Daily History Picture: Communist Dies March 4, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesExecution of a communist in Munich 1919. I’ve always had problems believing this picture… Everyone seems to be posing.
The Earliest Cargo Cult? March 4, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : ModernCargo cults are Melanesian religious movements centred on the ability of the colonial powers to bring the kind of trinkets that fill shopping malls and dollar stores to the some of the virgin corners of the earth. The first references to cargo cults, the Vailala Madness, which began in 1919, for example, saw Papuans preach […]
Daily History Picture: Czech Refugees March 3, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesDead Hands, Live Wens: Latest Record? March 3, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : ModernThere is a well attested belief that the bodies of executed criminals could heal certain illnesses. This led in past centuries to bits of executed felons being bought, sold and even eaten. Though the most gentle version was as simple as going to the gallows and begging the hangmen to let you run the dead […]
Daily History Picture: Boot Black March 2, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesKiller Cameras March 2, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary, ModernWhen many years ago Beach travelled in Sub-Saharan Africa he was warned by anxious parents, and relatives not to take photographs of the natives. They might believe that their soul had been taken. Where does this idea come from? And did anyone anywhere ever actually believe it? Well, a run through sources suggests that the […]
Beachcombed 69 March 1, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : BeachcombedDear Reader, Uni holidays coming up so a restful week ahead and this week Mrs B took the kids away skiing so restful weekend behind. Happy days. Thanks, as always, to the multiple linkers: Amanda, Invisible, Chris S, Joan, Ricardo, Wade and others. I’ve put the very best contributions below to the posts from this […]
Daily History Picture: Armless Queen February 29, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesIndex Biography #27: Prize a book February 29, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval***Seb got this, scroll down for the answer*** The Index Biography is a new form of biography pioneered by this blog and introduced in a previous post. The creator must find a biography of a famous individual from history, they must turn to the index and write down eight peripheral facts about the individual’s life. We […]
British Iron Age Peyote February 28, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : AncientThere are lots of internet sites out there talking (and sometimes raving) about how to have visions courtesy of plants that grow in the British and Irish countryside: the ‘fruits of the forest’ as Beach’s disreputable younger brother calls them. This is not the aim of the present post. Rather it is to ask: what […]
New History Books: 1956: The World in Revolt February 27, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : New History BooksThoughts on Poltergeists from Harry Price February 27, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary, ModernWhat do poltergeists like? Or, in more scientific terms, in what kind of environment do poltergeist phenomenon take place? Here is Harry Price, one of the most famous ghost hunters, with his views. Beach quotes this paragraph as part of a quest to understand what poltergeist phenomenon are. Price has the virtue here of concentrating […]
Daily History Picture: Teddy Women in London February 26, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical PicturesPhoto: The Four (and Ciano) at Munich February 26, 2016
Author: Beach Combing | in : ContemporaryOne of the great twentieth-century photographs. The four men who dominate Europe in late September 1938 stand side by side. On the left, looking as if he has an umbrella up his bottom, there is Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister and pioneer of Britain’s disastrous experiment with appeasement. Connoisseurs of the British national character will […]