History in a view

Worldwar I was hell on earth. Sometimes pupils will get...

Wed, 23 May 2012 07:44:45 +0200

Worldwar I was hell on earth. Sometimes pupils will get destruction faster when seeinng a dead animal then when they see dead people. This picture will cause a great stirr in classroom, I’m certain, it will cause debate too, about the essence of destruction.

I would use this picture to illustrate the life of a well to do...

Sat, 19 May 2012 09:12:55 +0200

I would use this picture to illustrate the life of a well to do citizen in Medieval Europe. The story about the drinking problems always works with the younger pupils. They love the fact that beer was a normal drink for almost anyone.

mediumaevum:

What People drank in The Middle Ages and Renaissance

Water
Water was rarely drunk due to the difficulties in obtaining clean drinking water (typhoid and other water-borne diseases were highly prevalent). If water had to be drunk, spring water was preferred, as it was less likely to cause disease than river water or still water (pond water). Water was also believed to be bad for the digestion, as they believed that it would chill the stomach and hinder digestion of food.

Wine
Wine was believed to be very good for the health, and was commonly drunk with meals as it was also readily produced in many areas in Europe, and easily transported and stored. Good quality wines were the most popular mealtime drink of nobility, although poorer people could sometimes afford low quality wines.

Spiced Wines
Spiced or mulled wines were also enjoyed. These were used as an aperitif, or to clear the palate after a meal. Spiced wines were also believed to have medicinal qualities.

Hippocras was a red wine which was flavoured with spices such as ginger, cinnamon, sugar, cloves, galingale or nutmeg. Claret was a spiced wine which was often made from a white wine, and was flavoured with cloves, nutmeg, mace, caraway, ginger, pepper and other spices.

Beers and Ales
Beer and ales were very popular drinks, although they were generally consumed by lower class people rather than the nobility (who generally preferred drinking wine).

Beer was made from grains such as oats, wheat, barley or rye, while hops were not added to beer in England until after their introduction to England in 1525 (although they had previously been used in beer production in Flanders for several hundred years). Hops add a bitter taste to beer, so most medieval beers would have lacked the bitter taste of modern beers.

Ales could also be flavoured with spices, similar to spiced wines. These spiced ales were called �braggots�.

Mead
Mead is produced by fermenting a honey and water mixture. Mead could also be flavoured with various spices, either during production or immediately before drinking. Mead was considered to be an ideal drink for invalids by the physicians of the time.

Cider and other fruit juices
Fruit juices were drunk as either fresh fruit juice, or were fermented to produce alcoholic drinks like cider or perry.

Cider is produced from whole apples, while perry is produced from pears. Murrey comes from blackberries or black mulberries, while prunelle is made from plums. A more unusual fruit juice is made from ground and strained pomegranate seeds.

Milk
Milk was not popular as a drink for adults- its use was generally confined to young children. Kumiss, which is an alcoholic drink made from fermented mare�s milk, was popular in the Middle East, but was only drunk in European countries when recommended by a physician.

Tea & Coffee
Tea & coffee were not commonly drunk in Europe during our time period. Herbal infusions were sometimes drunk for their medicinal qualities, but tea was not commonly drunk until after our time period. Coffee was extremely popular in the Middle-East, and was introduced to Constantinople in 1554, but did not become popular throughout Europe for another 100 years.

Archaeological News: Humanity's Best Friend: How Dogs May Have Helped Humans Beat the Neanderthals

Tue, 15 May 2012 23:16:49 +0200

Archaeological News: Humanity's Best Friend: How Dogs May Have Helped Humans Beat the Neanderthals:

archaeologicalnews:

Over 20,000 years ago, humans won the evolutionary battle against Neanderthals. They may have had some assistance in that from their best friends.

One of the most compelling — and enduring — mysteries in archaeology concerns the rise of early humans and the decline of Neanderthals. For about…

Ballet was power-politics, in the 17th century Boys in the age...

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:43:00 +0200

to be the sun

to fall

to cope with blamage

Ballet was power-politics, in the 17th century

Boys in the age of fourteen can’t imagine that ballet was very much a macho-sport, if you lived in the 17th century. This movie (Le Roi Dance) shows very clearly and beautifully the king as the sun shining like gold and falling like a man.

This fragment speakes volumes about absolutism in it’s most elegant form.

We cannot imagine our leaders dancing as the sun. But we can imagine them ‘dancing like stars’ or dancing with talkshow-hosts. Our leaders have to be as ordinary as possible, it makes them human. No sun in our world, so it seems. This opposite view on leadership gives us something to talk about in class.

I had a entry about this very phenomenon, I love these...

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:09:21 +0200

Mary Jane Clarke

I had a entry about this very phenomenon, I love these photo’s! They are more great then mine were, so thank you!

daydreams-of-a-matriarchist:

Mary Clarke, was the organizer of the WSPU in Brighton. According to Sylvia Pankhurst: “Facing the rude violence of the seaside rowdies at Brighton, where she was stationed, she displayed a quiet, persistent courage, which made peculiarly large demands on one so sensitive. Exerting her frail physique to its utmost, she was grievously ill on the eve of Black Friday, and her Brighton comrades had begged her not to go. She had promised to take the easier course of arrest for window-breaking, and had telegraphed to Brighton from the police court.”

Clarke was arrested and sent to Holloway Prison, where she endured a hunger-strike and forced-feeding. She was released on 22nd December, 1924 but two days later Emmeline Pankhurst found her unconscious and she died soon afterwards as a result of a burst blood vessel on the brain. Clarke, like so many suffragettes, had probably died as a result of being forced fed in prison.

Joaquin Phoenix, Commodus and politics, Roman style Commodus was...

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 23:00:00 +0200

Joaquin Phoenix, Commodus and politics, Roman style

Commodus was a interesting emperor, and as a famous Chinese saying goes, that couldn’t mean anything good for the other Romans. He behaved like a Persian king and shot wild animals in the arena (from above the arena, not in the arena). He came out one day in public in a lion skin and started following his wife who was dressed as an Amazone. It all seems odd behaviour yet it is politics, Roman style.

To become absolute ruler of his empire Commodus had to figure out on what idea he could claim absolute power as he didn’t want to consider the interests of wealthy Roman family’s.

So in Roman religion he sought what later Constantine and Theodosius found in Christianity; a solid reason for his absolute power. In Roman religious terms it meant he had to become a god. Like the Persian kings, he had to become divine.

To become a divinity in life was very risky in Roman politics. The few emperors who had tried it, died very soon afterwards of unnatural causes. So even Commodus was cautious, he became a halfgod, Hercules, the Greek who became a god after his death.

In Commodus’ political concept he portrayed himself as Hercules, conqueror of the Amazons, ruler of the world and beyond. In Rome (Museo Capitolini) stands this Hercules statue, of a bearded (Greek) Commodus, dressed as Hercules, an Amazon at his side, richess in cornucopia, and a globe with all the zodiac signs at its base.

Commodus may have been a cruel emperor but he was not as mad as he seemed. Dressing up as Hercules was just politics. He of course died, murdered by his Preatorian guard, very much Roman style.

Great idea, but how do I use it? revolutionizeed: Just built...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 13:28:59 +0200

Great idea, but how do I use it?

revolutionizeed:

Just built this masterpiece of a bulletin board out of old newspapers and TIME magazines! Starting to get into the 50s, 60s, and 70s in US History!

I’m going to think about this. Should be a lot of fun. Trouble is, I get a lot of students a lot of different classes in one classroom every day:

Who do I give the honors?

What part of history do I want to show? And Why?

Still great idea, should be doable in the near future.

Photography as wartime propaganda (1853-1856) English soldiers...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 09:53:00 +0200

Robert Fenton, photographer

William Howard Russel, journalist

Soldiers at the Crimean War.

Photography as wartime propaganda (1853-1856)

English soldiers were having a hard time during de Crimean war. This war brought the first wartime journalist to the front. And this William Howard Russel wrote what he saw for the Times. His reports were highly disturbing for the voters at home, who read the Times religiously.

This was what brought Robert Fenton to the Crim, he was hired by the English governement to show that Russel was exaggerating. The first wartime photographer was no journalist. He made however great photo’s of relaxing soldiers.

Less than two decades after the first photo with real people, photography was used for wartime propaganda.

Still Fenton also made a great photo of Russel, maybe his ways to honour the first wartime journalist the world ever knew.

If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t...

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 22:10:00 +0200

If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.
Robert Capa

How close to death Capa got isn’t quite certain with his most famous photograph. His wife Gerda Taro died in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) in which this photo was taken. He himself died in during the First Indochina War in 1954. He got to close to a landmine.

Stil this photo of a dying Spanish republican soldier can be a helpfull photo for discussion. It has been object of severe study to determine if it is a real photograph or a fake.

In 1936 the photo had in immense impact on young idealistic men and women who wanted to fight like this, then believed to be marxist, republican against fascism.

Is a picture more important than the truth? I think an interesting question in combination with this story.

What do you think?

zizzerzazzerzuzz: Passchendaele, Belgium before and after the...

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 10:45:10 +0200

zizzerzazzerzuzz:

Passchendaele, Belgium before and after the Battle of Passchendaele, 1917.

I was thinking of posting this, but it already was. So I reblogged it. There is almost not a better photograph to illustrate the hell soldiers and normal civilians went trough during WW1.

I always have to explain that the picture below consists solely of holes in the ground. It is hard to comprehend for young people that destruction in 1917 had this gruesome face. They always believe in a way that war before the Second World War was kind of childsplay.

How an image is influences by modern concept of beauty is...

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 00:51:00 +0200

How an image is influences by modern concept of beauty is clearly seen with this image of Cleopatra. She was considered an amazing in her days. In our days the image of Cleopatra has been formed by Elizabeth Taylor. In the comic Asterix she was depicted as an Elisabeth Taylor with a cute nose.

It would be nice to tell the story of Cleopatra, let the kids depict her and then let them choose which version of the above suits their imagination.u

Found this one from centuriespast, wanted to past it after my Cleopatra.

British Library, Royal 14 E V f. 339 ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ from Giovanni Boccaccio. De casibus virorum illustrium in French translation (Des cas des ruynes des nobles hommes et femmes), translated by Laurent de Premierfait. Netherlands (Bruges), c.1479-1480.

It’s another evidence of images off historical figures that are completly depended on the times they were made.

Guess why the Americans censored this photo in WWI?

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 23:07:16 +0200

Guess why the Americans censored this photo in WWI?

Guess why this one got censored by the Americans in WWI?

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 23:00:14 +0200

Guess why this one got censored by the Americans in WWI?

I’m gonna use this story and the film in...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:46:53 +0200

I’m gonna use this story and the film in class

militaryhistory:

On the aircraft carrier Shangri La, my grandfather took part in Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll in 1946, engaging in the 4th and 5th nuclear detonations in history. He is still alive and well today, and took on little radioactive damage.

Mankind is MAD When explaining MAD (Mutually Assured...

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:00:00 +0200

Mankind is MAD

When explaining MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) as a way to secure the world from nuclear war, I always show this film and much more a-and h-bomb explosions as possible, because there is no way that these beautiful explosions of destruction can be topped by anything I say in class. Mostly kids will get giggly after some explosions. But after a while they understand that these bombs are madness and can only mean the end of all things living.

It is odd that 15 year olds understand this perfectly clear. And that 51 year olds don’t.

Here an American example to contrast the Tsar Bomba above

Badass and the eye of the Beholder To call Catharina de Medici a...

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 22:16:00 +0200

Badass and the eye of the Beholder

To call Catharina de Medici a badass woman is weird. In this century you could think that it meant something like: A tough woman, a force to be reckoned with. In Northern Europe she was seen a real badass woman because she killed a lot Hugenotes (protestants) a few days after the wedding of her daughter Margareth to the (protestant) Henry of Navarra. Wanting to get rid of protestant nobles, Catherine thought it to be a good idea to kill as much as possible after the wedding. In het night of st. Barholomews the katholics in Paris and the katholics in the court combined their powers and started with the lynchparty.

If you want to be hip, you compare the the text from fuckyeahhistorycrushes with this painting from Edouard Debat Ponsin, Un matin devant la porte du Louvre.(1880)

fuckyeahhistorycrushes:

Catherine de Medici

Queen consort of France from 1547-1559 as the wife of King Henry II. She had basicaly no role as queen under her husbands reign. However, when he died, she oversaw and basically ruled while her three sons took the throne. After her first son took the throne, she ruled by giving him all the answers. Her first ruling: She made her husbands mistress Diane de Poitiers give back the crown jewels and the manor house that were gifted to her by Catherines adulterous husband. She spent the following years while her sons intermittently took the throne (her first son passed, then her second son passed both passing the throne to the next brother in line) outdoing and undermining Diane de Poitiers while ruling behind all three of her sons. A truly badass woman.

Clearly the ‘badass’ differs source to source. With Debat-Ponsin there is no humor in badass. In the protestant countries of Europe this Catherine was seen as a murderess. It would be nice to compare with dutch sources.

Make my history lesson?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 21:49:00 +0200

I’m going medieval with the little people. Today I let a student teacher make my lesson. And thinking about that concept of him making my lesson, I’m just asking, is anyone interested in making a lesson for 12 year old snappy kids with an attitude? Subjects to come are, trade and city, feodalism, crusades, arabic conquests and islam. Got any ideas?

I just thought it would be a nice idea that somewhere on the globe someone gave a lesson that you made for them. I will ask the kids what they thought of the lesson and give you their opinion.

Could be fun.

Great source for...

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 10:01:38 +0200

Great source for chronologization.

chinanthropologies:

无产阶级文化大革命胜利万岁！
Long life to the Victorious Great Cultural Revolution of the Proletariat

Critique of the Chinese cultural revolution (1966-1976).

When the party explicitly raised the idea of doing a cultural revolution, it was in 1958. At that time, comrade Mao Zedong took as topic the text “Presentation of a cooperative” which requests [sic] carrying a revolution on five aspects: political, economic revolution, ideology revolution, technological revolution, and cultural revolution. Soon after, at the 8th congress of the Chinese Communist Party, comrade Liu shaoqi explicitly put forward one more time [the fact that] in order to suit the needs of a cultural revolution, a cultural revolution must be carried simultaneously. In the same time, “The People’s Daily” published an editorial titles “The Cultural Revolution has began” which points out [sic] that cultural revolution is a movement of cultural emancipation the all the workers across the country. But [our] Great Cultural Revolution was not that kind of revolution. “The Great Cultural Revolution” started with the critique of historical plays such as “Hai Rui Dismissed from Office” and essays of reactionary writers like “Mount Yan’s night talk”. Immediately after, schools “stop[ped] classes to make the revolution”, universities stopped recruiting students; education was tremendously devastated. After ten years, what were the results? Schools were closed, the quality of education was in decline, illiteracy was growing massively, literary and art circles had faded, many successful scientists had been mistakenly considered as “reactionaries to academic authority”, and locked in prison, intellectuals were called “stinking intellectual” and were excluded from the working class. This is why, what was called the “Great Cultural Revolution” had nothing to do with developing a flourishing culture; it was definitely not the kind of cultural revolution Marx had talked about Marx, on the contrary [Great Cultural Revolution] was a destruction of culture.

Original text in Chinese

我们党开始明确提出要搞文化革命是一九五八年，那时毛泽东同志在以《介绍一个合作社》为题的一文中要求进行五方面的革命：政治革命、经济革命、思想革命、技术革命和文化革命。不久，刘少奇同志在党的八大二次会议上又明确提出，为适应技术革命的需要，必须同时进行文化革命。同时《人民日报》也发表了题为《文化革命开始了》的社论，指出文化革命就是全国劳动人民的文化翻身运动。但是，“文化大革命”不是这样的革命。“文化大革命”是从批判历史剧《海瑞罢官》、“三家村”杂文和《燕山夜话》开始的。接着，学校“停课闹革命”，大学停止招生，教育事业受到极大摧残。搞了十年的结果怎样呢？学校关闭，教育质量下降，文盲大量增加；文艺界百花凋零，万马齐暗；许多有成就的科学家被错当作 “反动学术权威”关进“牛棚”，知识分子被当作“臭老九”而排除在工人阶级队伍之外，等等。因此，这样的一场所谓“文化大革命”，与发展繁荣文化无关，决不是马克思主义所讲的文化革命，而是一场对文化的大破坏。

Found on Weibo.
Image : Baidu

just because I really love Lucy and i mentioned her without...

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:07:00 +0200

just because I really love Lucy and i mentioned her without showing her portrait. Thanks to ‘e-pic’.

Historical Judgement It is a modern fenomenon, historical...

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:55:00 +0200

Historical Judgement

It is a modern fenomenon, historical judgements for us to watch, live. Television has brougtht monumental moments in our homes. For instance the scene in which a senate commission accuses and seales the fate of Joseph McCarthy.

When I teach this period I can chose from three films. The Front by Woody Allen, Good Night, Good Luck by George Clooney.

But when I have younger kids, about 14 to 15 years I use an episode from the I love Lucy series, the episode where Lucy snoops on her neighbours who are rehearsing a bad TV play in which those neighbours are Russian spies. Lucille Ball was one of the first to survive the McCarthy commission although she had been a communist. Lucille Ball was to popular to bann from tv!

The link for the Lucy Ball episode will only work for the US.