In the early 1980s I was sitting in the coffee shop of the Bali Beach Hotel in Sanur, reflecting on the strange fact that Dutch troops had come ashore nearby, less than 80 years previously, on their way to perpetrate one of the more extraordinary massacres in the history of colonialism. I did not know that the Japanese had also landed in this same area in 1942, or that the Dutch had returned he…
Historically speaking, Danish is a dialect of a common Scandinavian language known from around 200 AD. Around 1100-1200 AD, Danish became a distinctive language with a distinctive pronuncation. The period from 800-1100 AD is called Old Danish or Runic Danish, as our knowledge of the language is primarily based on runic inscriptions. In the 20th century, the advent of radio broadcasts in 1932 an…
The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation. From pilgrimage sites in the far west of Europe to the Persian court; from mystic visions to a gruesome contemporary “dance”; from a mundane poem on wine to staggering religious art: thus far in space and time extends the world of the Armenians. A glimpse of the vast and st…
The first people to reach North America almost certainly did so without knowing they had crossed into a new continent. They would have been following game, as their ancestors had for thousands of years, along the Siberian coast and then across the land bridge. Once in Alaska, it would take these first North Americans thousands of years more to work their way through the openings in great glaci…
This book provides the first comprehensive historical account of the evolution of scientific traditions in astronomy, astrophysics, and the space sciences within the Max Planck Society. Structured with in-depth archival research, interviews with protagonists, unpublished photographs, and an extensive bibliography, it follows a unique history: from the post-war relaunch of physical sciences in W…
This book looks at the impact women’s migration had on Ireland in the crucial years of initial independence, from the partition of the island and the founding of the Free state to the declaration of a Republic. This period saw Ireland move from internal political instability in the 1920s to a more internationally focused country in the 1950s. However, emi…
Growing up in Western Australia, in the southwestern corner of that huge and sparsely populated state, it was difficult to be unaware of the bizarre splendour, diversity and colour of the local vegetation. This, the South West Botanical Province, is now recognised as one of 25 biodiversity hotspots in the world. Its abundance of flowering plants, possibly over 9,000 species, is greater than alm…
This book is a story. It’s a story about ordinary people in very different parts of the world dealing with rapid change in the late twentieth and early twenty-first
Writing history is an art and a craft. This handbook supports research students and independent scholars by showing how the historical profession works and how to participate in its vibrant community of scholars. It outlines techniques to help design large-scale research projects, demonstrates the difference between quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and provides advice on brin…
Urban histories tend to be dominated by large, global cities. But what does the history of the modern, colonial era look like from the perspective of smaller cities? By shifting the focus from the metropolis to the secondary city of Chiang Mai, this study provides an alternative narrative of the formation of the modern Thai state that highlights the overlap between European, American, and Siame…