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Found 981 results matching 'brief history' within Publications > The Historian   (Clear filter)

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  • 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

  • Mercurial justice: a Jesuit chaplain’s view of life in the prisons of sixteenth-century Seville

      Historian article
    Justice in the early modern period was discretionary, which meant it could be both violent and deeply unfair. Elites often escaped the most severe punishments inflicted on the poor and minoritised groups. Clare Burgess shows how a Jesuit chaplain in sixteenth- century Seville used his spiritual discretion and zealous belief...
    Mercurial justice: a Jesuit chaplain’s view of life in the prisons of sixteenth-century Seville

  • James Macpherson: a Scottish Robin Hood

      Historian article
    James Macpherson led a notorious gang of robbers in late seventeenth-century Scotland, and he became infamous for robbing rich lairds to give to the poor. Anne-Marie Kilday explains how his notoriety is also significant for revealing how people in early modern Scotland could hold complex attitudes towards the Gypsy Roma...
    James Macpherson: a Scottish Robin Hood

  • Schools of Vice: how a medical scandal led to the dismantling of Britain’s last prison hulks

      Historian article
    Hulks – former naval ships used as prisons for those convicted of serious crime and sentenced to transportation – were intended to be a temporary solution to a penal crisis caused by the American Revolutionary Wars. These ‘schools of vice’, or ‘floating hells’ lasted 80 years, casting a shadow over...
    Schools of Vice: how a medical scandal led to the dismantling of Britain’s last prison hulks

  • Finding Bad Bridget: the lives and crimes of Irish immigrant women in America

      Historian article
    From the early nineteenth century until the First World War, millions of Irish women emigrated to North America in search of better lives. Elaine Farrell and Leanne McCormick, co-leads for the AHRC-funded Bad Bridget research project, tell us how poverty, discrimination, isolation from family as well as greed and opportunism...
    Finding Bad Bridget: the lives and crimes of Irish immigrant women in America

  • Out and About: Locating the Local Lockup

      Historian feature
    If you are arrested for a crime today, you will very likely be taken to a police station and locked in a cell while officers decide if they have enough evidence to charge you. But have you ever wondered what happened to criminals and other disorderly folk – roughs, drunks...
    Out and About: Locating the Local Lockup

  • Imperial spaces of a ‘miniature world’: the case of Rugby School, c.1828–1850

      Historian article
    English public schools in the nineteenth century were training grounds not just for society’s elites but also for careers in Britain’s imperial service. In this article, Holly Hiscox explores the ways in which schools such as Rugby provided pupils with a miniature world of domestic and professional life which prepared...
    Imperial spaces of a ‘miniature world’: the case of Rugby School, c.1828–1850

  • Decoding medieval pilgrimage

      Historian article
    Pilgrimage played a significant role in medieval life and belief. Pilgrims travelled far and wide to express their devotion to saints and their cults. Who were the pilgrims and what did pilgrimage involve? Luke Daly makes sense of this fascinating and complex phenomenon...
    Decoding medieval pilgrimage

  • Update: Revisiting the Court of King Charles I

      Historian feature
    The reputation of kings, as with all political figures, is problematical. It would be surprising if it were any other way. Yet, the monarchy of Charles I remains as controversial as ever. In this article, Michael Questier looks at two diametrically opposed contemporary accounts of monarchical authority in the Stuart...
    Update: Revisiting the Court of King Charles I

  • The nature of Charles I’s government

      Historian article
    Charlotte Brownhill explores the nature of Charles I’s government. Rather than dismissing this as a disaster, she argues that there were many positive features of his government before the outbreak of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and suggests that we should consider the difficulties caused by the complexities of...
    The nature of Charles I’s government

  • ‘By his Majesties authoritie’: worship and religious policy in Caroline Britain and Ireland

      Historian article
    When Charles I acceded to the throne in 1625, he inherited a situation that appeared stable but which simmered beneath the surface. As Chris R. Langley explains, in seeking to maintain his Royal Supremacy, Charles I had to manage the very different, but interconnected, religious affairs of England, Ireland and...
    ‘By his Majesties authoritie’: worship and religious policy in Caroline Britain and Ireland

  • Caroline Court Women, 1625–1669

      Historian article
    Aristocratic women at the court of Queen Henrietta Maria from 1625–69 were integral to court life and actively involved in royal service; in court family networks; in dispensing and seeking patronage; and, in political and religious politics. As Sara J. Wolfson shows, it is important to study women at the apex of power...
    Caroline Court Women, 1625–1669

  • Piecing together the life and times of Charles I

      Historian article
    In this article, Chris R. Langley discusses the sources we use to reconstruct the life and times of Charles I. He explains how historians can use a wide range of sources in creative ways to understand different aspects of political, cultural and religious change in the mid-seventeenth century...
    Piecing together the life and times of Charles I

  • Charles I in objects and architecture

      Historian article
    We asked some of Britain’s leading museums and archives what object in their collections best exemplifies the reign of Charles I and why. Join Alden Gregory, Jessica Evershed, Mike Webb, Denise Greany, Glyn Hughes and Kevin Winter as they discuss some prominent objects and places in their collections and the...
    Charles I in objects and architecture

  • What caused the decline of trams in West Yorkshire?

      Historian article
    In an article based on his award-winning essay for the Young Historian competition, Christopher Barnett describes the development, decline and potential resurrection of West Yorkshire’s tram network...
    What caused the decline of trams in West Yorkshire?

  • In conversation with Tom Hamilton

      Historian feature
    The Historian sat down with Tom Hamilton to discuss his recent work, A Widow’s Vengeance after the Wars of Religion, which uncovers the story of a revealing criminal trial during the French Wars of Religion...
    In conversation with Tom Hamilton

  • Historian regular features

      Multipage Article
    The Historian magazine runs a number of regular features including our long-running History Out and About, and Real Lives which seeks to put the story of the ordinary person into our great historical narrative. New regular features include Doing History and In Conversation With.  Catch up on all current and past editions of our regular features on...
    Historian regular features

  • The Ancient Kingdom of Nabataea

      Historian article
    The Kingdom of Nabataea was an important independent entity in the Arabian desert from the third century B.C. to the early second century A.D. Written records are very sparse, so historians need to draw their conclusions from surviving buildings, archaeological excavations and a study of coins. Here Tom Dunstan analyses the extent to which...
    The Ancient Kingdom of Nabataea

  • The Exclusion Crisis (1679–81)

      Historian article
    The Exclusion Crisis in the reign of King Charles II was a fierce struggle over the issue of whether the King’s Catholic brother James should be the heir to the throne. At the same time, circumstances promoted an outpouring of polemical pamphlets on a massive scale. Here Gregory Gifford examines...
    The Exclusion Crisis (1679–81)

  • ‘The Nazi Service’? The Prussian origins of the Luftwaffe

      Historian article
    The Luftwaffe had been a real achievement of Prussian military culture, but under poor Nazi leadership it degenerated into an ineffective fighting force, writes Stephen Graham.
    ‘The Nazi Service’? The Prussian origins of the Luftwaffe

  • 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

  • Real Lives: Colonel James Skinner

      Historian feature
    The story of the British in India is a complex one and further nuances are provided by the existence of several ‘Eurasians’ who had both British and Indian heritage. Here Arunansh Goswami reflects on the life and achievements of one of these, James Skinner, who had a Scottish father and an Indian...
    Real Lives: Colonel James Skinner

  • Out and About: The Parish Armoury in St Mary’s Church, Mendlesham

      Historian feature
    In the Tudor and early Stuart period most towns and villages had a legal obligation to store arms and armour in case of a national emergency. Here Shona Rutherford-Edge tells the story of the parish armoury in the Suffolk village of Mendlesham, which was kept in the local church and from which many...
    Out and About: The Parish Armoury in St Mary’s Church, Mendlesham

  • Opinion: The Sarajevo Assassination and the Perilous Limits of the 9/11 Analogy

      Historian article
    Historians love making analogies to the present day, and in 2014, during the 100th anniversary of the Sarajevo assassination and outbreak of the First World War, many were tempted to see parallels to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But not only is this analogy mistaken, it conceals the blundering true nature...
    Opinion: The Sarajevo Assassination and the Perilous Limits of the 9/11 Analogy