-
The burial dilemma
Historian article
The recent attacks on Karl Marx’s grave in Highgate Cemetery have added impetus to the public debate about how we memorialise the dead and the public and private costs of mourning.
The burial dilemma
-
Napoleon – the film version!
29th November 2023
The British have always been a bit snarky about Napoleon – I guess that’s the way victors can play it. For the French, they often seem either to love or loathe him; the same it seems goes for many historians. What does seem to be clear from the recent discussions...
Napoleon – the film version!
-
The Victorians
Topic Pack
The Topic Pack gives you a brief summary of the Victorians.
The Victorians
-
The Waggoners’ Memorial
Historian article
Paula Kitching introduces a very remarkable First World War memorial to a specific group of Yorkshire workers.
The Waggoners’ Memorial
-
Dealing with the consequences
Teaching History journal article
Do GCSE and A-level questions that purport to be about consequences actually reward reasoning about historical consequences at all? Molly-Ann Navey concluded that they do not and that they fail to encourage the kind of argument that academic historians engage in when reaching judgements about consequences. Navey decided that it...
Dealing with the consequences
-
The Medlicott Medal 2023
3rd April 2023
We are pleased to announce that Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch is to be awarded the Medlicott Medal for outstanding services and current contributions to history.
The award seeks to recognise individuals from a diversity of backgrounds in their service to history. Professor MacCulloch has an extensive academic CV, some of which is included at...
The Medlicott Medal 2023
-
‘Through the looking glass’
Journal article
Danielle Donaldson began to notice the verbs that her pupils used to express their ideas. She noticed that more successful pupils were using carefully chosen verbs to express their conceptual thinking about causation or change, and wondered how this might relate to, and reflect, the breadth and security of their...
‘Through the looking glass’
-
Seeing beyond the frame
Teaching History article
History teachers frequently show pupils visual images and often expect pupils to interrogate such images as evidence. But confusions arise and opportunities are missed when pupils do this without guidance on how to ‘read’ the image systematically and how to place it in context. Barbara Ormond gives a detailed account...
Seeing beyond the frame
-
The Historian 137: Branches
The magazine of the Historical Association
4 Reviews
5 Editorial (Read article)
6 HA Conference
8 A year in the life of a branch co-ordinator – Jenni Hyde (Read article)
14 Private Lives of the Tudors – Tracy Borman (Read article)
19 The President’s Column
20 Good Evening Sweetheart: experiences of an ordinary couple in the...
The Historian 137: Branches
-
The Standing Stone
Article
‘The Standing Stone’ story and the activities around it developed from several different starting-points. One was the requirement in the 2014 National Curriculum for history at Key Stage 2 for children to be taught prehistory, specifically about ‘changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age’, with Bronze...
The Standing Stone
-
The Shang Dynasty
Primary History article
The Shang Dynasty of ancient China is a perfect topic to explore history alongside art and design. The only written information that remains from the Shang period is from the inscriptions found on oracle bones or artworks.
Most of what we know about the Shang has been determined from the...
The Shang Dynasty
-
Here comes the ‘60s
Primary History article
The 1960s were a decade of great change in Britain. The previous decade had seen America begin its gradual global cultural domination while Britain had to revise its role from imperial state to a member of the new Commonwealth of Nations. Recovery from the war had not been easy and...
Here comes the ‘60s
-
Having fun through time
Article
This article is about planning and teaching about ‘having fun across time’ for use in the later years of Key Stage 2 – investigating questions such as ‘Were people having fun in the same ways in the Middle Ages as in the Roman or Victorian periods?’ ‘What did our parents...
Having fun through time
-
The Medlicott Medal 2022
1st April 2022
We are pleased to announce that Professor David Olusoga is to be awarded the Medlicott Medal for Service to History.
The award seeks to recognise individuals from a diversity of backgrounds in their service to history. Past recipients of the Medal are all distinguished and outstanding individuals in their fields, whether through scholarship in the sense...
The Medlicott Medal 2022
-
The Queen's Platinum Jubilee
How the HA is marking our patron Queen Elizabeth II's long reign
This summer our patron, Queen Elizabeth II, has her Platinum Jubilee. It is the longest reign of any British monarch. For many of us in the UK and abroad, she is the only head of state that we have ever known. In those 70 years that she has been queen,...
The Queen's Platinum Jubilee
-
The Flight to Varennes
Historian article
On the night of 20 June 1791 a portly middle-aged man, dressed inconspicuously in brown, with a dark green overcoat and his hair covered by a grey wig, walked out of the Tuileries palace past the guards. For the past 12 nights the Chevalier de Coigny, dressed in a similar...
The Flight to Varennes
-
The Great Charter
Classic Pamphlet
The following introduction to and translation of Magna Carta was made for the use of my pupils and is here published in response to a suggestion that it may be of use to others. The Charter bristles with technical legal terms and its Latin is often ambiguous since the language...
The Great Charter
-
Teaching the Historic Environment
Guidance for teaching the Historic Environment in new GCSE courses
The GCSE History criteria specify that the courses should cover three geographical contexts: local, British and European/wider world. The requirement to include some local history has been developed into the study of a locality in its Historic Environment. This has been developed in four different ways by the Awarding bodies...
Teaching the Historic Environment
-
Studying the Maya
Article
Most pupils like history, but some struggle with aspects of reading and writing – how can we make history more accessible? This article explores some ways I have found useful in engaging pupils of all abilities. It will focus on activities that might be used in studying the Non-European Society...
Studying the Maya
-
Learning Outside the Classroom
Article
In recent times, it is easy to recognize that there has been a general move towards promoting outside activities across all manner of organizations and groups. For instance, organisations such as The National Trust and Ordnance Survey are keen to promote outdoor experiences in their literature. An online presence advocates...
Learning Outside the Classroom
-
The Olympics
HA Quick Guides
The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games look set to be an expression of an ultra-modern Britain. Yet they boast a legacy that dates back to Ancient Greece. There is a heritage of rich material for the primary history subject leader to mine and slot in alongside existing or newly...
The Olympics
-
Verdun: the endless battle
Historian article
Most can agree that the battle of Verdun started 100 years ago, on 21 February 1916, when the Germans began attacking French positions north and east of the old fortress town on the Meuse river. Few can agree on when it ended. The Germans might draw a line under it...
Verdun: the endless battle
-
The Historian 130: 1916
The magazine of the Historical Association
4 Reviews
5 Editorial (Read article)
6 Mission to Kabul by Jules Stewart (Read article)
11 The President’s Column
12 Maintaining Morale: promoting the First World War, 1914-16 by John Beckett (Read article)
17 In the News…
18 British armoured cars on the Eastern Front in the First World War by...
The Historian 130: 1916
-
The Historian 166: Out now
The magazine of the Historical Association
Read The Historian 166: Crime and Punishment
Last summer, crime and punishment made the headlines as Britain’s prisons came close to full capacity. In response, the Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, ordered the release of nearly 10,000 prisoners who had served a significant portion of their sentence. The aim was to...
The Historian 166: Out now
-
The Stone Age conundrum
Making use of a local site to develop historical knowledge
History – the very word makes the primary teacher in me feel excited. There are simply so many variables, so many dark nooks and crannies of history to explore and so many different angles through which to draw in a class of eager young minds. Thanks to a wellexecuted history...
The Stone Age conundrum
