BBC History Magazine

BBC History Magazine aims to shed new light on the past to help you make more sense of the world today. Fascinating stories from contributors are the leading experts in their fields, so whether they're exploring Ancient Egypt, Tudor England or the Second World War, you'll be reading the latest, most thought-provoking historical research. BBC History Magazine brings history to life with informative, lively and entertaining features written by the world's leading historians and journalists and is a captivating read for anyone who's interested in the past.

WELCOME JUNE 2023

THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS

ANNIVERSARIES • HELEN CARR highlights events that took place in June in history

Should historians interpret the past through the prism of the present? • A recent debate about whether the study of history should address contemporary concerns exposed faultlines in academic approaches. DAVID MOTADEL explores the controversy

HISTORY NEWS IN BRIEF

MICHAEL WOOD ON… • 400 YEARS OF THE FIRST FOLIO

”History is currently being used for political purposes that have very little to do with the past” • Is the study of history being skewed by a present-day ‘culture war’? That’s the view of History Reclaimed, an online project that aims to tackle what it sees as distortions of the past - and which has been met with both praise and criticism. Matt Elton spoke to ZAREER MASANI, one of the organisation’s founding members

HIDDEN HISTORIES • KAVITA PURI explores lesser-known stories from our past

LETTERS

BBC History Magazine

Elizabeth I: mother’s girl • The Virgin Queen lionised her father, Henry VIII, in public. Yet, writes Tracy Borman, examine what Elizabeth did - as opposed to what she said - and it’s evident that her sympathies lay with Anne Boleyn

FAMILY HEIRLOOMS • Five objects that embody the bonds between Elizabeth I and her ill-fated mother

THE RACE TO THE OP OF THE WORLD • On the 70th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest, Robin Ashcroft charts the trials, tragedies and triumphs that led to that pioneering climb - and its implications for Britain’s place on the wor ld stage

TIMELINE Steps to the summit

KIT FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE • Climbing the planet’s highest mountain calls for specialist equipment - as the packing list for the 1953 expedition shows

Black masses, lethal potions and the plot to kill a king • In the 1670s, Louis XIV of France was the target of a series of assassination attempts involving poisons and necromancy. But who was the perpetrator? Josephine Wilkinson untangles a conspiracy that scandalised a nation

WHEN GERMS MADE HISTORY • Infectious diseases don’t just make individuals sick - they can cause seismic shifts in societies. Jonathan Kennedy charts six moments when pathogens such as plague, smallpox and malaria played key roles in major cultural, political and economic transformations

How Britain stirred the cauldron of conflict in Palestine • Having ousted the Ottomans from Palestine in 1917, Britain administered a territory that was already a tinderbox of tensions between Arabs and Jews. Matthew Hughes explores the bloody end of the Palestine Mandate and the emergence of the State of Israel

TIMELINE THE BRITISH IN PALESTINE

Q&A • A selection of historical conundrums answered by experts

DID YOU KNOW…?

The queen who wouldn’t go quietly • Margaret of Anjou was a foreigner - and a woman. Those facts alone should have sunk her bid to regain the English throne for her husband, Henry VI. Yet, writes Joanna Arman, when it came to fighting her family's corner, Margaret simply didn't know when she was beaten

TIMELINE The life of the she-wolf

”Henry was not a great king but he was respected as a most Christian...