180 Years of Saturdays
June 10, 2013 3:14 PM   Subscribe

The Spectator Archive was announced today, with searchable, browsable content of the weekly U.K. (conservative-leaning) magazine, from 1828 through 2008.

The archive is officially in Beta release, and the search function seems to have some blind spots, but the date/page syntax is:

archive.spectator.co.uk/page/5th-july-1828/1
posted by steef (10 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is actually very good news, and I'm glad to see it. I understand the majority of the blue will sniff at any paper that Boris Johnson had a hand in, but over the years, the Spectator has published some very good writers indeed, whatever your political bent. Also worth checking out are their end of year best of issues.
posted by IndigoJones at 4:10 PM on June 10, 2013 [3 favorites]


It is a great resource and they've published some great writers over the years. I think I read it claimed somewhere it's the oldest continually published English-language journal still in existence, not sure if that's right but must be up there.
In the few articles I've browsed so far the digitalisation has left a lot of artefacts, but small price to pay for the access and I see the FPP says it's a beta release so hopefully these will get cleaned up as time goes on. Of course, as a raging lefty I'll be trawling it mainly for ammunition written in less guarded times. Arf.
posted by Abiezer at 5:25 PM on June 10, 2013


I'm always fascinated to read the cheerleading of disaster.

"The battle of the Somme, a battle destined, it may be, to prove the greatest and most decisive of land encounters ... is still proceeding, and with results wholly favourable to ourselves and our Allies."

15th July, 1916

"The nation has every right to feel the utmost confidence in Sir Douglas Haig. He has managed a supremely difficult job with very great skill ... Sir Douglas Haig could only have accomplished what he has accomplished through his undaunted refusal to allow any external circumstances whatever to deflect him even from an instant from his ultimate object"

29th July, 1916
posted by Sauce Trough at 5:39 PM on June 10, 2013 [4 favorites]


I once had a shameful crush on Jeffrey Bernard. This will be fun. Thanks.
posted by jfwlucy at 6:34 PM on June 10, 2013


I randomly clicked on some of the first articles and learned about a war the British were involved in in Portugal in the 1820s. That alone made this worth it for me. Cool stuff.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 6:46 PM on June 10, 2013


YouTube 1.0
posted by islander at 8:03 PM on June 10, 2013 [1 favorite]


The eighties - the Thatcher era, I suppose - were its real heyday, I think. Like it or not the Young Fogey thing it had going then was a significant phenomenon. It sort of protected the intellectual flank of Thatcherism by making a case that you could be a mad right-winger and still be literate, funny and even sympathetic.
posted by Segundus at 12:58 AM on June 11, 2013 [1 favorite]


George Lucas on Doctor Who. In 1993.

(probably isn't that one) (but the coincidence is delicious)
posted by feelinglistless at 1:06 AM on June 11, 2013


The Whitechapel Murders
posted by Harry at 6:36 AM on June 11, 2013


Still proud of the hate mail I received after having a letter published back in the early 2000's.
posted by PenDevil at 7:50 AM on June 11, 2013


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