The Australian War Memorial site has worked diligently over the past several years to add to their rather nice online collections, and this particular addition is quite a find. It consists of excerpts from diaries from those who served Australia during the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War, and in the South East Asian conflicts. The homepage for these diaries includes a brief...

The Australian War Memorial's online version of their exhibit Of Love and War illustrates how war impacts the availability of potential partners (especially from other countries), courtship, the sense of romantic urgency that war creates, and marriage. A reader's comment on the blog "Wedding Dresses, Part 3" sums up well what this exhibition is about in his comment regarding the display of...

1n 1915, a group of Australians and New Zealanders (the ANZACs) made a landing on the Turkish Gallipoli peninsula. Over the next eight months these men displayed "courage, endurance, initiative, discipline, and mateship." Out of their number, nine were awarded the Victoria Cross, and this website from the Australian War Memorial pays tribute to their deeds. The website starts with a brief...

The Council on Foreign Relations provides a number of services for the general public, and in the past they have offered up public discussions, forums, and other outreach activities. In addition, they offer the "Backgrounders" series, which offer succinct explanations of current political and economic issues. First-time users can visit the "Most Recent" area to peruse the latest piece, or they can...

The web makes finding reference works rather simple, and Bartleby.com has been kind enough over the past few years to put more than a healthy offering of their publications online at no cost to voracious readers and the generally curious. On this corner of their site they have brought together over one hundred popular nonfiction works. Visitors can meander through "The World's Famous Orations",...

This site from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) presents hundreds of brief biographies of important historical figures. Entries are arranged in alphabetical order, or users may search for notable characters by surname. For example, within the "A" category, readers may peruse biographies dedicated to John Adams, Konrad Adenauer, Agricola, Akhenaten, Prince Albert, St. Andrew, Muhammad...

In 1999, the British Parliament granted Scotland a certain degree of greater autonomy through the process of devolution. A year earlier in 1998, the Parliament passed the Scotland Act 1998, which created both the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Executive. The BBC decided to create this website to serve as a repository of original reporting and commentary on the past ten years, and visitors to the...

As its name suggests, the BBC World Service brings together news from all corners of the world. Visitors can listen to their radio programs online, and they will get a heady sampling of their work just by perusing the special reports, topical updates, and commentaries on the homepage. In the "News Programmes" area, visitors can avail themselves of different World Service shows, including...

William Hogarth, Henry VII, and Richard Pryor all make appearances in the thoughtful BBC4 radio program, Great Lives. Hosted by Matthew Parris, the program was started in 2007, and it continues to grow in popularity. The format is fairly straight-forward: Guests on the program choose someone who has inspired their lives and a conversation ensues. Visitors to the site can sign up for the podcasts...

This website from the BBC and the British Museum takes another important step into moving the museum experience online. People usually go to museums to see historic objects, and that's exactly what A History of the World makes possible, via the web. For example, one week's theme was status symbols, and the object of the day was the David Vases, two Chinese blue-and-white porcelain vessels, named...