A platform to help me muddle through my thoughts yet never help me reach a conclusion!
Who is Father Christmas? Where does he originate from? As someone who, it might surprise you, loves Christmas and is also a bit of a history fan, I am going to investigate this story and how he might evolve even further. For once, this might be a blog post that isn’t too cynical with a … Continue reading The origin and evolution of Father Christmas
A hot topic at the moment is the accountability of historians. What is their purpose? What is their responsibility? Anyway, aren’t we all tired of experts? (Unless you’re Michael Gove, your answer should be no.) The Institute of Historical Research (IHR) hosted a lecture by Professor Ludmilla Jordanova on The Accountability of Historians. I, along … Continue reading The Accountability of Historians
A friend and I recently watched Horrible Histories: The Movie and I loved it; it was amazing. I raved about its accessibility, construction and wit; my friend was amazed that the Romans brought nettles to Britain. Wait, what? My face at the time was pure incredulity – this was not a large part of the … Continue reading Is History being Taught Incorrectly?
Counterinsurgency (COIN) bombards us every day in the news, with strategists discussing how to combat the most recent terrorists, and politicians discussing their plan to ‘solve Syria’. These strategies look back on other ‘successful’ operations to see what to implement in the future. However, as can be seen from America in Afghanistan who attempted to … Continue reading Are counterinsurgency strategies outdated?
Happy is a peculiar word. It is one of those words that if a teacher tasked you with explaining it to an ‘alien’, you would be sat there for at least five minutes before coming up with a comprehensible answer. In this post I am looking to delve into history and see if we are … Continue reading Happiness: Achievable goal or historically impossible?
In the current climate of Brexit, Donald Trump and extreme political parties, ‘history’ is often used to augment a nationalistic, superior and one-sided agenda. Often this history is, in fact, based on collective memory. As a result, history and memory have become a real interest of mine. Are history and memory the same thing? Is … Continue reading Does memory have a place in history?
A blog post on the Holocaust is as complicated as it sounds. There are many avenues that can be taken and numerous approaches to discuss. So many questions are raised: How did the Nazis get away with it? How were the Red Cross fed a lie? Why did the Nazis do it? How did they … Continue reading Holocaust Memorial Day
On the face of it, the answer seems so simple. Surely it must be nations? How else could people feel proud of their ‘home’ if their ‘home’ simply does not exist? But just like the chicken and the egg, the more you investigate this question, the more complicated it gets; like the earphones nestled in … Continue reading What came first: Nations or Nationalism?
Kirsty's History Blog 