History, Political and Economic History | 0

Reading time: 10 minutes

Virginia Hall (1906–1982) was an American woman who served with the British Special Operations Executive in France in 1941–1942. She then joined its US equivalent, the Office of Strategic Services, and became a founding member of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Schindler’s List at 30: a look back at Steven Spielberg’s shattering masterpiece

by History Guild | Mar 20, 2024 | Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes

Schindler’s List, released 30 years ago, remains Steven Spielberg’s most highly acclaimed and emotionally sapping film. Winning seven Academy Awards, including best picture and best director, it was widely praised for its portrayal of the horrors of the Holocaust.

Australia is still reckoning with a shameful legacy: the resettlement of suspected war criminals after WWII

by History Guild | Mar 13, 2024 | Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
Around one million Central and Eastern European “displaced persons” were resettled by the United Nations after the second world war in countries such as Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. This group included soldiers who had fought in German military units, as well as civilian collaborators. The Nazi-led Holocaust had relied on their firepower and administrative skills.

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