Page 19 - BBC History - September 2017

SOCIAL MEDIA
What you’ve been saying
on Twitter and Facebook

Following HBO’s
announcement of new
drama Confederate,
which will imagine an
America where the
South won the right to
secede from the Union,
what alternative his-
tory drama would you
like to see and why?

Alejandra Fuenzalida Henry VIII not
breaking with Rome. Would England
be Catholic now? Or what would have
happened if Richard III had won the
battle of Bosworth?
A flotilla of small boats pictured after helping with the mass evacuation of Dunkirk.
But, asks Sylvia Baguette, how did such small craft cross the Channel? @_Say_What_Again The JFK
assassination. What would the US
Civil Rights movement have looked
Considering my parents’ independent was excellent. If I was still teaching my like if Kennedy was never shot? Equal
observations, if the army of 1914 was course on research methods I would rights sooner? Less violence?
made up of enthusiasts, that of 1939 was require all my students to read it. In
Steven Brake James II successfully
well aware of never getting the “land fit the course I spent time discussing the resists William Of Orange. The
for heroes” they’d fought for, had very important questions: “Where do Glorious Revolution never happens,
completely different motives and was ideas come from and how does research but nor do the Acts of Union in 1707
far more opportunistic in outlook. get started?” This article points out the
Ed Waddington Montezuma defeats
James Wells, MRINA, Essex need for cross-disciplinary study when it Cortés and gains knowledge of
comes to questions of history, and gunpowder and iron working
Little ships mystery has made a valuable contribution to
Claire Greyson The princes in the
I found the article on Dunkirk very helping to understand why the intellec-
Tower surviving and producing heirs
interesting, especially the photos of the tual revolution occurred in Europe and
“little ships”. My father came from the Americas instead of other parts of Anthony George One where the
Chester and told me how one morning the world. transatlantic slave trade never
occurred
in 1940 he walked down by the river Dee The visual arts, music, literature, the
to the area where the pleasure boats social sciences and the physical sciences @sazenrose Henry Tudor loses the
tied up. To his surprise, they were not are not separate disciplines. They are battle of Bosworth Field. Alliance with
Portugal through marriage and
there. When he asked a member of part of the whole movement of human
Yorkist dynasty continues
staff he knew, they could only say endeavour and move together, each
they were “gone”. affecting the other. The forces behind the @StevenCheverton Churchill was
Weeks later he was told they had industrial revolution can be traced back killed in the trenches during WWI.
The knock-on e!ect for GB’s military/
“gone” to Dunkirk. But how could river to ideas of the Renaissance and the
imperial/social histories would have
pleasure craft travel to Dunkirk from Protestant Reformation. been profound
Chester? How would they even reach the Hugh Canham, emeritus professor
south coast? They were not constructed of forest and resource economics, Brad Sprauer If the Jacobites had
won. It would have had a profound
for sea voyages. When I have asked in New York
e!ect on not only Scotland and
Chester on recent visits, no one has been England, but even the colonies and
able to confirm my father’s account. So WRITE TO US subsequently America as we know it,
how did all these ‘little ships’ travel to as Scottish immigrants played a large
We welcome your letters, while
the south coast ports, never mind cross reserving the right to edit them. part in early American history
the Channel? I wonder if any of your We may publish your letters on our Nat Marsh Harold Godwinson
readers might know. website. Please include a daytime staying on the south coast to defeat
phone number and, if emailing, a postal
Sylvia Baguette, Crewe William before then going north to
address (not for publication). Letters defeat Hardrada and Tostig
should be no longer than 250 words. @mwoodgates An America that
GETTY IMAGES Professor Mokyr’s article on the email: letters@historyextra.com didn’t gain independence from
Big questions
Post: Letters, BBC History Magazine,
Britain, imagine cricket with an
intellectual revolution in the June issue
(How Europe Won the Race to Prosperity)
Bristol Ltd, Tower House,
Immediate Media Company American accent!
Fairfax Street, Bristol BS1 3BN
BBC History Magazine 19