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The British Union of Fascists: the international dimension
Article
Fascism failed in Britain in the 1930s – Europe’s decade of the ‘Brown plague’. Unlike in many European countries, fascists in Britain were never a serious threat to the democratic order. This was not for want of trying, especially on the part of Sir Oswald Mosley and his British Union...
The British Union of Fascists: the international dimension
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Queen Victoria as a Politician
Article
Even had Queen Victoria not presided over the achievements of the age which bears her name, her career would still hold a fascination for the historian. She was, for one thing, the solitary woman in a male political world. She was possessed of a personality at once perceptive and simple,...
Queen Victoria as a Politician
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Recent Advances in the Study of Surnames
Article
Many surnames have a straightforward meaning. It is obvious that names such as Smith, Wright and Turner come from occupations; that names such as Pickering or York are from the names of places; and that Roberts, Robertson, Robson and Robinson are derived from the same personal name. It is not...
Recent Advances in the Study of Surnames
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The Casket Letters
Article
In May 1568 Mary Queen of Scots was riding in fear for her life to the wilds of Galloway. She crossed the Solway confident that she would receive the help which her cousin Queen Elizabeth had promised her, but instead found herself a prisoner. In the subsequent months a series...
The Casket Letters
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John Wesley at 300
Historian article
The tercentenary of John Wesley’s birth has been celebrated not just in his native country, but round the world – as widely, in fact, as the Methodism associated with him has spread. Over the years, in addition to innumerable biographies there have been many studies of particular aspects of his...
John Wesley at 300
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John Knox and womankind: a reappraisal
Historian article
"To promote a woman to bear rule, superiority, dominion or empire above any realm, nation, or city is repugnant to nature, contumely to God, a thing most contrarious to his revealed will and approved ordinance, and finally it is the subversion of good order, and all equity and justice." John...
John Knox and womankind: a reappraisal
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Tony Blair, the Iraq War, and a sense of history
Historian article
Blair the war leader provided historians with countless opportunities to get their names in the newspapers, let alone voice their opinions across the airwaves. The usual suspects were lined up (Eric Hobsbawm and Ben Pimlott in the Guardian, Andrew Roberts and John Keegan in the Telegraph, Niall Ferguson in The...
Tony Blair, the Iraq War, and a sense of history
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The Historian 107: The Price of Reform: The People's Budget and the Present Trauma
The magazine of the Historical Association
4 Editorial
5 The President's Column - Anne Curry
6 The price of reform: the people's budget and the present trauma - Hugh Gault (Read Article)
9 The Journey to Icarie and Réunion: A Romance of Socialism on the Texas Frontier - Donald J. Kagay (Read Article)
15 Arnold Wilkins:...
The Historian 107: The Price of Reform: The People's Budget and the Present Trauma
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The Historian 106: President Barack Obama and the State of the Union Address
The magazine of the Historical Association
4 Editorial
5 The President's Column - Anne Curry
6 President Barack Obama and the State of the Union Address - Michael Dunne (Read Article)
13 Remembering Neville Chamberlain - Brent Dyck (Read Article)
15 Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust? - Sarah Newman (Read Article)
20 The Advent of Decimalisation in...
The Historian 106: President Barack Obama and the State of the Union Address
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Chamberlain Day and the popular meaning of Tariff Reform
Historian article
Few Conservative institutions appealed to the Tory rank-and-file activist like the Tariff Reform League did in the opening two decades of the Twentieth Century. From its foundation in 1903, the League spearheaded Joseph Chamberlain’s crusade to grant tariffs on imported goods, acting as his grassroots organisation. This article attempts to...
Chamberlain Day and the popular meaning of Tariff Reform
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Oscar Wilde: the myth of martydom
Historian article
Over a century after his death, interest in Oscar Wilde and his work is at flood tide, with unprecedented levels of publication and research about Wilde and his work. Wildean studies proliferate, much in languages other than English. Recent translations of Wilde’s work have included Romanian, Hebrew, Swedish and Catalan,...
Oscar Wilde: the myth of martydom
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Religion and Science in the Eighteenth Century
Historian article
Much has been said about the clash between religion and science in Victorian times but there has been less research into the relationship between them in the eighteenth century. This article considers three Georgian clergymen who were also notable scientists – the Reverend William Stukeley, the pioneer of scientific field...
Religion and Science in the Eighteenth Century
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The Historian 105: Gladstone and the London May Day Demonstrators
The magazine of the Historical Association
5 Editorial
6 Gladstone and the London May Day Demonstrators, 1890 - Chris Wrigley (Read Article)
11 The President's Column - Anne Curry
12 Charles Gilpin - John Lethbridge (Read Article)
18 Cambuskenneth books: Looted Scottish law books return to Edinburgh - John Rogers (Read Article)
21 Lord Rochester's Grand...
The Historian 105: Gladstone and the London May Day Demonstrators
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The Historian 104: Culture Shock
The magazine of the Historical Association
5 Editorial
6 Culture Shock: The Arrival of the Conquistadores in Aztec Mexico - Jenni Hyde (Read Article)
13 The President's Column - Anne Curry
14 Hammer, House of Horror: The making of a British film company, 1934 to 1979 - John Springhall (Read Article)
20 Men's Beards and Women's...
The Historian 104: Culture Shock
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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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The Historian 86: England Arise!
The magazine of the Historical Association
Featured articles:
8 England Arise! The General Election of 1945 – Keith Laybourn (Read article)
16 The Last Duke of Lorraine – Richard Arnold Jones (Read article)
23 Thomas Muir and the 'Scottish Martyrs' of the 1790s – Harry Dickinson (Read article)
36 Cheshire Country Houses and the Rise of the Nouveaux Riches –...
The Historian 86: England Arise!
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The 'Penny Dreadful'
Historian article
"I wish I know'd as much as you, Dick. How did you manage to pick it up?"
"Mother taught me most, and I read all the books I can get."
"So do I; sich rattling tales, too ---‘The Black Phantom; or, the White Spectre of the Pink Rock.' It's fine,...
The 'Penny Dreadful'
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The Urban Working Classes in England 1880-1914
Historian article
On reading the title of this article, any reader at all familiar with the social history of late Victorian and Edwardian England is likely to think of the revelations at the time of the extent of urban poverty. Two major enquiries, one into London poverty, and the other into poverty...
The Urban Working Classes in England 1880-1914
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Why did the Dome fail?
Historian article
History gives us a basis for understanding the groups which people belong to, the countries people live in and the institutions which govern them. It provides a sense of continuity and identity. However, on 31 December 1999 the Queen and Prime Minister opened an exhibition which made no reference to...
Why did the Dome fail?
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Two Babies That Could Have Changed World History
Historian article
'At last have made wonderful discovery in Valley; a magnificent tomb with seals intact; re-covered same for your arrival. Congratulations.’ This telegram was sent from Luxor on the 6th November 1922 by Howard Carter to his coarchaeologist Lord Carnarvon in Britain. It started the Tut·ankh·Amen story which led to a...
Two Babies That Could Have Changed World History
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Out and about in the Trent Valley
Historian feature
In the muddy corner of a field fringing Biddulph Moor in North Staffordshire, a small fenced enclosure surrounds Trent Head, ‘official' source of the River Trent (SJ905 579). In truth, any of a handful of springs that rise nearby might serve. Pilgrims are well advised to equip themselves with Wellington...
Out and about in the Trent Valley
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A sense of occasion
Historian article
It is appropriate, in this bicentenary year of Mendelssohn's birth, to remember a great day in Birmingham's musical and social calendar. A day when the composer's Oratorio, Elijah, especially commissioned for the city's 1846 Triennial Festival to raise money for the Children's Hospital, was first performed in the newly refurbished Town...
A sense of occasion
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Catch me if you can: Trevithik vs. Stephenson
Historian article
Richard Trevithick & George Stephenson: a twenty firstcentury Reassessment
Two hundred years ago, a remarkable event took place in London. At the instigation of Richard Trevithick, engineer, polymath and inventor - who many regard as the greatest Cornishman ever - an elliptical circuit of cast iron rail was laid out...
Catch me if you can: Trevithik vs. Stephenson
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Cartoons and the historian
Historian article
Many historical books contain cartoons, but in most cases these are little more than a relief from the text, and do not make any point of substance which is not made elsewhere. Political cartoons should be regarded as much more than that. They are an important historical source which often...
Cartoons and the historian
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'The end of all existence is debarred me': Disraeli's depression 1826-30
Historian article
During the years from 1826 to 1830 Benjamin Disraeli went through the slough of despond. His first major biographer,William Flavelle Monypenny, observed the ‘clouds of despondency which were now settling upon Disraeli's mind'. In his magisterial life of the great tory leader Robert Blake commented that ‘after completing Part II...
'The end of all existence is debarred me': Disraeli's depression 1826-30
