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Affirmative mysticism and John Woolman in colonial America
Historian article
Joshua M. Reinke introduces the American Quaker abolitionist, John Woolman. This seventeenth-century diarist’s encounter with Christ took him on a journey that led across the American colonies and provoked him to voice his fierce opposition to human bondage and the slave trade...
Affirmative mysticism and John Woolman in colonial America
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The year that lost eleven days
Historian article
From its Roman origins to the dating of the tax year, David Fleming describes how the changes made to the British calendar in 1752 came about and their effect on everyday life, both at the time and since...
The year that lost eleven days
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American Vikings past and present: untangling myth from reality
Historian article
There is now compelling evidence that Norse people – popularly known as Vikings – had some interaction with the First Peoples of North America. Martyn Whittock looks at how the appeal of a Viking legend has combined with archaeological discoveries to create a powerful attachment in the North American imagination...
American Vikings past and present: untangling myth from reality
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Virtual Branch: From Pirates to Princes Normans in Eleventh Century Europe
Article
Normandy originated from a grant of land to Rollo, a Viking leader, in the early tenth century. By the end of that century Normans were to be found in southern Italy, then in Britain and, at the end of the eleventh century, in the near East on the First Crusade....
Virtual Branch: From Pirates to Princes Normans in Eleventh Century Europe
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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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A probable silk heirloom from Central Asia...
Historian article
This article explores precious fragments of silk, manufactured in the Byzantine Empire and Central Asia, discovered in archaeological excavations in Dublin.
Dublin, situated on the east coast of Ireland, grew out of a fortified riverside camp (longphort) for overwintering marauding Vikings or ‘northmen’, who were plundering wealthy ecclesiastical establishments from the late eighth...
A probable silk heirloom from Central Asia...
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Barikot’s apsidal temple
Historian article
The presence of an apse was a common architectural feature in early Buddhism. An apsidal temple associated with an Indian-style Buddhist stupa was recently discovered at Barikot in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, dating to the time of the great promoter of Buddhism, the Mauryan Emperor Aśoka (r. 268–232 BC). The monument...
Barikot’s apsidal temple
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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 circle of Ulster literary male friendships of author Forrest Reid
Historian article
Eminent Ulster novelist Forrest Reid was a complex character, reflecting a variety of attitudes in both his writing and his private life. In this article Michael Kelly examines how Reid and his circle of friends aimed to navigate their way through the changes of the early twentieth century, in both...
The circle of Ulster literary male friendships of author Forrest Reid
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Britain and the First World War: not just battles
Historian feature
When the First World War started in the summer of 1914 it began a series of events that would change the world for ever; it also accelerated changes and ideas that were already underway. In some cases, big issues appeared to be put to one side while the immediate needs of...
Britain and the First World War: not just battles
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Why White Liberals Fail: United States politics in an election year
Historian feature
Paula Kitching interview with Professor Anthony J. Badger about his latest book.
2024 is an election year in the United States. For many in the UK and around the world the US political system can be confusing, with simple processes seemingly more complex than you would expect. It is not just the system...
Why White Liberals Fail: United States politics in an election year
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Crowdsourcing the heritage of the Second World War
Historian article
Stuart Lee, Ylva Berglund Prytz and Matthew Kidd introduce an innovative project to capture objects and the memories they hold.
Crowdsourcing the heritage of the Second World War
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Bonapartism after Napoleon III: the Prince Imperial and Eugene Loudun
Historian article
Emperor Napoleon III of France was deposed in 1870 and then died three years later. His son, known as the Prince Imperial, lived in exile in south-east England. There he and his supporters kept alive ambitions for a triumphant return of the Empire. In this article, Ian Sygrave assesses the...
Bonapartism after Napoleon III: the Prince Imperial and Eugene Loudun
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Forbidden friendships: taverns, nightclubs, bottle bars and emancipation
Historian article
The modern gay-rights movement has its origins in a 1960s New York ‘bottle bar’, but as Ben Jerrit explains, drinking establishments have been centres of gay culture and social resistance for centuries.
Forbidden friendships: taverns, nightclubs, bottle bars and emancipation
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The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
Historian article
The Nazis came to power in 1933 with an openly racist and antisemitic set of policies. In the years leading up to the start of the Second World War, those policies were carried out through legislation and governmental actions, with the support of many members of German society. Once the war started,...
The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
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What do you do if your members don’t come to your events?
Historian article
Branch President, Sean Lang, explains how a radical departure from the traditional branch lecture programme is helping to revitalise the HA in Cambridge.
What do you do if your members don’t come to your events?
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Virtual Branch recording: Empires of the Normans
Virtual Branch Film
How did descendants of Viking marauders come to dominate Western Europe and the Mediterranean, from the British Isles to North Africa, and Lisbon to the Holy Land and the Middle East?
In this Virtual Branch talk Levi Roach, author of Empires of the Normans, tells a tale of ambitious adventures...
Virtual Branch recording: Empires of the Normans
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‘Since singing is so good a thing’: William Byrd on the benefits of singing
Historian article
As the value of music education is again a topic of societal debate, Tudor composer William Byrd, the four hundredth anniversary of whose death is celebrated this year, was a powerful advocate of singing in early modern England, writes Katherine Butler.
Tudor composer William Byrd (c.1540–1623) is recognised today not only...
‘Since singing is so good a thing’: William Byrd on the benefits of singing
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A land without music?
Historian article
It is sometimes said that England was a ‘land without music’ in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries – not so, according to David Fleming.
‘Between the age of Purcell and that of Elgar and Parry, we had to do without much musical life in our country.’ Or so wrote Simon...
A land without music?
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Doomed to fail: America’s intervention in Vietnam
Historian article
Why did American military involvement in Vietnam fail? In this article, David McGill explains why the United States never had a realistic chance of defeating the North Vietnamese and their Viet Cong allies.
The decision by the United States government to become involved in supporting the South Vietnamese government against the...
Doomed to fail: America’s intervention in Vietnam
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Women and the French Revolution: the start of the modern feminist movement
Historian article
Luke Rimmo Loyi Lego explores the role of women in the French Revolution, and how their challenges to traditional gender roles laid the foundations for the modern feminist movement.
The study of the French Revolution is often restricted to its impact on the Enlightenment ideas of influential men such as Rousseau,...
Women and the French Revolution: the start of the modern feminist movement
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Muddy Waters: from migrant to music icon
Historian article
Matt Jux-Blayney explores the impact of the blues singer Muddy Waters against a backdrop of significant social and racial change in the United States of the mid-twentieth century.
On 3 July 1960, a man from Mississippi was introduced onto the stage of the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island. He...
Muddy Waters: from migrant to music icon
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Jewish settlements in Medieval England
Historian feature
The Jewish communities of medieval England lived in towns and cities directly connected to the crown, usually with a castle close at hand for protection. Due to the religious needs of the community, Jewish families stayed close to the key requirements of synagogue and butcher. However, they would live side by...
Jewish settlements in Medieval England
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Short course: The impact and legacy of the First World War – Resources
HA short course, 23 January–19 March 2024
Beyond the mud and blood: The First World War and the social, political and cultural impact and legacy on ordinary people
This resource unit accompanies and supports our short course on The impact and legacy of the First World War. The materials below are available to you exclusively as a registered...
Short course: The impact and legacy of the First World War – Resources
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A woman’s place is in the castle
Historian article
This article looks at the role of two fourteenth century Scottish noblewomen, on opposing sides in the strife between Bruce and Balliol, who were left to defend their properties during their husbands’ absences.
The Scottish Wars of Independence were fought over several decades of the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as...
A woman’s place is in the castle
