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The Historian 7
The magazine of the Historical Association
3 The Death of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Jeanne Handzic
8 The Duke of Wellington at Home, R.E Foster
10 George V. Ferguson, Canada and Appeasement, Robin Betts
13 The Dykes, J.L. Ferns
16 Social History: The Seaside Resort, John K. Walton
25 Update: The Ancien Regime, Nora Temple
28...
The Historian 7
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Stalin, Propaganda, and Soviet Society during the Great Terror
Historian article
Sarah Davies explores the evidence that even in the most repressive phases of Stalin’s rule, there existed a flourishing ‘shadow culture’, a lively and efficient unofficial network of information and ideas. 'Today a man only talks freely with his wife — at night, with the blankets pulled over his head.’...
Stalin, Propaganda, and Soviet Society during the Great Terror
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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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The Historian 159: Out now
The magazine of the Historical Association
Read The Historian 159: Branches
Welcome to this Branches edition of The Historian, a regular version of the magazine where many of the articles are based on talks and activities from Historical Association branches across the country. The last Branches edition came out in November 2021 and at that time...
The Historian 159: Out now
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Real Lives: Tahereh (Tāhirih)
Article
Paula Kitching tells us of the incredible courage shown by Fatima Baraghani while campaigning for human rights, especially women’s rights in nineteenth century Persia.
Fatima Baraghani lived in nineteenth century Persia and was a poet, a religious leader and a campaigner for women’s rights. She was born sometime between 1814 and 1919,...
Real Lives: Tahereh (Tāhirih)
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Cambuskenneth books: Looted Scottish law books return to Edinburgh
Historian article
Memorandum that Edinburgh was won on 8th day of May in the 36th year of the reign of Henry VIII and year of God 1543 and this book was acquired and brought away by me Wm. Norris of Speke, Knight, on 11th day of May aforesaid and is now the...
Cambuskenneth books: Looted Scottish law books return to Edinburgh
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Attitudes to Liberty and Enslavement: the career of James Irving, a Liverpool slave ship surgeon and captain
Historian article
Prior to abolition in 1807, Britain was the world’s leading slave trading nation. Of an estimated six million individuals forcibly transported from Africa in the transatlantic slave trade in the eighteenth century, almost 2.5 million (40 per cent) were carried in British vessels.2 The contemporary attitudes and assumptions which underpinned...
Attitudes to Liberty and Enslavement: the career of James Irving, a Liverpool slave ship surgeon and captain
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Gladstone and the London May Day Demonstrators, 1890
Historian article
One hundred and twenty years ago the advent of the first red May Days caused major concern across Europe. To general surprise, in 1890 and the next few years some of the largest rallies occurred in London. In Britain the main demonstration on the nearest Sunday to May Day passed...
Gladstone and the London May Day Demonstrators, 1890
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Historical Fiction: warts and all
Historian article
The perception is that, for historical fiction, this is the best of times. It has never been more popular: witness the 2012 Christmas day schedule-jostling between Downton Abbey and Call the Midwife. It has never been more literary: witness Hilary Mantel winning her second Man Booker prize for Bring Up the...
Historical Fiction: warts and all
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Louis, John, and William: the 'Dame Europa' pamphlets, 1870-1871
Article
The pamphlet printing industry in England received an unexpected boost in 1871 with the appearance of numerous works written, mainly, as commentaries, satires or allegories in Britain’s attitude regarding the Franco-Prussian War. The cause of this deluge was one particular tract, first issued on Salisbury in October 1870, whose purpose...
Louis, John, and William: the 'Dame Europa' pamphlets, 1870-1871
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The soldier in Later Medieval England
Historian article
Traditionally, the Middle Ages have been portrayed as the ‘Feudal Age', when men were given land in return for performance of unpaid military service. Whilst this may have formed the basis of the English military system in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, it was most certainly not the way armies...
The soldier in Later Medieval England
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Real Lives: Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan
Historian feature
Our series ‘Real Lives’ seeks to put the story of the ordinary person into our great historical narrative. We are all part of the rich fabric of the communities in which we live and we are affected to greater and lesser degrees by the big events that happen on a daily...
Real Lives: Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan
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A woman’s place is in the castle
Historian article
This article looks at the role of two fourteenth century Scottish noblewomen, on opposing sides in the strife between Bruce and Balliol, who were left to defend their properties during their husbands’ absences.
The Scottish Wars of Independence were fought over several decades of the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as...
A woman’s place is in the castle
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The Historian 145: Migration
The magazine of the Historical Association
4 Reviews
5 Editorial (Read article)
6 Out and About: exploring Black British history through headstones – Jill Sudbury (Read article)
10 The 1620 Mayflower voyage and the English settlement of North America – Martyn Whittock (Read article)
16 Migration into the UK in the early twenty-first century: temporal trends and spatial...
The Historian 145: Migration
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The ‘workless workers’ and the Waterbury watch
Historian article
Peter Hounsell looks at the role of the Waterbury Watch Company in both the Queen’s Jubilee and the attempt to record and alleviate unemployment in London in the 1880s.
In Britain generally, but for London in particular, 1887 was a year of great contrasts. On 27 June, Londoners lined the...
The ‘workless workers’ and the Waterbury watch
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The Historian 38
The magazine of the Historical Association
3 Feature: England in the 1690s: The Emergence of the Fiscal-Military State, W.A. Speck
10 Update: English Rural Society, 1750-1914, John Beckett
13 Portfolio: Propagandist Decrees and French Revolutionary Expansion, Michael Rapport
18 Local History: Britian's Industrial Heritage, Marilyn Palmer and Peter Neaverson
22 Personalia: Marjorie Reeves
The Historian 38
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King James’s Book of Sports, 1617
Historian article
Forty years after his higher degree research into the history of sport, Trevor James explores the much wider context in which that research now stands.
Four hundred years ago, in 1617, James I made a decisive intervention into the simmering debate which had existed since the puritanical upsurge in Queen...
King James’s Book of Sports, 1617
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The Historian 99: London and the English Civil War
The magazine of the Historical Association
London and the English Civil War - Barry Coward (Read Article)
The myths about the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion - A. E. MacRobert (Read Article)
Dean Mahomet: travel writer, curry entrepeneur and shampooer to the King - James Bartlett (Read Article)
Hiroshima and Nagasaki: introducing students to historical interpretation - Brent Dyck (Read Article)...
The Historian 99: London and the English Civil War
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The Historian 67: William Morris, Art and the rise of the British Labour Movement
The magazine of the Historical Association
Featured articles:
4 William Morris, art and the rise of the British Labour movement - Chris Wrigley (Read Article)
11 Czech Uranium and Stalin's Bomb - Z.A.B. Zeman (Read Article)
18 Bombing and the air war on the Italian Front 1915-1918 - A.D. Harvey (Read Article)
22 The reign of Edward VI:...
The Historian 67: William Morris, Art and the rise of the British Labour Movement
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The Historian 62: Catherine de Medici
The magazine of the Historical Association
Featured articles:
4 Is History Dangerous? - Eric Hobsbawm (Read article)
6 Britain and the formation of NATO - Carl Watts (Read article)
12 Sir William Petty: Scientist, Economist, Inventor 1623-87 - John Adams (Read article)
15 Durham: a personal perspective - G.R. Batho (Read article)
18 Catherine de Medici and the...
The Historian 62: Catherine de Medici
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The Historian 40
The magazine of the Historical Association
3 Feature: China's Communist Revolution, Michael Dillon
10 Update: The Nobility in Early Modern Europe, H.M. Scott
13 Record Linkage: New Dictionary of National Biography, Colin Matthew
16 Anniversary: William Hogarth's Marriage a la Mode, H.T. Dickinson
18 Biography: Prince Arthur and the Battle of Tel-el-Kebir 1882, Noble Frankland
22...
The Historian 40
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The Historian 44
The magazine of the Historical Association
Featured articles
3 Heroes of the Cuban Revolution: Martí, Maceo and Gómez - Joseph Smith
9 Update: Nationalism and National Cults in England and on the Continent between the Tenth and the Twelfth Centuries - Emma Mason
12 Biography: Churchill's Wartime Radio Rival - David Smith
16 Record Linkage: The Scottish Architect...
The Historian 44
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To what extent was the failure of denazification in Germany 1945-48 a result of the apathy of the allies?
Historian article
To blame the failure of the denazification process in postwar Germany entirely on a vague and generalised concept such as apathy is simplistic and does not stand up to serious scrutiny. Denazification was one of the most ambitious attempts ever at provoking an artificial revolution; it is reasonable to assume...
To what extent was the failure of denazification in Germany 1945-48 a result of the apathy of the allies?
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The first trans-Atlantic hero? General James Wolfe and British North America
Article
Early on the morning of 8 June 1758, British frigates unleashed their broadsides upon French shore defences at Gabarus Bay, on the foggy and surf-lashed island of Cape Breton. Under cover of the warships' guns, a motley flotilla of craft headed towards the land. Propelled by straining Royal Navy oarsmen,...
The first trans-Atlantic hero? General James Wolfe and British North America
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The cultural biography of opium in China
Historian article
Zheng Yangwen shows that despite its association with trade, war and politics, opium was first of all a history of consumption.
Opium has fascinated generations of scholars and generated excellent scholarship on the opium trade, Anglo-Chinese relations, the two opium wars, and Commissioner Lin. The field has diversified in the post-Mao...
The cultural biography of opium in China
