WELCOME AUGUST 2021

This month’s essential guide explores Hitler’s rise to

1968 HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?

GETTY IMAGES Under the watchful eye of the

1907 DRIVING FORCE

GETTY IMAGES A team of competitors in the

c1913 SPLASHING AROUND

GETTY IMAGES Eager to escape the summer heat,

€1.1bn

RECENT HISTORY HEADLINES THAT CAUGHT OUR EYE

Historical consultant

MEET THE PEOPLE BRINGING THE PAST TO LIFE

The burning of Washington

ANNIVERSARIES THAT HAVE MADE HISTORY

PARANORMAL COLD CASE

INVESTIGATING HISTORY’S MOST SPINE-CHILLING ENCOUNTERS

The Charter of the Forest

YOUR BRIEF EXPLAINER TO HISTORY’S HOT TOPICS

Queen Anne’s turbulent life and reign

THE LIVES OF HISTORY’S MOST FAMOUS FIGURES

Who wrote Beowulf?

HISTORY’S GREATEST CONUNDRUMS AND MYSTERIES SOLVED

Why do pianos have 88 keys?

THE RIGHT NOTES Pianos were soon staple features

Where does the term ‘brinkmanship’ come from?

SHORT ANSWER An ancient strategy was given a

How have people reacted to Halley’s Comet?

GETTY IMAGES X7, ALAMY X1 SHORT ANSWER It

How did pharaohs reach the afterlife?

DEATH IS JUST THE BEGINNING Mummification was the

Who invented the cigarette?

SHORT ANSWER While Native Americans took the first

DID YOU KNOW?

A NOVEL TITLE Canadian Grant Allen’s 1895 novel

What was cock ale?

SHORT ANSWER Move over meal-and-drink pub deals, this

How did Agrippina the Younger die?

THAT SINKING FEELING Nero’s scheme is captured in

What are those little doors at the US Capitol?

SHORT ANSWER The architectural oddities would be opened

When was the last execution by guillotine?

LONG HISTORY Tunisian murderer Hamida Djandoubi was the

Was there a real Blackadder?

THE START OF A CUNNING PLAN? Rowan Atkinson

Why are Scottish mountains called Munros?

SHORT ANSWER Munro may not have conquered them

What happened on the Zong?

NO CONSCIENCE A woodcut of the mass- killing

Conserving the past

Secrets of the Museum / BBC One, July

Together but different

This Union: The Ghost Kingdoms of England / BBC Radio 4, Monday 2 August

Tragedy and change

Uprising / BBC One, July

What lies beneath

Secrets of the London Underground / Yesterday, July

Linked by blood…

Murder, Mystery and My Family / BBC One & BBC iPlayer, Monday 28 June

Creature feature

The Secret of the Animal Mummies / PBS America, Thursday 22 July

Royal Style in the Making

WHAT TO SEE AND WHERE TO VISIT IN THE WIDER WORLD OF HISTORY

Flying Days

DATES THROUGHOUT AUGUST, IWM DUXFORD

New Anglo-Saxon Gallery

TAMWORTH CASTLE

The Typewriter Revolution

UNTIL 17 APRIL 2022, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND, EDINBURGH

Nero: The Man Behind the Myth

UNTIL 24 OCTOBER, BRITISH MUSEUM

Black and British: A Forgotten History

THIS MONTH’S BEST HISTORICAL READS AND LISTENS

The World According to Colour: A Cultural History

Allen Lane, £25, hardback, 352 pages Art historian

The Piano: A History in 100 Pieces

Yale, £16.99, hardback, 400 pages From the Baroque

WHAT TO LISTEN TO...

Each month we bring you three of our favourite podcasts from the BBC and HistoryExtra

Unwell Women: A Journey through Medicine and Myth in a Man-Made World

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £16.99, hardback, 496 pages Women’s

Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues that Made History

Headline, £20, hardback, 272 pages From last year’s

Spare Parts: A Surprising History of Transplants

Fig Tree, £18.99, hardback, 304 pages This history

The Silence of Scheherazade

19 August 2021, Head of Zeus, £18.99 KALEM

Q&A

Born in Istanbul, Defne Suman grew up on

CROSSWORD

TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR HISTORICAL PUZZLE EVERY ISSUE

LETTERS

Reader Geoff Bantock feels that Captain Stanley Lord

ANCIENT GREECE

ON SALE 5 AUGUST

CROSSWORD WINNERS

The three lucky winners of the crossword from

PANNING FOR BLUE GOLD 1877

ARRESTING IMAGES FROM THE ANNALS OF THE PAST

LIFE IN NAZI GERMANY

GETTY IMAGES X5, ALAMY X2, TORSTEN SILZ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

THE ROAD TO THE REICHSTAG

How a small right-wing group became Germany’s ruling party

EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT LIFE IN NAZI GERMANY

Professor Sir Richard J Evans answers key questions about the lives of ordinary Germans under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler

THE NAZI PARTY’S RISE TO POWER

The tumultuous, deprived years that followed World War I proved a fertile ground for a new type of German politics

INDOCTRINATION AT EVERY LEVEL

Nazi social and economic policies covered all aspects of German life – from leisure time to education

HITLER’S CHILDREN

Groups such as the Hitler Youth were originally founded to teach Nazi principles and help secure the future of the Reich. But, as Dr Emma Butcher explains, their members would eventually find themselves fighting on the frontline

THE NAZI TOP BRASS

The Nazi regime was dominated by a handful of individuals, led by their Führer, Adolf Hitler

VICTIMS OF THE HOLOCAUST

From the moment they gained power, the Nazis engaged in a relentless campaign of persecution against Jews and other minority groups, culminating in the mass murder of millions of innocents

THE MOTHERS OF THE ‘MASTER RACE’

In the eyes of Hitler and his acolytes, Nazi women were expected to be loyal and subservient breeding machines

MALICIOUS COMMUNICATIONS

Under the watchful eye of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda machine controlled virtually every form of creative expression – enabling the regime to promote its hateful ideology and build Hitler’s cult of personality

A REIGN OF TERROR

The Nazis sought to ensure that opponents would be rooted out – and punished

REPORTING FOR DUTY

Getting the truth out about the brutal reality of Hitler’s regime was far from easy. Will Wainewright explores the work of the foreign journalists in Germany who covered the rise of the Nazis

TOP 10 GREAT ESCAPES

From the daring to the downright dangerous, we uncover some of history’s most impressive bids for freedom

HARRY EDWARD BRITAIN’S FIRST BLACK OLYMPIC HERO

In 1920, runner Harry Edward sprinted his way to bronze at the Antwerp Games, but his exploits on the track were soon lost to history. As the 32nd Olympiad gets underway in Tokyo, Sonia Grant explores the extraordinary life and career of Britain’s first black Olympian

WHAT IF... THE BABINGTON PLOT HAD SUCCEEDED?

Jonny Wilkes talks to historian Tracy Borman about how the Tudor dynasty could have been cut short and England hurled into a religious civil war