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Recruiting volunteers to fight in the First World War
Historian article
‘Your Country Needs You’ and other posters are still remembered today as a prominent vehicle by which men were encouraged to fight in the First World War. Virtually absent from the literature, however, is analysis of the impact of thousands of recruitment meetings and their speakers. Robert Bullard explores the contribution...
Recruiting volunteers to fight in the First World War
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Arnold Wilkins: Pioneer of British Radar
Historian article
Whenever British radar is discussed the name that usually comes to mind is that of Robert Watson Watt. Our history books and our dictionaries of biography consistently attribute the discovery of radar in Britain solely to Watson Watt, with little or no mention of the key role played by his...
Arnold Wilkins: Pioneer of British Radar
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Capone's lost lair: The Lexington Hotel, Chicago
Historian article
Alphonse Gabriel Capone's bequest to history is a well-known catalogue of brutal racketeering, bootlegging, gangland murders (most infamously the St Valentine's Day Massacre of 14 February 1929) and the corruption of both American public morals and her elected officials, including the US Judiciary, Chicago mayoralty and city police force.
Born...
Capone's lost lair: The Lexington Hotel, Chicago
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Podcast Series: Religion in the UK
Multipage Article
In Part 5 of our series on Social and Political Change in the UK 1800-present we look at religion in the U.K. This set of podcasts features Dr Janice Holmes of the Open University, Revd Dr Jeremy Morris, Dean, Fellow, and Director of Studies in Theology at King's College, Andrew Copson,...
Podcast Series: Religion in the UK
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What was Witchcraft in the Early Sixteenth Century?
Article
In this article, Dr Jonathan Durrant (Principal Lecturer in History, University of South Wales) argues that we know no more now than we did in the late 1980s about what witchcraft was as men and women of the early sixteenth century understood it. Dr Durrant looks at evidence from Henry VIII's Witchcraft Act of 1542 to explore British and European perceptions of witches...
What was Witchcraft in the Early Sixteenth Century?
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The Great Powers in the Pacific
Classic Pamphlet
This pamphlet covers a very large period of history in a very important region with great detail and focus. Themes that are covered include the transition of power and dominance in the pacific region, the conflicts that frequently arose in the struggle for pacific dominance throughout the centuries, as well...
The Great Powers in the Pacific
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Virtual Branch Recording: Vagabonds versus the Mendicity Society
Article
Red Lion Square was long one of London's most genteel addresses, home to nobles, scholars, and professionals. But on 25 March 1818, one house on the south side opened its doors to quite another class of person, as the Mendicity Society began its business. Set up to solve the growing...
Virtual Branch Recording: Vagabonds versus the Mendicity Society
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Have gun, will travel: The myth of the frontier in the Hollywood Western
Historian article
The Western movies that from around 1910 until the 1960s made up at least a fifth of all the American film titles on general release signified escapist entertainment for British audiences: an alluring vision of vast open spaces, of cowboys on horseback outlined against an imposing landscape.
For Americans themselves,...
Have gun, will travel: The myth of the frontier in the Hollywood Western
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Film: Yeltsin and Russia in the late 1980s
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
In this film, Dr Edwin Bacon (University of Lincoln), examines the political and economic repercussions of Gorbachev’s reforms. Dr Bacon reflects upon the dire state of the Soviet economy in the late 1980s/early 1990s and how that led to change but also unrest. In particular he addresses the way that...
Film: Yeltsin and Russia in the late 1980s
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The Right Kind of History. An Interview with Nicola Sheldon, Jenny Keating and John Hamer
Interview
Sir David Cannadine has written the book that tells the history of history in schools. On the podcast on this site he outlines some of his reasons for wanting to write the book and what his findings were. But alongside his name on the front cover are his research team...
The Right Kind of History. An Interview with Nicola Sheldon, Jenny Keating and John Hamer
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David Cannadine Interview about his book: The Right Kind of History
Cannadine Interview
Sir David Cannadine has done the unthinkable he has traced the teaching of history in state schools since the beginning. In his book The Right Kind of History: Teaching the Past in Twentieth-Century England he explores the real history of history education the truth is discovered to that age old...
David Cannadine Interview about his book: The Right Kind of History
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Iron Age Scandinavia and the Silk Roads: a new frontier
Historian article
Both public and scholarly perceptions of the Viking Age (c.AD 750–1050) have long been dominated by a western outlook, emphasising raiding and trading in Europe and the North Atlantic, with only limited attention paid to Scandinavian contacts to the east. In recent years, this viewpoint has shifted dramatically, not only acknowledging the borderless...
Iron Age Scandinavia and the Silk Roads: a new frontier
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Food, history and a sense of place?
Historian article
It ought to be possible to match many of the letters of the alphabet to an English place-name and its particular food-stuff. From Bath Buns to Yorkshire Pudding, this puzzle might go, by way of cakes from Eccles and Pontefract. Can you think of other letters of the alphabet and...
Food, history and a sense of place?
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Political and social attitudes underpinning the 1924 Olympics
Historian article
The 1924 Olympics in Paris are best known to many British people through the ‘Chariots of Fire’ film from the early 1980s. The film touches on some of the political and social attitudes prevalent in the 1920s and Steve Illingworth explores these issues further in this article. It is argued...
Political and social attitudes underpinning the 1924 Olympics
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The right to fight: women’s boxing in Britain
Historian article
In this article Matthew Taylor explores the history of women’s boxing in Britain from the early eighteenth century onwards, showing how prevailing gender norms have led to this activity being marginalised by historians. It is argued that the key women boxers he discusses should be celebrated as key figures, not just in the history of sport but...
The right to fight: women’s boxing in Britain
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Living on the Silk Roads: Voices from Dunhuang
Historian article
In Autumn 2024, the British Library will mount an exhibition exploring the stories of the people who inhabited or passed through the oasis town of Dunhuang during the first millennium. Located in modern-day Gansu province, in northwest China, Dunhuang was originally established as a garrison town and became an important commercial...
Living on the Silk Roads: Voices from Dunhuang
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The New History of the Spanish Inquisition
Article
Helen Rawlings reviews the recent literature which has prompted a fundamental reappraisal of the Spanish Inquisition. The Spanish Inquisition — first established in 1478 in Castile under Queen Isabella I and suppressed in 1834 by Queen Isabella II — has left its indelible mark on the whole course of Spain’s...
The New History of the Spanish Inquisition
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Philip II of Spain: The Prudent King
Article
On the eve of the 400th anniversary of Philip II’s death James Casey rejects the traditional portrayal of the Spanish ruler as a cruel despot and argues his achievements were more the result of an extraordinary sense of duty fully in tune with the hopes and aspirations of his people....
Philip II of Spain: The Prudent King
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Virtual Branch recording: The Women's World Committee against War & Fascism
Connected and Competing Activisms
How did a group of women activists with varied ideological backgrounds construct several important campaigns against fascism in the interwar period? How did this Women's World Committee against War and Fascism (Comité Mondial des Femmes contre la Guerre et le Fascisme) undertake effective humanitarian and propaganda work and forge extensive...
Virtual Branch recording: The Women's World Committee against War & Fascism
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A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: The Forgotten William Dampier
Historian article
In September 1683 in the Cape Verde Islands William Dampier lay 'obscured' among the scrubby vegetation to do some bird watching. He was excited for he had just caught his first sight of flamingos. The detail and delicacy of his description would gladden any modern ornithologist. They were, he wrote,...
A Pirate of Exquisite Mind: The Forgotten William Dampier
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Hearing the call to arms: Herbert Douglas Fisher
Historian article
The intellectual aristocracy of late Victorian and early Edwardian Britain constitutes a Venn diagram of familiar names – the Stracheys and the Stephens, the Wedgwoods and the Darwins, the Keynes and the Trevelyans. These affluent, upper middle-class pillars of public life espoused a secular, liberal view of the world. Their depth...
Hearing the call to arms: Herbert Douglas Fisher
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New Perspectives on the First Crusade: on-demand short course
Online self-guided short course for lifelong learners
As Christianity had spread across Europe, Islam had spread across the Middle East. At the end of the eleventh century the relationship between the Muslim leader of Jerusalem and the Christian communities and travellers to the city fractured. Along with other key relationships across Europe, the Middle East and around...
New Perspectives on the First Crusade: on-demand short course
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The Thirteenth Century Industrial Scene in England
Classic Pamphlet
This essay forms part of a collection of three essays on Thirteenth Century England by Professor R. F. Treharne (President of the HA 1958-61). These were originally delivered as lectures and were later edited for publication by Dr C. H. Knowles. This essay looks at the industrial scene in England during...
The Thirteenth Century Industrial Scene in England
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The Thirteenth Century Rural Scene in England
Classic Pamphlet
This essay forms part of a collection of three essays on Thirteenth Century England by Professor R. F. Treharne (President of the HA 1958-61). These were originally delivered as lectures and were later edited for publication by Dr C. H. Knowles. This essay looks at the rural scene in England during...
The Thirteenth Century Rural Scene in England
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The Thirteenth Century Political Scene in England
Classic Pamphlet
This essay forms part of a collection of three essays on Thirteenth Century England by Professor R. F. Treharne (President of the HA 1958-61). These were originally delivered as lectures and were later edited for publication by Dr C. H. Knowles. This essay looks at the political scene in England during...
The Thirteenth Century Political Scene in England
