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Update: Space, place and social constructs: the Spatial Turn in history
Historian feature
Ryan Hampton explains how ‘things’ and people combine to make space an important consideration in human history. Focusing on the German Peasants’ War of 1524-26, he examines how advances in our understanding of space might affect our knowledge of this important conflict...
Update: Space, place and social constructs: the Spatial Turn in history
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Film: Khrushchev - Foreign Policy
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
In this film, Dr Alexander Titov (Queen's University of Belfast), looks at the early thaw in relations between the Soviet Union and the West after the death of Stalin, the resolution of outstanding issues such as the Korean War, the division of Austria, and Khruschev's resetting of relations with China and...
Film: Khrushchev - Foreign Policy
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Film: Khrushchev - After Stalin
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
In this film, Dr Alexander Titov (Queen's University of Belfast), discusses the leading figures jockeying for power after Stalin died, the short period of collective leadership, growing calls for reform within the Soviet Union and how Khrushchev gradually sidelined all of his rivals on his way to becoming Premiere of...
Film: Khrushchev - After Stalin
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Film: Khrushchev - Background
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
In this film, Dr Alexander Titov (Queen's University of Belfast), provides a profile of Khrushchev’s background and personality and how these influenced his politics and ideas.
Dr Titov takes us on a journey from Khrushchev's peasant beginnings in Kursk, his rapid rise in the communist party, his role in the purges, to...
Film: Khrushchev - Background
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What was Witchcraft in the Early Sixteenth Century?
Article
In this article, Dr Jonathan Durrant (Principal Lecturer in History, University of South Wales) argues that we know no more now than we did in the late 1980s about what witchcraft was as men and women of the early sixteenth century understood it. Dr Durrant looks at evidence from Henry VIII's Witchcraft Act of 1542 to explore British and European perceptions of witches...
What was Witchcraft in the Early Sixteenth Century?
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Environmental history and the challenges of the present
Historian article
In a wide-ranging survey of the field, Amanda Power explains what it means to do environmental history at a time of climate crisis, and points to the opportunities and challenges in this thriving area of research...
Environmental history and the challenges of the present
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Glacier Tours in the Northern Playground
Historian article
Glaciers are on the frontier of the climate crisis. Their ongoing disappearance is one of its most visible effects. In this article, Christian Drury explores how tourists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries viewed and understood glaciers, and what they contributed to the history of environmental thought...
Glacier Tours in the Northern Playground
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Doing history for climate action
Historian article
Incidents of flooding across the UK are increasing, threatening homes and livelihoods. In this article, Hannah Worthen and Briony McDonagh explain how they are using historic records of floods and flood management to engage communities in Hull in new conversations and to prompt vital action. Their project, Risky Cities, was...
Doing history for climate action
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Father of the Free French Navy: Thierry d’Argenlieu
Historian article
Thierry d’Argenlieu played a crucial role in the French Resistance during World War Two, but he does not fit the mould of the typical resister. Adrian Smith brings to light d’Argenlieu’s wartime experiences, and follows his career after 1945 as High Commissioner in Indo-China and member of the Carmelite order...
Father of the Free French Navy: Thierry d’Argenlieu
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The Chinese National Anthem
Historian article
The history of the Chinese national anthem gives Derek Ying a new perspective on society and culture from the era of the Qing dynasty to the People’s Republic of China. It reveals the strengths and weaknesses of different regimes, and the power of song to unite and divide...
The Chinese National Anthem
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American Vikings past and present: untangling myth from reality
Historian article
There is now compelling evidence that Norse people – popularly known as Vikings – had some interaction with the First Peoples of North America. Martyn Whittock looks at how the appeal of a Viking legend has combined with archaeological discoveries to create a powerful attachment in the North American imagination...
American Vikings past and present: untangling myth from reality
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In conversation with Mark Nicholls
Historian feature
The Historian sat down with Mark Nicholls to discuss his latest book, The Rise and Fall of Treason in English History, co-authored with Allen Boyer, which charts the history of the law of treason from its origins to the present day...
In conversation with Mark Nicholls
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Real Lives: Henry Allingham and the First World War
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: Henry Allingham and the First World War
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My Favourite History Place: Bad Godesberg Tower
Historian feature
Bad Godesberg tower is the most intact remnant of what was once a castle. Built in 1210 by the Archbishop of Cologne, Dietrich von Moers (circa 1385–1463), Godesberg Castle enjoyed a relatively quiet existence as an archiepiscopal seat. Then, on 31 October 1517, Martin Luther published his Ninety-Five Theses against...
My Favourite History Place: Bad Godesberg Tower
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The ‘Silk Roads’: the use and abuse of a historical concept
Historian article
The question of whether the ‘Silk Road/s’ is a useful concept for historical analysis, or too vague or too all-encompassing to have interpretative value, is one that scholars have been debating ever since the term moved into the cultural and scholarly mainstream. Although the use of the term in marketing does not often...
The ‘Silk Roads’: the use and abuse of a historical concept
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Sutton Hoo and long-distance contacts
Historian article
This article looks at the importance of long distance connections between the English kingdoms and the eastern Mediterranean in the sixth to eighth centuries.
The relationship between the ship burial at Sutton Hoo – in the eastern English county of Suffolk – the people who discovered and excavated it, and what...
Sutton Hoo and long-distance contacts
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Digging the dirt on ‘The Dig’
Historian article
Laura Howarth, Archaeology and Engagement Manager at the National Trust property of Sutton Hoo, reflects on the discovery of the ship burial in 1939 and its portrayal in the 2021 film, The Dig.
In a corner of Suffolk during the summer of 1939, an archaeological discovery was made at Sutton...
Digging the dirt on ‘The Dig’
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Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury (602–690)
Historian article
The remarkable career of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, shows how the political and religious turmoil in the seventh-century eastern Mediterranean had a direct impact upon the English kingdoms.
Asked to name the most significant archbishops of Canterbury, it is likely that few would name the seventh-century monk, Theodore of...
Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury (602–690)
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Iron Age Scandinavia and the Silk Roads: a new frontier
Historian article
Both public and scholarly perceptions of the Viking Age (c.AD 750–1050) have long been dominated by a western outlook, emphasising raiding and trading in Europe and the North Atlantic, with only limited attention paid to Scandinavian contacts to the east. In recent years, this viewpoint has shifted dramatically, not only acknowledging the borderless...
Iron Age Scandinavia and the Silk Roads: a new frontier
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A probable silk heirloom from Central Asia...
Historian article
This article explores precious fragments of silk, manufactured in the Byzantine Empire and Central Asia, discovered in archaeological excavations in Dublin.
Dublin, situated on the east coast of Ireland, grew out of a fortified riverside camp (longphort) for overwintering marauding Vikings or ‘northmen’, who were plundering wealthy ecclesiastical establishments from the late eighth...
A probable silk heirloom from Central Asia...
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Barikot’s apsidal temple
Historian article
The presence of an apse was a common architectural feature in early Buddhism. An apsidal temple associated with an Indian-style Buddhist stupa was recently discovered at Barikot in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, dating to the time of the great promoter of Buddhism, the Mauryan Emperor Aśoka (r. 268–232 BC). The monument...
Barikot’s apsidal temple
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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
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Out and About in Chelsea’s hidden gardens
Historian feature
Chelsea has an unusually large number of veteran mulberry trees for a London borough (around 25 at the last count). And, while they are not all as old as they look, many have direct links to Chelsea’s history, including the Tudor estates of Thomas More and Henry VIII, a short-lived...
Out and About in Chelsea’s hidden gardens
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Real Lives: Miss F.M.G. Lorimer (1883–1967)
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: Miss F.M.G. Lorimer (1883–1967)
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My Favourite History Place: Bulguksa Temple, Korea
Historian feature
Set among the forested Toham mountains in southeast Korea, Bulguksa (Bulguk Temple, the Temple of the Buddha Land), was founded during the Silla Dynasty (57 BC–AD 935). The history of this 1,300 year old sacred site reflects the long and sometimes turbulent history of Buddhism and its heritage in Korea, up to its...
My Favourite History Place: Bulguksa Temple, Korea
