It’s a new year and there’s lots to look forward to – new hopes and fortunes! Of course, we also like to look back (history being our business) and so we’re excited to see that 2025 is another year packed full of anniversaries. We will be commemorating several of these...

January 2025 is the 760-year anniversary of Simon de Montfort calling the first parliament in 1265. Simon de Montfort can be a divisive figure, both disliked and admired in equal measure for different aspects of his recorded character and his actions. Undoubtedly a violent man, he was also responsible for...

Each year on 27 January the UK observes Holocaust Memorial Day. Every year since its introduction communities, individuals, organisations and institutions have been encouraged to mark the day and remember it. The history of what is remembered is straightforward: on 27 January 1945 the Soviet Army entered into a Nazi...

In this Virtual Branch talk Professor Emma Smith provides a preview of her current research, which explores the lives and cultural undercurrents of Elizabethan England. What was influencing their cultural tastes and how much of it was new, or had it all been seen before? Emma Smith is Professor of Shakespeare Studies...

The Historical Association is pleased to announce a new editorial team of the journal History. The Humanities Department of Northumbria University will be hosting an outstanding group of academics and scholars as the new commissioners and editors of the journal which was founded in 1912. Becky Sullivan, CEO of the...

In this Virtual Branch talk, Dr Alvin Finkel challenges claims that egalitarian, peaceful societies disappeared with the founding of agriculture or with the founding of state-level social organisation.  Different authors have suggested that early human society was essentially egalitarian in nature, with hierarchies only later becoming common. The point at which...

The Historian is a members’ magazine and we want to hear from you. We know that many of our readers are actively involved in history in some way and we would love you to share your stories with other members – who knows what you might inspire! The editorial board...