Teaching
History Online
Number
67: 5th January, 2003
Introduction
1.
History
of the British Army
2.
The
Levellers
3.
Glorious
Revolution
4.
Regicides
5.
Military
Obituaries
6. British
History
7. Challenge
and Change
Introduction
Spartacus Educational
publishes Teaching
History Online every week. The newsletter includes news, reviews
of websites and articles on using ICT in the history classroom. Members
of the mailing list are
invited to submit information for inclusion in future editions of
Teaching
History Online. In this way we hope to create a community
of people involved in using the Internet to teach history. Currently
there are 23,620 subscribers to the newsletter.
John Simkin
spartacus@pavilion.co.uk
History
of the British Army: This National Army Museum website provides
a brief introduction to the history of the British Army. It includes
sections on the Regimental System, Early Years, War with France, Stagnation
and Reform, First World War, the Second World War and An Army for
Today. The website also has summaries of a number of battles and campaigns
in which the British Army has been engaged during its long history.
Forthcoming topics will include Burma and Dunkirk.
The
Levellers: During the Civil War some radicals such as John Lilburne
began writing and distributing pamphlets on soldiers' rights. He pointed
out that even though soldiers were fighting for Parliament, very few
of them were allowed to vote for it. Lilburne argued that all adult
males should have the vote and that these elections should take place
every year. Lilburne was imprisoned for publishing his pamphlets but
soon after he was released he joined with John Wildman, Richard Overton
and William Walwyn, to form a new political party called the Levellers.
Their political programme included: voting rights for all adult males,
annual elections, complete religious freedom, an end to the censorship
of books and newspapers, the abolition of the monarchy and the House
of Lords, trial by jury, an end to taxation of people earning less
than £30 a year and a maximum interest rate of 6%. This website
provides an overview of the subject and extracts from the pamphlets
published by the Levellers.
Glorious
Revolution: The term Glorious Revolution refers to the bloodless
English revolution that took place between the removal of James II
and his replacement by William and Mary. In this unit of work pupils
learn about the causes of the Glorious Revolution and the diverse
reactions to it from within Ireland and Scotland. Pupils have the
opportunity to assess the impact of the Act of Union 1707 in Scotland
and to examine the reasons for the final defeat of the House of Stuart
in 1745.
Regicides:
In August 1660, following
the Restoration of King Charles II, the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion
was passed as a gesture of reconciliation to reunite the kingdom.
A free pardon was granted to everyone who had supported the Commonwealth
and Protectorate, except for those who had directly participated in
the trial and execution of King Charles I eleven years previously.
A special court was appointed in October 1660 and the surviving Regicides
were brought to trial. Ten were condemned to death and publicly hung,
drawn and quartered at Charing Cross or Tyburn, London, in October
1660: Thomas Harrison, John Jones, Adrian Scroope, John Carew, Thomas
Scot, and Gregory Clement, who had signed the King's death warrant;
the preacher Hugh Peters; Francis Hacker and Daniel Axtel, who commanded
the guards at the King's trial and execution; and John Cook, the solicitor
who directed the prosecution.
Military
Obituaries: A collection of obituaries of men who played a significant
role in the Second World War. The obituaries originally appeared in
the Daily Telegraph and The Times and includes figures such as Johnnie
Johnson, Leo Marks, Patrick Porteous, Geoffrey Page, Marcus Oliphant,
Charles Merritt, Vera Atkins, Thomas Ferebee, Jean Pierre Bloch, Harriet
Waddy, Telford Taylor and John Howard.
British
History: The About network consists of hundreds of Guide sites
neatly organized into 23 channels. The sites cover more than 50,000
subjects with over a million links to the best resources on the Net
and the fastest-growing archive of high quality original content.
The material is organized under the headings such as: Agricultural
Revolution, British Empire, Wars, Historical Maps, Foreign Policy,
Industrial Revolution, Ireland Monarchy, Normans, Political Reform,
Prime Ministers, Reformation, Roman Britain, Saxons, Scotland, Social
Reform, Transport Revolution, Tudor England and Vikings.
Book
Section
Challenge
and Change: Discover how, in the 1920s, the German army resorted
to practising in cardboard cut-out tanks; the reasons why, in the
1930s, some unemployed Americans were paid to walk around with ballons
on long strings; why black people in South Africa at the time of apartheid
could have been imprisoned for five years for sitting on a park bench;
and how after the fall of the Berlin Wall, large numbers of police
spies lost their jobs and became taxi drivers.
.
Available from Amazon Books
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