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                                                                                Napoleon and the creation of an imperial legend
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Annual Conference 2013 PodcastLecture from the Historical Association 2013 Annual Conference - Podcast
Professor Alan Forrest - University of York
Napoleon would become a nineteenth-century hero, the stuff of legend in a romantic age. This lecture examines the genesis of the Napoleonic myth, and shows how throughout his career he consciously burnished his... Napoleon and the creation of an imperial legend
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                                                                                Cunning Plan 152.1: visual sources
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Teaching History featureThe principles outlined here were developed in response to three key concerns. The first was consideration of the needs of students learning English as an additional language who face particular challenges with reading and writing.
Images could perhaps offer them more direct, less abstract, ways into an understanding of challenging... Cunning Plan 152.1: visual sources
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                                                                                Teaching Year 8 pupils to take seriously the ideas of ordinary people from the past
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Teaching History articleJacob Olivey wanted Year 8 to know that ordinary people in the nineteenth century constructed their own identities. In this reflection on how his practice developed in his training year, Olivey illustrates the importance of using historical scholarship in choosing foundational knowledge to teach. He shows how he used that... Teaching Year 8 pupils to take seriously the ideas of ordinary people from the past
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                                                                                Bristol and America 1480-1631
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Classic PamphletThis pamphlet addresses the relationship between Bristol and America, charting the rising and waning interest the city and its merchants had in discovering new lands and profiting from them, and the success or more often the failure of these voyages. It provides an interesting argument which may be seen to... Bristol and America 1480-1631
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                                                                                Period, place and mental space
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Teaching History articlePeriod, place and mental space: using historical scholarship to develop Year 7 pupils' sense of period
What is a sense of period? And how can pupils' sense of period be developed? Questions such as these have troubled history teachers for many years, often revolving around debates over the role played by... Period, place and mental space
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                                                                                Local Authority Housing
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Classic PamphletLocal authority housing has been a distinctive feature of the British housing system throughout the twentieth century. This pamphlet outlines the development of local authority housing in Britain from its origins in the late nineteenth century to the present day, focusing on the ways in which policy changes have affected... Local Authority Housing
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                                                                                Lengthening Year 9’s narrative of the American civil rights movement
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Teaching History articleInspired by reading the work of Stephen Tuck, Ellie Osborne set out to design a new sequence of lessons that would help her students adopt a longer lens on the American civil rights movement. At the same time, Osborne wanted to put more emphasis on the agency and campaigns of activists,... Lengthening Year 9’s narrative of the American civil rights movement
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                                                                                Polychronicon 136: Interpreting the Beatles
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Teaching History feature‘The Beatles were history-makers from the start,' proclaimed the liner notes for the band's first LP in March 1963. It was a bold claim to make on behalf of a beat combo with one charttopping single, but the Beatles' subsequent impact on 1960s culture put their historical importance (if not... Polychronicon 136: Interpreting the Beatles
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                                                                                Prehistoric Scotland
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Classic PamphletPrehistory is an attempt to reconstruct the story of human societies inhabiting a given region before the full historical record opens there. Its data, furnished by archaeology, are the constructions members of such societies erected and the durable objects they made. The events which should form its subject matter naturally... Prehistoric Scotland
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                                                                                The particular and the general
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Teaching History articleWhen your pupils use terms such as ‘king’ and ‘Parliament,’ what image do they have in their head? Do they know what they are talking about at all? Do they have a nuanced, period-specific vision of what these terms mean in the context of their current historical studies, and of... The particular and the general
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                                                                                The Great Powers in the Pacific
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Classic PamphletThis pamphlet covers a very large period of history in a very important region with great detail and focus. Themes that are covered include the transition of power and dominance in the pacific region, the conflicts that frequently arose in the struggle for pacific dominance throughout the centuries, as well... The Great Powers in the Pacific
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                                                                                Central and Local Government in Scotland Since 1707
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Classic PamphletThis pamphlet provides an interesting approach to a historical topic which has been too frequently covered from a single viewpoint. The pamphlet delivers a thoroughly Scottish approach to the nature of the 1707 Union and the changing nature of Scotland in the following centuries. It highlights the disparity of the... Central and Local Government in Scotland Since 1707
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                                                                                Polychronicon 135: Post-modern Holocaust Historiography
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Teaching History featureThe field of Holocaust studies has been hit by an intellectual earthquake whose precise magnitude and long-term consequences cannot be ascertained at this stage. In 2007 Saul Friedländer published The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews 1939-1945. The book has been rightly celebrated as the first victim-centred synthetic history... Polychronicon 135: Post-modern Holocaust Historiography
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                                                                                What Have Historians Been Arguing About... the impact of the British Empire on Britain?
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Teaching History featureThe murder of George Floyd during the summer of 2020 and the ongoing ‘culture war’ in Britain over the legacy of the British Empire have reignited interest in imperial history. This focuses, in particular, on the question of the empire’s impact on Britain itself: on how the act of conquering... What Have Historians Been Arguing About... the impact of the British Empire on Britain?
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                                                                                The knowledge illusion
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Teaching History articleFocusing on students’ attempts to explain the relative significance of different factors in Hitler’s rise to power, Catherine McCrory explores the vexed question of why students who seem able to express necessary historical knowledge on one occasion cannot effectively reproduce it on another. Drawing on a detailed analysis of what... The knowledge illusion
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                                                                                Learning and teaching about the history of Europe in the twentieth century
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Teaching History articleIn the first of our special, extra ‘Europages’, funded by the Council of Europe (CoE), Mark McLaughlin briefly outlines the purpose and outcomes of a CoE project on ‘learning and teaching about the history of Europe in the twentieth century’. His short article reminds all history teachers of the need... Learning and teaching about the history of Europe in the twentieth century
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                                                                                Themes over Time
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    HA ResourcesThe study of an aspect or theme in British history that consolidates and extends pupils'chronological knowledge from before 1066While the 2014 Curriculum sets out the broad focus of each particular content area, considerable choice has been left to history departments in determining which particular events or developments to include and... Themes over Time
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                                                                                The End of Colonial Rule in West Africa
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Classic PamphletThe dissolution of colonial empires since the Second World War is a major theme of contemporary history, and one which will challenge historians for many years to come. There are still sharp disagreements as to how this change should be described. European scholars tend to use the term ‘decolonization' (at... The End of Colonial Rule in West Africa
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                                                                                The Investiture Disputes
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Classic PamphletHistorical labels are dictated by a wayward fashion; and the name which is still most commonly associated with the first struggle of Empire and Papacy (1076-1122). "The Investiture Disputes," is neither lucid or appropriate. It has been commoner for historians to name the great wars of history after the issues... The Investiture Disputes
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                                                                                British Women in the Nineteenth Century
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Classic PamphletA short pamphlet surveying the historical record of rather more than half the population of Britain over a period of a hundred years must of necessity be sketchy and incomplete. The great interest in history of women which has arisen in the last few decades has produced a great deal... British Women in the Nineteenth Century
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                                                                                Berlin and the Holocaust: a sense of place?
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Teaching History articleAs more and more schools take students on visits to locations associated with the history of the Holocaust, history teachers have to find ways to make these places historically meaningful for their students. David Waters shows here how he introduced his students to the multiple narratives associated with the history... Berlin and the Holocaust: a sense of place?
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                                                                                Saint Robert and the Deer
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    ArticleIt is almost a commonplace that there is an affinity between a holy man and the creatures of the wild. The archetype is St. Francis of Assisi but the phenomenon was well marked both before and after his time. I would like to consider briefly an episode in the life... Saint Robert and the Deer
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                                                                                Film series: The African-American Civil Rights Movement
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Film: An introduction to the African-American Civil Rights MovementThe US civil rights battles of the latter half of the twentieth century are a common part of popular culture - and yet the detail is often overlooked in favour of the headlines. It is a positive step that so many of us now know the names of Rosa Parks... Film series: The African-American Civil Rights Movement
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                                                                                Using The Wipers Times to build an enquiry on the First World War
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Teaching History articleTeaching ‘the lesson of satire': using The Wipers Times to build an enquiry on the First World War
‘Blackadder for real' is how the British journalist and broadcaster, Ian Hislop, characterised The Wipers Time, the newspaper published on the front line by members of the 12th Battalion Sherwood, and recently brought... Using The Wipers Times to build an enquiry on the First World War
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                                                                                What Have Historians Been Arguing About... schooling and the British Empire
                                        
                                            
                                        
                                    Teaching History featureThe history of schooling and the British Empire encompasses a complex body of literature.  Histories of formal education intersect with work on race, class and capitalism and link to adjacent fields such as histories of childhood. A basic contention shared throughout this field, however, is that there was a profound... What Have Historians Been Arguing About... schooling and the British Empire