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Slavery, child labour, or a grand day out? Hull’s agricultural hiring fairs, 1870–1950
Historian article
Agricultural hiring fairs – now largely forgotten –performed multiple social functions and were an intriguing aspect of rural life, writes Stephen Caunce.
Over the last three decades, long-established British newspapers have endured a steady dwindling of staff, depth of reporting and public respect. Paradoxically, however, the digitalising of old content has...
Slavery, child labour, or a grand day out? Hull’s agricultural hiring fairs, 1870–1950
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Hearing the call to arms: Herbert Douglas Fisher
Historian article
The intellectual aristocracy of late Victorian and early Edwardian Britain constitutes a Venn diagram of familiar names – the Stracheys and the Stephens, the Wedgwoods and the Darwins, the Keynes and the Trevelyans. These affluent, upper middle-class pillars of public life espoused a secular, liberal view of the world. Their depth...
Hearing the call to arms: Herbert Douglas Fisher
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Real Lives: Jessie Reid Crosbie
Historian feature
Alyson Brown, Dan Copley and Jack Bennett uncover the life of a reforming Liverpool headmistress.
Our series ‘Real Lives’ seeks to put the story of the ordinary person into our great historical narrative. We are all part of the rich fabric of the communities in which we live and we are...
Real Lives: Jessie Reid Crosbie
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The Historian 158: Out now
The magazine of the Historical Association
Read The Historian 158: Music
Anniversaries provide enticing opportunities for historians and the public to reflect on moments from our collective past. For choral music lovers this year is significant as it is the four hundredth anniversary of the death of the Tudor composer William Byrd, which is being marked by...
The Historian 158: Out now
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The Historian 158: Music
The magazine of the Historical Association
4 Reviews
5 Editorial (Read article - open access)
6 ‘Since singing is so good a thing’: William Byrd on the benefits of singing – Katharine Butler (Read article)
11 Letters
12 A history of Choral Evensong: the birth of an English tradition – Tom Coxhead (Read article)
17 Reviews
18 Building new futures by rewriting the past:...
The Historian 158: Music
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Scheme of Work: Early Islam, including Baghdad
Primary Scheme of Work, Key Stage 2 History (resourced)
Children can be introduced to the idea that people from other civilisations have contributed to many ideas that impact on us still. They can learn about some of the differences in way of life between citizens of Baghdad and London c. AD 900. Links can be made with other cultures...
Scheme of Work: Early Islam, including Baghdad
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Using eighteenth-century material culture to develop evidential thinking in Year 8
Teaching History article
It seems that teapots really can talk. Eleanor Dimond took her undergraduate experience of studying material culture into the classroom, with startling results. Historians of material culture have developed distinctive evidential methods which, in stark contrast to typical GCSE and A-Level approaches, see a strong interplay between analysis of the physical attributes...
Using eighteenth-century material culture to develop evidential thinking in Year 8
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Fifties Britain through the senses: ‘never had it so good’?
Teaching History article
Maya Stiasny was faced with difficulties familiar to many of us. Her new Year 12 students were struggling to get to grips with a new period of history. They were not interrogating primary sources with sufficient vigour. Her solution, detailed here, was novel. Working on the rich social history of post-war...
Fifties Britain through the senses: ‘never had it so good’?
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Practical demonstration: powerful and rigorous history teaching for all
Teaching History article
In this article, Ian Luff returns to the theme of ‘practical demonstration’ which he developed in three articles twenty years ago. Luff restates his original rationale for the enduring power of the approach, advances some new reasons why history teachers should give serious attention to it and shares several practical examples...
Practical demonstration: powerful and rigorous history teaching for all
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Decolonising sources: helping Year 9 pupils critically evaluate colonial sources
Teaching History article
Danielle Donaldson’s history department was already working within a professional culture that sought opportunities for making the history curriculum diverse and representative. Responding to wider debates within and beyond the history education community, however, the department began to ask fresh questions about what it meant to decolonise a curriculum. Donaldson...
Decolonising sources: helping Year 9 pupils critically evaluate colonial sources
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‘Miss, what’s the point of sources?’ Helping Year 11 to understand the discipline
Teaching History article
Clare Bartington noticed that her students’ focus on the specific kinds of question used in examinations appeared to have undermined their understanding of how historians actually use sources. Instead of approaching the traces or ‘leftovers’ of the past as potential sources of evidence in relation to a particular question, her students believed...
‘Miss, what’s the point of sources?’ Helping Year 11 to understand the discipline
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Teaching History 191: Out now
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
Read Teaching History 191
Please note: the print edition of Teaching History 191 will arrive with members in mid-July.
Has the materiality of the past been neglected in secondary school history? Many history teachers might be surprised at the question. After all, enquiries featuring social, economic and cultural realities have...
Teaching History 191: Out now
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Teaching History 191: Material Worlds
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
03 Editorial (Read article)
04 HA Secondary News
06 HA Update
06 Illumination or illustration? Using eighteenth-century material culture to develop evidential thinking in Year 8 – Eleanor Dimond (Read article)
18 Fifties Britain through the senses: ‘never had it so good’? Evaluating social change and continuity in post-war Britain...
Teaching History 191: Material Worlds
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Is primary history thriving?
Article
The 2022 Historical Association survey of primary schools drew a good response. The results have been evaluated. The full report has been published on the website but this article summarises the main findings and suggested strategies to take the subject further. Its findings help direct the resources of the HA....
Is primary history thriving?
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Keeping children motivated in primary history while ensuring they can recall what they have been taught
Primary History article
Rachelle Blagdon leads history at Thomas Walling School – one that has already earned a gold Quality Mark. Impressing the assessor particularly was the way the school paid dual attention both to the motivation aspect of the subject and to effective curriculum planning. Four particular approaches were used to enhance...
Keeping children motivated in primary history while ensuring they can recall what they have been taught
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Teaching the Wars of the Roses in primary history
Primary History article
The Tudors is a relatively popular topic for those Key Stage 2 teachers looking at a theme extending beyond 1066. In this article Matthew Sossick argues that there is a large gap in understanding if pupils understand nothing of how the Tudors emerged as such a dominant dynasty. This means...
Teaching the Wars of the Roses in primary history
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Significant anniversaries: Windrush 75
Primary History article
It is 75 years since the ship called the Empire Windrush brought people from the Caribbean to begin a new life in the United Kingdom. Those who also arrived in the years leading up to 1971 are often referred to as ‘the Windrush generation’. Their contribution to Britain socially, culturally...
Significant anniversaries: Windrush 75
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Teaching black British history through local archives
Primary History article
The huge benefits that local archives can bring to primary history are explored by Steven Kenyon. He illustrates this with a case study of Lancashire Archives. The central focus is on ways in which local history can support diversity in the curriculum by providing three examples – one for Key Stage...
Teaching black British history through local archives
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Benin: exploring an African empire at Key Stage 2
Primary History article
Karin Doull reminds us of the value in studying Benin as a non-European study area and suggests how it might be approached, stressing the importance of placing it in context through comparison. The article addresses worthwhile aspects, key concepts and questions as well as furnishing some key information including extracts...
Benin: exploring an African empire at Key Stage 2
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My favourite place: Lyme Regis, Dorset
Primary History feature
Claire Bradshaw describes why Lyme Regis is a very special place not just for its stunning scenery but for its educational value. It probably has a history dating back to earlier than any other article in the ‘My Favourite Place’ series – this one running into millions of years. ...
My favourite place: Lyme Regis, Dorset
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Primary History 94: Out now
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
Read Primary History 94
It may be tempting to imagine that a stream of good authors send in a range of articles and all that is needed is to tidy them up a bit and publish. If this were the case there would be no need for an editorial board....
Primary History 94: Out now
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Primary History 94
The primary education journal of the Historical Association
05 Editorial (Read article - open access)
06 Is primary history thriving? What the recent survey of primary history seems to be telling us – Tim Lomas (Read article)
10 Using picture books to explore ideas around history with very young children – Karin Doull (Read article)
14 Significant people: why it’s...
Primary History 94
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History 381
The Journal of the Historical Association, Volume 108, Issue 381
Access all articles online (you first need to be logged in to the HA website and subscribed to History)
New Explorations in Early Modern Intelligence-Gathering: Introduction (pp 190-201) – Dannielle Shaw, Matthew Woodcock (Free to Read)
The Secretariat of Francis Walsingham, 1568–1590 (pp 202-223) – Hsuan-Ying Tu
Robert Barret and the Making of an Early...
History 381
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Ending Camelot: the assassination of John F Kennedy
Historian article
The murder of America’s thirty-fifth president is often regarded as one of the key events in the recent history of the United States. Numerous conspiracy theories have made it appear more complex, and more mysterious, than was in fact the case.
No event in recent American history has been more comprehensively...
Ending Camelot: the assassination of John F Kennedy
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Anti-Americanism in Britain during the Second World War
Historian article
The Second World War saw the development of significant anti-Americanism in Britain. This article locates the centre of wartime anti-Americanism in the politics of Conservative imperialists, who believed the USA was trying to deliberately dismantle the British Empire in order to fulfil its own imperial ambitions.
The Second World War...
Anti-Americanism in Britain during the Second World War