The Declaration of Independence, Black Loyalists, how England learned Old English, sacrifice and early Christianity, and the Hans Crescent strike.
Plus: reviews, opinion, crossword, debate, and much more!
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That the United States declared its independence in July 1776 is well known; that the British state commissioned, but never published, a counter-declaration is not.
Hoping to weaken the rebels’ cause, Britain offered freedom to enslaved people who joined the British army. At the end of the American Revolutionary War that promised freedom had to be honoured – but how and where?
Eager to create goodwill towards Britain in its former colonies, the postwar government encouraged students from across the Empire to study in London. Housing them was a problem, as events in the summer of 1951 revealed.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, as scholars first started to translate and study Old English, they struggled to reconcile England’s past with its present.
Looking for a new route to Jerusalem, medieval crusaders turned to the Strait of Hormuz.
Today sacrifice is seen as a barbaric, pagan practice, but it was central to the formation of early Christian identity.
