Peterloo Massacre
/ litencyc.com In August, 1819, a loud discussion which rapidly turned to unrestrained violence happened in Manchester, centre of the Industrial Revolution in England. As usual on these occasions, the row erupted between [...]
Plain English
What is plain English? What it is not is only too obvious, and can be read in all British bureaucratic communication, business letters, government departments, and sadly, much of modern English journalism – anywhere where [...]
General-History’s Comments Policy
This website is designed mainly for students of the subject of History. But it is followed enthusiastically by many thousands of people, especially young people, who are interested in general history, though not necessarily having [...]
Analysis of the families of York and Lancaster (1312 – 1543)
Some detailed knowledge of both dynastic families is essential to students of English and European history. The ‘Wars of the Roses’ was not a civil war (q.v.); nor was it just a war between a [...]
General History’s Saturday Humour
Thousands of venerable, even ancient jokes lie festering in every corner of an English house. The language seems to connive with the typically British sense of humour. Every weekend I dig up some hoary old [...]
Spain: the King’s apology
Almost too much printer’s ink and telecaster’s saliva has already been spent on this subject. A few days ago Juan-Carlos I, a Spanish Borbón to his fingertips, left the hospital where surgeons had replaced half [...]
Dr. Arnold of Rugby (and his son Matthew)
Thomas Arnold, Headmaster of Rugby School and father of Matthew / ctwsearch.wesleyan.edu Thomas Arnold is probably the most celebrated real (as opposed to invented) headmaster in history. He is the lynch-pin of a [...]
Two US generals from World War II
Continuing our series on important military leaders from the 1939-1945 war, we briefly examine the careers of two very well-known names from North America – Marshall and Patton. Actors played them both in many Hollywood [...]
G-H Sunday Philosophy: the sadness of Zapatero
I feel a degree of sympathy for the ex-President of the Government in Spain. What can he do on Sundays? His agnostic wife Sonsoles goes off to sing with her church choir, perhaps returns to [...]
Saturday Humour
Here are some stories so old they wear beards from here to Omsk. But they suffice to make you cultured bloggers chortle. Or at least one hopes so:- In Central Park, two elderly literary Russian-Americans [...]
Appeasers and Opposers
Before the Second War a number of leading politicians and prominent people in society in Europe might have been suspicious of Hitler’s intentions, but preferred to come to terms with him, if they could. These [...]
Guderian, Keitel & von Rundstedt: II World War generals
Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt / en.wikipedia.com These three German generals were all born in the 19th century. The first named in the title was probably the greatest tank commander the world has [...]
Henry IV (of England) & Henry IV (of Navarre)
There are two hundred years between these two notable monarchs, and we will look at the English one first. Both are important in history, over-balanced by ambition, bothered by religion, and chased by bad [...]
The Carolingian empire: what was it & the Caroline Islands: where are they?
University students and high school seniors always come across these two words ‘Carolingian’ and ‘Caroline’ – the latter in reference to some remote islands – not to Queen Caroline of Somewhere. Let us delve a [...]
Indo-China; some history
In the latter part of the nineteenth century the words Indo-China did not mean much to the average European. Map draughtsmen knew the word was applied (by the French) to five dependencies in south-east Asia [...]
Wyclif & the Lollards
Wyclif or Wycliffe / en-wikipedia.org The name is also spelled Wycliffe: he was a religious reformer born around 1330. An intriguing thing is that for hundreds of years Wyclif was assumed to be [...]
The Battles of Little Bighorn & Wounded Knee
Last moments for George Custer at the Little Big Horn / manataka.org George Custer was a general in the US army who shouldn’t have been. He was brave but incapable of making a [...]
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