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  • Historical Diary: An Eighteenth-Century Gap Year

      Historian article
    Historical diaries written by children are rare and only seven from England and the United States written before 1800 are known to have survived. One of these, found tucked away in the London Metropolitan Archive, is the diary of William Hugh Burgess, a fifteen year-old boy who grew up in...
    Historical Diary: An Eighteenth-Century Gap Year
  • The Origins of the Second Great War

      Classic Pamphlet
    This pamphlet provides a detailed account of  the events leading up to the outbreak of war in 1939, covering the various factors that played a role in the outbreak of war such as tension over Poland and the Spanish Civil War, as well as the nature and effect of diplomatic...
    The Origins of the Second Great War
  • The Mary Celeste: the history of a mystery

      Historian article
    Graham Faiella guides us through the historical evidence and literary speculation surrounding one of the ultimately unresolved incidents of recent times. One hundred and fifty years ago, sometime between 25 November and 4 December 1872, the brigantine Mary Celeste was abandoned at sea somewhere between the Azores and the coast of Portugal....
    The Mary Celeste: the history of a mystery
  • Exploring Twentieth-Century History

      Article
    For a long time, history curricula on the 20th century prioritised the narrative of a slide from World War I to World War II and fascism above many other topics. But the history of the 20th century is both far more complicated and far more interesting than that. For the historians writing here, the...
    Exploring Twentieth-Century History
  • Obituaries: the first verdict in history

      Historian article
    Last year marked the deaths of two world-renowned historical figures - Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela. Their obituaries reflected the marked contrast in the way the pair were viewed. Mandela ended up by being universally admired, while Thatcher was both adored and despised in seemingly equal measure. Writer Nigel Starck...
    Obituaries: the first verdict in history
  • Writing Lilian Harrison into history

      Article
    In this article Matthew Brown and Pablo Scharagrodsky introduce us to the little-known story of Anglo-Argentinian swimmer Lilian Harrison, who in 1923 became the first person to swim the 42km from Uruguay to Argentina at the estuary of the Rio de la Plata. Her story shows how she had to battle against not only tides and...
    Writing Lilian Harrison into history
  • A (non-Western) history of versatility

      Historian article
    Waqās Ahmed broadens our perspective on where in history we might find polymaths, those who embody versatility of thought and action. While Western scholars might identify the likes of Leonardo da Vinci or Benjamin Franklin as the archetype of the polymath, they have in reality existed throughout history and across...
    A (non-Western) history of versatility
  • Flight from Kabul: a historical perspective

      Historian article
    In this article, Matt Jux-Blayney compares the British retreat from Kabul in 1842 with the most recent flight of NATO from Kabul in August 2021. Matt explores the various similarities between the two campaigns and includes personal recollections from his service in Afghanistan with the British Army. On 6 January...
    Flight from Kabul: a historical perspective
  • History Abridged: Language and the African continent

      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 Africa is a huge continent...
    History Abridged: Language and the African continent
  • History Abridged: Operation Black Buck

      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. See all History Abridged articles Just as the Naval Task Force had been dispatched in April 1982, days after the...
    History Abridged: Operation Black Buck
  • The Undergrowth of History

      Classic Pamphlet
    We can do all kinds of things with the past - examine it analytically, or question whether it ever existed, or churn it up inside ourselves until it turns into personal experience. We can dream it as we lounge amidst a heap of ruins, or petrify it into a museum;...
    The Undergrowth of History
  • Diagrams in History

      Historian article
    One of the gifts of the social sciences to history is the use of expository diagrams; but attention is rarely given to the history of diagrams. Maps - schematized representations of locations in spatial relation to one another - can be dated back to Babylonia in the late third millennium...
    Diagrams in History
  • ‘Power to the people’? Disputed presidential elections in US history

      Historian article
    Michael Dunne reveals the complex background to the modern elaborate constitutional process of electing a United States President. On Wednesday, 20 January 2021, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States of America.  In years to come these simple words may seem prosaic and...
    ‘Power to the people’? Disputed presidential elections in US history
  • History Abridged: The Berlin Conference 1884–1885

      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 In 2020 there was lots...
    History Abridged: The Berlin Conference 1884–1885
  • History Abridged: POTUS - President of the United States

      Historian article
    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 Described as the most powerfully...
    History Abridged: POTUS - President of the United States
  • TV: modern father of history?

      Historian article
    Bettany Hughes Norton Medlicott Medal Winner Lecture In 1991 I travelled to the BBC for a meeting with a senior television producer. It seemed to me that history just wasn't getting a fair crack of the whip. I talked animatedly about the on-screen discoveries that could be made and the...
    TV: modern father of history?
  • Film: Medlicott Lecture 2022 - David Olusoga

      Article
    This talk was presented at the Historical Association Awards evening, 7 July 2022. The talk is by Professor David Olusoga on the evening that he received the HA Medlicott Medal for Outstanding contributions to History. It is not to be used for any purpose or publicly reported on without the...
    Film: Medlicott Lecture 2022 - David Olusoga
  • My Favourite History Place: Mandala House

      Historian feature
    Many myths surround David Livingstone and in this part of the world more myths about the man abound than perhaps anywhere else. We can only speculate on whether he fought off lions with his bare hands, shamed slave-traders into letting their slaves go with just a few words from the scriptures...
    My Favourite History Place: Mandala House
  • Film: Discussion: Historical memory of key individuals in the Civil Rights Movement

      Film series: The African-American Civil Rights Movement
    Professor Tony Badger, Professor Joe Street and Professor Brian Ward discuss the African-American Civil Rights movement and examine different ways we might interpret the significance of key individuals, groups, institutions and events that played a role in its development and progress. This section reflects on how the past is portrayed...
    Film: Discussion: Historical memory of key individuals in the Civil Rights Movement
  • History Abridged: American Policy: theory and practice over 200 years

      Historian feature
    History Abridged: In this feature we take a person, time, theme or event and tell you the vast rich history in small space. A long dip into history in a shortened form. See all History Abridged articles The ‘Monroe Doctrine’ in 1825 provided a cornerstone for future United States foreign policy. Drafted...
    History Abridged: American Policy: theory and practice over 200 years
  • My Favourite History Place: The Tenement Museum, New York

      Historian feature
    The Tenement Museum is not remotely like any museum I had previously visited. It is an old tenement building where generations of New York migrants lived and loved, worked and had families before moving both on and out. The Tenement Museum tells the story of the Lower East Side through the...
    My Favourite History Place: The Tenement Museum, New York
  • The shortest war in history: The Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896

      Historian article
    At 9am on 27 August 1896, following an ultimatum, five ships of the Royal Navy began a bombardment of the Royal Palace and Harem in Zanzibar. Thirty-eight, or 40, or 43 minutes later, depending on which source you believe, the bombardment stopped when the white flag of surrender was raised...
    The shortest war in history: The Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896
  • The Romanov Tercentenary: nostalgia versus history on the eve of the Great War

      Historian article
    The spring of 2013 was unusually significant for devotees of the Romanov dynasty. Though there was little international recognition of the fact, the season marked the 400th anniversary of the accession of Russia's first Romanov tsar. Historically, the story was a most dramatic one, for Mikhail Fedorovich had not seized...
    The Romanov Tercentenary: nostalgia versus history on the eve of the Great War
  • Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Introducing students to historical interpretation

      Article
    High school history teacher Brent Dyck is one of our Canadian readers. He has offered this item to The Historian as a contribution to our commitment to explore the historical approaches and values that we are seeking to convey to young people and the wider public. We hope that you may...
    Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Introducing students to historical interpretation
  • Recorded webinar: History, Politics and Journalism

      Teacher and Student Study Session
    History, politics and journalism are intertwined. In this webinar (filmed in December 2021) Professor Anna Whitelock and members of her department from City, University of London explore the inter-related history, politics and journalism of Russia and the Cold War. First, Dina Fainberg explores Soviet relations with the world under Nikita...
    Recorded webinar: History, Politics and Journalism