BBC History Magazine

BBC History Magazine aims to shed new light on the past to help you make more sense of the world today. Fascinating stories from contributors are the leading experts in their fields, so whether they're exploring Ancient Egypt, Tudor England or the Second World War, you'll be reading the latest, most thought-provoking historical research. BBC History Magazine brings history to life with informative, lively and entertaining features written by the world's leading historians and journalists and is a captivating read for anyone who's interested in the past.

WELCOME SEPTEMBER 2023

THREE THINGS I'VE LEARNED THIS MONTH

THIS ISSUE'S CONTRIBUTORS

ANNIVERSARIES • HELEN CARR highlights events that took place in September in history

Is history under threat at the UK's universities? • Universities around Britain have announced staffing cuts to history departments in recent months, citing falling admissions and funding shortages. President of the Royal Historical Society EMMA GRIFFIN spoke to Matt Elton about the causes of the crisis

"Barbie has been both forward-thinking and a behind-the-times image of womanhood" • As the new Barbie film catapults the doll back into the cultural spotlight, ROBIN GERBER explores the toy’s origins – and the sometimes controversial ways in which it has depicted wider social values

HISTORY NEWS IN BRIEF

MICHAEL WOOD ON… • WILLIAM BLAKE AND GLASTONBURY

HIDDEN HISTORIES • KAVITA PURI explores lesser-known stories from our past

LETTERS

BBC History Magazine

Scotland's greatest victory • The image of plucky warriors sending a cocksure English army into flight has secured Bannockburn’s status in the annals of Scottish history. Helen Carr chronicles the 1314 clash that transformed the balance of power between two warring nations

A CLASH THAT SHAPED BRITAIN • How Anglo-Scottish relations evolved in the aftermath of Bannockburn

Outrage! • 8 scandals that shocked Georgian Britain

Did they really have to fight to the finish? • From 1914, powerful voices called for the First World War to end in a negotiated compromise. Why were they ignored?

Q&A • A selection of historical conundrums answered by experts

DID YOU KNOW…?

NORTHERN POWERHOUSE • During its turbulent four-century history, the kingdom of Northumbria clashed with Pictish warriors, Welsh kings and Viking raiders. Fiona Edmonds tells the story of an ambitious realm that changed the face of early medieval Britain

TIMELINE The rise and fall of Northumbria

TOKYO IN RUINS • In 1923, a violent earthquake razed Japan’s bustling imperial capital and killed more than 100,000 people. Christopher Harding explores the aftermath of the disaster – and its pivotal cultural and physical legacy

KEEP CALM AND IGNORE THE ARMADA • What did English merchants and mariners do when a Spanish invasion fleet menaced the south coast in 1588? As Robert Blackmore reveals, they boarded their ships and carried on trading

BREAD, LIME AND DRUNKARDS • The trade across the ‘Narrow Seas’ in numbers

"We need to get rid of the idea that Britain was humanitarian in its imperialism. That needs to go" • CHARLOTTE LYDIA RILEY talks to Ellie Cawthorne about her book exploring the complex, and often troubled, relationship between the British empire and the ‘mother country’

France in the dock • RICHARD J EVANS applauds a vivid account of the final days of the collaborationist French Vichy regime, and of the trial of its leader, Marshal Philippe Pétain

Creative spirit

How bias begins • ALEXANDER WATSON commends a powerful examination of the portrayals of Roma people in Europe through the centuries

Narrative thread •...