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Schools of Vice: how a medical scandal led to the dismantling of Britain’s last prison hulks
Historian article
Hulks – former naval ships used as prisons for those convicted of serious crime and sentenced to transportation – were intended to be a temporary solution to a penal crisis caused by the American Revolutionary Wars. These ‘schools of vice’, or ‘floating hells’ lasted 80 years, casting a shadow over...
Schools of Vice: how a medical scandal led to the dismantling of Britain’s last prison hulks
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Lincolnshire Branch History
Branch History
Brief History of the Lincolnshire Branch.When the branch was founded There was a successful branch of the Historical Association in Lincolnshire after World War Two, centred in Boston, and run by staff from the schools there. In 1999, when I moved to Lincolnshire, I discovered there was no longer a...
Lincolnshire Branch History
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Podcast: Mad or Bad? Was Henry VI a tyrant?
Presidential Lecture 2011
Professor Anne Curry delivered her final Presidential lecture at the Historical Association Annual Conference 2011 in Manchester.
Henry VI (1422-61) was England's youngest king, only nine months old when he succeeded his famous father. Traditionally he is seen as incompetent, pious and, latterly, insane, and thereby causing the Wars of...
Podcast: Mad or Bad? Was Henry VI a tyrant?
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How can students' use of historical evidence be enhanced?
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
What role does knowledge play in the interpretation of documentary materials? How do history students use what they know? What kind of knowledge really ‘makes the difference' and which ways of using knowledge make the...
How can students' use of historical evidence be enhanced?
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The Historian 103: The Road to Dunkirk
The magazine of the Historical Association
The road to Dunkirk: Chamberlain, Baldwin and Appeasement - Trevor Fisher (Read Article)
The President's Column - Anne Curry
The ‘Penny Dreadful' publishing business in the City of London from 1860 - John Springhall (Read Article)
St Deiniol's Library: The National Memorial to William Ewart Gladstone - Annette Lewis (Read Article)
Towards reform in 1809 -...
The Historian 103: The Road to Dunkirk
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King Charles I
Classic Pamphlet
The principles involved in the great religious and constitutional conflicts of the seventeenth century are so important to us today, that it seems desirable on the occasion of the present tercentenary to lay before the members of the Historical Association some means of examining and re-examining their views on the...
King Charles I
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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
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Did all Ancient Greek women stay at home and weave?
Primary History article
We tend to focus on the bigger picture in teaching on the Ancient Greeks – democracy; Olympic Games; architecture; theatre; myths and legends – but children love the minutiae of everyday life. And half of the population of Ancient Greece was female. So just what part in life did women play? And how different was it to that of men?...
Did all Ancient Greek women stay at home and weave?
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Primary History 57: What History Should We Teach, 5-14?
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
Contents, Editorial, In My View, Article
04 Editorial
05 In my view: Campaign! Make an Impact and History - Alison Bodley (Read article)
06 In my view: Principles for a history curriculum - Jon Nichol (Read article)
07 Doing History: story telling How can we imagine the past? - Grant Bage (Read...
Primary History 57: What History Should We Teach, 5-14?
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A view from the KS1 classroom
Article
Introduction
"So what did you do at school, today?"
As a child, I remember being asked this question often by my good humoured, paternal grandfather, when he met me at the end of the day. On returning from the trenches in 1919, he had trained to become a teacher and...
A view from the KS1 classroom
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Evidenced based history teaching - teacher as researcher
Article
Introduction
Systematic, sustained provision of in-service courses has virtually disappeared. Increasingly, teachers' main source of professional development is the Internet. There is, however, a huge difference between reading about new approaches and skills and transforming that information, that understanding, into new ways of thinking, planning and teaching.
This is where...
Evidenced based history teaching - teacher as researcher
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What makes good primary history?
Transition Training Session 5
This is the 5th in a series of 5 sessions arising from the 2005 KS2-KS3 History Transitions Project:
Transition training session 1: Historical Enquiries & Interpretations
Transition training session 2: Using ICT in the teaching of history
Transition training session 3: Extended writing in history
Transition training session 4: Joan of Arc -...
What makes good primary history?
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Educational visits to Holocaust-related sites
Teaching History article
Kay Andrews, former history teacher and expert in Holocaust teacher education, relates how she found herself questioning the impact and purpose of overseas site visits for students. She raises questions about whether the typical eastern European destinations that dominate Holocaust-related travel are the most appropriate for student learning. She also...
Educational visits to Holocaust-related sites
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Think Bubble 54 - Arte facts - Get my Meaning?
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
It is difficult to think of an area of primary history that has had a more transforming effect on the subject than that of artefacts. The idea of giving children a ‘real' experience of the past...
Think Bubble 54 - Arte facts - Get my Meaning?
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Peter the Great
Classic Pamphlet
No European ruler except Napoleon I has impressed both contemporise and later historians so profoundly as Peter I of Russia by the originality and the personal character of his achievements. Like Napoleon, Peter appeared to some observers, at least in his later years, as almost more than human. He seemed...
Peter the Great
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Blog off! Refreshing the public history blog
History journal blog
Image: Social media sites have provided a platform for fierce debates about the statues of slave traders such as Edward Colston.
Even if we think the so-called ‘culture war’ is an overinflated red herring, there’s no denying that some of the fiercest debates about history are occurring online. Contests over...
Blog off! Refreshing the public history blog
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Fascism in Europe 1919-1945
Classic Pamphlet
The importance of fascism in 20th Century Europe is beyond question. But what was - or is - fascism?It is synonymous with authoritarian rule or the totalitarian state, or with both? In political terms, is fascism ‘right-wing' or ‘left-wing', revolutionary or reactionary? Why did it develop? Was it truly only...
Fascism in Europe 1919-1945
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Reading Branch History
Branch History
Brief outline history of the Reading Branch of the Historical AssociationReading is one of the places to have had a branch before the First World War, between 1908 and 1911 as was shown in The Historian, ‘The Branches of the Historical Association 1906-2006'. The story of the current Reading Branch,...
Reading Branch History
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Gunpowder plot at key stage 1
Lesson Plan
Please note: this resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot is a cracking tale for any age group, although the complex political and religious elements are difficult for young children to understand. However, we can help them to gain insights into past people's motivations and...
Gunpowder plot at key stage 1
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Ulrich Zwingli
Classic Pamphlet
The Reformation of the sixteenth century has many sides, and not the least significant of these is the contribution from Switzerland. How under the leadership of Zwingli, Zurich, Berne, Basle and St Gall broke away from Rome, how this led to civil war, how and why agreement with the German...
Ulrich Zwingli
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History Abridged: The medieval origins of university
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
Medieval history can suffer from an image problem. Even a conventional name for the period...
History Abridged: The medieval origins of university
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Stalinism
Classic Pamphlet
Stalin's remarkable career raises quite fundamental questions for anyone interested in history. Marxists, whose philosophy should cause them to downgrade the role of ‘great men' as an explanation of great events, have problems in fitting Stalin into the materialist interpretation of history: did not this man ride rough-shod over the...
Stalinism
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Primary History 55: Doing Local History
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
Editorial
05 In my view: 'Be bloody, bold and resolute'. Two possible interpretations of 'Local History' - Colin Richards (Read article)
06 In my view: Doing local history - John Fines (Read article)
08 In my view: Local history for children: Through the eyes of a B. Ed. Student -...
Primary History 55: Doing Local History
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The emergence of the first civilisations
Historian article
Paul Bracey – The emergence of civilisations provided fundamental changes in the capacity for human development. This said, they exhibited similarities, differences, frailties, negative and positive attributes and should be related to a broadly based appreciation of the past.
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the assumption was that...
The emergence of the first civilisations
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An introduction to Ancient Greek Religion
Podcast
In this podcast written by Robert Parker, Professor Emeritus, University of Oxford, Professor Parker provides an introduction to Ancient Greek religion:
1. What do we mean by Greece?2. What is Greek Religion?3. Religion in society4.The experience of Greek religion
See full set of podcasts and associated scheme of work for...
An introduction to Ancient Greek Religion
