World Histories #6 Sampler

CONTENTS Regulars ✪ On the cover

REGULARS 32 Perspectives: The Tet Offensive rocks

South Vietnam by Andrew Preston ✪ 56 A Year in Pictures: 1916 – trenches,

turmoil and tenors by Richard Overy 66 Extraordinary People: Muriel Matters

by Robert Wainwright 114 Column: Global Connections

by Michael Scott

THE BRIEFING

8 Viewpoints: Anne Applebaum on

the Ukrainian famine, Rory Miller on Qatar’s rift with nearby states, Adam IP Smith on historical statues ✪, and Laura Spinney and Peter Turchin on the need for expert collaboration 14 Back Story: How might Germany’s

general election impact on national and global politics? by Chris Bowlby 20 History Headlines: Global discoveries

and developments in the world of history

CULTURE 84 In Conversation: Catherine Nixey and

This issue we’ve been asking …

38

What are the historical roots of recent tensions between Qatar and its neighbours? 10 What impact did the Tet Offensive have on US intervention in the Vietnam War? 32 How did Goldsboro in North Carolina escape nuclear disaster on 24 January 1961? 38 What role does a ‘furniture factory’ play in the story of North Korea’s nuclear ambitions? 48 How did an ancient warrior people from Siberia impress Peter the Great? 78 How were convicts transported from Britain to Tasmania in the 19th century treated? 110

Edith Hall discuss the former’s book on militant early Christianity ✪ 92 Book reviews: New releases assessed 96 Agenda: Exhibitions, films and TV

JOURNEYS

10

100 In the footsteps of… A Roman poet’s

journey through Eastern Gaul

by Bijan Omrani

32

by Clare Hargreaves 110 Wonders of the World: Port Arthur,

Tasmania by Paul Bloomfield 115 Next issue preview and pre-order ISSUE 6 COVER ILLUSTRATION

BY DAVIDE BONAZZI

KATE HAZELL/GETTY IMAGES

108 Global City: Oaxaca, Mexico

CONTRIBUTORS Expert voices from the world of history Anne Applebaum The journalist and historian discusses why the devastating famine in Ukraine in 1933 has had a lasting impact on relations in the region.

“The famine continues to shape the thinking of Ukrainians and Russians, both about themselves and about one another, in ways both obvious and subtle,” she says on page 8.

78 48 10 32

Shrabani Basu

110

Queen Victoria’s friendship with Abdul Karim, her young Indian attendant, is a little-known episode. On page 28 Shrabani Basu reveals how their relationship influenced the empress.

“At the heart of this story is a young Muslim man holding a key position at the height of [the British] empire – and that’s fascinating,” she says.

Davide Bonazzi

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Born in Bologna, Bonazzi illustrated this issue’s cover (and accompanying feature on page 38).

“The most stimulating part of illustrating the covers of World Histories is that the main subject is a question, not an answer,” he says. “I think the illustration should therefore encourage deeper reflection about a given subject.”

Marisa Linton

© THE STATE HERMITAGE MUSEUM, ST PETERSBURG, 2017. PHOTO: V TEREBENIN / SHUTTERSTOCK/DAVIDE BONAZZI

110

On page 22 the associate professor in history at Kingston University analyses the French Revolution as an example of a flawed uprising with a powerful legacy. “Ultimately, the revolution was destroyed by an opportunistic and unscrupulous general who seized his chance to become a military dictator,” she says.

Simon Moody

38 CONTACT US

Website historyextra.com/worldhistories Twitter twitter.com/historyextra Facebook facebook.com/historyextra Email worldhistories@historyextra.com Post BBC World Histories, Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol BS1 3BN, UK Phone +44 117 314 7377

The lecturer in defence studies at King’s College London joins our panel discussing whether nuclear weapons have made the world safer (page 38). “The historical record tells us that the security framework within which nuclear weapons have become so ingrained is remarkably stable,” he argues.

Bijan Omrani

On page 100 the historian and classicist follows in the footsteps of Roman traveller Ausonius, who wrote about his journey through Gaul along the Moselle river in AD 368. “There is a freshness to the poem that distinguishes it as not merely a piece of wishful thinking by an official of a tottering empire,” he says.

GETTY IMAGES

WHY NORTH KOREA WENT NUCLEAR

Eternal president A soldier and workers are depicted gazing in admiration at North Korea’s first premier, Kim Il-sung, in a propaganda poster. The Kims’ dynastic personality cult shows no signs of diminishing

4

In July and August, tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles by North Korea sparked inflammatory exchanges with the US – yet, as Nicola Leveringhaus explains, this is just the latest step in the isolationist communist state’s attempts to fulfil long-held nuclear ambitions

 5

Scythian art

Gold plaque of a mounted Scythian, c400–350 BC This tiny plaque was sewn onto clothing as a decorative element; originally rectangular, it was later trimmed to emphasise the outline of the warrior. It is in Greek style but shows a Scythian man with long hair, beard, moustache, trousers, soft shoes and a belted jacket adorned with tiny circles – an attempt to show decorative elements similar to this plaque itself.

It was unearthed from the Kul-Oba kurgan (Scythian burial mound) in eastern Crimea, first excavated in 1830, in which a Scythian king was buried with his wife or concubine, a slave and a glittering hoard of gold ornaments.

6

THE ART OF WAR

© THE STATE HERMITAGE MUSEUM, ST PETERSBURG, 2017. PHOTO: V TEREBENIN

For most of the first millennium BC, the steppe between the Black Sea and China was the domain of Scythians – fierce nomadic warriors who were also adept metalworkers, wood-carvers and painters.

St John Simpson, curator of Scythians: Warriors of Ancient Siberia, a new exhibition at the British Museum, reveals what the finest pieces tell us about this little-known people

 7

JOURNEYS In the footsteps of a Roman poet’s journey through eastern Gaul

n AD 368, the Roman a striking and almost unique evocation of emperor Valentinian I rural life in the late Roman empire. marched east from Augusta Ausonius may have written the Treverorum (now Trier, in poem as a piece of literary propaganda, western Germany), the imperial capital to stress the tranquillity and prosperity of Roman Gaul, to campaign beyond of the lands under secure Roman rule. the Rhine. Later that year he won But even if this was its purpose, there is a hard-fought victory against the a freshness to the poem that distinguishAlamanni at the battle of Solicinium, es it not merely as a piece of wishful perhaps near modern-day Hechingen thinking by an official of a tottering in south-west Germany. Valentinian’s empire, but as a direct account based display of Roman might deep in enemy on close personal observation. territory was a notable sign of the power that the empire still wielded even in Violent history its twilight, and was one of the last Ausonius began his account at Vincum successful offensives against the (modern-day Bingen, 50km west of Germanic tribes that were the historic Frankfurt), where the Rhine meets the enemies of Rome. river Nahe. This edge of the empire, he Yet despite Valentinian’s victory, the recalled, had always been vulnerable. In expedition is remembered largely not for AD 71 a local tribe in revolt, the Treveri, the martial exploits of the emperor but had been crushed at Bingen, leaving for a literary achievement – a work by their hordes, “unwept and unburied”, a brilliant ex-lawyer and Latin professor lying scattered across the countryside. from Bordeaux named Decimus Reflecting on this violent period of local Magnus Ausonius. Valentinian was history, Ausonius was comforted by the accompanied on the campaign not just sight of new ramparts built around the by his army but also by his eight-yeartown in 359, less than 10 years before his old son and co-emperor, Gratian, whose own visit, by Julian ‘the Apostate’ (who personal tutor, Ausonius, was responsibecame emperor in 361); indeed, he ble for looking after his young ward. observed them “in wonder”.

After the victory, Ausonius was Ausonius and his charge then left despatched to return to Trier the Rhine to travel west across with Gratian. His way took the province of Germania him back across the Rhine Inferior (Lower Germainto frontier lands that ny). Away from the had been disturbed by rivers, this lonely stretch raids, before joining the of the journey took the Moselle river, which travellers along an they followed all the way isolated military road to the imperial capital. through trackless forests.

Shortly afterwards, After a trek of nearly 25 Ausonius wrote the poem miles Ausonius finally A coin depicting Gratian, Mosella, commemorating reached a settlement, the son and co-emperor of this return journey along town of Dumnissus (near Valentinian and ward the eponymous river – of Ausonius Kirchberg) – though 

I

Ausonius (c310–c394) was born in Burdigala (Bordeaux), an important port in the Roman province of Aquitaine Gaul.

He had a good education, studying Greek and Latin in Bordeaux and Toulouse.

In 334, Ausonius became a teacher in Bordeaux. He wrote poetry – a normal activity for someone with his education – and married a noble woman, Attusia.

Though it was an advantageous marriage for him, it was also a love match: Ausonius wrote impassioned love poetry for Attusia, and recorded his devastation when she died after nine years of marriage, leaving him a widower with three children. He never remarried.

Ausonius spent some time working as a lawyer, but around 345 he became professor of rhetoric at Bordeaux. In 364 he was summoned to tutor Gratian, son of the Roman emperor Valentinian. In 368 he accompanied Gratian and Valentinian on campaign across the Rhine, and was given as booty a slave girl, Bissula, about whom he wrote several poems. Shortly after his return to Trier he wrote Mosella, a poetic account of the journey. In 370 he was appointed comes (‘count’) in recognition of his services to the imperial family.

After Gratian succeeded as emperor in 375, Ausonius played an important role in government, and in 378 was appointed consul (a post broadly equivalent to prime minister). In 383, the usurper Maximus staged a coup, and Gratian was killed.

Ausonius fell out of favour and retired to his estates in Bordeaux, where he wrote letters and poetry. He died c394, aged about 83 or 84. Some 300 pages of his writing survive today.

ALAMY

Ausonius may have written his poem as literary propaganda, to stress the tranquillity of lands under Roman rule

Decimus Magnus Ausonius: professor, poet, prime minister

Ausonius admires a fine like house with a “lofty tower in the lighthouse of Memphis Egypt”

The poet praises an ingenious mill that powers marblecutting blades as well as grinding flour

Prosperous farms and vine-clad hillsides remind Ausonius of his native Bordeaux

Ausonius admires “in wonder” the defensive ramparts around the Roman city of Vincum

The poet encounters Sarmatians from the east, farming land provided by Rome for the new immigrants

k, Ausonius After a long tre issus, which he arrives in Dumn ering, and says is “swelt thirsty fields” surrounded by

Along the Moselle, fishermen cast cork-buoyed nets and rods made with pliant greenwood

 ILLUSTRATION BY THERESA GRIEBEN

INSIDE THE SIXTH ISSUE...

Expert voices and fresh takes on our global past – and how it shapes our lives in the 21st century

A history of sexual diversity around the world

Did Christianity destroy the classical world?

ISSUE 6

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