Modern

Starting with the nineteenth century and bringing us right up to the debates of today this section contains many insightful podcasts that explore the recent and current world around us. Included here are the arguments around the legacy of war and the impact of social change. The history of social and civil movements and modern debate about religion and technology. Read more

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  • British-Irish Gypsy Traveller History (Part 2)

    Podcast

    In this second of two podcasts Dr Becky Taylor, Reader in Modern History at the University of East Anglia and Editor-in-Chief of 'History: The Journal of the Historical Association' is once again asked questions by Helen Snelson, Chair of HA Secondary Committee. Part Two focuses on the big stories of...

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  • British-Polish relations and the British Polish community

    Podcast

    In this podcast Professor Sam Knapton (University of Nottingham) discusses the development of the relationship between Britain and Poland in the 20th and early 21st centuries, the growth and experience of the British Polish community after World War II and Poland's accession to the EU, and looks at the influence...

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  • Charles Darwin's Early Life & the Voyage of the Beagle

    Podcast

    In this podcast Professor Jim Secord and Dr Alison Pearn of the Darwin Correspondence Project look at Darwin's early life, education and the Voyage of the Beagle.

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  • Chartism and the Anti-Corn Law League

    Podcast

    In this series of videos, produced by Royal Holloway, University of London, staff and students examine two of the most important reform movements of the early nineteenth century: Chartism and the Anti-Corn Law League, contrasting their tactics, leadership and success. The playlist also contains a number of readings of Chartist...

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  • Crime and Punishment in Wales: 1700-1830

    Podcast

    In this podcast Dr Catherine Horler-Underwood of the Cardiff University looks at crime and punishment in Wales between 1700 and 1830.

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  • Darwin and the Origin of Species

    Podcast

    In this podcast Professor Jim Secord and Dr Alison Pearn of the Darwin Correspondence Project look at how Darwin developed his theory of evolution by natural selection and the significance of his publication: The Origin of Species.

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  • Darwin: Human Evolution & Darwin's Legacy

    Podcast

    In this podcast Professor Jim Secord and Dr Alison Pearn of the Darwin Correspondence Project examine the significance of the publication of Darwin's 'The Descent of Man', theological controversy, Darwin's family and Darwin's legacy.

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  • Domestic impact of World War I

    Podcast

    In this podcast Professor Richard Grayson of Goldsmiths, University of London, looks at the domestic impact of World War I on the U.K.

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  • Early British Radicals

    Podcast

    In this podcast Professor Eric Evans looks at the early British radicals from Thomas Paine and Mary Wollenstoncraft to the Peterloo Massacre and the Reform Crisis.

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  • Early British Women Engineers

    Podcast

    In this podcast Henrietta Heald looks at some of the pioneering British women engineers of the early 20th century and the role they played in fighting for economic freedom. '"Women have won their political independence. Now is the time for them to achieve their economic freedom too." This was the...

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  • Envoi: First World War Memories

    Podcast

    During the recent First World War centenary many HA branches held lectures and talks about a variety of aspects of the war. Some had outings and many looked at their local war memorials or Pals Battalions. The Glasgow and West of Scotland Branch decided that as many of their members...

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  • Espionage in the 20th and 21st centuries

    Podcast

    In this podcast Trevor Barnes looks at the development of global intelligence and security services from their early origins to the present day. He examines at the role these services had during the two World Wars, the signficance of espionage in the development of the Cold War and the importance and...

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  • Film: Acts of Union and Disunion

    Multipage Article

    Professor Linda Colley CBE, FBA, FRSL, FRHistS is a British Historian and a Fellow of the Historical Association. At the start of 2014 she wrote and presented a BBC Radio 4 series about the Acts of Union and Disunion, now a book. Over the summer she came into the HA...

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  • Film: Bricks and the making of the city - London in the 19th century

    Article

    In this HA Virtual Branch talk Peter Hounsell drew on his recently published book Bricks of Victorian London, exploring the crucial role brick production played in the creation of Britain's capital and why the important place of bricks in the fabric of the city isn't always obvious. Peter Hounsell has published...

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  • Film: Death in Diaspora

    Article

    As British and Irish migrants sought new lives in the Caribbean, Asia, North America and Australasia, they left a trail of physical remains where settlement occurred. Between the 17th and 20th centuries, gravestones and elaborate epitaphs documented identity and attachment to both their old and new worlds. In this Virtual...

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  • Film: Heligoland: Britain, Germany, and the Struggle for the North Sea

    Article

    Professor Jan Rüger joined the Virtual Branch on 9th February 2023 to talk about his book Heligoland: Britain, Germany, and the Struggle for the North Sea, tracing a rich history of contact and conflict from the Napoleonic Wars to the Cold War. For generations this North Sea island expressed a German...

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  • Film: Living with Violence at the End of the British Empire

    Article

    In the 1950s, Britain fought a series of brutal wars against insurgents in the colonies of Malaya, Kenya, and Cyprus. How did people at home experience these wars? How did they learn about the use of torture and other unsettling tactics? And how did they respond to this knowledge? In...

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  • Film: Rethinking the origins of the Cold War

    Article

    In this HA Virtual Branch talk Professor Richard Toye explores Churchill’s response to the USSR and how his actions during the early Cold War years intersected with his views of traditional Anglo-Russian tensions and the legacy of the ‘Great Game’. Richard Toye is Professor of Modern History at the University...

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  • Film: The Quest for the Lost of the First World War

    Article

    Historian Robert Sackville-West joined the HA Virtual Branch in November 2021 to talk about the topic of his book The Searchers: The Quest for the Lost of the First World War. By the end of the First World War, the whereabouts of more than half a million British soldiers were unknown. Most were presumed...

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  • Film: What a strange place to be buried

    Article

    Anna Cusack joined the HA Virtual Branch to discuss unique burial locations in London c.1600-1800. Anna recently completed a PhD at Birkbeck, University of London on the marginal dead of seventeenth and eighteenth-century London, focusing specifically on suicides, executed criminals, Quakers, and Jews and the treatment of their bodily remains...

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