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‘The cradle of the Industrial Revolution’
Historian article
Michael Winstanley challenges assumptions about Lancashire's new industrial landscape, inviting us to re-imagine what Manchester and the country around it looked like.
Lancashire, especially the cotton textile district to the east of the county, is widely regarded as the ‘cradle of the industrial evolution’. But what did this burgeoning industrial landscape actually look like in the early nineteenth century?...
‘The cradle of the Industrial Revolution’
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Petit’s impact on our understanding of Victorian life and culture
Historian article
Tiffany Igharoro, a Young Historian Award-winner, introduces us to the artwork of Revd John Louis Petit, showing that art not only reflects the times in which it is created, but can also be used to shape opinions.
The Revd John Louis Petit (1801–68) created thousands of paintings in his lifetime, many of which...
Petit’s impact on our understanding of Victorian life and culture
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Poetry of the Industrial Revolution in the West Midlands c.1730-1800
Historian article
There is a view that the poetry of the eighteenth century began with moralising neo-classical satire, that this was followed by insipid pastoral, and that the century closed with the advent of the Romantic. This view is simplistic. While at particular times particular types of poetry might have predominated (and...
Poetry of the Industrial Revolution in the West Midlands c.1730-1800
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Out and About: exploring Lancaster’s ‘glocal’ history online and on foot
Historian feature
The city of Lancaster has many important historical landmarks from both the medieval period and the time of the Industrial Revolution. In this article Sunita Abraham and Christopher Donaldson describe the thinking behind a guided historical tour they have devised for the city. This involves engaging with modern technology, placing Lancaster within a...
Out and About: exploring Lancaster’s ‘glocal’ history online and on foot
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Out and about in Bolton - Industrial Revelation
Historian feature
Despite its old name of Bolton-le-Moors, the history of Bolton is tied up with the Industrial Revolution. Its population grew from 17,000 inhabitants in 1801 to nearly 181,000 in 1911. It is well known that the damp climate of England's north west was perfectly suited to the textile industry, and...
Out and about in Bolton - Industrial Revelation
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Facing the Revolution: the other Americans
Historian article
The American Revolution presented all who lived through it with difficult choices about allegiance, identity, and self-interest. The responses of American loyalists, enslaved people, and Native Americans reveal much about the country’s revolutionary foundation and the United States of today.
The American Revolution was at once universal and narrowly nationalistic....
Facing the Revolution: the other Americans
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Sweden’s forgotten revolution
Historian article
People are sometimes surprised to learn that for much of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century, Sweden was one of Europe’s great powers. The revolution that transformed Swedish government following the death of Karl XII at the end of the Great Northern War is still less widely-known. But though largely carried...
Sweden’s forgotten revolution
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Glowing in the Dark
Historian article
The twentieth century celebrated many new technologies and just like many of those from the industrial revolution we now know them to be edged with danger and potential long-term damage. Here we learn about the effects that radium, bolstered by its advantages in war time, had on the civilian factory...
Glowing in the Dark
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Ending the French Revolution
Historian article
Malcolm Crook discusses why it was so difficult to end the most famous revolution of the eighteenth century and why it led to bloodshed and absolutism.
Ending the French Revolution
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The German Revolution of 1918-19
Historian article
Simon Constantine examines the clashes between the Left and Right of Germany’s new Republic that helped to create the environment for future extremism and hatred.
The German Revolution of 1918-19
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A revolution in warfare: the creation of the RAF
Historian article
A revolution in warfare started 100 years ago in November 1917. Paula Kitching describes the changing role of air power during the First World War that led to the creation of the RAF.
A revolution in warfare: the creation of the RAF
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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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The Russian Revolution 100 years on: a view from below
Historian article
Sarah Badcock sheds light on how ordinary Russians responded to the revolutions of 1917 that sought to change their lot and bring them freedom.
The Russian Revolution 100 years on: a view from below
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After the revolution: did Cromwell, Washington and Bonaparte betray revolutionary principles?
Historian article
This article examines the aftermath of three epoch-making periods of change – the English, American, and French Revolutions. A comparison of the trio of military commanders who gained power as a direct consequence of these upheavals reveals how the very political radicalism which brought them to power also threatened to...
After the revolution: did Cromwell, Washington and Bonaparte betray revolutionary principles?
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‘Our March’: art and culture in the Russian Revolution
Historian article
Peter Waldron explores the role of art in communicating to the masses the ideas of politics and change in Bolshevik Russia.
‘Our March’: art and culture in the Russian Revolution
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The myths about the 1745 Jacobite revolution
Historian article
The harsh reality
The 1745 Rebellion has become part of the romantic heritage in both British and Scottish history. At the time there was little romance to it. The many myths and misconceptions about Bonnie Prince Charlie and his followers need to be corrected and the glamorous image of the...
The myths about the 1745 Jacobite revolution
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Peterloo August 1819: the English Uprising
Historian article
Robert Poole, historical consultant to the ‘Peterloo 200’ commemorations in and around Manchester over the summer, explores the latest research into those tragic events of August 1819 and their significance in the road to democracy.
On Monday 16 August 1819 troops under the authority of the Lancashire and Cheshire magistrates...
Peterloo August 1819: the English Uprising
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British Christians and European Integration
Historian article
Despite Britain’s longstanding membership of the European Union, the question of ‘Europe’ continues to loom large in the nation’s politics. Whilst the economic pros and cons of Britain ‘joining’ the euro might be understood by only a select few, that issue provides for the many an opportunity to debate Britain’s...
British Christians and European Integration
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Popular revolt and the rise of early modern states
Historian article
In the 1960s and 1970s, historians and sociologists who were not specialists in the Middle Ages constructed models of pre-industrial crowds and revolt to understand the distinctiveness of modern, post-French Revolutionary, Europe. Foremost among these scholars were George Rudé, a historian of eighteenth century England and France, and Charles Tilly,...
Popular revolt and the rise of early modern states
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Comparing the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Jameson Raid
Historian article
Duplicated Debacles? A comparison of the 1895-96 Jameson Raid and the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion. Adam Burns and Robert Gallimore take us on two invasions, one by land and one by sea.
Following the Cuban Revolution of 1959 and the rise to power of the socialist regime of Fidel...
Comparing the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Jameson Raid
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Volunteers to a man: an industrial workplace goes to war
Historian article
In this article Edward Washington explores how the Royal Mint in Sydney, Australia was affected by the First World War, through the loss of professional staff and the legacy of experiencing conflict.
The Royal Mint, Sydney, which opened in 1855 in response to the Australian gold rushes, was the first...
Volunteers to a man: an industrial workplace goes to war
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Out and About: on the trail of the Pentrich Rebellion
Historian feature
Richard Gaunt introduces us to a revolutionary incident in mid-Derbyshire whose 200th anniversary is commemorated this year.
Out and About: on the trail of the Pentrich Rebellion
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Robespierre: a reluctant terrorist?
Article
After a revolution to remove the monarchy did the French revolutionaries create another leadership of power over ideals? William Doyle re-evaluates the reputation of the so-called architect of terror during the French Revolutionary years.
Two recent books reflect a seemingly endless fascination with the man whose downfall brought the end...
Robespierre: a reluctant terrorist?
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Newcastle and the General Strike 1926
Historian article
The nine-day General Strike of May 1926 retains a totemic place in the nation's history nearly 100 years later. The Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill was among those who attempted to characterise it as anarchy and revolution, but this was hyperbole and largely inaccurate for, as Ellen Wilkinson (then...
Newcastle and the General Strike 1926
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Will China Democratise?
Historian article
Michael T. Davis compares the parallels between the democratic expectations, or possibilities, of modern-day China with Britain's democratic evolution from the eighteenth century to the emerging democracy of the nineteenth century.
The future is an unfamiliar place for historians. Yet we stand on the edge of an historic shift away...
Will China Democratise?
