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Diagrams in History
Historian article
One of the gifts of the social sciences to history is the use of expository diagrams; but attention is rarely given to the history of diagrams. Maps - schematized representations of locations in spatial relation to one another - can be dated back to Babylonia in the late third millennium...
Diagrams in History
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The Coming of War in 1939
Classic Pamphlet
I. The Legacy of Versailles
The Outbreak of a second world war on 1 September 1939 might have been expected to produce in due course a great controversy on ‘war guilt'. But there has been nothing comparable with the debate which took place during the 1920s on the 1914 issues. The...
The Coming of War in 1939
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The Tale of Two Winstons
Historian article
Winston Churchill is generally regarded as one of the most prominent figures of the twentieth century. As Prime Minister he led Britain to victory against the Nazi war machine, leading Time to name him ‘Man of the Year' in 1940 and ‘Man of the Half Century' in 1949. As recently...
The Tale of Two Winstons
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Benjamin Jesty: Grandfather of Vaccination
Historian article
Commonly hailed as a discovery or a ‘medical breakthrough', vaccination against smallpox with cowpox exudate was a development of variolation i.e. inoculation with live smallpox matter - a technique popularised amongst the gentry in the early eighteenth century by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu who had observed the procedure in Turkey...
Benjamin Jesty: Grandfather of Vaccination
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Have gun, will travel: The myth of the frontier in the Hollywood Western
Historian article
The Western movies that from around 1910 until the 1960s made up at least a fifth of all the American film titles on general release signified escapist entertainment for British audiences: an alluring vision of vast open spaces, of cowboys on horseback outlined against an imposing landscape.
For Americans themselves,...
Have gun, will travel: The myth of the frontier in the Hollywood Western
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The Thirteenth Century Industrial Scene in England
Classic Pamphlet
This essay forms part of a collection of three essays on Thirteenth Century England by Professor R. F. Treharne (President of the HA 1958-61). These were originally delivered as lectures and were later edited for publication by Dr C. H. Knowles. This essay looks at the industrial scene in England during...
The Thirteenth Century Industrial Scene in England
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The Thirteenth Century Rural Scene in England
Classic Pamphlet
This essay forms part of a collection of three essays on Thirteenth Century England by Professor R. F. Treharne (President of the HA 1958-61). These were originally delivered as lectures and were later edited for publication by Dr C. H. Knowles. This essay looks at the rural scene in England during...
The Thirteenth Century Rural Scene in England
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The Thirteenth Century Political Scene in England
Classic Pamphlet
This essay forms part of a collection of three essays on Thirteenth Century England by Professor R. F. Treharne (President of the HA 1958-61). These were originally delivered as lectures and were later edited for publication by Dr C. H. Knowles. This essay looks at the political scene in England during...
The Thirteenth Century Political Scene in England
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The Paris Commune of 1871
Classic Pamphlet
Although a century has passed since the red flag flew for 72 days over the twenty town halls of Paris, the 1871 Commune de Paris cannot be said to belong primarily to historians. The picture of the Communards 'storming the gates of heaven' continues to serve both as a model...
The Paris Commune of 1871
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Joan of Arc: Woman Warrior, Witch
Branch Podcast
In 2011 Professor Anne Curry, President of the Historical Association, gave a lecture on Joan of Arc to the Swansea Branch. This is a podcast of that lecture.
Joan of Arc: Woman Warrior, Witch
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The Right Kind of History. An Interview with Nicola Sheldon, Jenny Keating and John Hamer
Interview
Sir David Cannadine has written the book that tells the history of history in schools. On the podcast on this site he outlines some of his reasons for wanting to write the book and what his findings were. But alongside his name on the front cover are his research team...
The Right Kind of History. An Interview with Nicola Sheldon, Jenny Keating and John Hamer
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David Cannadine Interview about his book: The Right Kind of History
Cannadine Interview
Sir David Cannadine has done the unthinkable he has traced the teaching of history in state schools since the beginning. In his book The Right Kind of History: Teaching the Past in Twentieth-Century England he explores the real history of history education the truth is discovered to that age old...
David Cannadine Interview about his book: The Right Kind of History
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John Wilkes 1725-1797: A Man of Principle
Historian article
For Lord North in 1775, one John Wilkes was enough, ‘though ... to do him justice, it was not easy to find many such'. The impact of Wilkes between 1760 and 1780 was profound, a cause as much as a person. For Philip Francis, thought to be the satirist ‘Junius',...
John Wilkes 1725-1797: A Man of Principle
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Bonnie Prince Charlie: The escape of the Prince in 1746
Historian article
Thirty thousand pounds was an enormous sum of money in 1746. That was the reward offered by the British government for the capture of Prince Charles. Many Highlanders knew where he was at various times and places after Culloden, but they did not betray him. As one of his helpers...
Bonnie Prince Charlie: The escape of the Prince in 1746
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Podcast Series: Britain's Changing Population
Podcasted history
In Part 3 of our series on Social and Political Change in the UK we look at diversity in the UK and examine African and Caribbean UK History, South Asian UK History and British Chinese History.
The first set of podcasts feature Dr Hakim Adi, Marika Sherwood, Dr Sumita Mukherjee & Dr...
Podcast Series: Britain's Changing Population
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Copernicus and the Reformation of Astronomy
Classic Pamphlet
During the past four centuries, the processes of nature have come to be viewed in a new light through the progressive acquisition of the systematized, verifiable knowledge that we call science. The associated advances in technology have profoundly affected the circumstances of our daily lives, and have revolutionised the mutual...
Copernicus and the Reformation of Astronomy
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The Irish in Britain 1815-1914
Classic Pamphlet
Irish migration to Britain has a long and chequered history, yet only in recent years have historians examined this subject in depth, through a growing body of local, regional and national studies which have supplemented the earlier pioneering research of J. E. Handley and J. A. Jackson. These studies have...
The Irish in Britain 1815-1914
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Norman Barons
Classic Pamphlet
What I have done in preparing this lecture on the Norman Barons is to choose three or four important families, with one or two individuals. I shall try to describe their fortunes briefly to you, pick out what appear to be common characteristics and generalize them - not as conclusions,...
Norman Barons
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Saxons, Normans and Victorians
Classic Pamphlet
When Queen Victoria died in 1901, the Annual Register remarked that the feeling of forlorn-ness which swept the country had no parallel since the death of King Alfred. The men of the new century were driven to seek a Saxon parallel. So too were men at the beginning of the...
Saxons, Normans and Victorians
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William the First and the Sussex Rapes
Classic Pamphlet
During his reign, and in particular in the five years after the battle of Hastings, William I carried out the most thorough reallocation of land in England ever to take place in so short a period of time; the results were summarized in Domesday Book in 1086.That great record shows...
William the First and the Sussex Rapes
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Edward the Confessor and the Norman Conquest
Classic Pamphlet
Nine hundred years have elapsed since the death of Edward the Confessor, the last English king descended directly from Cerdic, king of Wessex in the sixth century - and so from the pagan gods. Nine hundred years are a long time; and if Edward had been succeeded by a son,...
Edward the Confessor and the Norman Conquest
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Podcast Series: Modern Irish History
Modern Irish History
An HA Podcasted Series on Modern Irish History featuring Professor Peter Gray, Dr Fearghal McGarry & Dr Stuart Aveyard of Queen's University of Belfast and Dr Matthew Kelly of the University of Southampton.
Podcast Series: Modern Irish History
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Pleasure Piers: a sign of Victorian exuberance
Article
October 2010 was a memorable month for England's historic pleasure piers. Early in the month, fire ravaged Hastings Pier, to the extent that there is some doubt as to whether it can be restored, but, by contrast, at the end of the month there was the delightful news that the...
Pleasure Piers: a sign of Victorian exuberance
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Tudor Government
Classic Pamphlet
On 21 August 1485 Henry Tudor won the battle of Bosworth in Leicestershire and established himself as Henry VII, King of England. He had landed in Wales two weeks before, the Lancastrian claimant to the throne against the incumbent Yorkist, Richard III. He had received assistance from Charles VIII of...
Tudor Government
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Enter the Tudor Prince
Historian article
Shakespeare's identity is an issue historians normally avoid - with 77 alternatives to Shakespeare now listed on Wikipedia, it has become a black hole in literary studies. Denial of the orthodox (Stratfordian) view* that William Shakespeare was the Bard dates back a century and a half, but has escalated in...
Enter the Tudor Prince
