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Jan 15, 2025 | 
spectator.co.uk | David Abulafia
When passions are aroused, all of us are liable to overstate our case. Dan Hicks, a curator at Oxford’s extraordinary Aladdin’s Cave of anthropology, the Pitt-Rivers Museum, is perhaps a case in point. A Swedish academic, Staffan Lunden, has convincingly argued that Hicks is guilty of ‘distortion’ when writing about the British raid on Benin in 1897, which brought several thousand objects, including finely wrought brass statuettes, to museums across the world.
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Jan 15, 2025 | 
spectator.com.au | David Abulafia
When passions are aroused, all of us are liable to overstate our case. Dan Hicks, a curator at Oxford’s extraordinary Aladdin’s Cave of anthropology, the Pitt-Rivers Museum, is perhaps a case in point. A Swedish academic, Staffan Lunden, has convincingly argued that Hicks is guilty of ‘distortion’ when writing about the British raid on Benin in 1897, which brought several thousand objects, including finely wrought brass statuettes, to museums across the world.
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Nov 26, 2024 | 
spectator.co.uk | David Abulafia
The British Museum is beginning to think about the possibility of embarking on a massive programme of refurbishment, repairs and the reorganisation of its galleries, now that the building is showing its age. At the same time, many groups would like to use this opportunity to change the very character of the museum. One such group is The World Reimagined. Its co-founder Michelle Gayle takes the view that this is a chance for the British Museum ‘to look its past in the eye’.
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Nov 26, 2024 | 
spectator.com.au | David Abulafia
The British Museum is beginning to think about the possibility of embarking on a massive programme of refurbishment, repairs and the reorganisation of its galleries, now that the building is showing its age. At the same time, many groups would like to use this opportunity to change the very character of the museum.
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Nov 18, 2024 | 
dialnet.unirioja.es | David Abulafia
IdiomacatalàDeutschEnglishespañoleuskarafrançaisgalegoitalianoportuguêsromână
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Nov 4, 2024 | 
telegraph.co.uk | David Abulafia
Actress Naomie Harris is made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II Credit: Yui Mok/PA Wire Once again the idea that there is something disgraceful in the existence of a Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is in the air. Robert Hardman’s updated biography of King Charles suggests that the new government might address this issue, and that the late Queen was not averse to change. There was even talk of renaming it ‘the Order of Britain and Elizabeth’ –...
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Oct 21, 2024 | 
telegraph.co.uk | David Abulafia
King Charles III delivers a speech while attending a Parliamentary reception hosted by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese Credit: Lukas Coch The visit of the King and Queen to Australia has predictably aroused contrasting enthusiasms. On the one hand the “G’day Your Majesties” banners express genuine affection for the monarchs. On the other hand, the aboriginal senator Lidia Thorpe chose to shout out a raucous denunciation of the Crown and Great Britain during a grand reception in...
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Oct 9, 2024 | 
spectator.com.au | David Abulafia
It is difficult to complain about the sentiments expressed by Bridget Phillipson, the Secretary of State for Education, in her article entitled ‘We will give teachers the resources to root out anti-Semitism for good’, published in the Telegraph on the anniversary of the Hamas pogrom in southern Israel. Universities have turned a blind eye to some atrocious behaviour by students who vocally support the call of Hamas for a ‘free Palestine’ stretching across the entire length and breadth of Israel.
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Oct 9, 2024 | 
spectator.co.uk | David Abulafia
It is difficult to complain about the sentiments expressed by Bridget Phillipson, the Secretary of State for Education, in her article entitled ‘We will give teachers the resources to root out anti-Semitism for good’, published in the Telegraph on the anniversary of the Hamas pogrom in southern Israel. Universities have turned a blind eye to some atrocious behaviour by students who vocally support the call of Hamas for a ‘free Palestine’ stretching across the entire length and breadth of Israel.
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Sep 4, 2024 | 
spectator.com.au | David Abulafia
Ocean: A History of the Atlantic Before Columbus Head of Zeus, pp.5609, 30 It is easy to assume that there is not much to be said about the history of the Atlantic before 12 October 1492, when Christopher Columbus reached the Bahamas. In 2005, the Harvard historian Bernard Bailyn published a little book entitled Atlantic History: Concept and Contours which said absolutely nothing about what happened before Columbus, whom he barely mentioned.
