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Do historical anniversaries matter? Case study: Arnhem 1944
Historian feature
2019 has been quite a year for historical anniversaries – Peterloo 200, D-Day 75, Monte Cassino 75, Women MPs 100 years, Apollo Moon Landings 50 years and all following on the tail of four years of the First World War centenary – and that is not counting the anniversaries that...
Do historical anniversaries matter? Case study: Arnhem 1944
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How hidden are ordinary people in later medieval England?
Historian article
Tim Lomas explores some documents from the Bishop and Priory of Durham that shed interesting light on the lives of ‘ordinary people’ in medieval England.
It is largely a truism to state that the majority of documents from medieval Britain were not designed to shed much light on the lives...
How hidden are ordinary people in later medieval England?
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A European dimension to local history
Historian article
Trevor James raises the prospect of broadening our approaches to local history to take a wider European perspective.
When Professor W. G. Hoskins published his The Making of the English Landscape in 1955, he taught us how to observe and understand the topography of our landscapes, urban and rural, and...
A European dimension to local history
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My Favourite History Place: Edinburgh's Royal Mile
Historian feature
Maggie Wilson whets our appetite for exploration of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.
Edinburgh’s Royal Mile runs between the Castle and Holyrood Palace. In addition to these and other well-known sites such as St Giles Cathedral, John Knox’s house, the Canongate Tolbooth and Canongate Kirk, and stories of Deacon Brodie, David Hume, James Boswell, Robert Burns and, obviously,...
My Favourite History Place: Edinburgh's Royal Mile
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My Favourite History Place: Hadrian’s Wall
Historian article
Choosing Hadrian’s Wall as one of my favourite places is a bit of a cheat, really, as it is a 73-mile-long (80 Roman miles) wall punctuated with a whole range of 20 individual sites each worth a visit; from mile castles and forts to desolate sections with fabulous views or...
My Favourite History Place: Hadrian’s Wall
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Terriers in India
Historian Article
Peter Stanley is working on the largely unexplored history of the thousands of British Territorial soldiers who served in India during the First World War using their letters and diaries. He is trying to discover what happened to these men when they returned to Britain. Did their service in India...
Terriers in India
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Joseph Banks and his travelling plants, 1787-1810
Historian article
Jordan Goodman takes us on a botanical journey to the ends of the earth.
Joseph Banks never commanded a ship. In 1773, aged 30, he went on his last voyage, a short crossing from Hellevoetsluis, south Holland, to Harwich. Yet not only was the sea always at the centre of his...
Joseph Banks and his travelling plants, 1787-1810
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My Favourite History Place: Waterloo Station
Historian feature
Waterloo station may not be an obvious choice for a favourite history place. It is big. It is busy. It’s a place that people pass through rather than linger. Yet its story is interesting. If time permits, an hour spent exploring is a rewarding experience.
Passengers first used Waterloo in...
My Favourite History Place: Waterloo Station
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Film: London’s Dreaded Visitation – Epidemic disease in Restoration London
Presidential Lecture - HA Annual Conference 2016
This lecture explored the epidemiology of disease in metropolitan London, exploring by reconstructions of local impact in the various parishes north, south east and west of the City from Bills of Mortality, burial registers and the Churchwardens’ accounts which often allow a day by day if not hour by hour...
Film: London’s Dreaded Visitation – Epidemic disease in Restoration London
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Bismarck after Fifty Years
Classic Pamphlet
This notable essay by Dr. Erich Eyck, the most distinguished Bismarckian scholar of the mid-twentieth century was written on the invitation of the HA to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bismark's death. Dr. Eyck, a German Liberal of the school of Ludwig Bamberger, found his way to England in the...
Bismarck after Fifty Years
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Henry V
Pamphlet
Christopher Allmand updates his earlier pamphlet on Henry V, taking into account research and ideas explored by historians over the last 50 years, to produce a much more rounded view of Henry V. The book is split into three parts - Henry V in history; Henry as he is viewed...
Henry V
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Edward III & David II - Pamphlet
Classic Pamphlet
When Alexander II met his tragic death at Kinghorn in 1286, the event was speedily to put an end to the cordial relations which had prevailed for a hundred years between England and Scotland and to substitute chronic hostility for two and half centuries. Edward I, fresh from the conquest...
Edward III & David II - Pamphlet
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Out and about in Coventry
Historian feature
Coventry and ‘phoenix' seem to be complementary words. Different images to different people. The central medieval area of Coventry is well worth the enjoyment of a gentle stroll. It contains the potential challenge of 400 listed buildings to visit! This article is intended to be an ‘appetite-wetter' which will draw...
Out and about in Coventry
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Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Introducing students to historical interpretation
Historian article
High school history teacher Brent Dyck is one of our Canadian readers. He has offered this item to The Historian as a contribution to our commitment to explore the historical approaches and values that we are seeking to convey to young people and the wider public. We hope that you may...
Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Introducing students to historical interpretation
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Out and About in Shaftesbury
Historian feature
Shaftesbury in North Dorset is one of the highest towns in England, standing as it does at 750 feet above sea level. As with many high points in the area, the first settlement was established around 8000 years ago in the middle of the Stone Age. The town went on...
Out and About in Shaftesbury
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Lord Palmerston
Historian article
Lord Palmerston (1784-1865) has long interested (and confused) historians. A man of contradictions and paradoxes, he seemed both to embody modern Victorian Britain, and yet at the same time stand as a potent symbol of what had been lost.
Lord Palmerston
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Was Richard II Mad? An evening with Terry Jones
Event Podcast
On 19th June Terry Jones, 'Python', historian, broadcaster, actor, director and comedian called King Richard II a victim of spin at the annual Historical Association/English Association lecture at the Bishopsgate Institute. Here he sets out to rescue his reputation and lift the lid on the turbulent world of 14th century...
Was Richard II Mad? An evening with Terry Jones
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Roman Britain
Classic Pamphlet
This classic pamphlet provides an introduction to Roman Britain, examines the political history, the institutions of Roman Britain, the economic background and the end of Roman Britain. IntroductionThe Roman conquest and occupation of Britain has long been taken as the conventional starting point of English History, and there is a conventional...
Roman Britain
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'Spy Fever' in Britain, 1900 to 1914
Historian article
The decade and a half prior to the First World War saw Britain experience a virulent, some might say sordid phenomenon that has been referred to as ‘spy fever.’ This article traces the roots of spy fever, and examines its nature, before assessing its effects on Britain between 1900 and...
'Spy Fever' in Britain, 1900 to 1914
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Reconciling historical accounts and archaeological remains
Historian article
Paul Wordsworth traces the route ways across the Karakum Desert, Turkmenistan, going in search of the wells and watering places essential to desert travel.
There are many risks when arriving at a well in the middle of the Karakum (black sand) desert in the modern Republic of Turkmenistan, not least...
Reconciling historical accounts and archaeological remains
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Virtual Branch recording: Tudor Liveliness?
Discovering Vivid Art in Post-Reformation England
In Tudor England, artworks were often described as ‘lively’. What did this mean in a culture where naturalism was an alien concept? And in a time of religious upheaval, when the misuse of images might lure the soul to hell, how could liveliness be a good thing?
In this talk...
Virtual Branch recording: Tudor Liveliness?
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Slavery, child labour, or a grand day out? Hull’s agricultural hiring fairs, 1870–1950
Historian article
Agricultural hiring fairs – now largely forgotten –performed multiple social functions and were an intriguing aspect of rural life, writes Stephen Caunce.
Over the last three decades, long-established British newspapers have endured a steady dwindling of staff, depth of reporting and public respect. Paradoxically, however, the digitalising of old content has...
Slavery, child labour, or a grand day out? Hull’s agricultural hiring fairs, 1870–1950
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My Favourite History Place: Burton Agnes Hall
Historian article
David Hockney’s landscape paintings of the Yorkshire Wolds in the 1990s alerted people to the peculiar beauty of the East Riding but the region remains strangely unknown and unvisited, especially the small, scattered villages inland from the coast. Yet the village of Burton Agnes, on the road between Driffield and Bridlington,...
My Favourite History Place: Burton Agnes Hall
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Out and About in Ardmore, County Waterford
Historian article
Within the historic landscape it is frequently possible to identify the impact of deeply religious figures who have exercised very real and long-lasting spiritual influence on their communities and indeed on the very landscape itself.Often these are shadowy figures in a distant past where myth and history intertwine. Sometimes it is...
Out and About in Ardmore, County Waterford
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Recorded Webinar: Writing historical fiction - Research and planning
Article
In this first webinar about writing historical fiction, author Tony Bradman will talk about how ideas grow from reading and thinking about history. Once you have a good idea, then you need to research it properly, starting with secondary sources for context, then moving on to more specific reading. Visits...
Recorded Webinar: Writing historical fiction - Research and planning
