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History & The Arts
Battle of Thermopylae
Explore the site of a battle at Thermopylae, described by Herodotus, and the subject of two 21st century movies. The extent of the Greeks’ geographical knowledge of the world can be reconstructed from considering regions and places mentioned by contemporary authors. Understand how the geography of the area has changed, and consider how the ...
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History & The Arts
Health, disease and society: Scottish influence in the 19th century
This free course, Health, disease and society: Scottish influence in the 19th century, examines the role that Scots played in contributing to the developments in healthcare during the nineteenth century. The radical transformation of medicine in Europe included the admission of women as doctors and the increased numbers of specialised ...
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History & The Arts
Expert opinion: Origins of the First World War
Listen to two leading historians give their thoughts on the origins of the First World War.
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History & The Arts
360 Degrees of Separation
How does Surrealism relate to Freud? What does Freud have to do with the Prisoner's dilemma? Josie Long takes you on a whistle-stop tour and finds the connections between Surrealism, Psychoanalysis, Game Theory, Nuclear Fission and microbes that may have played a key role in the origins of life.
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History & The Arts
Atom Bomb in Popular Culture
German surrender brought the Second World War in Europe to an end. But all feared that war with Japan would drag on and on. Behind the scenes, the US had been working on a secret weapon – the most powerful ever devised – and by August 1945… it was no longer such a secret. These films explore A-Bomb in Pop Culture or: How The West Has Changed its...
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History & The Arts
Origins of The Cold War
How was The Cold War fought? What types of evidence do historians use to understand the events that took place? The Cold War was a state of political and military tension between the USA and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies in the Western and Eastern Blocs.
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History & The Arts
Evolution of human rights
What are the differences between individual and minority rights? How did the League of Nations and United Nations attempt to address the topic of human rights? Right now, we define human rights as the rights to which all people are inherently entitled to as a result of being a human being. From the creation of the League of Nations in 1920 it’s ...
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History & The Arts
What makes a great speech?
Throughout history great orators have been able to capture a shift in the zeitgeist, and tap into an audience’s emotions. Speeches by John. F. Kennedy and Winston Churchill are considered among the greatest speeches of all time; but what made their speeches greater than the sum of their parts - and how did their structure and delivery manage to...
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History & The Arts
The Birth of Comedy
Take the topical satire of Have I Got News For You and mix thoroughly with the adolescent humour of The Inbetweeners, add in a healthy dose of Monty Python-esque absurdity and finish off with lashings of songs and dances. Then serve it all up to a baying crowd in an atmosphere more like a football match than a theatre stage. Welcome to the world...
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History & The Arts
Contesting power through satire
Explore the use of satire from Classical Greece through to 2013 with this interactive timeline.
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History & The Arts
Mi'kmaq: First Nation people
Can heritage continue to inform the way we live today? Is it possible to balance traditional ideas with a modern life? The Mi'kmaq people have had roots in Conne River Newfoundland in Canada for generations, but it was only officially designated as a reserve in 1987. Many of its indigenous inhabitants still feel a connection with the past and in...
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History & The Arts
Regina Jonas: the first female rabbi
Regina Jonas (1902-1944), who is now widely recognised as the world’s first female rabbi, was ordained in Nazi Germany in 1935. However, for many years after her death at Auschwitz, she remained a largely forgotten figure until the discovery of her papers in the early 1990s. This collection explores Jonas’ story, which raises important issues in...