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Tank development in the First World War
Historian article
The emergence of the tank as a further weapon of war is inextricably associated with Lincoln where various early models were developed.
By 1915 the Great War had gone just about as far as it could and for the first time, the way an entire war was fought was described...
Tank development in the First World War
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Out and about in Tamworth
Historian feature
Trevor James introduces the wider context in which Tamworth’s history has developed.
Modern-day visitors to Tamworth immediately observe its very extensive out-of-town shopping areas and industrial estates and then, in stark parallel, notice that the signage is welcoming them to the capital of historic Mercia. Investigating this conundrum is the...
Out and about in Tamworth
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Interpreting an early seventeenth-century cottage at the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum
Historian article
The Weald & Downland Open Air Museum (WDOAM), which opened to the public in 1970, is one of the leading museums of historic buildings and rural life in the United Kingdom. It has a collection of nearly 50 historic buildings - domestic, agricultural and industrial - dating from the thirteenth...
Interpreting an early seventeenth-century cottage at the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum
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The Institute of Historical Research
Public History Podcast
The following podcasts are from an interview between Dr Andrew Foster, chair of our Public History Committee with Professor Miles Taylor, Director of the Institute of Historical Research. The podcasts look at the work of the IHR - what it aims to do for the historical profession and wider public, the...
The Institute of Historical Research
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The Nation of the Scots and the Declaration of Arbroath
Classic Pamphlet
This pamphlet seeks to chart the progress of the Scottish struggle for independence after 1291 by considering the changing nature of the Scottish resistance. The primary sources are exiguous when compared to those bearing upon the English attempt at subjugation, and the interpretation offered is at best tentative: that initially...
The Nation of the Scots and the Declaration of Arbroath
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Out and about in Cromford Mill, Lea Mills and the Lumsdale Valley
Historian feature
Cromford Mill, one of the best known, and the Lumsdale Valley, one of the least known of the early industrial sites, are linked today by being managed by the Arkwright Society. They have also been the subject of a recent BBC1 programme in a series: ‘Britain's Hidden Heritage'. They are...
Out and about in Cromford Mill, Lea Mills and the Lumsdale Valley
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1497, Cornwall and the Wars of the Roses
Article
Ian Arthurson reasseses the Cornish rising of 1497 on its 500th anniversary. On the 400th anniversary of this rebellion there was a good deal of agreement about the Wars of the Roses: ‘The slaughter of people was greater than in any former war on English soil ... The standard of...
1497, Cornwall and the Wars of the Roses
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Exploring local sources
Historian article
Tim Lomas was correct when he said, in his article in the Summer 2019 edition of The Historian, that historians can see much more in medieval documents than the scribes intended.
Lay manors in Bedfordshire are a good example. Eggington manor, in the south-west, was part of a larger estate and held...
Exploring local sources
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Formation of the Public History Committee
Public History Committee
The Historical Association is pleased to announce the formation of a Committee for Public History which held its first meeting in May 2009. Dr Andrew Foster, a member of Council, is the first chair of this committee and gave a brief account of its purpose at the AGM held in...
Formation of the Public History Committee
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Out and about in Trowbridge
Historian feature
This is more than one of our conventional ‘Out and About in Local History' items because Ken Rogers introduces us to a process whereby visual architectural and industrial history of Trowbridge has been saved from destruction; and then he gives us some clear guidance as to where to go and...
Out and about in Trowbridge
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Towards Reform in 1809
Historian article
Two hundred years ago it must have seemed to some as if the time for political and economic reform in Britain had arrived. A number of the necessary conditions appeared to be in place:
recent examples from America and France showing how readily and rapidly established systems could be overturned...
Towards Reform in 1809
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Film: Social & Cultural Change
Film series: Power and authority in Germany, 1871-1991
How did a new Germany rebuild itself from the legacy of the Second World War both physically, emotionally and culturally? Professor Stibbe explores the silences of many households and how that influenced the student rebellion of the late 1960s. He also puts into perspective the cultural impact that the war...
Film: Social & Cultural Change
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The making of Magna Carta
Historian article
Magna Carta provided a commentary on the ills of the realm in the time of King John. Sophie Ambler looks at what grievances were addressed in the Charter, how the Charter was made, and what the Charter tells us about King John himself.
The world from which Magna Carta came...
The making of Magna Carta
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Britain's Olympic visionary
Historian article
Forty-six years before the modern Olympics began, the small Shropshire market town of Much Wenlock was the seemingly unlikely setting for the establishment of an ‘Olympian Games'. Commencing in 1850, they were to become an annual festival in the town. The architect of this sporting enterprise was a local surgeon...
Britain's Olympic visionary
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Smithfield's Bartholomew Fair
Historian article
On the north-western side of the City of London, directly in front of St Bartholomew's Hospital near the ancient church of St Bartholomew the Great, there once lay a ‘smooth field', now known as Smithfield. This open space of around ten acres had a long and turbulent history. In medieval...
Smithfield's Bartholomew Fair
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Faction in Tudor England
Classic Pamphlet
'This wicked Tower must be fed with blood' - W. S. Gilbert's dialogue sums up the popular myth of Tudor England. This pamphlet looks at the reality, a society and politics necessarily divided into rival factions by the pulls of patronage, local loyalty and the implications of personal monarchy, and...
Faction in Tudor England
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The Mary Celeste: the history of a mystery
Historian article
Graham Faiella guides us through the historical evidence and literary speculation surrounding one of the ultimately unresolved incidents of recent times.
One hundred and fifty years ago, sometime between 25 November and 4 December 1872, the brigantine Mary Celeste was abandoned at sea somewhere between the Azores and the coast of Portugal....
The Mary Celeste: the history of a mystery
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Birmingham Branch 1907-2007
Branch History
The Branch was founded in May 1907, a few months after the Historical Association was established. The founding Branch President was Professor John Masterman, Professor of History (1902-09) in the University of Birmingham's Department of Commerce, as it was designated in those days. He was one of several historians in...
Birmingham Branch 1907-2007
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Out and About in South London
Historian feature
In an unusual Out and About feature, the Young Historian Local History Senior Prize winner Flora Wilton Tregear shows us what her local area can tell us about the history of public health.
Taking the DLR out from Lewisham you pass through Deptford Bridge station towards Greenwich. Here my father...
Out and About in South London
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Winston Churchill and the Islamic World: Early Encounters
Historian article
Winston Churchill had a major impact on British and world history in the twentieth century. A great deal has been written on his roles in the two world wars and on many aspects of his career. Yet relatively little attention has been paid to his relations with the Islamic world....
Winston Churchill and the Islamic World: Early Encounters
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Verdun: the endless battle
Historian article
Most can agree that the battle of Verdun started 100 years ago, on 21 February 1916, when the Germans began attacking French positions north and east of the old fortress town on the Meuse river. Few can agree on when it ended. The Germans might draw a line under it...
Verdun: the endless battle
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Sir Francis Dent and the First World War
Historian article
Not your typical soldier, not your typical service
The term ‘citizen soldier' evokes a particularly powerful image in Britain. The poignant histories of the ‘Pals' Battalions' cast a familiar, often tragic shadow over the popular memory of the First World War. Raised according to geographical and occupational connections, names such...
Sir Francis Dent and the First World War
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Exploring Twentieth-Century History
Article
For a long time, history curricula on the 20th century prioritised the narrative of a slide from World War I to World War II and fascism above many other topics. But the history of the 20th century is both far more complicated and far more interesting than that. For the historians writing here, the...
Exploring Twentieth-Century History
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The British General Strike 1926
Classic Pamphlet
‘The General Strike is a challenge to Parliament and is the road to anarchy and ruin.' (Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister, 6th May 1926).
‘The General Council does not challenge the Constitution ... the sole aim of the Council is to secure for the miners a decent standard of life. The Council...
The British General Strike 1926
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The Historian 148: Legacy of war
The magazine of the Historical Association
4 Reviews
5 Editorial (Read article for free)
6 Blood and Iron: the violent birth of modern Germany – A nation forged in war – Katja Hoyer (Read article)
12 Richard III and the Princes in the Tower: update – Tim Thornton (Read article)
16 Monty’s school: the benign side of Viscount...
The Historian 148: Legacy of war
