In recent years, as women’s voices have become increasingly prominent in contemporary society, feminist research has gained prominence. This study primarily employs Simone de Beauvoir’s concept of the “Other” as its core framework. Through a comparative reading of multiple texts, including Records of the Grand Historian, Book of Han, and Commentary of Zuo, this analysis delves into how the Han dynasty’s establishment of “Exclusive Reverence for Confucianism” and the “Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues” theory imposed subordinate value norms upon women. Current scholarly research on female figures in the Records of the Grand Historian largely remains confined to traditional literary and historical analysis, lacking deep integration with modern gender theory. This study aims to fill this gap. The findings demonstrate that although Sima Qian adhered to the principle of factual recording, his narrative strategies, material selection, and value judgments were profoundly influenced by orthodox Confucian values. By framing women’s deeds within patriarchal evaluative frameworks such as chastity, righteousness, and “femme fatale” tropes, he systematically undermined women’s historical agency, constructing them as “Other” objects meant to highlight male virtue. This study concludes that Records of the Grand Historian’s narrative model is a paradigmatic official history. It not only reflects the transformation of gender concepts during the Han dynasty but also participated in and reinforced the institutionalization of women’s status as the “Other” in subsequent eras, providing a model for understanding the relationship between historical writing and power construction.

This study examines animal-shaped helmets of the Tang Dynasty as a distinctive component of Chinese military material culture. While international scholarship has discussed animal-decorated helmets in diverse cultural traditions such as Greek boar's-tusk helmets, Celtic swan helmets, Germanic boar-crested helmets, and Renaissance parade helmets, systematic research on Tang examples remains limited. To address this gap, the present study integrates morphological analysis of 24 excavated warrior figurines with textual examination of official histories and archaeological reports to clarify their historical terminology, structural features, and cultural significance. Using NVivo software, key morphological elements including eyes, ears, muzzle, and crest were coded to establish typological relationships among the tiger, lion, and bear prototypes. The analysis identifies three structural types of helmets (open front, cloak-style, and slip-on), each associated with specific symbolic functions and ritual contexts. Textual evidence further confirms "Maotou" as the overarching historical term, with Hushi Fu (Tiger Helmets), Bear-skin Crown (Bear Helmets), and Lion Helmets representing distinct subtypes linked to rank, protective symbolism, and ceremonial authority. By combining artifact morphology with historical semantics, this study clarifies how animal imagery was translated into material forms that embodied power, spiritual protection, and elite identity within the Tang military uniform system. Methodologically, it demonstrates the utility of NVivo-based feature coding for the analysis of ancient armor and provides a reference framework for future digital conservation and visualization of early Chinese military heritage.

摘要 蜀汉是三国时期国力最弱小、也是最早灭亡的国家，但它却涌现出了很多英杰贤才，他们忠肝义胆、舍生取义的优秀品质广为后世推崇。蜀汉仅据一州之地，地狭民稀，但却常怀进取之心，矢志北伐一统天下，这便是蜀汉独特的魅力所在。在蜀汉与魏吴两国抗衡的四十余年中，诸葛亮北伐是最为重要、也是最受后世关注的历史事件，而关于诸葛亮北伐的次数和路线，正史和小说有不同的说法。笔者在本篇论文中会使用内容分析法统计《三国志》和《三国演义》中诸葛亮北伐的战果，从而论述《三国志》和《三国演义》中诸葛亮北伐与出祁山的异同，并分析造成此差异背后的原因，希望在前人的研究基础上补正纠偏，以供后人参考。 Abstract Shu Han was the weakest and the earliest state to perish during The Three Kingdoms period, but it had emerged a lot of heroes and sages, whose excellent qualities of loyalty and courage and sacrifice for justice were widely praised by later generations. Shu Han was only a state with a narrow land and few people, but it was always enterprising and determined to conquer the world through northern expedition. This was the unique charm of Shu Han. In the more than 40 years when Shu Han fought against Wei and Wu, Zhuge Liang's northern expedition is the most important historical event that attracts the most attention from later generations. As for the number and route of Zhuge Liang's northern expedition, there are different opinions between official history and novels. In this paper, the author will use the content analysis method to calculate the results of Zhuge Liang's northern expedition in the Annals of The Three Kingdoms and the Romance of The Three Kingdoms. So as to discuss the similarities and differences between Zhuge Liang's northern expedition and Qishan Mountain in the Annals of The Three Kingdoms and Romance of The Three Kingdoms, and analyzes the reasons behind the differences, hoping to correct the errors on the basis of previous studies for future generations

This study investigates the material characteristics and literary value of Sinjong Hwangje Mundap, a manuscript preserved at the Harvard- Yenching Library. The work narrates Emperor Shenzong’s secret excursion and his encounters with various figures during his journey to seek a bride, culminating in his return to the palace. The most prominent episode is his dialogue with General Li Rusong, portrayed as his elder brother-in-law. Despite its distinctive content—particularly the fictional setting of Shenzong and Li as brothers-in-law—the work has long escaped scholarly attention. It is presumed to be among the novels read by King Yeongjo, providing a significant clue for understanding the creative and reading culture of eighteenth-century Korean fiction. According to the Seungjeongwon Ilgi (Diary of the Royal Secretariat), King Yeongjo once remarked—based on a novel—that Emperor Shenzong and Li Rusong were brothers-in-law, and Sinjong Hwangje Mundap remains the only known work that includes this narrative setting. Centered on Shenzong’s secret journey and quest for marriage, the story actively incorporates oral narrative motifs such as the “King’s Secret Excursion” and the “Youngest Son-in-law’s Success.” By transforming the historical relationship between Shenzong and Li into a fictionalized, entertainment-oriented narrative, the work displays playful imagination while portraying the eunuch Jang Taegam as a loyal and capable aide. Merging folkloric imagination with historical narrative, it provides a multidimensional portrayal of Shenzong’s character absent from official histories, while overturning conventional negative views of eunuchs. Ultimately, Sinjong Hwangje Mundap stands as a unique fusion of historical fact and folkloric imagination, offering valuable evidence of eighteenth-century fiction’s fascination with amusement, its social engagement, and its role as a medium for articulating the voices of those on the social periphery.

This explanatory and qualitative study stems from the expectation that history education students have developed the competency to apply historical consciousness to different concepts, including those that are part of their culture, such as the Zulu indigenous rituals. Historical consciousness is the conceptual framework and postcolonial theory is the theoretical framework for this study. 15 participants were divided into three focus groups for interviews. The findings from the data analysis revealed that participants had conflicting historical consciousness in relation to Zulu indigenous rituals. Their consciousness both conforms to and resists contextual infl uence rather than being informed by the official history they learn.

Artistic expressions – encompassing visual arts, literature, music, architecture, and other creative practices – serve as powerful vehicles of cultural memory that carry a society’s shared past into the present. This article examines the multifaceted relationship between art and cultural memory, drawing on interdisciplinary theories of collective memory and identity. It begins by outlining the concept of cultural memory as distinct from individual recollection or official history, highlighting how collective memories are constructed, transmitted, and preserved through external media and symbols. Artistic expressions are explored as a form of symbolic communication or “language,” encoding cultural values and historical narratives in visual and performative signs. These expressions range from monuments and heritage artifacts to literary works and ritual performances, all of which help stabilize group identity by commemorating shared experiences. We analyze how artworks not only preserve cultural heritage but also actively shape and critique memory – for example, in memorials of trauma that demand ethical reflection. The role of power and perspective in cultural memory is considered, noting that what a society remembers or forgets often reflects relations of hegemony and marginalization. Furthermore, the article discusses contemporary manifestations of cultural memory in digital media, such as serious games and interactive archives that engage new audiences in heritage learning. Through a synthesis of scholarly insights and examples, we demonstrate that artistic expressions function as dynamic “memory devices” – simultaneously conserving the past and reinterpreting it – thereby contributing to cultural continuity, identity formation, and intercultural dialogue.

This article, “Women’s Rights and Empowerment Movements in Nepal: A Study of Yogmaya and Seto Dharti,” examines how Nepali literature responds to entrenched patriarchal structures that have historically curtailed women’s voices and denied them agency. Nepal’s socio-cultural history has been shaped by practices such as child marriage, enforced widowhood, polygamy, dowry, caste-based exclusion, and the Chhaupadi system, all of which silenced women and erased their subjectivities from official history. Literature, however, provides a vital counter-narrative that not only documents these hidden experiences but also resists oppressive traditions. The analysis focuses on two seminal Nepali novels; Neelam Karki Niharika’s Yogmaya and Amar Neupane’s Seto Dharti as feminist texts that illuminate both women’s suffering and their resilience. Yogmaya reconstructs the life of Yogmaya Neupane, a reformer whose personal defiance against patriarchal restrictions evolved into a collective movement challenging the Rana regime and caste–gender hierarchies. In contrast, Seto Dharti portrays the inner world of Tara, a child widow, whose gradual awareness of systemic injustice exemplifies a quieter but equally significant form of resistance. Employing radical feminism (Beauvoir; MacKinnon), intersectionality (Crenshaw), and feminist critique Rege, the article demonstrates how these narratives articulate women’s rights through both collective mobilization and individual resilience. Ultimately, “Women’s Rights and Empowerment Movements in Nepal: A Study of Yogmaya and Seto Dharti” underscores literature’s role as cultural testimony, a repository of marginalized voices, and a catalyst for envisioning gender justice in Nepal.

ABSTRACT Using George Lipsitz’s and Verónica Tello’s discourses on counter-memory, this paper examines the representation of second-generation Holocaust survivors by analyzing Thane Rosenbaum’s Second Hand Smoke and The Golems of Gotham. The article analyzes characters who resist normative historical narratives by crafting their own disparate counter-memories as a tool to broaden and reframe history. Here, the second-generation characters engage with memory in ways that challenge the collective aggregates of canonical history and memory. This paper positions the second-generation’s traumatic experiences against dominant accounts and reveals a parallel narrative of resistance that emerges consequently. The novels illustrate that the second-generation can initiate reconciliation by resisting rigid official histories and rejecting the imposed identity as passive custodians of transferred memories. Ultimately, the second-generation finds reprieve in building an identity that transcends solely being children of survivors. In reframing the collective memory of the Holocaust to include its aftermath on the later generations, these counter-memories encourage positioning it as an unresolved tragedy – one that continually requires critical engagement and reconciliation.

Cyber warfare has become a significant threat in the current digital era, with an increasing number of cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure and national defence systems. As cyberattacks continue to evolve and impact various sectors, this study aims to explore a new dimension of modern warfare that has not been extensively documented in Indonesia's official war history. The primary focus of this study is to document and analyse cyber conflicts as a form of new warfare history, which is becoming increasingly relevant in the digital world. A comparison between physical warfare and cyber warfare is conducted to examine the differences in impact, actors, and strategies employed in both forms of conflict. In addition, the study also examines the weaknesses in Indonesia’s cyber defence structure over the past decade and provides recommendations for developing a stronger and more adaptive cyber defence doctrine. Through a historiographical approach and critical analysis, this study is expected to contribute to the development of Indonesia’s digital defence foundations and the formulation of a more adaptive cyber defence doctrine to enhance Indonesia's preparedness in facing future cyber threats.

ABSTRACT A product of war and subject to competing demands of officialdom and expectations of academia, ‘official history’ in Great Britain has a conflicted past. The tension between these two was often more apparent than real. If anything, as this survey of the Official History Programme and related scholarly endeavours from c. 1906 until the 1970s shows, Whitehall shared an interest in ‘competent and honest history’. Relations between officialdom and academic historians were complex and multifaceted, but both sides benefited from official history as an exercise in policy advice. History, and especially diplomatic history, is an ‘impure’ type of scholarship in that it has practical insights to impart; and in this way official historians helped officials and their superiors to seek new, and perhaps better, perspectives and understanding of present-day problems. Equally, official history has always been a form of public engagement. It is in the public sphere that policy decisions are debated – whether in the here and now or in the future – and ultimately legitimised. And here, too, historical perspectives can be of use.

ABSTRACT This article explores a persistent dilemma in official history: whether officials should be protected from the loss of anonymity when their confidential advice is published. Since FOI (2000) the problem has recurrd,from its interwar precedent with the publication of British Documents on the Origins of the War (1926–38). Its most controversial voice was that of Sir Eyre Crowe, whose minutes were later used by German revisionists to claim that British ministers were ‘prisoner’ to Germanophobic Foreign Office officials. Crowe’s case illustrates how publishing private advice can distort intentions and implicate officials in enduring political and historiographical battles about 1914.

ABSTRACT The study of the end of empire through the production of official histories has been a challenging undertaking due to the sensitivities and controversies that accompanied imperial deconstruction. The choice of editors also affected the ways in which the demission of empire was reflected. Although the quasi-official British Documents on the End of Empire represented a progression from previous official histories by incorporating documents drawn from a wider range of Whitehall departments, its shortcomings were exposed by the revelation that thousands of files, the so-called ‘migrated files’, generated by the colonial administrations themselves, had been clandestinely held by the FCO.

Official History: writing the history of military operations and intelligence

ABSTRACT The article discusses the absence of an official history of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), despite its significant role in British political life and international representation. It highlights the challenges of documenting the complex administrative history of the FCDO, which has existed in various forms since 1782. The task is daunting due to the vast historical records and the potential lack of objectivity from ‘in-house’ historians, who are busy with editorial and advisory work. Previous attempts by insiders to write the history were often defensive, aiming to justify the current professional culture. These efforts were made during times when the Civil Service faced pressure to prove its relevance amidst social and cultural changes post-World Wars. The article suggests focusing on specific periods, like the World Wars, to make the history more engaging. It also proposes incorporating human stories to enliven the narrative and conducting prosopographic studies of Foreign Office clerks and officials alongside a traditional administrative history.

ABSTRACT This article is an expanded version of a paper delivered first at the International Conference of Editors of Diplomatic Documents in London, April 2017, and then, in a slightly revised form, at the Institute for Historical Research, London, in October 2024 for its seminar series Official History: Past, Present and Future. Dame Lillian Penson (1896–1963) played a crucial yet underrecognized role in editing British Documents on the Origins of the War, a documentary series initiated by the British government to counter German narratives about the origins of the First World War. Initially brought in as an assistant for archival research, Penson’s responsibilities expanded significantly, undertaking research which the principal editors lacked time to perform. By the mid-1930s, Penson had become the central coordinator for the project, effectively forming an editorial triumvirate alongside the official editors, G.P. Gooch and Harold Temperley.

_ Declining production has defined the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) for more than 2 decades. But today the top issue is whether the basin is in a race to zero or if there is still a chance of a softer landing. At its peak in 1999, the UKCS produced 2.9 million B/D, nearly 4% of global supply. By 2024, output was down to 630,000 B/D, equal to just 0.5% of world production. Natural depletion explains much of the decline, but recent policy moves are now considered a more pressing factor. At the center of debate is the Energy Profits Levy (EPL), which has progressively raised the tax on UKCS oil and gas profits from 40 to 78%. That’s more than double rates of other mature basins such as the US Gulf of Mexico, where the US government take ranges from 31 to 35%. Since a Conservative-led government imposed the profit windfall tax in 2022, production has fallen by more than one third, or 190,000 B/D. The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), the UK’s offshore regulator, projects output will decline another third by 2030, leaving the country with about 420,000 B/D of domestic supply. The now Liberal-led government has thrown its full support behind the EPL and will decide in November how to replace it when it expires in 2030. Meanwhile, the industry is urging for its repeal altogether. Wood Mackenzie noted in September that the UK is already facing a difficult investment environment, with 90% of its recoverable resources produced or under development. The consultancy estimates about 1 billion BOE can be developed under current terms, while another 5 billion BOE would require stronger policy support and removal of the EPL. A ‘Difficult’ Situation The EPL, introduced in response to soaring energy prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has drawn sharp criticism from observers who say it is hastening decline. Few know the UKCS as well as Alexander Kemp, author of the two-volume Official History of North Sea Oil and Gas and professor of petroleum economics at the University of Aberdeen. He chose the word “difficult” to sum up the region’s outlook. “We have done quite a bit of modeling work on the effect of the windfall profit tax, the EPL, and have consistently found that there are significant disincentives to explore and incur field development expenditures,” Kemp said. “The current situation is one where investment is falling at a very strong rate.” And while most of the remaining reservoirs are small, that has become a moot point under the Liberal-led government, which since taking power last year has stopped issuing new exploration licenses in its push toward net-zero emissions. Policymakers argue that decline is unavoidable given the basin’s maturity and frame it as an opportunity to cut emissions and expand renewables, particularly offshore wind. Kemp notes this ignores the growing reliance on imports. “That is happening to some extent,” he said of an uptick in renewable investments, “but what is not said is that our import bill for oil and gas is very high, and all the projections I can think of show the import bill will grow higher still.”

This essay will explore the use of ecological imagination in women’s writing as counter-memorial practice in the contemporary Turkish novel. In a growing body of work, the search for a language and aesthetics of ecology serves both to subvert human-centric ideologies and to rewrite official history that aims to erase collective memories of ethnic conflicts and political injustice. Ecological imagination, as the essay will argue, serves as an alternative medium for remembering and transferring the untranslatable. In this context, the essay will discuss the ways of rebuilding women’s memory in alliance with traumatized landscapes and non-human agencies. Sema Kaygusuz’s Every Fire You Tend (2009) and Ayşegül Devecioğlu’s Weeping Mountain, Silent River (2007), the two novels explored in this essay, are emblematic of the potential of literature to make catastrophic events representable through an ecological imagination as a challenge to prevailing patterns of historical conditions. The narrative styles of these texts bend official modes of history writing and traditional modes of testimonial writing as they draw upon the lived experiences, memories, and subjugated knowledge of female subjects. Reading these novels through the lens of ecology also contributes to women’s memory, which, in the context of Turkey, has always been in a tense relationship with the conservative historical practices of the nation-state.

ABSTRACT There is a scholarly consensus that addressing past conflicts within education is an essential ingredient in justice and reconciliation processes. In newly independent South Sudan, an unstable political context ravaged by protracted civil war, it is debatable whether and how difficult history could or should be addressed. Against the backdrop of introducing the country’s first history textbooks, this article explores students’ perspectives on recent and ongoing conflicts in South Sudan at the time of their publication. Drawing on student essays and theories of difficult history, our analysis examines the nature of difficult histories circulating among young people. It uncovers the multiple perspectives deriving from unofficial histories that may be at teachers’ disposal in the classroom, centering on those that relate to internal divisions and mutual victimization in the past and the present. We argue that these sensitive topics have the potential to challenge the official history of ‘unity in resistance,’ dominating both textbooks and classroom teaching. In uncovering difficult and often dangerous history, we contribute to a theorization of why such narratives do not belong in the classroom in a politically fragile environment.

The Second World War was an important, but under-researched, transitional period for naval nursing. This article describes one sister's experience and sets it against the narrative in official histories and wartime memoirs and art. Margaret Wallace, a Scot from the skilled working class, was within the demographic that the service's Victorian founders hoped would be attracted. She worked in representative wartime facilities: the largest British auxiliary naval hospital, a secret multi-national naval base, the Headquarters of South East Asia Command in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and Haslar, the iconic Royal Naval hospital. She experienced many of the defining characteristics of military nursing during the war: revolutions in medical practice including near-magical cures by the new antibiotics, an urgent need for tri-service and cross-national working which upset centuries of tradition, the censorious attitude of some regulars to civilians drafted in as temporary officers and social mixing in the twilight of Empire.

This article mobilizes two theoretical-methodological perspectives in the place of enunciation of Latin America: nocturnal maps by Jesús Martín-Barbero and life stories by Ecléa Bosi. These are theoretical-practical perspectives that come close to decolonial translation ethnography, providing opportunities for field research that considers memory in its dialogical function of social mediation in the recognition and resignification of official history. Based on this, we propose a cartography based on women’s narratives that configure what we call gender memory.