e migration of the Normans across Europe is a well-known and much written about subject. Originating in the principality of Normandy that took its name from the ‘men of the north’ who came from Scandinavia to settle on the French coast from the ninth century onwards, the Normans then established themselves during the eleventh century in two main areas some , mil…
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, three mysterious texts stirredup much debate in the intellectual world: TheFama Fraternitatis(Fame ofthe Fraternity, 1614), theConfessioFraternitatis(Confession of the Fraternity,1615),and,differentfrombutrelatedtoboth,theChymischeHochzeit:ChristianiRosencreutz(Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz, 1616).2 While theChemicalWeddingpresents a fict…
We believe that by joining forces and harmonizing diverse theories, sources and methods of different academic traditions like those from China and Japan, the field of global history receives a new impulse through diverse case studies. The constant participation of special-ists in this field is crucial, as they share their experiences and new …
The recipes that form the subject of this edition have been taken from four manuscripts: British Library Additional 14912 (BLAdd), Cardiff 3.242 (Hafod 16, Card), Oxford Bodleian Rawlinson B467 (Rawl), and Oxford Jesus College 111 (the Red Book of Hergest, RBH). All four manuscripts are roughly contemporary, all dating from the end of the fourteenth century or the beginning of the fifteenth.1 I…
Our histories of global exploration and encounter in the long eigh-teenth century are often drawn from the scientific voyages of discovery and their richly illustrated books, like John Ross’s A Voyage of Discovery(1819). Ross voyaged in the Enlightenment tradition of Bougainville and Cook, who had returned to Europe in ships laden with knowledge in the form …
During the first half of the twentieth century Europe suffered a cataclysmic change. The lives of millions were destroyed, millions more lives blighted. What led to such a chain of catastrophes? The fratricidal Great War marks the turning point in the history of Europe. There is no single cause that explains it all, but a multiplicity that need to be untangled. Paradoxically industrial progress…
A million and a half Jews fought in the armed forces of the Allies during the Second World War. They served in the armies, navies, and air forces of their native lands. Many who were forced to flee the Nazis then joined the war effort in the countries that had given them refuge. Between 490,000 and 520,000 Jewish soldiers fought in the Red Army.1Most of them were nat…
Mount Kailash in Asia, the Black Hills in North America, Uluru in Australia: around the globe there are numerous mountains that have been and continue to be attributed sacredness. Worship of these mountains involves prayer, meditation and pilgrimage. Christianity, which for a long time showed little interest in nature, provides a foil to these practices and was one factor in the tensions that a…
‘‘We look into history from motives of two kinds,’’ says the Oxford classicist Jasper Griffin. ‘‘There is curiosity about the past, what happened, who did what, and why; and there is the hope to understand the present, how to place and interpret our own times, experiences, and hopes for the future.’’1 As with the history of antiquity, the best contemporary history is usually dri…
Explanations for the onset of the Cold War must begin with World War II. A conflict that ranks, by any conceivable measure, as the most destructive in human history, World War II brought unparalleled levels of death, devastation, privation, and disorder. ‘The conflagration of 1939–1945 was so wrenching, so total, so profound, that a world was overturned,’ notes historian Thomas G. Paterso…