The Dispatch Edition #8: D-Day, Feasten Cakes & the Bronze Age Collapse

Welcome to Edition #8 of The Dispatch.

Hello,

Jordan here. I’m the Creative Director at Unseen Histories and if you’re reading this, it’s because you signed up for a newsletter through our website unseenhistories.com (or our previous incarnation at dynamichrome.com).

If this is your first email from us, The Dispatch is our free email roundup of long-form pieces, previews, interviews, pictures and more published on Unseen Histories; curated in one place for you to read at your leisure.

You can read previous editions in our archive.

Many thanks for reading,

– Jordan Acosta, Creative Director, Unseen Histories

Headlines

The latest from Unseen Histories –

Few remember the names Jack Alcock and Ted Brown. But in 1919 they achieved an astonishing first in aviation history when they flew non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean.

Alcock and Brown's flight belongs to an intrepid era of history. They raced, alongside three other teams, in simple planes, with no support through unpredictable skies.

This race is the subject of David Rooney's new book, The Big Hop, as he explains here.

The launch of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 was one of the critical moments of the Second World War. Having conquered in the north, south and west, Adolf Hitler's Nazi forces turned towards the east.

The opening fortnight of the campaign brought a breathless advance across hundreds of miles of Soviet territory, For a while it seemed as if the Soviet Union was on the brink of collapse.

In his new book, Opening the Gates of Hell, the journalist and author Richard Hargreaves examines the opening of Barbarossa in great and illuminating detail.

He describes a fluid battlefield, filled with tanks, foot soldiers and the most disturbing atrocities.

Bookshelf

Previews, excerpts, and more from the very best published history books –

Jordan’s Pick: The Big Hop by David Rooney (Chatto & Windus) –
Learning about overlooked figures from history is always a thrill to feature on Unseen Histories (the name gives it away); coupled with the pioneering spirit which characterised the previous century. Our interview with David is absolutely fascinating as a starting point.

In her new book, The Lost Folk, the author Lally Macbeth examines the role folk culture has played in our history. She argues, too, that we should embrace it anew, as a unifying force, in our fractured times.

In this excerpt from the book she recounts the stories of Barbara Jones and Florence White. Both of these were gifted collectors who found deep meaning in everyday English food.

In the years before 1200 BC the eastern Mediterranean was home to a number of young but thriving 'civilizations'. Among these were powerful empires like the Hittites, Minoans and Mycenaean Greeks.

But then, in a mystery that has long perplexed modern historians, in a short space of time these empires collapsed. Most of them vanished so completely, writes Paul Cooper, 'that they disappeared from the historical record altogether'.

In this excerpt from his book, Fall of Civilizations, Cooper takes us back to one of the most puzzling episodes in human history.

Viewfinder

Our picks from the picture archives, remastered –

Operation Overlord commenced in the early hours of 6 June 1944, a date that has forever afterwards been remembered as 'D-Day'.

Within a year of D-Day western Europe would be liberated, Nazi Germany would be defeated and Adolf Hitler would be dead.

In this three-part Viewfinder series, we asked nineteen expert historians to tell the story of Operation Overlord through forty-four specially selected images.

Jordan’s Pick –
This feature was one of the most challenging endeavours we’ve ever done in time for the 80th D-Day commemorations in 2024. We’re intensely proud of this seminal piece of story-telling, and you can now read the entire thing (in three parts), here. Huge thanks to all of our brilliant contributors, who have dedicated their careers to World War II.

Op-ed

More from around the web –

Passionate about history, Ed told Secret Sussex how he and Mark had wanted to restore the bunker to "preserve the memory" of the Cold War, the period between 1945 to 1990 when the US and the Soviet Union vied for ideological, political and military dominance. "It's a really fascinating look back into the geopolitical and the social psyche of the time," he said.
– Joshua Askew, Emily Jeffrey, BBC

The Times vividly described the incongruous spectacle unfolding in west London. There was "something at first dream-like about riders in their lofty stetsons and gaily coloured shirts" in this "oval of turf in a concrete and corrugated tin stadium". The showstopping highlight came as "Suicide" Ted Elder, the seven-time world trick-riding champion, performed his signature move, a car-jump while riding Roman style. To the crowd's amazement "With a foot on each of the two horses he leaps them over a motor car".
– Michael-John Jennings, The Times

Thanks for reading The Dispatch by Unseen Histories. Edition #9 will be published week beginning July 28, 2025. You can read previous editions in our archive.