Kamel Daoud at The Financial Times reviews a report by historian Benjamin Stora on France’s colonial war with Algeria Critical of the trend in Western academia that sees history in terms of guilty and victimhood, Stora writes: . . . being a “victim” prevents us from seeing how the memory of colonisation is manipulated by political […]
Churchill and the Genocide Myth
In February, an academic event at Oxford University presented an ill-informed historical caricature of Winston Churchill’s role in the Bengal Famine. Whatever one’s views about the man, the subject of history deserves better treatment. Here, Zareer Masani for The Critic provides an alternative, more nuanced account supported by historical knowledge more than personal opinion: Much […]
A Matter of Historical Specificity (or its absence)
Below, J. Unsworth, a DDU supporter and former student of History and English Literature, explains why she found an event at Cambridge University on Winston Churchill left much to be desired. The level of debate among learned academics shows, once again, that ‘the divisiveness and tribalism that emerges now again in different periods and different […]
The Transatlantic Slave Trade: Our City, Our Heritage And Its People
Adrian Hart draws on historical archives to show that anti-slavery was alive and well among sections of Brighton’s citizenry, and those who only focus on the city’s associations with slavery present a very one-sided picture at best. Brighton was an abolition town. Archive copies of the Brighton Gazette and the Brighton Guardianoffer a glimpse of […]
John Lewis: ‘Good Trouble’
Kevin Yuill at Spiked Online remembers John Lewis and reminds us to remember his example in holding onto courage and hope: Lewis should be remembered for his incredible courage, his inspirational hopefulness and his love – not just of his people but all people, of the entire country. When Elwin Wilson, the Klan member who […]
Culture Wars Are About Our Society
Once again history and historiography are in the limelight. One approach involves ‘a notion of trust between the generations’. We are not obliged to agree or approve/disapprove of past events; only to try and understand them. The other approach involves a re-writing of history in an attempt to impose a particular version of our present […]
Modern Day Witchfinders Won’t End Hate By Pulling Down Statues – They’ll Only Fuel It
It’s one thing to provide a reasoned case for removing the Rhodes statue at Oriel College, but the current demands are based on historical illiteracy and censoriousness, and can only fuel resentment argues Inaya Folarin at the Daily Mail: Those who now see our past as nothing but a tale of ignominy should recognise that […]