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History

November

William Dalrymple at Serai Kitchen, Melbourne.

‘India, not China, is the historic centre of the Asian world’

Scottish author William Dalrymple argues in his new book that Indian thinkers like Aryabhata and Brahmagupta should be as familiar to the West as Archimedes and Galileo.

  • Michael Bleby

June

Neil Howe says the world is building towards a climax. “This book is not about where we want to go, it’s about where we are going – whether we want to go there or not.”

Why the favourite demographer of market gurus predicts catastrophe

History says something really ugly is coming, according to Neil Howe. Investors need to be ready.

  • James Thomson

April

Indigenous Australians from Sydney’s La Perouse community at Trinity College, Cambridge, to retrieve the four spears taken by Captain Cook.

Captain Cook’s first Australian souvenir returned to Indigenous owners

Cambridge University has surrendered a set of spears taken the momentous day when Sydney’s Indigenous people first set eyes on their eventual colonisers.

  • Hans van Leeuwen

January

Porsche reckons with history of forgotten Jewish co-founder

Adolf Rosenberger, who gave up his role and stake before fleeing Nazi Germany, remains largely absent from the brand’s corporate record.

  • Patricia Nilsson

December 2023

The Basilica di San Lorenzo, under which the artist is thought to have hidden for two months in 1530.

See inside Michelangelo’s ‘secret’ Florence room

In 1530, when the Medici family returned to power in the city, the artist went into hiding. He spent his days drawing on the walls of his tiny refuge, and you can now view the artworks for yourself.

  • Josephine McKenna
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October 2023

Inside an expedition to locate the Beagle’s lost anchors
1:22

Inside an expedition to locate the Beagle’s lost anchors

John Canaris, director for Tracker Geoservices, describes the search for the lost anchors of the historic ship HMS Beagle in a wild NT river mouth.

  • Updated
The ruins of Herculaneum.

These scrolls were illegible for 2000 years. A uni student read one with AI

The ancient scrolls were buried in the ash at Herculaneum, near Pompeii. Luke Farritor became the first person to read from them in thousands of years.

  • Kyle Melnick
Mary Beard writes and teaches at Cambridge when not starring in TV documentaries.

This new book reveals what Roman leaders were really like

In her latest tome, historian Mary Beard takes readers on a colourful tour of 30 emperors spanning 250 years.

  • The Economist

September 2023

It’s not a surprise to find ancient artefacts have been through criminal hands, says ANU’s Georgia Pike-Rowney.

How ANU came to own three stolen ancient treasures

An Attic black-figure amphora dating back to 530BCE and two other treasures will be returned to Italy after ANU’s Classics Museum found they had been plundered.

  • Julie Hare

August 2023

This French château restoration has reached its final stupendous stage

Ten years ago, a Perth couple bought a château in the Pyrenees. Now their castle is finally a home.

  • Susan Gough Henly

March 2023

Australian Museum CEO Kim McKay and Professor Kris Helgen are co-authors of a new paper outlining 1.1 billion catalogued objects and specimens from around the world.

Australia’s museums contribute to 1.1 billion-object global database

The Australian Museum is part of study to combine more than a billion scientific objects in collections across 73 museums in 28 countries.

  • Jessica Sier
Michael Wesley’s new book goes into forensic detail about Australia’s mission to support Solomon Islands, starting in 2003.

How Australia helped save Solomon Islands from itself

An important new book explains how Australian soldiers, police officers and diplomats staunched a cycle of bloodshed and rebuilt a shattered state.

  • James Curran
Chethams Library is steeped with age and the aroma of the many animal-skin covers on the shelves – everything from lowly pig to goat, buffalo and deerskin.

Inside the library where Marx and Engels wrote ‘The Communist Manifesto’

In continuous use for more than 350 years, Chetham’s is the oldest public library in the English-speaking world and includes books pre-dating the use of paper.

  • Sue Bennett
Dr Marie-Louise Ayres has oversight of Trove as well as physical collections.

Why we need to protect this national treasure

Tony Davis became a fan of Trove while completing his PhD, and still uses it extensively. So do millions of others. But this unique Australian archive is under imminent threat.

  • Tony Davis

November 2022

Sam Bankman-Fried was more Scottish adventurer John Law than Warren Buffet.

FTX shows ‘fake it ’til you make it’ is really so 18th century

Before Sam Bankman-Fried, a Scotsman in France tried to take advantage of financial stress for his own benefit. But why must we relearn a difficult lesson over and over?

  • Harold James
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September 2022

Dennis Tipakalippa has prevailed against Santos in a dispute over Sea Country.

Letters: A big win for Indigenous rights

Tiwi Islanders win against Santos, Moorebank traffic problems, Queensland land tax, history of British India, bank complaints, addiction to pokies.

April 2022

Chris Latham's <i>Diggers' Requiem</i> was solemnly impressive.

The forgotten diggers of Anzac Cove

Chinese Australians fought and died alongside their white countrymen then faced discrimination and marginalisation when they returned home.

  • Will Davies
Charles Darwin’s Tree of Life sketch contained in one of the returned notebooks.

Stolen Darwin notebooks, missing for decades, are returned

The books are filled with Charles Darwin’s scrawled handwriting and sketches from 1837.

  • Daniel Victor

March 2022

Some children have strange ideas about Winston Churchill.

Hands up if you think Churchill was real

A new book makes the case for a discipline under fire as Vladimir Putin sells a bogus history and scary numbers of teenagers think Winston Churchill was fictional.

  • Noel Malcolm

February 2022

HMS Endeavour.

Discovery of Captain Cook’s Endeavour ‘premature’

The lead US investigator in the search for the ship has labelled an announcement by the Australian National Maritime Museum a ‘breach of contract’.

  • Michael Read

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/history-jll