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Virtual Branch Recording: 'Hidden Histories of the Viking Age'
Embers of the Hands
Eleanor Barraclough tells a richly detailed history of the Viking Age through the everyday objects and traces left by ordinary people, revealing the complex, lived realities behind the familiar saga‑era myths.
Dr Eleanor Barraclough is a historian, author and broadcaster. Her most recent book, Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories...
Virtual Branch Recording: 'Hidden Histories of the Viking Age'
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To see the witch: understanding the European witch craze through visual art
Historian article
During the European witch craze, visual art played a powerful role in shaping belief in witches. The printing press allowed images of witchcraft to circulate widely, amplifying fear and suspicion. In this article, Natasha Brockman explores how such imagery did more than illustrate witchcraft: it helped create it, teaching people what witches...
To see the witch: understanding the European witch craze through visual art
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Losing sight of the bigger picture: public policy and the visual arts
Historian article
From the 1940s to the late twentieth century, the visual arts in England were promoted and encouraged in a variety of ways by politicians and other policymakers, at both national and local level. Recent decades have seen a marginalisation of the arts, particularly in education. In this article Pauline Wood...
Losing sight of the bigger picture: public policy and the visual arts
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‘My sweet San Gimignano’: a Tuscan commune in the Middle Ages
Historian article
The northern Italian town of San Gimignano is famous for its high-rise medieval towers. The size of these fortified buildings might lead to the assumption that the town was a place of constant conflict and discord. Here John Law uses a wide variety of evidence to argue that San Gimignano...
‘My sweet San Gimignano’: a Tuscan commune in the Middle Ages
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Vikings in the East: from Vladimir the Great to Vladimir Putin
Historian article
Martyn Whittock explores the lesser-known world of the Vikings who travelled east, forging the early state of Kyivan Rus and leaving a legacy still debated in Russia and Ukraine today. From silver routes and sagas to modern political claims, this article explores how their story and origins remain as dramatic...
Vikings in the East: from Vladimir the Great to Vladimir Putin
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Virtual Branch Recording: The First King of England
Article
Æthelstan was the early medieval king whose territorial conquests and shrewd statesmanship united the peoples, languages, and cultures that would come to be known as the 'Kingdom of the English.' In this panoramic talk, David Woodman draws on his research and recent book to create a portrait of this immensely...
Virtual Branch Recording: The First King of England
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Virtual Branch recording: A Life Revealed in Letters: Catalina Micaela
Article
What was life really like for a Spanish royal woman? Catalina Micaela, the younger daughter of Philip II of Spain, wrote extensively to her husband Carlo Emanrele I of Savoy giving fascinating insights into the events at court and the pressures on the families, providing a glimpse into sixteenth-century Spain and...
Virtual Branch recording: A Life Revealed in Letters: Catalina Micaela
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Foreign Prisoners of War and Humanitarian Governance in Revolutionary Russia
History journal blog post
When the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917, they inherited responsibility for around two million foreign prisoners of war – mostly soldiers from the Germany and Austro-Hungarian armies – captured during the First World War. Dispersed across the former Russian Empire, from the Baltic to Siberia and Central Asia, these prisoners posed...
Foreign Prisoners of War and Humanitarian Governance in Revolutionary Russia
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Hiding in plain sight: an eighteenth-century portrait of an Inca leader
Historian article
In this article, Emily C. Floyd explores a rare eighteenth-century self-commissioned engraved portrait of an elite Indigenous man in colonial Lima. By comparing this unassuming image with a more overtly Inca portrait, the article reveals how Indigenous leaders navigated identity, loyalty, and colonial restrictions, using portraiture to assert agency in...
Hiding in plain sight: an eighteenth-century portrait of an Inca leader
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Out and About: Leavesden Country Park
Historian feature
Concerns about demobilised soldiers after the Second World War were widespread, reflecting both the practical challenges faced by returning servicemen and broader anxieties about their reintegration into civilian life. In this article, Helen George explores how a temporary education facility in Hertfordshire helped prepare demobilised Canadian soldiers for higher education...
Out and About: Leavesden Country Park
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The success of the Salford General Strike of 1911
Historian article
As we approach the centenary of Britain’s only national general strike, this article by Steve Illingworth tells the story of a successful local sympathetic strike in Salford in 1911. He analyses the reasons for the success of the Salford workers and considers why this kind of concerted industrial action could...
The success of the Salford General Strike of 1911
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Real Lives: Eduard Friedrich Kärger
Historian feature
In this article, Alex van der Ham and Ling-Hua Huang explain how a casual browse through a nineteenth century journal led to an intriguing research journey into the author of a scientific dissertation. Here they discovered interesting insights into Prussian society in the years leading to the Unification of Germany,...
Real Lives: Eduard Friedrich Kärger
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Castle of Convergence: the Muslim settlement of Lucera
Historian article
The later medieval period can often be seen as a time of bitter ideological and military conflict between Christians and Muslims. In this article Paola Laviola tells the story of the southern Italian city of Lucera, where occasional religious division was interspersed with periods of toleration between faiths that allowed...
Castle of Convergence: the Muslim settlement of Lucera
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In conversation with Henrike Lähnemann
Historian feature
In The Life of Nuns: love, politics, and religion in medieval German convents (Open Book Publishers, 2024), Henrike Lähnemann and Eva Schlotheuber explore female religious communities from the late medieval and early Reformation-era in northern Germany, revealing them to be vibrant centres of learning, administration, devotion, friendship, and negotiation. The book challenges...
In conversation with Henrike Lähnemann
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Doing history: Remembering the Wars of the Roses
Historian feature
This article examines how the Wars of the Roses have been remembered through memorials and presents the Battlefields Trust’s Wars of the Roses Memorial Database Project, launched in 2023. The open-access, crowd-sourced database maps monuments, plaques, battlefield markers and local commemorations linked to the conflicts. David Grummitt shows that remembrance...
Doing history: Remembering the Wars of the Roses
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Social Darwinism: the myth and its reinvention
Historian article
‘Social Darwinism’ has been associated in academia and popular consciousness with negative concepts such as hyper-nationalism and eugenics. Geoffrey M. Hodgson challenges the notion that Social Darwinism or its proponents were ever well-defined. By tracing the use of ‘Social Darwinism’ across academic disciplines and globally over a long period, Hodgson...
Social Darwinism: the myth and its reinvention
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Recorded webinar series: Jane Austen and Georgian England
Multipage Article
Join us for a journey through Georgian history, literature and society – all from the comfort of your own home. Celebrating the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth, this rich, interdisciplinary webinar series from the Historical Association delves into the vibrant world of the Georgians through the lens of one of...
Recorded webinar series: Jane Austen and Georgian England
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Update: The Princes in the Tower
Historian feature
A subject of endless fascination for the historian, the story of the ‘princes in the Tower’ hit the news again recently, following the discovery of Richard III’s body in Leicester and Philippa Langley’s ensuing quest to show that the much-maligned king was not responsible for the princes’ deaths. In this...
Update: The Princes in the Tower
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More than skin deep: unmasking the history of cold cream
Historian article
From the ancient Mediterranean to the shelves of twenty-first century pharmacies and cosmetic counters, cold cream has a long history. In this article, Farhana Qayoom Shaikh explores how Galen’s simple formula for treating skin complaints transitioned over the centuries into a luxury beauty product.
More than skin deep: unmasking the history of cold cream
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Opinion: the populist politics of Joseph Chamberlain and Donald Trump
Historian feature
What are the pitfalls and pluses of comparing historical figures with contemporary politicians? Chris Godden argues that recent comparisons of Donald Trump with one of his predecessors may be wide of the mark, but that a more illuminating parallel may be found with one of Britain’s most controversial nineteenth-century politicians.
Opinion: the populist politics of Joseph Chamberlain and Donald Trump
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Real Lives: the long life of Old Tom Parr
Historian feature
Our series ‘Real Lives’ seeks to put the story of the ordinary person into our great historical narrative. If you have any people that you think might also fit this category and would like to write about them, please do contact: martin.hoare@history.org.uk
In this article, Dexter Plato tells us about the...
Real Lives: the long life of Old Tom Parr
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White heat or hot air? The politics of science in 1960s Britain
Historian article
Britain in the 1960s was captivated by scientific advancements. The public interest in ‘science’ was reflected in popular culture during this period. This zeitgeist for scientific revolution also captured aspects of British politics. The government of Harold Wilson sought to encourage scientific progress. Yet the difference between political aims and...
White heat or hot air? The politics of science in 1960s Britain
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Edgar Ætheling: what happened to the boy who never became king?
Historian article
Edgar Ǣtheling, grandson of Edmund Ironside, was the last serious Anglo-Saxon claimant to the throne of Edward the Confessor. In this article, Jamie Page explores how his long life after 1066 sheds a fascinating light on the emerging Anglo-Norman world and its significant impact in Europe and the Middle East.
Edgar Ætheling: what happened to the boy who never became king?
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Out and About: The historical significance of the Botanic Garden in Oxford
Historian feature
The Oxford Botanic Garden was Britain’s first botanic garden and is world-renowned. Mia Andreasen, who knows it well, explores why they have been so successful and how they reflect not only plant life but also the global history of the past 400 years.
Out and About: The historical significance of the Botanic Garden in Oxford
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Using financial records to gain insights into medieval society
Historian article
While conceding that medieval accounting and tax records can appear to be dull at first sight, Alisdair Dobie demonstrates here how they can provide fascinating insights into many aspects of life at the time. Not only do these records teach historians about economic and financial affairs: they also enhance our...
Using financial records to gain insights into medieval society
