-
The Great Spa Towns of Europe: a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Historian article
Catherine Lloyd introduces us to an international heritage initiative to celebrate ‘spa’ culture.
From ancient times, people believed that gods and spirits brought the means of natural healing. Step back in time to imagine an eerie wilderness, a glade in a wood, or a pool by a river, where the snow...
The Great Spa Towns of Europe: a UNESCO World Heritage Site
-
Caroline Court Women, 1625–1669
Historian article
Aristocratic women at the court of Queen Henrietta Maria from 1625–69 were integral to court life and actively involved in royal service; in court family networks; in dispensing and seeking patronage; and, in political and religious politics. As Sara J. Wolfson shows, it is important to study women at the apex of power...
Caroline Court Women, 1625–1669
-
Out and about in Sheffield
Historian feature
This article was commissioned by the Sheffield Branch of the Historical Association in response to an editorial invitation for items of wide Local History interest to be submitted for publication. It is hoped that John Salt's insight will encourage members to visit Sheffield and also give them ideas on what...
Out and about in Sheffield
-
Connecting poetry, philosophy and landscapes in Ancient China
Historian article
It is unusual for historians to focus primarily on poetry to provide insights into the past societies they are studying. Here Nicholas Tyldesley explains the value of poetry to help us understand the ideas, values and some important historical events in Ancient China, with a particular focus on poets Li...
Connecting poetry, philosophy and landscapes in Ancient China
-
Out and About: the central Marches of Wales and the Mortimer family of Wigmore
Historian feature
Paul Dryburgh and Philip Hume enable us to see the interaction of one prominent family with the area that they dominated.
The central Marches span the English/Welsh border in an area that encompasses the picturesque landscapes and market towns of north-west Herefordshire, south-west Shropshire, and Radnorshire which has also the rugged...
Out and About: the central Marches of Wales and the Mortimer family of Wigmore
-
One of my favourite history places: Hadrian's Wall
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...
One of my favourite history places: Hadrian's Wall
-
Real Lives: Surviving the War in the Soviet Union: recollections of a child deportee
Historian feature
This 'Real Lives' piece is based on a series of interviews Annette Ormanczyk carried out in 2019 with Mrs Irena Persak, who was deported as a five-year-old child with her family in February 1940. As well as offering a fascinating personal account of life in the Soviet Union during the Second...
Real Lives: Surviving the War in the Soviet Union: recollections of a child deportee
-
Remember Peterloo!
Historian article
The BBC News at 10 on Saturday 5 July included an announcement that Manchester's campaign to have a memorial erected to the victims of the Peterloo Massacre had ‘got under way'. That afternoon, a workshop organised by the Peterloo Memorial campaign had encouraged members of the public to express their...
Remember Peterloo!
-
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
-
The Historian 74: The Uses of History in the 21st Century
Article
Featured articles:
6 The Uses of History In The Twenty First Century - Marjorie Reeves (Read article)
11 Thomas Parkinson, the Hermit of Thirsk - Frank Bottomley (Read article)
17 The Urban Working Classes in England 1880-1914 - Eric Hopkins (Read article)
25 Bertrand Russell’s Role in the Cuban Missile...
The Historian 74: The Uses of History in the 21st Century
-
Out and about in D.H. Lawrence country
Historian feature
Eastwood is a busy, small town, about twelve miles west of Nottingham. It lies just within the county boundary with Derbyshire. Its name probably derived from a settlement in a clearing of the old Sherwood Forest. It sits mostly on a hilltop, which is the meeting place for main roads...
Out and about in D.H. Lawrence country
-
The Historian 163: Ukraine
The magazine of the Historical Association
To mark the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine we have opened up this edition of The Historian that contains a number of articles by Ukrainian academics. This edition is a reminder of culture and history of Ukraine and explores some of the ways the unprovoked attack has had on...
The Historian 163: Ukraine
-
The Historian 166: Out now
The magazine of the Historical Association
Read The Historian 166: Crime and Punishment
Last summer, crime and punishment made the headlines as Britain’s prisons came close to full capacity. In response, the Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, ordered the release of nearly 10,000 prisoners who had served a significant portion of their sentence. The aim was to...
The Historian 166: Out now
-
The Historian 166: Crime and Punishment
The magazine of the Historical Association
This edition of The Historian is free to access for all HA members. Find out about membership here.
The print version of this edition will arrive with members from 4 August.
Contents
5 Editorial (Read article)
6 Coroners, communities, and the Crown: mapping death and justice in late medieval England –...
The Historian 166: Crime and Punishment
-
The Historian 162: Out now
The magazine of the Historical Association
Read The Historian 162: Environment
Environment, broadly defined as the surroundings in which one lives, is an essential component of the study of past societies. Its importance has given rise to a number of fields of study. In Britain, landscape history was pioneered by W.G. Hoskins in the 1950s, and...
The Historian 162: Out now
-
Living on the Silk Roads: Voices from Dunhuang
Historian article
In Autumn 2024, the British Library will mount an exhibition exploring the stories of the people who inhabited or passed through the oasis town of Dunhuang during the first millennium. Located in modern-day Gansu province, in northwest China, Dunhuang was originally established as a garrison town and became an important commercial...
Living on the Silk Roads: Voices from Dunhuang
-
The Historian 164: Out now
The magazine of the Historical Association
Read The Historian 164: Ancient Worlds
A couple of generations ago an edition of a history publication on the theme of ancient worlds would probably just have included features on the Greeks and the Romans. It is now widely accepted that ancient history should have a broader focus, embracing developments in...
The Historian 164: Out now
-
The Historian 164: Ancient Worlds
The magazine of the Historical Association
4 Ask The Historian
5 Editorial (Read article)
6 Archaeology on the edge: exploring a precariously-placed Iron Age site in north Wales – Kathy Laws (Read article)
11 A splash of the Mediterranean in the Arabian Desert: the Ancient Kingdom of Nabataea – Tom Dunstan (Read article)
16 Five stones in St Albans: what...
The Historian 164: Ancient Worlds
-
The Historian 163: Out now
The magazine of the Historical Association
Read The Historian 163: Ukraine
The third year of Russia’s full-scale invasion into Ukraine is slowly drawing to a close, with no end to it in sight. Putin’s decision to send troops into Ukraine in hope of a quick capitulation was, however, only the last stage of a longer process...
The Historian 163: Out now
-
Recruiting volunteers to fight in the First World War
Historian article
‘Your Country Needs You’ and other posters are still remembered today as a prominent vehicle by which men were encouraged to fight in the First World War. Virtually absent from the literature, however, is analysis of the impact of thousands of recruitment meetings and their speakers. Robert Bullard explores the contribution...
Recruiting volunteers to fight in the First World War
-
Five stones in St Albans: life in Verulamium
Historian article
In this article, based on a prize winning essay for the Historical Association’s Young Historian competition, Alice Finnie explores aspects of the important Roman town of Verulamium, on the site of the modern city of St Albans. Her focus is on five stones that survive from the Roman period. She...
Five stones in St Albans: life in Verulamium
-
Sophisticated living in sub-Roman Britain
Historian article
It has been assumed for a long time that sub-Roman Britain, the period between the Romans leaving the island in the early fifth century and the settlement of the Anglo-Saxons in the sixth century, was a period of rapid cultural and economic decline. Recent archaeological discoveries at Chedworth Villa in...
Sophisticated living in sub-Roman Britain
-
Harriet Kettle, Victorian rebel
Historian article
Harriet Kettle had a remarkable life. She was on the receiving end of everything that the institutions of social control in Victorian England could throw at her, but resisted, survived and fought back.
Harriet’s defiance earned her references in the records of a workhouse, two prisons, two asylums and, in...
Harriet Kettle, Victorian rebel
-
Exploring murals and graffiti in modern Ukraine
Historian article
Kateryna Petrova explores the history and evolution of street art, especially graffiti and murals in Ukraine from the Soviet era to the present day. She traces the transformation of street art from a forbidden and persecuted activity to one coordinated with city authorities and embraced by the public. She also...
Exploring murals and graffiti in modern Ukraine
-
Guy Fawkes in Manchester: The World of William Harrison Ainsworth
Historian article
Some of the most enduring myths in British history were created and perpetuated by novelists, despite the fact that the historical novel has long been relegated to the second division of the literary arts. Deeply unfashionable today, writers like Sir Walter Scott, Edward Bulwer Lytton and William Harrison Ainsworth were...
Guy Fawkes in Manchester: The World of William Harrison Ainsworth
