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What Have Historians Been Arguing About... Histories of education – and society?
Teaching History feature
It is not emphasised enough that the progress of historiography often proceeds, not by historians arguing and then coming to some resolution, but simply by moving on. Historiography follows fashion, and subjects often exhaust themselves (for the time being)... A related issue is that of siloes. Historiography – academic writing generally...
What Have Historians Been Arguing About... Histories of education – and society?
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Historical learning using concept cartoons
Teaching History article
Although perhaps unfamiliar to the majority of our readers, concept cartoons are not a new educational tool. Christoph Kühberger here lays out his rationale for using this technique, borrowed from science education, in history teaching. Concept cartoons provide a means for pupils to express such difficult historical concepts as the...
Historical learning using concept cartoons
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Jubilee medals: celebration and creation
Primary History article
The Queen’s jubilee is a great opportunity to explore a huge range of concepts with EYFS children, and what better way to celebrate the experience than by creating your own celebration medals and to wear them in your own celebrations, as a continuation of the celebrations of so many years past....
Jubilee medals: celebration and creation
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Female migration to Australia
Primary History article
The Hyde Park Barracks, in Sydney, has a layered history. Designed by Francis Greenway (a convict architect) it was built between 1817 and 1819 by convict labour. Over the next three decades an estimated 50,000 male convicts passed through – some stayed for years, others days or only hours before...
Female migration to Australia
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Out and About in Wheathampstead
Historian feature
Dianne Payne examines the structural local history of Wheathampstead and provides a template for wider comparisons.
The rural village of Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire, situated about four miles from St Albans, lies on the River Lea. The village and surrounding land has a long history and in ancient times was owned by the...
Out and About in Wheathampstead
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Civilian expertise in war
Historian article
Philip Hamlyn Williams introduces us to the commercial and industrial background to modern-day warfare.
When I think of war, I immediately see men and women in one of three uniforms: Royal Navy, RAF and Army. My research over the past seven years into how the British army was supplied in two...
Civilian expertise in war
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Croydon’s Tudor and Stuart inns
Historian article
Trevor James offers a case study in how to define and identify inns as part of the historic urban environment.
Croydon’s Tudor and Stuart inns Croydon’s Tudor and Stuart inns had a remarkable and formative effect on its urban landscape, an effect which still endures into modern times. Topographers and...
Croydon’s Tudor and Stuart inns
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My Favourite History Place: Swarkestone Bridge
Historian feature
Trevor James reveals his continued fascination with this major Midland scheduled monument.
Almost 40 years ago, my role as a Nottingham University extra-mural tutor took me to Melbourne in Derbyshire. For the first few weeks I followed a cross-country route to Melbourne, via Burton-upon-Trent, Woodville and Hartshorne, but, on a dark November...
My Favourite History Place: Swarkestone Bridge
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Being historically rigorous with creativity
Teaching History article
After a Fellowship in Holocaust Education at the Imperial War Museum, Andy Lawrence decided that something was missing in normal approaches to teaching emotive and controversial issues such as genocide, a deficit demonstrated by recent research by the Holocaust Education Development Programme. As part of his fellowship, Lawrence created an...
Being historically rigorous with creativity
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Teaching Britain’s ‘civil rights’ history
Teaching History article
Hannah Elias and Martin Spafford begin this article by explaining why they believe it is essential for young people to learn about the ‘heterogeneous, rich and complex’ history of the struggle for civil rights in Britain. Drawing on their diverse experiences of researching, writing and teaching history at school and university...
Teaching Britain’s ‘civil rights’ history
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Promoting Gypsy, Roma and Traveller heritage in your primary history curriculum
Primary History article
It goes without saying that the events of Black Lives Matter have prompted many leaders and teachers to take a step back and reflect on their curriculum content and how effectively it reflects the diverse story of our islands. However, it is not just Black History that is requiring more prominence...
Promoting Gypsy, Roma and Traveller heritage in your primary history curriculum
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Key Stage 2 – Key Stage 3: Transition
Primary History article
Often, primary schools and secondary schools are seen as separate entities. But why?
At primary, is it our responsibility to nurture our children and to encourage them only until they finish their primary education after the Year 6 SATs? Do we then just wave goodbye as they embark on their...
Key Stage 2 – Key Stage 3: Transition
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One of my favourite history places: Oakham Castle
Primary History feature
Standing by the stocks in the historic Buttercross of the market-town of Oakham, it would be easy to miss the hidden gem of Norman architecture that lies just a few metres away. Oakham Castle may be far removed from the traditional image of knights and castles, but there is something...
One of my favourite history places: Oakham Castle
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Ulrich Zwingli
Classic Pamphlet
The Reformation of the sixteenth century has many sides, and not the least significant of these is the contribution from Switzerland. How under the leadership of Zwingli, Zurich, Berne, Basle and St Gall broke away from Rome, how this led to civil war, how and why agreement with the German...
Ulrich Zwingli
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Cinderella dreams: young love in post-war Britain
Historian article
In a lecture given to the Cambridge branch, Carol Dyhouse explains changing attitudes to marriage in the 1950s and 60s.
Women teachers in the 1950s and 1960s regularly complained about how hard it was to keep girls’ attention on their schoolwork. Educationist Kathleen Ollerenshaw pointed out that the prospects of marriage,...
Cinderella dreams: young love in post-war Britain
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Remembering Neville Chamberlain
Historian article
Brent Dyck is a Canadian teacher and a previous contributor to The Historian. In this short essay he offers us his objective interpretation of the achievements of Neville Chamberlain. For some what he says may seem surprising and for others it might even be controversial. However, editorially it seemed entirely proper...
Remembering Neville Chamberlain
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My Favourite History Place: Queen Square, Bath
Historian feature
Some years ago, on the shore of Loch Lomond, I met a Scotsman. As we started to converse he asked me where I was from. When I replied ‘Bath’, his response was ‘Ah, the most beautiful city in Britain,’ adding, out of patriotism or good judgement, ‘Edinburgh is second.’
The Roman...
My Favourite History Place: Queen Square, Bath
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Ancient Athenian inscriptions in public and private UK collections
Historian article
Peter Liddel introduces us to a rich source of historical information and encourages us to make some purposeful visits to museums.
From the seventeenth to the mid nineteenth century, travellers from the UK explored the Mediterranean lands of ancient civilisations in search of trophies that demonstrated the achievements of the classical world. Highly...
Ancient Athenian inscriptions in public and private UK collections
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My Favourite History Place: St James Church, Gerrards Cross
Historian feature
Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, is a well-to-do town in the Chilterns and a wealthy commuter dormitory for London. It also harbours what might be one of the most remarkable, under-appreciated churches of the mid-nineteenth century. St James, the parish church, was built for the ‘unruled and unruly’ agricultural labourers and traders who inhabited...
My Favourite History Place: St James Church, Gerrards Cross
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Eric Hobsbawm: Is History Dangerous?
Article
Professor Eric Hobsbawm’s address at the Annual Dinner of the Historical Association meeting in Cambridge, April 1999, on accepting the Medlicott Medal.
Our annual award the Medlicott Medal is awarded to individuals for outstanding services and current contributions to history.
Eric Hobsbawm: Is History Dangerous?
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Pull-out posters: Primary History 88 – Diversity
Diversity in Primary History
There has been much emphasis on ensuring that we teach a balanced history curriculum that reflects diversity. Teachers often ask the Historical Association where they can get their ideas and find examples of good practice. From the start, this journal has addressed the many strands of a diverse primary history...
Pull-out posters: Primary History 88 – Diversity
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Back to basics: How might we organise historical knowledge?
Primary History article
There has been much emphasis on pupils having a rich knowledge and this has led to many schools devising knowledge lists and knowledge organisers. This article argues that is a valuable element in a good history curriculum in primary schools but that it is important that this is properly thought...
Back to basics: How might we organise historical knowledge?
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Food, history and a sense of place?
Historian article
It ought to be possible to match many of the letters of the alphabet to an English place-name and its particular food-stuff. From Bath Buns to Yorkshire Pudding, this puzzle might go, by way of cakes from Eccles and Pontefract. Can you think of other letters of the alphabet and...
Food, history and a sense of place?
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Out and About: Tynemouth Priory
Historian feature
Approximately 10 miles east of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and just over 10 minutes walk from my home, the imposing ruins of Tynemouth Priory command sea, river, and land from the promontory between King Edward’s Bay and Prior’s Haven. While the Priory dates back to the eleventh century, the headland on which it sits,...
Out and About: Tynemouth Priory
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Using individuals’ stories to help GCSE students to explain change and causation
Article
Should we, and how do we, develop in our students a sense of period – or a series of senses of period – in a thematic study spanning a thousand years? This was the problem faced by Matthew Fearns-Davies in preparing for the GCSE ‘Health and the People’ paper. He shows...
Using individuals’ stories to help GCSE students to explain change and causation
