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DECEMBER 2014

CONTENTS

Features

Every month

Discover how Britain has honoured its war veterans since 1914, on page 34

22 Lost voices of ancient Britain Miles Russell reveals what Celtic Britons really thought about the world around them

28 Cromwell’s shadowy queen How much in uence did Elizabeth Cromwell wield over her husband, Oliver? Simon Guerrier investigates

34 Poppies, blood and poetry David Reynolds explores how the ways we commemorate the First World War have changed over the past century

43 The phantom menace Implacable clones, murderous Martians and Jedi knights dominate Dominic Sandbrook’s history of science ction

50 The Napoleon complex Jenny Uglow takes the pulse of the home front in the run-up to the battle of Waterloo, when the prospect of defeat to the French haunted Britons’ nightmares

56 The vote that saved America If Abraham Lincoln had been voted out in 1864, the world today would be a very di erent place, says Adam IP Smith

62 Black power amid dreaming spires Stephen Tuck recalls the evening a coruscating Malcolm X speech electri ed Britain’s intellectual elite

6 ANNIVERSARIES 11 HISTORY NOW 1 1 The latest history news

14 Backgrounder: devolution 17 Past notes

18 LETTERS 21 MICHAEL WOOD’S VIEW 32 OUR FIRST WORLD WAR 65 BOOKS Experts review new releases,

plus Boris Johnson discusses his book on Winston Churchill

77 TV & RADIO The pick of this month’s history programmes

80 OUT & ABOUT 80 History explorer:

the Restoration 84 Ten things to do in December 86 My favourite place: Luxor in Egypt

93 MISCELLANY 93 Q&A and quiz 95 Sam’s recipe corner 96 Prize crossword

98 MY HISTORY HERO JohnLloydonPlinytheElder

40 SUBSCRIBE Save 27% when you subscribe* to the digital edition

COVER STORY

THE

LOST VOICE OF ANCIENT BRITAIN

For centuries, Geo rey of Monmouth’s medieval history of the British Isles has been cast as a work of pure make-believe. Yet, says

Miles Russell, look beyond the tales of wizards and giants and what you have is a priceless insight into what life was really like for the inhabitants of Celtic Britain

BBC History Magazine

L O N D O N

,I A A N D A L B E R T M U S E U M

I C T O R

Julius Caesar’s troops fight Britons on a beach in this detail from an 18th-century relief. Caesar’s invasion of Britain is one of the numerous events in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae that can be verified by other historical sources V

BBC History Magazine

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USPS Identification Statement BBC HISTORY (ISSN 1469-8552) (USPS 024-177) December 2014 is published 13 times a year under license from BBC Worldwide by Immediate Media Company Bristol Ltd, 9th Floor, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol BS1 3BN, UK. Distributed in the US by Circulation Specialists, Inc., 2 Corporate Drive, Suite 945, Shelton CT 06484-6238. Periodicals postage paid at Shelton, CT and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to BBC HISTORY, PO Box 37495, Boone, IA 50037-0495.

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43 “No lm better captured the nightmares of the early Cold War than Invasion of the Body Snatchers”

BBC History Magazine