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‘Beware of the ninnies!’ – Thoughts on ballet history
Read more: ‘Beware of the ninnies!’ – Thoughts on ballet historySebastian Cody explores the challenges of ballet historiography, emphasising the need for rigorous scholarship amidst widespread inaccuracies
War Damage: Four Poets of the First World War
“what are the implications of [war damage] for our understanding of literary works which themselves engage with the theme of the damage inflicted by war?” Richard Price answers this as he considers how poets Guillaume Apollinaire, Wilfred Owen, Edward Thomas…
The Football Pitch, England and the First World War
At the start of September 1914, less than a month after the outbreak of the First World War, the Football Association (FA), issued a mandate stating that clubs should offer up their fields ‘for use as Drill Grounds’. In an…
The Political and/or Politics
By Jean-Luc Nancy “As an opening, a quick overview: if our politics [la politique] is no longer simply and strictly that of sovereign states, then it is no longer ‘politics’ as we have known it for a very long time…
Sports and the Commodification of Scottish Identity
Glasgow 2014 opened with a celebration of Scottish folklore and identity, themes intrinsically associated with Highland Games. Read: Manly Games, Athletic Sports and the Commodification of Scottish Identity: Caledonian Gatherings in New Zealand to 1915, by Tanya Bueltmann, Scottish Historical…
Scotland’s Referendum
By Michael Rosie, Special Editor for Scottish Affairs, Volume 23.3 (2014) Scotland does not stand still. The last 15 years have seen four elections, the death of a First Minister, the transition from a Scottish Executive to a Scottish Government.…
Scottish Philosophy: Mind and Society
By Gordon Graham The tradition of Scottish philosophy had always had twin foci – the working of the human mind, and the social life of human beings. Some philosophical traditions hold these two areas of inquiry largely apart – Rationalism…
Christian Healing and Christian Dying
Fascinating insight into how Christian societies in the non-western world respond to sickness and death is given in the latest issue of Studies in World Christianity. Brian Stanley, Editor explains in his introduction that how to care for the sick and…
Doing History in the Digital World
Historians have used printed media such as books, letters, diaries, newspapers and magazines for centuries, yet now that the web has/is replacing that, the web is tomorrow’s historical resource. Relationships between historical ‘text’ sources, data and interpretation, the construction of…
Brendan Behan – A bit of a writer
Before his tragic death by self-destructive alcoholism at age 41, Brendan Behan was a celebrated Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both English and Irish. Fifty years since his death, a special issue of Irish…
Scottish Philosophy: Neglect and Renewal
By Gordon Graham Philosophy played a key role in the curriculum of the Scottish universities from their foundation in the 15th century to the closing decade of the 19th century. By the middle of the 20th century, however, Hume’s great…