Modern

Starting with the nineteenth century and bringing us right up to the debates of today this section contains many brilliant podcasts that explore the recent and current work around us. Revolution, communication, technology, conflict and co-operation are just some of the many complimentary and contradictory themes that are covered in this detailed collection of podcast to explore the global modern era. Read more

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  • The History Ledger, podcasts from the Economic History Society

    Multipage Article

    The HA and the Economic History Society are developing a new partnership. Affiliates of the EHS contributed to our Teacher Fellowship programme: Teaching the economic history of colonialism in Africa and Asia. As part of the development of closer links, we are delighted to support the dissemination of The History...

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  • Virtual Branch Recording: The Lines we Draw

    Article

    In this Virtual Branch Tim Franks, acclaimed BBC Journalist, talks about his personal history and identity drawing on his new biography The Lines we Draw: The Journalist, The Jew and an argument about identity.  We will delve into Tim's experiences as a journalist in some of the world's major conflict zones,...

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  • Recorded webinar: Indian Suffragettes: women's activism in South Asia and beyond

    Article

    Between 1917 and 1947, women in the Indian subcontinent were engaged in active debates and noteworthy demonstrations for the vote, building up a national suffrage movement. In this talk Professor Sumita Mukherjee discusses the activities of Indian suffragettes in this period, showing how they were connected with British and other...

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  • Recorded webinar: The post-emancipation Caribbean and the meanings of freedom

    Article

    This webinar examines the era of ‘post-emancipation’ in the Caribbean from around the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. It interrogates the notion of ‘emancipation’ and asks what kind of ‘freedom’ did abolition bring to the formerly enslaved? How did colonial states and other authorities seek to regulate the lives of...

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  • Recorded webinar: Researching the history of migration and refugees in Europe

    Article

    Research on the history of migration continues to flourish and grow, but scholarship is also becoming increasingly splintered, often focusing on particular settings or population groups. Migration is often used as a way to discuss questions of national identity or diverse religious, ethnic, religious and local identities in the UK,...

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  • The Meiji Restoration

    Podcast

    The Meiji Restoration was a political event that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ruling emperors before the Meiji Restoration, the events restored practical power to, and consolidated the political system under, the Emperor of Japan. The Restoration led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure and...

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  • Recorded webinar: Histories of Indigenous peoples of North America

    Article

    Any study of the intercultural relationships between the Indigenous peoples of North America and British settlers usually focuses on the differences that resulted in disputes and violence. However, on closer examination, the interaction also involved the exchange of ideas and the forging of alliances, which required diplomacy and respect for...

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  • Filmed Lecture: Medlicott Lecture 2024 - Professor Catherine Hall

    Article

    Addressing issues of the legacies of racism created by the transatlantic slave trade and the narratives of its abolition  The Medlicott Medal is awarded annually for outstanding services and contributions to history. This year the Medal went to Professor Catherine Hall, who is Emerita Professor of Modern British Social and Cultural History at...

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  • Virtual Branch Recording: The Chinese Communist Revolution of 1949

    Article

    In this talk Professor Henrietta Harrison uses diary records to think about the experience of living through the revolution in China in 1949, focussing on what it meant to Chinese people, how they learned about its practices and ideology, and how this changed their lives - whether they were radical intellectuals returning...

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  • Recorded webinar: John F. Kennedy and the Vietnam War

    Article

    Would US President John F. Kennedy have avoided the catastrophe that became the Vietnam War if Lee Harvey Oswald had not assassinated him in Dallas on that fateful day of 22 November 1963? This question – or a version of it – has animated discussions of the Vietnam War for...

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  • Recorded webinar series: Commemorating the 75th anniversary of the UN Convention on Genocide

    Multipage Article

    9 December 2023 was the 75th anniversary of the passing of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (known as the UN Convention on Genocide). The convention was a clear statement by the international community that crimes of that nature should never happen...

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  • The End of the Vietnam War

    Podcast

    The Vietnam War was one of many conflicts born partly out of the tumultuous global shift of the end of European Empires for which the Second World War had acted as a catalyst. What marked the Vietnam War out from some of the other political changes in the Indo-Chinese and...

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  • Virtual Branch recording: Henry Christophe, the Haitian Revolution and the Caribbean's Forgotten Kingdom

    Article

    How did a man born enslaved on a plantation triumph over Napoleon's invading troops and become king of the first free black nation in the Americas? This is the forgotten, remarkable story of Henry Christophe. Christophe fought as a child soldier in the American War of Independence, before serving in...

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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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  • Developments in Indochina after World War II

    Podcast

    French Indochina, officially known as the Indochinese Union, was a grouping of French colonial territories in Southeast Asia until its demise in 1954. It comprised Cambodia, Laos (from 1899), the Chinese territory of Guangzhouwan (from 1898 until 1945), and the Vietnamese regions of Tonkin in the north, Annam in the centre, and Cochinchina in the south. The capital for most of its history (1902–1945) was Hanoi; Saigon was the capital from...

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  • Vietnam and the Vietnam War (1954-1968)

    Podcast

    In July 1954, France and the Viet Minh signed the Geneva Peace Accord, which resulted in dividing Vietnam along the 17th parallel into a northern section, under the control of the communists, led by Ho Chi Minh, and a southern section, led by the Catholic anticommunist Ngô Đình Diệm who was backed...

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  • Developments in firearms 1700 to WWI

    Podcast

    In this podcast Jonathan Ferguson of the Royal Armouries Museum discusses the development of firearms from the musket to the machine gun. This podcast looks at how the firearms developed through conflicts such as the American Revolutionary War, the Naploeonic Wars, The American Civil War and World War I.

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  • Women in the US Peace Movement

    Podcast

    In this podcast Dr Jon Coburn of the University of Lincoln examines the role, influence and significance of women in the US Peace Movement. Dr Coburn also examines how interconnected the Peace Movement was with the civil rights movements of the 1960's and 70's. Dr Coburn is currently working with Emmy-nominated...

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  • The Western magical tradition

    Podcast

    In modern times, occultists have spoken of a specifically western tradition of ceremonial magic, which has been continuously handed down through the millennia, in secret, from an original starting point in ancient Egypt. Although professional historians have become increasingly interested in the history of magic in general, there has not...

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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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