2012/03/13 23:12
To what extent is Britain (or the British Isles) the same kind of construct as Scandinavia (or the Nordic countries)?Both Britain and Scandinavia have a long and complex history, with periods of political unification and others with separate kingdoms and plenty of wars.Scandinavia's united period was a long time ago (1397–1523), while Britain only started falling apart when Ireland became...
2011/09/11 13:46
It's now exactly ten years ago that the first plane crashed into the Twin Towers. I was sitting in DAIMI's computer lab at the time, and I found out shortly afterwards from some Internet news source, and I quickly went up to the TV room together with lots of other people, where we watched the second plane crashing into the...
2013/01/07 22:39
I got the wonderful Danish TV series Matador (“Monopoly”, as in the board game) on DVD for Christmas.
It follows a range of characters in the fictional town of Korsbæk between 1929 and 1947. It was made in loving detail, so apart from being great TV, it also makes for great history lessons.
Obviously, by now few people can actually remember that time well, but when it was produced (1978-82), it was still relatively recent history. It was the idea of Lise Nørgaard, who was born in 1917, so she was basically documenting Denmark as she remembered it from she was 12 until she turned 30.
It would be a bit like if person born in 1953 came up with an idea for a TV series set between 1965 and 1983, to be produced between 2014 and 2018. If it was done really well, it’s likely people would still enjoy it in 2048.
I think it’d be equally compelling whether it was set in Denmark, in Scotland or somewhere else.
2011/11/07 22:28
Jeg opdagede rent tilfældigt, at Russerne synger 2005 – også kendt som Russangbogen – ligger på nettet i PDF-format.Jeg sad med fornøjelse og bladede den igennem, mens jeg mindedes gamle dage, da jeg faldt over et eklatant eksempel på historieforfalskning.På side 67 skriver de flg. om Vi har en lang vej hjem: "Denne sang har en fascinerende historie. Teksten blev en dag fundet på Mat/Fys-Studenterrådet. Da det tydeligvis var en sang, satte en flok gæve mennesker sig til at finde ud...
2011/10/20 22:51
‘Writing of the European revolutions of 1848, for instance, one historian recently noted: “At the beginning of 1848 no one believed that revolution was imminent.”’ This is from an article in The Independent today, arguing that Western nations are now ripe for revolution.I think it's rather speculative, but as demonstrations inspired by the Arab Spring spread around the world, the...
2011/04/19 22:31
I think I mentioned that we spent last week in Keith with the rest of Phyllis' family. We drove up to our holiday home via Pitlochry, but we returned via Urquhart Castle and Glencoe (see the map on the left).The...
2011/04/04 11:47
Dougie, my father-in-law, has always been a bit of a Scottish nationalist, and England has always seemed a bit of a foreign country to him.However, my genealogical research has now established that his paternal grandmother was English (probably from Ashton-under-Lyne...
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