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Real Lives: Robert and Thomas Gayer-Anderson
Historian feature
Wendy Barnes describes the real lives of identical twins, Robert and Thomas Gayer-Anderson, who collected a vast quantity of paintings and art objects, much of which was donated to museums around the world. The twins’ final home, Little Hall, Lavenham is now a museum and the headquarters of The Suffolk...
Real Lives: Robert and Thomas Gayer-Anderson
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My Favourite History Place: Castle Hill, Huddersfield
Historian feature
Alison Hramiak tempts us to visit Castle Hill, south of Huddersfield, to look for traces of our long dead ancestors, to contemplate the passing of the centuries on that site and to enjoy the lovely views.
It’s often the way that we ignore what’s geographically close to us when we visit...
My Favourite History Place: Castle Hill, Huddersfield
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History Abridged: The census
Historian feature
History Abridged: This feature seeks to take a person, event or period and abridge, or focus on, an important event or detail that can get lost in the big picture. Think Horrible Histories for grownups (without the songs and music). See all History Abridged articles
Most of us are aware...
History Abridged: The census
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The Chapel and the Nation
Classic Pamphlet
The Noncoformitst chapel has played a crucial role in the history of the English and Welsh nations. When the great French historian Elie Halevy sought to explain the contrast between the turbulent history of his own country and the peaceful evolution of England in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries...
The Chapel and the Nation
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Richard III and the Princes in the Tower: update
Historian article
Richard III is one of the most famous kings of England, as much for his Shakespearean mythology as for the reality of his reign. Here, the different accounts of him are explored to shed light on some of his actions and legacy.
The fascination evoked by Richard III and the...
Richard III and the Princes in the Tower: update
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History Abridged: the Acropolis
Historian feature
History Abridged: This feature seeks to take a person, event or period and abridge, or focus on, an important event or detail that can get lost in the big picture. Think Horrible Histories for grownups (without the songs and music). See all History Abridged articles
The Acropolis of Athens is...
History Abridged: the Acropolis
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Out and About: exploring Black British history through headstones
Historian feature
In what has become a very a topical article that was commissioned in late 2019, Jill Sudbury explores some of the known graves of the enslaved and formerly enslaved throughout Britain, and asks for help in recording others as yet unknown.
Along the bleak shore of Morecambe Bay, beyond the...
Out and About: exploring Black British history through headstones
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The changing convict experience: forced migration to Australia
Historian article
Edward Washington explores the story of William Noah who was sentenced to death for burglary in 1797 at the age of 43. He, and two others, were found guilty of breaking and entering the dwelling-house of Cuthbert Hilton, on the night of the 13 February. From Newgate Prison he was...
The changing convict experience: forced migration to Australia
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History Abridged: Migration – the Potato
Historian feature
History Abridged: This feature seeks to take a person, event or period and abridge, or focus on, an important event or detail that can get lost in the big picture. Think Horrible Histories for grownups (without the songs and music). See all History Abridged articles
The gradual move of humans...
History Abridged: Migration – the Potato
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Bertrand Russell's Role in the Cuban Missile Crisis
Historian article
'An attack on the United States with 10,000 megatons would lead to the death of essentially all of the American people and to the destruction of the nation.’ ‘In 1960 President Kennedy mentioned 30,000 megatons as the size of the world’s stockpile of nuclear weapons.’ In the autumn of 1962...
Bertrand Russell's Role in the Cuban Missile Crisis
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VE Day – 75 years on
Historian article
In May this year the May Day bank holiday is being moved from the first Monday of the month to the first Friday, that is, from the 4 May to the 8 May. This is to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day and the defeat of Nazism. Calls were...
VE Day – 75 years on
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Film: Introducing Professor Peter Mandler
Peter Mandler becomes the new HA President in May 2020
Professor Peter Mandler has accepted the position of President of the HA and will be taking over the position from Professor Tony Badger who will step down this later this year.
Peter Mandler was born in the USA in 1958, educated at Oxford and Harvard Universities, and has taught in Britain...
Film: Introducing Professor Peter Mandler
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The last battle: Bomber Command’s veterans and the fight for remembrance
Historian article
Frances Houghton examines how and why the popular memory of the Second World War continues to be contested.
Early on the morning of Monday 21 January 2019, still-wet white gloss paint was discovered to have been thrown across the Bomber Command Memorial in London’s Green Park. The bronze sculpture of a...
The last battle: Bomber Command’s veterans and the fight for remembrance
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British-Army camp followers in the Peninsular War
Historian article
Charles J. Esdaile throws light on a vital part of a field army that receives little study, the ‘baggage train’.
The subject of the involvement of women’s involvement in warfare is one that over the past 20 years has become increasingly fashionable, and there is, therefore, a growing literature on...
British-Army camp followers in the Peninsular War
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Sparta and war: myths and realities
Historian article
Stephen Hodkinson explains how images of ancient Sparta have been distorted and misused.
On 15 April 2017, at a violent right-wing rally in Berkeley, California, some striking ancient Greek symbols were visible amidst the swastikas and ‘Make America Great Again’ hats. Several demonstrators wore replica ‘Corinthian’ helmets, as worn by...
Sparta and war: myths and realities
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Blurred Lines: the ever-decreasing distinction between fiction and nonfiction
Historian article
Everyone who studies history would love to visit the past. Few of us would like to stay for long, I suspect – if unfamiliar viruses did not finish us off within days, the superstitious locals might – but a visit would be nice. The ability to do so would settle a...
Blurred Lines: the ever-decreasing distinction between fiction and nonfiction
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Show and Tell: three Branch book events
Historian article
When members of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Branch were invited to share their views on ‘Books that Changed History’, not all the contributions were as overtly revolutionary as Thomas Paine’s Common Sense nor as familiar as the King James Bible. Marie Davidson and Richard Binns tell us more....
Show and Tell: three Branch book events
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Gone with the Wind: a great book?
Historian article
HA President Tony Badger examines the historical context which shapes our understanding of Margaret Mitchell’s enduring novel.
I had been a historian of the American South for 50 years and like Ringbaum, I had a secret. I had never read Gone with the Wind. As I came up to retirement...
Gone with the Wind: a great book?
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Exploring local sources
Historian article
Tim Lomas was correct when he said, in his article in the Summer 2019 edition of The Historian, that historians can see much more in medieval documents than the scribes intended.
Lay manors in Bedfordshire are a good example. Eggington manor, in the south-west, was part of a larger estate and held...
Exploring local sources
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Why did the Dome fail?
Historian article
History gives us a basis for understanding the groups which people belong to, the countries people live in and the institutions which govern them. It provides a sense of continuity and identity. However, on 31 December 1999 the Queen and Prime Minister opened an exhibition which made no reference to...
Why did the Dome fail?
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Two Babies That Could Have Changed World History
Historian article
'At last have made wonderful discovery in Valley; a magnificent tomb with seals intact; re-covered same for your arrival. Congratulations.’ This telegram was sent from Luxor on the 6th November 1922 by Howard Carter to his coarchaeologist Lord Carnarvon in Britain. It started the Tut·ankh·Amen story which led to a...
Two Babies That Could Have Changed World History
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Hidden histories: landscape spotting – a brief guide
Historian article
The art of landscape spotting – identifying and interpreting visible archaeological features in the countryside – is an accessible, enlightening and fun way to explore our past. By finding these clues in the fields, roads, hedges and hills around us, we can start to piece together the biography of a...
Hidden histories: landscape spotting – a brief guide
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Moresnet: a small country in a big narrative
Historian article
Wim van Schijndel explores the intriguing story of Moresnet, a tiny enclave in Europe that existed from 1816 until 1920 between the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, until it was finally annexed by Belgium at the time of the Treaty of Versailles.
A big part of our modern-day society is based...
Moresnet: a small country in a big narrative
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Lecture: From sex to the suffragettes
Podcast: Keynote Lecture Annual Conference 2019
Over the last few years, we have seen a widespread cultural failure in our history. From the rose-tinted nostalgia of politicians to a rise in destructive ideologies, history has become weaponised by those who seek to misuse, misrepresent and misunderstand it. At the same time, the field of history is...
Lecture: From sex to the suffragettes
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Homes fit for heroes? James Cecil and the public interest
Historian article
Hugh Gault reminds us that the provision of adequate and price-accessible housing stock has been a matter of public debate and concern for over a hundred years. Economics and financial priorities have continued to undermine the methodologies and good intentions needed to solve the problem.
This year is the hundredth...
Homes fit for heroes? James Cecil and the public interest
