As a pioneering First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt refused, as one admirer put it, ‘to step into her little mould in the biscuit tin of President’s wives that was ready and waiting for her’.  She broadcast on the radio, wrote a newspaper column, travelled endlessly and spoke out fearlessly in defence...

The resources in this section are from workshops presented for at the HA Annual Conference 2018. The conference took place in Stratford-upon-Avon on 18-19 May 2018. The HA Annual Conference is a unique opportunity to join the history community on a weekend of captivating history. In the General pathway you can enjoy...

Keynote Speech from the Historical Association 2013 Annual Conference - Podcast Dr Marc Morris - Historian, author and television presenter 1066 is the most famous date in English history. Everyone remembers the story, depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry, of William the Conqueror's successful invasion, and poor King Harold being felled...

The resources in this section are from the general history lectures and workshops presented at the HA Annual Conference 2016 which took place at the Majestic Hotel in Harrogate. The HA Annual Conference is a unique opportunity to join the history community on a weekend of engaging history. In the General pathway...

Do you sometimes heave a cynical sigh when you hear that it's 175 years since the invention of, say, the paperclip, and that a wealth of exhibitions, books and TV programmes are planned to celebrate the fact?  Well, anniversaries can be a powerful hook to get people interested in the...

On Wednesday 8 July the Historical Association held its annual awards evening. This year the event was held the RAF club on Piccadilly. Despite a tube strike, the event was full with people receiving awards, supporting the recipients and HA guests. Barbara Mitchelhill and Mary Hooper, the Young Quills winners...

The resources in this section are from the general history lectures and workshops presented at the HA Annual Conference 2015 in Bristol. The HA Annual Conference is a unique opportunity to join the history community on a weekend of engaging history. In the General pathway you can enjoy lectures from academic researchers...

The resources in this section are from the general history workshops presented at the HA Annual Conference 2014. The HA Annual Conference is a unique opportunity to join the history community on a weekend of engaging history. In the General pathway you can enjoy lectures from academic researchers and local branch historians...

In Twelfth Night Shakespeare gently mocked the Puritans, who objected to stage plays and other entertainments. Yet within four decades, the Puritans had closed the London theatres and were about to seize power from Charles I. Among their many reforms were the banning of Christmas celebrations and of Twelfth Night itself....

On June 18 2013 David Cannadine will formally receive the Historical Association's Medlicott Medal for Services to History. In anticipation of the evening awards event that will culminate in a lecture by Professor Cannadine, we met with the great man to reflect on his award and his career.

Keynote Speech from the Historical Association 2013 Annual Conference - Podcast Sir Richard Evans FBA - Regius Professor of History and President of Wolfson College, University of Cambridge ‘Study problems, not periods', Lord Acton famously advised in his Inaugural Lecture at Cambridge. Centuries in themselves have no historical meaning; the...

Presidential Lecture from the Historical Association 2013 Annual Conference - Podcast Professor Jackie Eales  - President of the HA and Professor of Early Modern History at Canterbury Christ Church University Elizabeth I's spin doctors created a lasting image of her as Gloriana and when she died her reign was lauded...

Lecture from the Historical Association 2013 Annual Conference - Podcast Professor Bill Sheils - University of York The Reformation comprised a range of regional and local experiences, each with its own character and chronology. This talk will examine the broad characteristics of religious change in the north of England between...

Lecture from the Historical Association 2013 Annual Conference - Podcast Professor Alan Forrest - University of York Napoleon would become a nineteenth-century hero, the stuff of legend in a romantic age. This lecture examines the genesis of the Napoleonic myth, and shows how throughout his career he consciously burnished his...

Lecture from the 2012 HA Annual Conference  Frank Tallett: Fellow in History at the University of Reading and former Head of its School of Humanities Until recently, military history has largely been concerned with ‘badges and buttons', an approach that stressed tactics, strategy and weapons. The so-called New Military History has sought...

2012 Annual Conference Presidential Lecture Charles I: The People's Martyr? Jackie Eales, HA President and Professor of Early Modern History at Canterbury Christ Church University Charles I was renowned for his distrust of ‘popularity'. Yet during the 1640s he was forced to appeal to his people for support and in...

Jonathan Bell: Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of History at the University of Reading.What historians have come to term ‘liberalism' in an American context has taken on numerous meanings that provide a lens through which to examine broad trends in US history across the twentieth century. From the...

2012 Annual Conference LectureFighting a different war: contesting the place of the queer soldier in the mythology of the Second World WarEmma Vickers: Lecturer in Modern British History University of Reading In the mid-1990s, the queer soldier finally became visible. On the streets, gay rights campaigners led by Peter Tatchell...

2012 Annual Conference LectureShot by both sides: Punk, Politics and the collapse of consensus in BritainMatthew Worley: Reader in History, University of ReadingThis paper examines the way in which organisations of the far left and far right endeavoured to appropriate elements of British youth culture to validate their analysis of...

On July 18 2011 the Historical Association hosted a public debate chaired by Professor Simon Schama at the Institute of Education, Bedford Way, London. With the history curriculum being the focus of intense interest the following series of podcasts from the debate examine what that curriculum might look like. Joining Simon Schama was five...