Jonathan Phillips’s 2020 HA Virtual Conference keynote talk on The life and legend of the Sultan Saladin reveals how a man initially branded as ‘the son of Satan’ became so esteemed in Europe and, through extensive new research, we will follow how his character and achievements have acted as a role model for...

In this lecture Professor Mitter uses film and other propaganda works to explore how key events of global history are being represented in China to develop a different understanding of its own past. The talk addresses a number of the factors for this change in how China is reflecting on...

Henry V - Henry the Conqueror? In this lecture former HA President Anne Curry Emeritus Professor of Medieval History Southampton addresses the question Henry V - Henry the Conqueror?'. She explores the relationship between Henry V, his court and those in France. (Please note: if you have HA Membership and are...

Katya Hoyer recently gave a lecture for the HA Virtual Branch on Weltkrieg: the German home front during the First World War and the devastating effects of total war on a divided and insecure society. This talk provides an insight into the First World War that is often overlooked, reminding us that...

Professor Peter Mandler is the current president of the Historical Association. As part of our 'presidents season' for the HA Virtual Branch he gave a fascinating talk on The Origins of Mass Society: Speech, Sex and Drink in Urbanising Britain, 1780-1870. In this talk he explores the impact of the changes in...

Dr Jo Fox continued our virtual branch lecture series this July on the subject 'Reimagining the Blitz Spirit: the mobilisation of World War II propaganda in our own times'. Fox is the Director of the Institute of Historical Research and a well-known historian specialising in the history of propaganda, rumour and truth telling.  In this talk...

In this Virtual Branch lecture Michael Wood returns to his popular territory of Early England 500-1066 using the lives of specific stories and individuals to cast light on the period. This lecture was recorded on the 9 July 2020 as part of the HA Virtual Branch and is available to all...

This film was taken at the HA London History Forum at the Institute of Education, UCL (University of London) in November 2019 and features Michael Riley (Senior Teaching Fellow in History Education, UCL Institute of Education) Michael considers some priorities for taking forward the history curriculum in our primary and secondary...

This film was taken at the HA London History Forum at the Institute of Education, UCL (University of London) in November 2019 and features Kath Goudie (Cottenham Village College). Drawing on her experience as a history teacher, teacher trainer and assistant headteacher Kath Goudie shares reflections on how the history...

This secondary workshop took place at at the Historical Association Annual Conference, Chester, May 2019. It looked at ways of helping lower-ability students at GCSE access lesson and revision content based around superpower relations in the cold war, but is applicable to any subject area. Through a series of games and...

This secondary workshop took place at at the Historical Association Annual Conference, Chester, May 2019. To teach successfully at GCSE, should you focus your work on practice exam questions? Is boosting grades about re-writing mark-schemes in pupil-friendly language and showing model answers? Success at GCSE involves teaching interpretations properly, not just...

The film below was taken at the London History Forum: Widening Perspectives which took place on Thursday 25 April 2019 at the UCL Institute of Education and features Will Bailey-Watson (subject lead for PGCE History at the University of Reading).The renewed emphasis on curriculum in many schools is giving history teachers a...

The film below was taken at the HA Annual Conference in Chester May 2019 and features Heather Fearn, Inspector Curriculum and Professional Development Lead, Ofsted. This session aimed to explain Ofsted’s approach to inspecting the curriculum under the new education inspection framework (EIF) that will come into effect in September 2019, with...

Popular perceptions of life, politics and morality in the Middle Ages are overwhelmingly negative, a far cry from images being developed by historians through their research. This workshop explores how to tweak and change familiar topics (including the reign of Richard III) to create a more historically accurate, positive and...

Richard Kennett is a senior leader, teacher, blogger, text-book author and member of HA secondary committee. In November 2018, Richard visited the Yorkshire History Forum to talk about his school’s experience of reviewing and re-planning their Key Stage 3 curriculum. This film is of Richard’s keynote speech at the Forum....

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...