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  • Sir William Petty: Scientist, Economist, Inventor, 1623-1687

      Article
    In December 1687 Sir William Petty, a founder member, attended the annual dinner of the Royal Society. He was obviously seriously ill and in 'greate pain' and shortly afterwards, on December 16th, he died in his house in Piccadilly, opposite St James Church. It was a quiet end to a...
    Sir William Petty: Scientist, Economist, Inventor, 1623-1687

  • The Vikings in Britain

      Historian Article
    Professor Henry Loyn provides an update on recent studies of the Viking Age. Interest in the activities of the Scandinavian people in Britain during the Viking Age, c 800-1100 A.D., has been strong in the last half-century or so, and it is good to pause and assess contributions to the...
    The Vikings in Britain

  • Cambridge

      Article
    Elisabeth Leedham-Green reflects on reality in the famous university town of Cambridge. This is a sharp place, best encountered when, as surprisingly often, the sun is shining and there is frost in the air. Then the stone sparkles and seems to float a few inches above the gleaming grass —...
    Cambridge

  • My grandfather's recollections of the invasion of Normandy

      Historian article
    16-year-old Daisy Black of Newcastle-under-Lyme School in Staffordshire was the Senior Award winner in the Spirit of Normandy Trust Young Historian competition in 2007. Having been judged the winner by the Young Historian panel, the Spirit of Normandy Trsutees were so taken with her entry that they gave her an...
    My grandfather's recollections of the invasion of Normandy

  • Quixotically Generous...Economically Worthless'

      Article
    William Kenefick considers two views of the dockers and the dockland community in Britain in the 19th and early 20th centuries. 'Quixotically generous and economically worthless’! But what does this mean? How does this curious descriptor help us understand the docker or the waterside community? Indeed, does it tell us...
    Quixotically Generous...Economically Worthless'

  • The Spanish Armada of...1597?

      Article
    Graham Darby gives an anniversary account of the later Spanish Armadas, long forgotten, but comparable in size and as threatening to contemporaries as the more famous Armada of 1588. As every schoolboy and schoolgirl should know, the Spanish Armada set sail in 1588: ‘God blew and they were scattered.’ However,...
    The Spanish Armada of...1597?

  • The 'Era of the Dictators' Reconsidered

      Article
    Kenneth Thomson reflects on major aspects of the ‘era of the dictators’ after the collapse of Soviet Communism and its satellite regimes. In 1939, on the eve of the Second World War, almost the whole of continental Europe was ruled by dictatorships of various political hues. Even countries, like France,...
    The 'Era of the Dictators' Reconsidered

  • Napoleon III and the French Second Empire

      Article
    The French Second Empire has been variously described as a precursor of Twentieth Century Fascism and a prime example of a modernising regime. Roger Price continues recents efforts to achieve a more balanced assessment by setting the regime within its particular social and political context. The origins of the Second...
    Napoleon III and the French Second Empire

  • Minority rights and wrongs in Eastern Europe in the 20th century

      Article
    Mark Cornwall reflects on past and present attempts by the international community to protect national minorities in Eastern Europe. On 19 March 1995, the Prime Ministers of Hungary and Slovakia met in Paris to sign a ‘Treaty of Friendship and Co-operation’ between their two countries; on 13 June it was...
    Minority rights and wrongs in Eastern Europe in the 20th century

  • Faster, Higher, Stronger: The Birth of the Modern Olympics

      Article
    As the leading athletes of all nations prepare to come together this summer in Atlanta, the global communications media of the late twentieth century are constantly reminding us that 1996 marks the first centenary of the modern Olympic Games. The worldwide impact now made by these sporting festivals is all...
    Faster, Higher, Stronger: The Birth of the Modern Olympics

  • Short course: The French Revolution | Sessions and resources

      HA short course
    Wrap-up discussion You can now book for the wrap-up discussion session with course convener Paula Kitching. This will give you the opportunity to meet other participants and talk through the course content. This session takes place on Wednesday 17 December at 5pm, book via this link. Post-course feedback Now that we have...
    Short course: The French Revolution | Sessions and resources

  • The impact and legacy of the First World War: on-demand short course

      Online self-guided short course for lifelong learners
    Beyond the mud and blood: The First World War and the social, political and cultural impact and legacy on ordinary people While the first global conflict of the modern world fuelled military and leadership challenges, it also created an environment of social, political and cultural unrest. 2024 was 110 years since...
    The impact and legacy of the First World War: on-demand short course

  • Jane Austen and Georgian England resources

      Multipage Article
    Resources to accompany our recent webinar series on Jane Austen and Georgian England, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen.  The accompanying resource for the 3rd session of the series, entitled 'Jane Austen letter to Crosby & Co', can be found below. The link will download a...
    Jane Austen and Georgian England resources

  • Short course: Britain and the Second World War – a global conflict | Sessions and resources

      HA short course
    2025 is the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War – a conflict that defined the twentieth century and still has an influence on relationships and attitudes today. In this short course course, we welcome academics from institutions across the UK and abroad to contribute to a series...
    Short course: Britain and the Second World War – a global conflict | Sessions and resources

  • 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

  • The Jews of Medieval England: on-demand short course

      Online self-guided short course for lifelong learners
    A Jewish community was established in England shortly after the Norman Conquest. Initially confined to London, from the 1130s onwards Jews began to settle in other parts of the country, where they lived as English Jews for more than two centuries. Their life in England came to an end in...
    The Jews of Medieval England: on-demand short course

  • Berlin and the Berlin Wall: on-demand short course

      Online self-guided short course for lifelong learners
    The Berlin Wall became a symbol of a time in history, and a physical defining point in an otherwise covert series of battles. To study and explore the Berlin Wall is to explore how the Cold War manifested itself in Central Europe and the impact it had on one nation...
    Berlin and the Berlin Wall: on-demand short course

  • Kangxi and Louis XIV

      Historian article
    Recently the French and Chinese governments have joined together in a nostalgic reflection on cultural interactions between King Louis XIV and Emperor Kangxi in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. As Sean Heath explains here, these modern reflections are particularly interesting for an aspect of the relationship which they...
    Kangxi and Louis XIV

  • Out and About: Bedfordshire’s airship memory

      Historian feature
    This article explores the Cardington airship hangars in Bedfordshire as reminders of Britain’s ambitious but short-lived airship programme. Built during the First World War, Cardington became central to the 1924 Imperial Airship Scheme and the construction of the R-100 and R-101. Celebrated as symbols of technological optimism, the programme ended...
    Out and About: Bedfordshire’s airship memory

  • In conversation with Ayoush Lazikani

      Historian feature
    Ayoush Lazikani’s The Medieval Moon follows the moon between roughly 700 and 1600, tracing how it became a meeting-place for prophecy, medicine, devotion, and art across a globally conceived Middle Ages. Carolin Gluchowski met with Ayoush Lazikani to explore the many moons of the Middle Ages...
    In conversation with Ayoush Lazikani

  • Social Darwinism: the myth and its reinvention

      Historian article
    ‘Social Darwinism’ has been associated in academia and popular consciousness with negative concepts such as hyper-nationalism and eugenics. Geoffrey M. Hodgson challenges the notion that Social Darwinism or its proponents were ever well-defined. By tracing the use of ‘Social Darwinism’ across academic disciplines and globally over a long period, Hodgson...
    Social Darwinism: the myth and its reinvention

  • White heat or hot air? The politics of science in 1960s Britain

      Historian article
    Britain in the 1960s was captivated by scientific advancements. The public interest in ‘science’ was reflected in popular culture during this period. This zeitgeist for scientific revolution also captured aspects of British politics. The government of Harold Wilson sought to encourage scientific progress. Yet the difference between political aims and...
    White heat or hot air? The politics of science in 1960s Britain

  • Edgar Ætheling: what happened to the boy who never became king?

      Historian article
    Edgar Ǣtheling, grandson of Edmund Ironside, was the last serious Anglo-Saxon claimant to the throne of Edward the Confessor. In this article, Jamie Page explores how his long life after 1066 sheds a fascinating light on the emerging Anglo-Norman world and its significant impact in Europe and the Middle East.
    Edgar Ætheling: what happened to the boy who never became king?

  • Tunnel visions: London’s wartime shelters

      Historian article
    Ronan Thomas describes two different Second World War shelters in London. One was the top-secret Mayfair bunker in which Winston Churchill sheltered during the Blitz and governed the country from underground; the other protected thousands of south Londoners and went on to provide shelter to visitors to the capital for several years...
    Tunnel visions: London’s wartime shelters

  • Coroners, communities, and the Crown: mapping death and justice in late medieval England

      Historian article
    Life in medieval cities could be violent and dangerous, and the records generated by state officials charged with regulating that violence offer invaluable insight into everyday life. Stephanie Emma Brown takes us behind the scenes of the recently launched Medieval Murder Map project, which was based on coroners’ rolls, to...
    Coroners, communities, and the Crown: mapping death and justice in late medieval England