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The ‘Silk Roads’: the use and abuse of a historical concept
Historian article
The question of whether the ‘Silk Road/s’ is a useful concept for historical analysis, or too vague or too all-encompassing to have interpretative value, is one that scholars have been debating ever since the term moved into the cultural and scholarly mainstream. Although the use of the term in marketing does not often...
The ‘Silk Roads’: the use and abuse of a historical concept
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Learning history outside the classroom in an age of climate crisis
Teaching History article
Helen Snelson has long been an enthusiastic advocate for learning history outside the classroom. In recent years, as the extent of the climate crisis has become ever more apparent, she has been rethinking her approach to teaching within and about the historic environment. In this article, written in consultation with Adrian Gonzalez, she focuses...
Learning history outside the classroom in an age of climate crisis
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How including histories of trees can connect the past with the present and the future
Teaching History article
Barbara Trapani’s article sprung from, and is written in, hope. Through introducing the history of, specifically, Europeans’ relationships with trees in Madeira, the Banda Islands and Britain, Trapani enabled her Year 8 pupils to appreciate the ways in which exploitative nations have used irreplaceable resources and profoundly altered ecosystems and landscapes...
How including histories of trees can connect the past with the present and the future
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The Planning of a History Syllabus for Schools
Classic Pamphlet
In 1944, in response to the Education Act, the HA issued a report with input from teachers and academics on the planning of a school history syllabus. In the context of current discussions about a review of the school curriculum the 1944 report makes interesting reading.
The Planning of a History Syllabus for Schools
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Who only history know? Cricket, society, and the historical oversight of sport
Historian article
The early 2020s have seen various investigations and reports about discrimination in English cricket. As well as finding many examples of racial and gender prejudice, these investigations have unearthed a long history of social elitism in the sport. In this article, Duncan Stone explores some of the historical background to...
Who only history know? Cricket, society, and the historical oversight of sport
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Out and About in ‘The most Loyal and Ancient City of Taunton’
Historian feature
The Somerset town of Taunton featured prominently in the highly significant political and religious conflicts of the seventeenth century. Isabella Peach examines Taunton’s role in these events and the impact they had on the town. Her article is based on her winning entry in the 2023 Young Historian Post-16 Local...
Out and About in ‘The most Loyal and Ancient City of Taunton’
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The Importance of Truth, Quality and Objectivity in the BBC German Service from 1938 to 1945
Historian article
Throughout the Second World War the BBC produced and transmitted regular broadcasts in German to Germany and other European countries occupied by the Germans. In this article Hattie Simpson evaluates the style and success of the BBC German Service. The article is based on her winning entry in the senior...
The Importance of Truth, Quality and Objectivity in the BBC German Service from 1938 to 1945
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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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Connecting past and present through the lens of enduring human issues: International Women’s Day protests
Teaching History article
While studying for his master’s degree in education, Arthur Casey became intrigued by research suggesting that analogies comparing past and present might improve students’ perceptions of the relevance of history. In this article he reports on the findings of his own small-scale research study, in which he used a present-day...
Connecting past and present through the lens of enduring human issues: International Women’s Day protests
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The Legacy of the Z Special Unit in World War II
Historian article
The Spirit of Normandy Trust Essay Competition is aimed at young historians and organised by the Historical Association (as part of the annual Young Historian Awards). The 2023 winner in the Key Stage 3 (lower secondary school) category is Ayan Sinha, a pupil at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Wakefield. In this abridged...
The Legacy of the Z Special Unit in World War II
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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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How representing women can convey a more complex narrative of the Russian Revolution to Year 9
Teaching History article
Barbara Trapani was troubled by the oversimplified judgements her students were making about the Russian Revolution. Could the women of the revolution help her students overcome their tendency to focus on success and failure? Trapani revised her enquiry, selecting stories of women who could ‘illuminate’ a longer, more complex history of...
How representing women can convey a more complex narrative of the Russian Revolution to Year 9
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President Barack Obama and the State of the Union Address
Historian article
Introduction
Shortly after noon on 20 January 2009 Barack Obama began his historic Inaugural Address as 44th President of the United States of America. On the west porch of the Capitol, home to the US Congress, and under propitiously blue skies, the first African American president spoke before more than...
President Barack Obama and the State of the Union Address
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A history of Choral Evensong: the birth of an English tradition
Historian article
The apogee of the native church music tradition, Evensong is a jewel born of the English Reformation, but how did it come to be, asks Tom Coxhead?
Evensong is a miraculous success-story for the Anglican Church in an increasingly secular society. Midweek attendance at cathedrals, collegiate chapels, and larger churches...
A history of Choral Evensong: the birth of an English tradition
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Crusade in Crisis: the Siege and Battle of Antioch, 1097–98
Historian article
On 28 June 1098, the forces of the First Crusade marched out from the great north Syrian city of Antioch to do battle with Karbugha, the Muslim ruler of Mosul. The odds were not in their favour: not only was the Muslim army vastly superior in size, but the crusaders had...
Crusade in Crisis: the Siege and Battle of Antioch, 1097–98
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‘Miss, what’s the point of sources?’ Helping Year 11 to understand the discipline
Teaching History article
Clare Bartington noticed that her students’ focus on the specific kinds of question used in examinations appeared to have undermined their understanding of how historians actually use sources. Instead of approaching the traces or ‘leftovers’ of the past as potential sources of evidence in relation to a particular question, her students believed...
‘Miss, what’s the point of sources?’ Helping Year 11 to understand the discipline
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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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1914: The Coming of the First World War
Classic Pamphlet
This pamphlet argues that the outbreak of the First World War represented not so much the culmination of a long process started by Bismarck and his successors, as the relatively sudden breakdown of a system that had in fact preserved the peace and contained the dangerous Eastern Question for over...
1914: The Coming of the First World War
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The Personal Rule of Charles I 1629-40
Classic Pamphlet
Historians are often accused of viewing the past with hindsight, or of being wise after the event. Not being prophets or soothsayers, we have to look backwards in time because we cannot look forwards. The real question is from what vantage point or perspective we view a particular part of...
The Personal Rule of Charles I 1629-40
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Culture Shock: The Arrival of the Conquistadores in Aztec Mexico
Historian article
When the Spanish Conquistadores arrived in Mexico during the early sixteenth century there were many repercussions for the indigenous people. Their conversion to Christianity and the sacking of their temples are two of the most well known examples. However, it is often forgotten that the Aztecs had only a pictorial...
Culture Shock: The Arrival of the Conquistadores in Aztec Mexico
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Triumphs Show 139: Whodunnit? The Felling mining disaster of 1812
Teaching History feature
Whodunnit? The Felling mining disaster, 1812
The room buzzes as pathologists swap stories about injuries on the latest bodies. Some have virtually all limbs missing, others have been crushed by rockfall. Others have been found seemingly asleep with not a mark on their bodies.
You have stepped into a Year...
Triumphs Show 139: Whodunnit? The Felling mining disaster of 1812
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Polychronicon 139: Civic denouncer: The lives of Pavlik Morozov
Teaching History feature
Germaine Greer (in the context of the Pirelli Calendar) once commented that the defining feature of a legend was that almost nothing said and believed about it was true. Pavlik Morozov, notorious both inside Russia and internationally for having denounced his father, almost certainly never did so. In September 1932, local...
Polychronicon 139: Civic denouncer: The lives of Pavlik Morozov
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Triumphs Show 138: a kinaesthetic interpretation of Dover castle
Teaching History feature
Licking the stones: a kinaesthetic interpretation of Dover castle in 360 degrees
This is the story of one history department that, in collaboration with a local historical site, embarked on a ‘curriculum co-development project' with the art department. The aim was to use learning experiences outside the classroom to bring...
Triumphs Show 138: a kinaesthetic interpretation of Dover castle
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How ‘good’ are Key Stage 3 textbooks in supporting the teaching of the Holocaust?
Teaching History article
Convinced of the value of a good textbook as a teaching and learning resource, Alex Diamond set out to understand teachers’ thinking about Holocaust textbooks and what it would be for a textbook to represent Holocaust history adequately. As Diamond’s discussion shows, this is a multi-faceted issue. Evaluating textbook representation involves reflecting...
How ‘good’ are Key Stage 3 textbooks in supporting the teaching of the Holocaust?
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Historical thinking and art education in Canada’s era of societal reckoning
Teaching History article
Michael Pitblado and Agnieszka Chalas, history teacher and art teacher respectively, describe how and why they responded to a call by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission to engage students with difficult aspects of Canada’s past, including the forced cultural assimilation of Indigenous peoples through the Indian Residential School System. Having reflected...
Historical thinking and art education in Canada’s era of societal reckoning
