New history titles received in June

Go to the Library's "New and Notable" acquisitions blog to see titles on History received in June

The link is http://blogs.soas.ac.uk/libraryacquisitions/2012/06/04/history-june-2012/

Ethics and antiquities

Turkey is conducting a concerted campaign to reclaim antiquities that have found their way into European and American museums over the centuries.

CLICK HERE TO READ A RECENT ARTICLE FROM THE ECONOMIST looking at the ethics and the politics behind this "culture war"

An Indonesian Pompeii?

Popular Archaeology magazine reports on the discovery of whole communities on Sumbawa (Indonesia) that were buried by the infamous eruption of the Tambora volcano in 1815

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

Book review: Presenting history

Presenting history: past and present by Peter Beck has recently arrived in the Library.

 A907.2 / 735803

Read the review by the Institute of Historical Research's Dr Ian Phillpott on the IHR's Reviews in History, followed by the author's response

This book takes a look at how "popular" presentations of history in the media "influence our understanding of and interest in the past and whether academic history (both in the teaching of and research in) fails to ignite interest in its subject matter due to practices and standardisations of presentations in the field" 

There are chapters on "popular" historians such as A.J.P. Taylor, Eric Hobsbawn and Simon Schama and on the "Hollywoodisation" of history through the glossy inaccuracies of TV series such as The Tudors and films such as Mel Gibson's take on the medieval Scottish rebel William Wallace in Braveheart. Beck also looks at the surge in popularity for historical fiction through the work of Philippa Gregory (The other Boleyn girl, The white Queen etc) and how Terry Deary has fired children s' interest in the past through his Horrible Histories series

CLICK HERE TO LINK TO THE LIBRARY CATALOGUE

Book review: The Amritsar Massacre: the untold story of one fateful day

Nicholas Lloyd's "revisionist" account of The Amritsar Massacre: the untold story of one fateful day has provoked a heated discussion between the reviewer, Dr Kim Wagner of Queen Mary College (University of London), and the author in the Institute of Historical Research's Reviews in History


CLICK HERE TO READ DR. WAGNER'S REVIEW AND FOLLOW THE LINK TO SEE NICHOLAS LLOYD'S RESPONSE

If this has whetted your curiosity, we have the book in SOAS Library at JFC954.0357 / 735269 
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE LIBRARY CATALOGUE TO CHECK AVAILABILITY 

Nomadic cultures of the steppes: new light on the Scythians

The Scythians, or Saka, as they were known to outsiders, were nomads who traversed the Eurasian steppes from the Black Sea to the borders of China. Regarded as "barbarians" by the ancient Greeks, archaeological investigations have thrown new light on their culture, their way of life and interactions with neighbours such as the Persians and Chinese.

An article from the New York Times, published in conjunction with an upcoming exhibition at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, looks at the artifacts recovered from Scythian burial mounds and what this tells us about their culture

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A SLIDE-SHOW OF SOME OF THE BEAUTIFUL ARTIFACTS ON DISPLAY

Two views of the British Empire: book reviews

Dr. William Jackson (University of Leeds) reviews two recent books on the British Empire in the Institute of Historical Research's Reviews in History 


The books are

• Britain's Empire: resistance, repression and revolt, by Richard Gott
• Empire: what ruling the world did to the British, by Jeremy Paxman

You can read Richard Gott's response to the article and check out Britain's Empire yourself  at A325.341 / 735278

CLICK HERE TO LINK TO THE LIBRARY CATALOGUE

Jeremy Paxman's book is on order by the Library, but meanwhile you can also read the Guardian's opinion on his accompanying TV series 

Book review: Sovereignty and social reform in India

Dr Andrea Major's "Sovereignty and social reform in India : British colonialism and the campaign against sati, 1830-1860" is reviewed by Daniel Grey in the Institute of Historical Research's Reviews in History 

Andrea Major lecturers in the School of History at the University of Leeds
Dr Daniel Grey is a Junior Research Fellow in World History at Wolfson College (Oxford)

Read the book in SOAS Library at JA954.03 / 736856


CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE LIBRARY CATALOGUE RECORD

North China Herald: new online resource

Now available! Brill have made all issues of The North-China herald and Supreme Court and consular gazette (to give it its full title!) from 1850 to 1940 available in a digitized format.

The newspaper was published in Shanghai, which was "at the heart of China’s dealing with the Euro-American world and a city at the forefront of developments in Chinese politics, culture, education and the economy. As the official journal for British consular notifications, and announcements of the Shanghai Municipal Council, it is the first – and sometimes only – point of reference for information and comment on a range of foreign and Chinese activities." Brill website

It "is universally acclaimed as the prime printed source in any language for the history of the foreign presence in China from around 1850 to the 1940s" Brill website


 LINK TO LIBRARY CATALOGUE PAGE

INTRODUCTORY VIDEO FROM BRILL (YouTube)

The acquisition of African antiquities

In this article from Project Sydicate, Juliet Torome, a writer and documentary film maker, looks at the dubious provenance of many of the African cultural and historical artifacts that have been removed from their original sites or owners and  found their way into museums or the hands of private collectors

Reconsidering the mystery of Easter Island : book review

Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo reconsider the traditional view that the inhabitants of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) bore the prime responsibility for the catastrophe that befell their society in "The statues that walked : unravelling the mystery of Easter Island"

READ THE REVIEW IN THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

and look out for the book when it arrives in SOAS Library (ordered 18th January)

Ottoman Palestine on film

Link to YouTube to watch archive footage of Jerusalem (late 19th century?) and Bethlehem and Gethsemane (1920s)

1. Jerusalem (said to be made in 1896)
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vaIK8wlAl0>

2. Bethlehem and Gethsemane (mid 1920s)
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqqY_apdIXc&feature=fvwp&NR=1>

Fact vs. fiction

In conjunction with the Institute of Historical Research's November conference Novel Approaches, their online Reviews in History has been comparing works of academic history with novels set in the same period

Julia Lovell (Birkbeck College, University of London)) compares Mao's last revolution by Roderick MacFarquhar and Michael Schoenhols with Yu Hua's novel Brothers (Xiong di)

Click to read her REVIEWS

Mao's last revolution (Harvard UP, 2006) is available in SOAS Library at CC951.056 / 995530.
Click HERE to go to the catalogue entry
Brothers is available at the British Library

Dr Jenny Benham (from the IHR) compares Jonathan  Riley-Smith's classic The Crusades: a short history with the Swedish bestseller The Temple knight by Jan Guillou

Click to read her REVIEWS

The Crusades (2nd edition, 2005) is available in SOAS Library at NB909.07 / 933682
Click HERE to go to the catalogue entry
Try Foyles or Waterstones if you are intrigued by The Temple knight !

Law and politics of British colonial thought: book reviews

Compare reviews of Law and politics of British colonial thought: transpositions of Empire by Dr. Shaunnagh Dorsett (Faculty of Law, University of Wellington) and Ian Hunter

The book is "mainly concerned with British Law as it developed in settler colonies", commencing with Britain's North American territories and concentrating on the Anglophone colonies such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand, although there is a "lively" account of English barrister Travers Twiss and his support of the Belgian King Leopold in the establishment of the Congo Free State

• Reviews in History (Institute of Historical Research) - review by Dr. Jack Harrington (Open University)
• Settler Colonial Studies  - review by Professor Peter Karsten (Department of History, University of Pittsburg) [PDF]

Find the book in SOAS Library at A344.2 / 737200

Click here to link to the Library catalogue

Jerusalem: the biography (book review)

Simon Sebag Montefiore's "Jerusalem : the biography" was  published in the U.K earlier this year. The book examines the history of the city from the earliest times to the present day.

Read the latest review in the New York Times Sunday Book Review 


Find the book in SOAS Library at QJ956.944 / 734184

Click here to view the Library catalogue

Information skills for Historians

A quick reminder that there will be sessions looking at information resources for historians in Room E17 (Library) on

• Friday 4th November (10-11 a.m.)
• Friday 11th November (10-11 a.m.)

The sessions will look at topics such as electronic journals, databases (full-text and bibliographic), the Library's online subject guides, and looking for resources beyond SOAS

Please email ms28@soas.ac.uk and let me know if you would like to attend either of these sessions.

Imperial heights : book review

Eric Jenning's Imperial heights: Dalat and the making and undoing of French Indochina looks at the development of Dalat, some 100 miles northeast of the modern Ho-Chi Minh City on the Lang Bian Plateau, as a hill-station and spa for European colonialists in the early 20th century. By the 1920s, it was a "decidedly French social space".

Read the review by Michael Vann in the Institute of Historical Research's Reviews in History and see the author's response to the review as well.

Find the book in SOAS Library at GG959.703 / 742279.
Link to the Library Catalogue from  here

Professor Eric Jennings  is based at the Department of History, University of Toronto
Associate Professor Michael Vann is based at the Department of History, California State University, Sacremento.

Women and trade-unionism in post-war Japan: book review

Dr. Christopher Gerteis' book Gender struggles: wage-earning women and male-dominated unions in post-war Japan was published by Harvard University Asia Center in 2009 as one of their East Asian Monographs series

Read the latest review (in Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol.37(2) 2011)

Dr Gerteis lectures on the history of contemporary Japan here at SOAS
The reviewer, Professor Robin LeBlanc, lectures on politics and law at the Washington and Lee University School of Law, Lexington (Virginia)

There are two copies available in SOAS Library at D331.478 / 987419.
 Link to the catalogue entry from HERE

Storytelling and oral history

A report from the BBC's Middle East website looks at the tradition of storytelling and the role of the professional storyteller  in the Middle East, and how history (ancient and modern) as well as contemporary events such as the Arab Spring are being adapted by the storytellers.

Click HERE to read the report

The report also includes videos of modern professional storytellers performing
But will the traditional art survive in competition with modern technology?

Welcome to SOAS

Follow the History blog for updates on SOAS Library resources, book reviews, websites, news-stories and much more

You can go to the Information skills pages on the BLE for general research guides, guides to the various databases and subject specific research guides

You can also use the Subject Guide for History on the main Library website for internet resources selected by Library staff : http://www.soas.ac.uk/library/subjects/history/

If you have any queries about the history collections in SOAS Library, finding books and journals, or using any of the online resources, you can contact me:

Mary Seeley (Subject Librarian for History and Religions; Ancient Near East, Semitics and Judaica)
Room C3 (Library)
Email: ms28@soas.ac.uk
Tel.: 020-7898-4195