26 January 2020

BBC History Magazine: February 2020

The featured items in this latest issue, viewable free online at home through PressReader and your OPL membership, and likely other North American libraries, are:

The Little Ice Age
Brian Fagan reveals the havoc wrought by centuries of climate change
After the Holocaust
Richard J Evans charts efforts to deal with the crimes of the Third Reich
The two sides of George IV
Stella Tillyard on the urbane, boorish king who trashed his own reputation
The Grunwick protests
Sundari Anitha and Ruth Pearson on a 1976 strike for migrant workers' rights
Spanish Armada myths
Lucy Worsley explains why our view of the events of 1588 may be off-course
Henry II and Islam
Did the king really intend to forsake Christianity? Claudia Gold investigates
A global education
Historians describe their experiences of studying around the world

And in a one-column this date in history type item Susannah Wright recalls the first step toward schooling for all in England and Wales
The 1870 Education Act was introduced into the House of Commons 150 years ago this month. More than any prior or subsequent legislation, it brought about a system of mass education in England and Wales. For the first time, the state became responsible for the elementary (primary) schooling of all children of ages 5-10. Calls for more schools for more children, and better oversight, had come much earlier - think Charles Dickens. But by the late 1860s, pressures had mounted. Extensions of the electorate, most recently in 1867, along with the fear of falling behind international competitors, and moral panics about juvenile delinquency and popular unrest - especially in ‘slums’ - were all cited as reasons for more schools. The system of elementary schools that emerged was a complex mix of older church schools and new, church-administered and part state-funded ones, or fully state-funded ones, filling the gaps.

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