Tag: history
-
Horace Hart: the fascinating creator of an Oxford classic
Shortly after I became Editorial Assistant at OUP, my manager lent me a book called New Hart’s Rules: The Handbook of Style for Writers and Editors. It’s a useful and interesting book for an editor, as it tells you: to avoid the greengrocer’s apostrophe (e.g. lettuces instead of lettuce’s) the correct way to indicate stammering,…
-
The greatest enterprise of its time – The Oxford English Dictionary
It’s Wednesday 6 June 1928 and Stanley Baldwin, the British Prime Minister, is officially launching a book that has taken 70 years to complete. ‘Our histories, our novels, our poems, our plays – they are all in this one book,’ he says. ‘It is true that I have not read it – perhaps I never…
-
World War One: links to explore
As Anzac Day approaches, we have collected some of our favourite pieces about the Great War from the Oxford Australia blog and around the Press online. You can read about the history of the iconic Anzac biscuit, rediscover soldier slang from First World War or listen to the remarkable story of John Simpson and his…
-
World War One: a snapshot in quotes
Assassination has never changed the history of the world. – Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, speech, House of Commons, 1 May 1865 On June 28th 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by a Serbian nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, while visiting Sarajevo. This one event, this assassination, was the catalyst for four years of…
-
The story behind the cover: Furphies and Whizz-bangs
One hundred years on, the slang of soldiers of the First World War continues to fascinate. In Furphies and Whizz-bangs: Anzac Slang from the Great War Dr Amanda Laugesen draws on primary source material taken from soldiers’ letters, diaries and trench publications, along with contemporary newspapers and books, to bring the language of the Australian soldier…
-
Commemorating 100 years
Between 2014 and 2018 Australia will remember the Anzac Centenary, marking 100 years since World War One. To commemorate, we continue to publish a range of essential history and literature books. Explore Australia’s role in the First World War with our Centenary History of Australia and the Great War series or examine the slang of…
-
Rediscovering words from the Great War
In this article, reproduced from our latest issue of Ozwords, Amanda Laugesen takes a look at slang terms used by Aussie soldiers during the First World War. In my recent book, Furphies and Whizz-bangs: Anzac Slang from the Great War, I had the opportunity to revisit some of the classic collections of war slang, including…
-
The iconic ANZAC biscuit
An Australian icon, these crunchy biscuits originated during World War 1. It is generally believed that the ANZAC biscuit were created by the Australian and New Zealand wives, mothers, sisters and sweethearts who wanted to make a treat for their loved ones that could survive the long journey to the front, that’s why they keep…