In this HA Virtual Branch talk Professor Richard Toye explores Churchill’s response to the USSR and how his actions during the early Cold War years intersected with his views of traditional Anglo-Russian tensions and the legacy of the ‘Great Game’. Richard Toye is Professor of Modern History at the University...

Professor David Olusoga is a revered TV historian, a writer and a practising academic at Manchester University. In 2022 he was the recipient of the Historical Association's annual Medlicott medal, awarded for outstanding contributions to history. The recipient of the medal provides the closing lecture of the HA's annual awards evening. Professor...

Ravenna was the capital of the Western Roman Empire from 402 CE until 751 CE, then later, the capital of the immense kingdom of Theoderic the Goth and finally the centre of Byzantine power in Italy. In this talk Professor Judith Herrin explores the history of the city, its peoples...

Why is the term 'Armenian Genocide' controversial, with many countries still not acknowledging a genocide at all? What do we know about the event of 1915 and the plight of the Armenian community in Turkey? How can we grapple with a history that many people want to forget? In this...

This year's Holocaust Memorial Day the theme is 'One Day'. In this webinar with historian Paula Kitching, we will use the one day Wannsee Conference of January 1942 to help explore the actions of the perpetrators, the Holocaust victims and how decision making by people can lead to genocide. This...

Karin Friedrich recently joined the Virtual Branch to discuss aspects of its complex history in her talk on the partitions of Poland, their repercussions for German-Polish relations and their legacy. Professor Friedrich is chair in Early Modern European History at the University of Aberdeen, co-director of the Centre for Early Modern...

Historian Robert Sackville-West joined the HA Virtual Branch in November 2021 to talk about the topic of his book The Searchers: The Quest for the Lost of the First World War. By the end of the First World War, the whereabouts of more than half a million British soldiers were unknown. Most were presumed...

Robert Pike joined the HA Virtual Branch to discuss the research for his latest book Silent Village: Life and Death in Occupied France. This work explores life in the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane before, during and after the infamous massacre and destruction by Nazi Germany that took place on 10 June...

The HA has worked with film-maker,  historian and Legasee ambassador Martyn Cox on a series of webinars looking at untold stories from the Second World War. Many of these stories are taken for the oral histories provided in interviews given to Martyn on film.  In this filmed webinar, Martyn goes...

Historian and author Martyn Whittock recently gave a lecture for the HA Virtual Branch on 'Mayflower Lives: building a New Jerusalem in the New World'. In 1620, 102 ill-prepared asylum seekers landed two months later than planned, in the wrong place on the eastern coast of North America. By the next summer, half of...

In this podcast Trevor Barnes looks at the development of global intelligence and security services from their early origins to the present day. He examines at the role these services had during the two World Wars, the signficance of espionage in the development of the Cold War and the importance and...

In this series of videos, produced by Royal Holloway, University of London, staff and students explore British responses to the American and French Revolutions. This playlist includes videos looking at the origins of the American Revolution; specific questions like ‘Why didn’t French-Canadians join the revolution?; and actor readings of key...

During the recent First World War centenary many HA branches held lectures and talks about a variety of aspects of the war. Some had outings and many looked at their local war memorials or Pals Battalions. The Glasgow and West of Scotland Branch decided that as many of their members...

In this podcast, Professor Bruce Collins of Sheffield Hallam University explores the development of the British navy during the French Wars and the 19th century. Professor Collins outlines the place of the navy in Britain’s psyche at the beginning of the French Wars and the importance of coastal transport, as well...

In this podcast Dr Pritipuspa Mishra of the University of Southampton discusses how the language and politics of the Indian Independence movement changed between 1847 and 1947.

In this extensive podcast series, Dr Alex Goodall of UCL looks at the growth of the United States as an international power from the end of the American Civil War through to the early twentieth century. This was a critical period for understanding the United States rise to superpower status in the twentieth...

In this podcast Professor Stanley Henig of the University of Lancaster looks at Britain's relationship with Europe from 1945-2005.

In this podcast Professor Charles Tripp of the the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London looks at the impact of the Cold War on the Middle East.

What brought about the era of detente between the Superpowers in the 1970s? In this podcast Dr Alex Pravda of St Antony's College, University of Oxford the impact and significance of the Policy of Detente.

In this podcast Professor David Anderson of St Cross College, University of Oxford discusses the impact of the Cold War on Africa.