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The British Empire & the Scramble for Africa
19th Century British History
In this podcast Dr John Stuart of Kingston University London looks discusses Britain and the scramble for Africa; looking at motivations, how Britain's influence expanded so quickly in Northern and Southern Africa, the changing relations with other colonial powers, the two Boer Wars and their impact on Britain's perception of...
The British Empire & the Scramble for Africa
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Filmed Lecture: Medlicott Lecture 2024 - Professor Catherine Hall
Article
Addressing issues of the legacies of racism created by the transatlantic slave trade and the narratives of its abolition
The Medlicott Medal is awarded annually for outstanding services and contributions to history. This year the Medal went to Professor Catherine Hall, who is Emerita Professor of Modern British Social and Cultural History at...
Filmed Lecture: Medlicott Lecture 2024 - Professor Catherine Hall
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Recorded webinar: John F. Kennedy and the Vietnam War
An enduring counterfactual
Would US President John F. Kennedy have avoided the catastrophe that became the Vietnam War if Lee Harvey Oswald had not assassinated him in Dallas on that fateful day of 22 November 1963? This question – or a version of it – has animated discussions of the Vietnam War for...
Recorded webinar: John F. Kennedy and the Vietnam War
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Film: Death in Diaspora
British & Irish Gravestones
As British and Irish migrants sought new lives in the Caribbean, Asia, North America and Australasia, they left a trail of physical remains where settlement occurred. Between the 17th and 20th centuries, gravestones and elaborate epitaphs documented identity and attachment to both their old and new worlds.
In this Virtual...
Film: Death in Diaspora
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The Rise of American Empire, 1865-1920
Podcast
In this extensive podcast series, Dr Alex Goodall of UCL looks at the growth of the United States as an international power from the end of the American Civil War through to the early twentieth century. This was a critical period for understanding the United States rise to superpower status in the twentieth...
The Rise of American Empire, 1865-1920
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The Akkadian Empire (2334–2154 BC)
Ancient World History
The Akkadian Empire was the first ancient empire of Mesopotamia after the long-lived civilization of Sumer. It was centred in the city of Akkad and its surrounding region. The empire united Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one rule. The Akkadian Empire exercised influence across Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Anatolia, sending military expeditions as far south as Dilmun and Magan (modern Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman) in the Arabian Peninsula.
The Akkadian...
The Akkadian Empire (2334–2154 BC)
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The Rise of the Spanish Empire in the New World
Early Modern World History
In this podcast Dr Glyn Redworth looks at the factors that led to the Spanish Empire in the new world, why Ferdinand and Isabella backed Columbus and discusses how Spain was able to consolidate an Empire of such magnitude.
The Rise of the Spanish Empire in the New World
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The British Empire: Relations with the American colonies
Early Modern World History
In this podcast Professor Stephen Conway of University College London discusses the relations between the American colonies and Britain before, during and after the American War of Independence.
The British Empire: Relations with the American colonies
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Film: Living with Violence at the End of the British Empire
Age of Emergency
In the 1950s, Britain fought a series of brutal wars against insurgents in the colonies of Malaya, Kenya, and Cyprus. How did people at home experience these wars? How did they learn about the use of torture and other unsettling tactics? And how did they respond to this knowledge?
In...
Film: Living with Violence at the End of the British Empire
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Recorded webinar: Histories of Indigenous peoples of North America
Article
Any study of the intercultural relationships between the Indigenous peoples of North America and British settlers usually focuses on the differences that resulted in disputes and violence. However, on closer examination, the interaction also involved the exchange of ideas and the forging of alliances, which required diplomacy and respect for...
Recorded webinar: Histories of Indigenous peoples of North America
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Recorded webinar: Indian Suffragettes: women's activism in South Asia and beyond
Article
Between 1917 and 1947, women in the Indian subcontinent were engaged in active debates and noteworthy demonstrations for the vote, building up a national suffrage movement. In this talk Professor Sumita Mukherjee discusses the activities of Indian suffragettes in this period, showing how they were connected with British and other...
Recorded webinar: Indian Suffragettes: women's activism in South Asia and beyond
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The Neo-Babylonian Empire (626-539 BC)
Podcast
The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC and being firmly established through the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 612 BC, the Neo-Babylonian Empire was conquered by Cyrus and the Achaemenid Persian Empire in 539 BC,...
The Neo-Babylonian Empire (626-539 BC)
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The Hittites & the Hittite Empire (1650-1190 BC)
Podcast
The Hittites were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia (around 1650 BC). This empire reached its height during the mid-14th century BC under Šuppiluliuma I, when it encompassed an area that included most of...
The Hittites & the Hittite Empire (1650-1190 BC)
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The Mongol Empire & the Near East: Consolidation and Division
1258-1353
In this podcast Dr Nicholas Morton of Nottingham Trent University examines how the Mongols consolidated their vast empire, the impact of their domination on the cultures of the conquered, their defeat to the Mamluks at the Battle of Ayn Jalut and how internal disputes led to the division and disintegration of...
The Mongol Empire & the Near East: Consolidation and Division
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Families and the English Atlantic Empire, 1550-1650
Podcast
In this podcast Dr Misha Ewen of Historic Royal Palaces discusses her research project Families and the English Atlantic Empire, 1550-1650 which explores the role of women, families, and household economies in early modern empire-building. Misha Ewen specialises in the social and economic history of the early modern Atlantic world, with...
Families and the English Atlantic Empire, 1550-1650
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Recorded webinar: Ottoman trade with Europe in the early modern era
Article
For European states in the early modern era the Ottoman empire represented a huge trading bloc, stretching at its height from Hungary in the west to Iran in the east, from Ukraine in the north to Egypt in the south, and along the southern shores of the Mediterranean to the...
Recorded webinar: Ottoman trade with Europe in the early modern era
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Virtual Branch Recording: Rebellion and Resistance of the Enslaved in the Atlantic World
Article
This talk explored the struggle for liberation from the perspective of the enslaved, wherever possible in their own words. Dr Sudhir Hazareesingh shines a light on the lives of revolutionaries like Toussaint Louverture, José Antonio Aponte, Nat Turner, and the pregnant rebel Solitude; touching on the stories of the freed...
Virtual Branch Recording: Rebellion and Resistance of the Enslaved in the Atlantic World
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Virtual Branch Recording: Assassins and Templars
Article
In this talk, Steve Tibble discusses the Assassins and Templars, two of history's most legendary groups.
One was a Shi’ite religious sect, the other a Christian military order created to defend the Holy Land. Steve Tibble traces the history of these two groups from their origins to their ultimate destruction showing how they survived...
Virtual Branch Recording: Assassins and Templars
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The Umayyad Caliphate
Medieval World History
In this set of podcasts Emeritus Professor Gerald Hawting of SOAS, University of London provides an introduction to the Umayyad (661-750) Caliphate.
The Umayyad Caliphate
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Film: 'Mayflower Lives: building a New Jerusalem in the New World'
Article
Historian and author Martyn Whittock recently gave a lecture for the HA Virtual Branch on 'Mayflower Lives: building a New Jerusalem in the New World'. In 1620, 102 ill-prepared asylum seekers landed two months later than planned, in the wrong place on the eastern coast of North America. By the next summer, half of...
Film: 'Mayflower Lives: building a New Jerusalem in the New World'
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Recorded webinar: Researching the history of migration and refugees in Europe
When the present informs the past
Research on the history of migration continues to flourish and grow, but scholarship is also becoming increasingly splintered, often focusing on particular settings or population groups. Migration is often used as a way to discuss questions of national identity or diverse religious, ethnic, religious and local identities in the UK,...
Recorded webinar: Researching the history of migration and refugees in Europe
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Film: A short history of Islamic thought
Article
In his book of the same name, A short history of Islamic thought, Dr Fitzroy Morrissey provides a concise introduction to the origins and sources of Islamic thought, from its beginnings in the 7th century to the current moment.
In this talk he explores the major ideas and introduces the...
Film: A short history of Islamic thought
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Virtual Branch Recording: Crusader Criminals
Article
The religious wars of the Crusades are renowned for their military engagements. But the period was witness to brutality beyond the battlefield. More so than any other medieval war zone, the Holy Land was rife with unprecedented levels of criminality and violence.
In the first history of its kind, Steve Tibble explores...
Virtual Branch Recording: Crusader Criminals
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Film: The Ruin of All Witches
Life and Death in the New World
Professor Malcom Gaskill joined the HA Virtual Branch on Thursday 10 December 2022 to discuss the subject of his book, The Ruin of all Witches, Life and Death in the New World, which was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize in 2022. His research explores the attitudes, beliefs and treatment of people as...
Film: The Ruin of All Witches
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Recorded Webinar: Resisting Reagan
Article
The 1980s are often viewed as marking the repudiation of the political order marked by the New Deal and the 1960s, both periods of enormous social, political, and cultural change. Yet the decade symbolised by President Ronald Reagan, far from being a period of triumphant conservative counterrevolution, was a period...
Recorded Webinar: Resisting Reagan
