Social

A Page at Versailles

Fourteen years before the French Revolution, writes Felice Harcourt, the son of a Belgian nobleman joined the court of the Bourbons.

Wood and Coal : A Change of Fuel

Alan D. Dyer describes how Britain’s industrial development began when coal replaced wood during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Truro as Cornish Capital

A.L. Rowse describes how the centre of administrative life in Cornwall has enjoyed a varied history, from Plantagenet to modern times.

The Origin of the Whirling Dervishes

From their origins in the 13th century until the suppression of the Sufis by Atatürk, the whirling dervishes symbolized their beliefs through their ecstatic dances.

The Turkish Language Reform

As a means of national survival, write Diana Spearman and M. Naim Turfan, Atatürk preached the whole-hearted acceptance of contemporary civilization.