From the Back of the Class | Issue 4

Posted 2:32pm Sunday 15th March 2015

K ing Phillip II of Macedon is nowadays most famous for having banged Angelina Jolie in that movie with all the snakes and then spawning Alexander the Great. However, if his son had not gone on to be such an overachieving Eurasian, Phillip himself would doubtless be remembered as one of the Read more...

From the Back of the Class | Issue 3

Posted 5:30pm Sunday 8th March 2015

“Te Kooti was a brilliant guerrilla warrior, but he was no master of the modern pā.” So said Gregor Fountain, my Year 12 history teacher, and the phrase has stuck with me. True, indeed, Te Kooti was a successful guerrilla leader, especially when ambushing the British, but he failed Read more...

From the Back of the Class | Issue 2

Posted 6:26pm Sunday 1st March 2015

G enghis Khan was not only a mass-murdering psychopath but also a pretty interesting guy. He was born sometime around 1162AD (accurate birth records were somewhat scarce on the Mongolian tundra) and given the name Temujin, meaning “of iron”. Temujin united the Mongolian tribes under one Read more...

From the Back of the Class | Issue 1

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 22nd February 2015

C icero, the great Roman philosopher, lawyer and statesman, once mused that “a man who knows nothing of what happened before he was born shall remain forever a child.” Rudge from Allan Bennett’s The History Boys said, “How do I define history? It’s just one fucking thing after another.” Though Read more...