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.