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The Historian 160: Out now!
The magazine of the Historical Association
Read The Historian 160: Sport in History
This edition of The Historian has a focus on sport in history. A story told by Duncan Stone in his article here suggests that this particular theme may need some justification, as an eminent professor dismissed a doctoral study of the history of cricket...
The Historian 160: Out now!
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War Plan Red: the American Plan for war with Britain
Article
John Major discusses an astonishing aspect of past Anglo-American history. All great powers have developed contingency plans for war with each other, and the United States in the early twentieth century was no exception. Each of Washington’s schemes was given a distinctive colour. Green mapped out intervention in neighbouring Mexico,...
War Plan Red: the American Plan for war with Britain
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Film: Rome in the world/the world in Rome with Dr Lucy Donkin
Article
To give you a taster of the fantastic sessions on offer at the HA's annual conference, we've published one of the sessions from the 2022 HA Conference on Rome in the world/the world in Rome with Dr Lucy Donkin.
In many cultures, earth has been used to represent a place...
Film: Rome in the world/the world in Rome with Dr Lucy Donkin
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History Journal Film: The Letters, Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell
History journal blog
The History journal team are delighted to launch their first in a series of films interviewing the authors at the cutting edge of historical research.
Today, we are thrilled to welcome John Morrill, professor emeritus of the University of Cambridge and emeritus fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Dr Joel...
History Journal Film: The Letters, Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell
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A (non-Western) history of versatility
Historian article
Waqās Ahmed broadens our perspective on where in history we might find polymaths, those who embody versatility of thought and action. While Western scholars might identify the likes of Leonardo da Vinci or Benjamin Franklin as the archetype of the polymath, they have in reality existed throughout history and across...
A (non-Western) history of versatility
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Britain and Brittany: contact, myth and history in the early Middle Ages
Historian article
Fiona Edmonds evidences the enduring links between Brittany and Britain throughout the early Middle Ages.
Every year many thousands of British holidaymakers travel to Brittany in search of beaches, bisque and bonhomie. As they board the ferry, they may notice that they are travelling from one Bretagne to another. The names...
Britain and Brittany: contact, myth and history in the early Middle Ages
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Folkestone in World War One
Historian article
Grahame Jones contributes to our determination to explore the wider involvement of the community in responding to the challenges of the Great War, in this case two inspirational women who provided refreshments for soldiers en route through Folkestone harbour.
A fading Edwardian resort and handy for that trip through the...
Folkestone in World War One
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The Oxford Movement and Anglican Ritualism
Classic Pamphlet
The English Reformation of the Sixteenth century had been a compromise, both politically and theologically. The administrative framework of the medieval church, with its system of church courts, private patronage, pluralism, the social and financial gulf between the lower and higher clergy, its inadequacy of clerical education and its hierarchical...
The Oxford Movement and Anglican Ritualism
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Key Stage 2 – Key Stage 3: Transition
Primary History article
Often, primary schools and secondary schools are seen as separate entities. But why?
At primary, is it our responsibility to nurture our children and to encourage them only until they finish their primary education after the Year 6 SATs? Do we then just wave goodbye as they embark on their...
Key Stage 2 – Key Stage 3: Transition
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Out and about in Nottingham
Historian feature
There were people living in Nottinghamshire as far back as 40,000 BC, as excavations in the limestone caves at Cresswell Crags (near Worksop) have proved. Much later, when the Romans came, they drove two roads through parts of the county – the Fosse Way to the South, with associated developments...
Out and about in Nottingham
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Volunteering in Heritage
Briefing Pack
How to: get a volunteering placement in heritage
Rachel Clark, Volunteering Adviser, National Trust has written a useful mini guide to getting a volunteering placement which can be found here...
Volunteering with Heritage Organisations
There are many different organisations across the UK dedicated to preserving our cultural heritage. If you want to...
Volunteering in Heritage
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Real Lives: Miss F.M.G. Lorimer (1883–1967)
Historian feature
Our series ‘Real Lives’ seeks to put the story of the ordinary person into our great historical narrative. We are all part of the rich fabric of the communities in which we live and we are affected to greater and lesser degrees by the big events that happen on a daily...
Real Lives: Miss F.M.G. Lorimer (1883–1967)
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Film: Brezhnev's agenda
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
In this film Dr Edwin Bacon talks about Brezhnev’s change in direction and approach after Khruschev, making collective leadership work and the Kosygin reforms. Whilst there were changes from the era of Khruschev, Brezhnev’s response to the Prague Spring in 1968 showed that some things had not changed. The events...
Film: Brezhnev's agenda
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Podcast: Christianity in Imperial Rome
Christianity in Imperial Rome
In this podcast Dr Emma-Jayne Graham and Professor Helen King of the Open University discuss how Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman world.
Podcast: Christianity in Imperial Rome
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Amphibious Warfare in British History
Classic Pamphlet
The term "Amphibious Warfare" was adopted a few years ago to indicate a form of a strategy of which the characteristic was the descent of the sea-borne armies upon the coasts and ports of an enemy. It is not a method peculiar to Great Britain, for all maritime nations from...
Amphibious Warfare in British History
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Recorded webinar: Prosthetics and assistive technology in ancient Greece and Rome
Article
In this webinar, Jane Draycott shares her research on prostheses and assistive technology in ancient Greece, Rome and the neighbouring civilisations. She outlines the findings from her 2023 book on this subject, which arose from a grant to visit museums around the UK to access surviving ancient prostheses and modern...
Recorded webinar: Prosthetics and assistive technology in ancient Greece and Rome
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Beware the serpent of Rome
Article
On 14 February 1868, the Carlisle Journal reported as follows: … two meetings were held in the Athenaeum in this city , “for the purpose of forming an auxiliary to co-operate with the Church Association in London, to uphold the principles and order of the United Church of England and...
Beware the serpent of Rome
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In Search of the New Woman
Book Review
In Search of the New Woman: Middle-Class Women and Work in Britain 1870-1914 by Gillian Sutherland
(Cambridge University Press), 2015187pp., £55 hard, ISBN 978-1-107-09279-2
Women increasingly demanded and gained constructive and useful roles in society with campaigns for control over property, economic independence and admission to education and to the...
In Search of the New Woman
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Film: The Kennedys and the Gores
HA Conference 2019 - Keynote Speech
This film was taken at the HA Annual Conference 2019 in Chester and features the HA's President: Professor Tony Badger who presented Friday's keynote lecture.
Find out more about the HA Conference.
In a country that prides itself on its egalitarianism and its democracy, it is perhaps surprising that family...
Film: The Kennedys and the Gores
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The Historian 164: Ancient Worlds
The magazine of the Historical Association
This edition of The Historian is open-access to all (including all linked articles). For a subscription to The Historian (published quarterly), plus access to our library of high-quality podcasts and films, free short courses and Virtual Branch talks, membership of a thriving community of history-lovers and much more, join the HA today.
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The Historian 164: Ancient Worlds
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The Last Duke of Lorraine
Article
The Place Stanislas in Nancy has a high reputation. But expectations are far surpassed as one surveys the beautifully proportioned square, with its imposing buildings such as the Hôtel de Ville and the Governor's Palace, its Arc de Triomphe and its magnificent iron work. It is a reminder of how...
The Last Duke of Lorraine
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Filmed Lecture: Medlicott Lecture 2025 - Dr Christine Counsell
Dr Christine Counsell
The Historical Association's Medlicott Medal 2025 was awarded to Dr Christine Counsell. The award seeks to recognise individuals from a diversity of backgrounds in their service to history. Read more about Christine, her work and her award here.
As is the custom, Dr Christine Counsell received her award and presented her...
Filmed Lecture: Medlicott Lecture 2025 - Dr Christine Counsell
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Radiating the Revolution: Agitation in the Russian Civil War 1917-21
Article
When the Bolsheviks seized power in what was essentially a carefully organised coup d’état in October 1917, they seized control only of the levers of central power in the then capital, Petrograd, which had already become the centre of working-class discontent. What they most emphatically did not do was to...
Radiating the Revolution: Agitation in the Russian Civil War 1917-21
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Film: Blood and Iron
Virtual Branch Lecture Recording
Katya Hoyer recently gave a lecture for the HA Virtual Branch on Weltkrieg: the German home front during the First World War and the devastating effects of total war on a divided and insecure society. This talk provides an insight into the First World War that is often overlooked, reminding us that...
Film: Blood and Iron
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Reading Branch History
Branch History
Brief outline history of the Reading Branch of the Historical AssociationReading is one of the places to have had a branch before the First World War, between 1908 and 1911 as was shown in The Historian, ‘The Branches of the Historical Association 1906-2006'. The story of the current Reading Branch,...
Reading Branch History
