Europe

From the fall of Napoleon to Revolution in Russia and from the rise of Hitler to the fall of the Berlin Wall this period is one of major upheaval in Europe. We see the collapse of monarchies and empires and the changing status of women and working men. This is a time that witnesses the mass displacement of peoples and genocide on a scale never seen before it is also a time that sees changes in medicine and technology that make fundamental changes to our everyday lives. Read more

Sort by: Date (Newest first) | Title A-Z
Show: All | Articles | Podcasts | Multipage Articles
  • Political and social attitudes underpinning the 1924 Olympics

    Article

    The 1924 Olympics in Paris are best known to many British people through the ‘Chariots of Fire’ film from the early 1980s. The film touches on some of the political and social attitudes prevalent in the 1920s and Steve Illingworth explores these issues further in this article. It is argued...

    Click to view
  • The Importance of Truth, Quality and Objectivity in the BBC German Service from 1938 to 1945

    Article

    Throughout the Second World War the BBC produced and transmitted regular broadcasts in German to Germany and other European countries occupied by the Germans. In this article Hattie Simpson evaluates the style and success of the BBC German Service. The article is based on her winning entry in the senior...

    Click to view
  • Crowdsourcing the heritage of the Second World War

    Article

    Stuart Lee, Ylva Berglund Prytz and Matthew Kidd introduce an innovative project to capture objects and the memories they hold.

    Click to view
  • Bonapartism after Napoleon III: the Prince Imperial and Eugene Loudun

    Article

    Emperor Napoleon III of France was deposed in 1870 and then died three years later. His son, known as the Prince Imperial, lived in exile in south-east England. There he and his supporters kept alive ambitions for a triumphant return of the Empire. In this article, Ian Sygrave assesses the...

    Click to view
  • Forbidden friendships: taverns, nightclubs, bottle bars and emancipation

    Article

    The modern gay-rights movement has its origins in a 1960s New York ‘bottle bar’, but as Ben Jerrit explains, drinking establishments have been centres of gay culture and social resistance for centuries. 

    Click to view
  • The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

    Article

    The Nazis came to power in 1933 with an openly racist and antisemitic set of policies. In the years leading up to the start of the Second World War, those policies were carried out through legislation and governmental actions, with the support of many members of German society. Once the war started,...

    Click to view
  • Women and the French Revolution: the start of the modern feminist movement

    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,...

    Click to view
  • Film: The Two German Economies

    Article

    The speed at which both sides in Germany recovered economically is re-examined in this film. Professor Matthew Stibbe describes how the West Germany economy recovered and became a magnet for migrants as well as East Germans. However, he also examines how East Germany’s economy compared more successfully to some of...

    Click to view
  • Film: Germany 1945-1991: Introduction

    Article

    Germany as a divided and defeated nation is explored through the lens of how the two new Germanys rebuilt their States politically and culturally. Professor Anna Saunders reflects on the different inequalities that existed between the two states and how stability was established between political leaders, even when political dissent...

    Click to view
  • Film: Social & Cultural Change

    Article

    How did a new Germany rebuild itself from the legacy of the Second World War both physically, emotionally and culturally? Professor Stibbe explores the silences of many households and how that influenced the student rebellion of the late 1960s. He also puts into perspective the cultural impact that the war...

    Click to view
  • Film: Ideas and Ideology

    Article

    Professor Matthew Stibbe assesses some of the contradictory factors at play in East Germany and how that related to the wider Soviet system. He contrasts this with the development of the capitalist system that was being developed in West Germany.

    Click to view
  • Film: Key Personalities and Opposition

    Article

    Professor Matthew Stibbe examines the key political leaders of West and East Germany and how their decisions and responses to political events shaped their international relationships and the lives of the divided German population under their control. He also looks at the opposition and resistance these governments faced domestically during...

    Click to view
  • Film: Nazi Germany

    Article

    Dr Victoria Taylor provides an overview of the rise to power of Hitler from disillusioned veteran to political operator. She goes on to explore the messaging and state interventions that brought many Germans under Hitler and the Nazis spell as they enacted their ideas of what a powerful Germany should...

    Click to view
  • Germany 1914-1929: Discussion

    Article

    Professors Tim Grady and Matthew Stibbe consider changing interpretations of Germany in 1914-1929, from a negative continuum of authoritarianism culminating in Hitler's regime to a modern approach of seeing the Weimar Republic through a sociocultural lens.

    Click to view
  • Film: The Weimar Republic

    Article

    Professor Tim Grady takes us back to the final days of the First World War to examine the developing splits in German society that turned into revolutionary chasms following the country’s defeat. From this he reassesses some of the factors that led to the Weimar Republic’s collapse while also allowing...

    Click to view
  • Film series: Power and authority in Germany, 1871-1991

    Article

    The rise and fall of Germany in the 20th Century is one of the major political arcs of the modern period, and one that many feel familiar with – from the unification of the Germanic states, the defeat of the Kaiser in 1918, revolution, a weak Weimar Republic all the...

    Click to view
  • Film: Heligoland: Britain, Germany, and the Struggle for the North Sea

    Article

    Professor Jan Rüger joined the Virtual Branch on 9th February 2023 to talk about his book Heligoland: Britain, Germany, and the Struggle for the North Sea, tracing a rich history of contact and conflict from the Napoleonic Wars to the Cold War. For generations this North Sea island expressed a German...

    Click to view
  • My great-grandfather and the Italian Campaign

    Article

    This remarkable item by a student at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Wakefield was the winning Young Historian entry in the Key Stage 3 Spirit of Normandy Trust category in 2022. I’ve always known my great-grandfather fought in the Second World War, but never like this. When he left the army, he never...

    Click to view
  • Evelyn Waugh’s books on the Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935–36

    Article

    Philip Woods discusses Evelyn Waugh’s contribution to understanding the nature of journalism before the Second World War. This article compares the value to historians of the two books Evelyn Waugh wrote based on his experiences as a war correspondent covering the Italo-Ethiopian war of 1935–36. The popular satiric novel Scoop (1938) is...

    Click to view
  • Recorded Webinar: Ukraine and the Soviet Politics of Empire

    Article

    Click to view