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Film series: The African-American Civil Rights Movement
Film: An introduction to the African-American Civil Rights Movement
The US civil rights battles of the latter half of the twentieth century are a common part of popular culture - and yet the detail is often overlooked in favour of the headlines. It is a positive step that so many of us now know the names of Rosa Parks...
Film series: The African-American Civil Rights Movement
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Recorded webinar: Queer beyond London
Article
London has tended to dominate accounts of LGBTQ Britain… but how did local contexts beyond the capital affect queer identities and communities? This talk by Professor Matt Cook looks at Brighton, Plymouth, Manchester and Leeds to illustrate the difference locality makes to queer lives.
* Please note: while this webinar...
Recorded webinar: Queer beyond London
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Film: What's the wisdom on... Extended Writing
Article
'What’s the wisdom on…' is a popular feature in our secondary journal Teaching History and provides the perfect stimulus for a department meeting. 'What’s the wisdom on…' provides history teachers with an overview of the ‘story so far’ of many years of practice-based professional thinking about a particular aspect of history teaching.
To...
Film: What's the wisdom on... Extended Writing
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Filmed Lecture: Medlicott Lecture 2022 by David Olusoga
Article
Professor David Olusoga is a revered TV historian, a writer and a practising academic at Manchester University. In 2022 he was the recipient of the Historical Association's annual Medlicott medal, awarded for outstanding contributions to history.
The recipient of the medal provides the closing lecture of the HA's annual awards evening. Professor...
Filmed Lecture: Medlicott Lecture 2022 by David Olusoga
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Teaching about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and events happening there
Article
The events of the last few days appear to have come out of nowhere to many people, especially children. While tensions have existed in the region for some time Russia’s decision to attack Ukraine was without provocation.
To have war return in such a way to the edges of Europe...
Teaching about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and events happening there
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What Have Historians Been Arguing About... Histories of education – and society?
Teaching History feature
It is not emphasised enough that the progress of historiography often proceeds, not by historians arguing and then coming to some resolution, but simply by moving on. Historiography follows fashion, and subjects often exhaust themselves (for the time being)... A related issue is that of siloes. Historiography – academic writing generally...
What Have Historians Been Arguing About... Histories of education – and society?
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The ‘Super’ Saxons and the ‘Nasty’ Normans: an argument for investigating popular interpretations of history
Teaching History article
In this article Jane Card outlines the changing popular interpretations of one of the most familiar events in British history, the Norman Conquest. She makes the case for using visual and literary interpretations of the Conquest to engage pupils with thinking about the eleventh century, the subsequent centuries in which interpretations...
The ‘Super’ Saxons and the ‘Nasty’ Normans: an argument for investigating popular interpretations of history
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Jeeves and the British Empire
Historian article
The writer P.G. Wodehouse is best remembered for his comic portrayals of the exploits of wealthy, young ‘men about town’ during the interwar years, but his writing often contained a multi-layered commentary on British society and politics, the extent of which has not yet been fully appreciated. In this article,...
Jeeves and the British Empire
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Triumphs Show: Migration and Empire: teaching the impact of Scots settlers
Teaching History feature
Migration and Empire 1830–1939 is the most popular topic studied for the Scottish Higher qualification. The course specification directs that students should be taught about the impact of Scots emigrants on the British Empire. Marking instructions and classroom practice, however, had historically emphasised the ‘contribution’ of Scots to the empire, while...
Triumphs Show: Migration and Empire: teaching the impact of Scots settlers
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Informed imaginings: using historian Tiya Miles to illuminate the lives of enslaved people
Teaching History article
An enslaved mother faces permanent separation from her nine-year-old daughter who is to be sold. She hurriedly places some items in a sack – a lock of her own hair, some pecan nuts, a tattered dress. The daughter, Ashley, keeps the sack and passes on its story to her children. Ashley’s...
Informed imaginings: using historian Tiya Miles to illuminate the lives of enslaved people
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What’s The Wisdom On… teaching local history
Teaching History feature
What's the Wisdom On... is a short guide providing new history teachers with an overview of the ‘story so far’ of practice-based professional thinking about a particular aspect of history teaching. It draws on tried and tested approaches arising from teachers with years of experimenting, researching, practising, writing and debating their...
What’s The Wisdom On… teaching local history
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Mapping a disability history perspective onto the history of the British Empire
Historian article
Disabled peoples could be found across the British Empire; at the same time, the process of colonisation could create forms of disability, while the concept of ‘disability’ became embedded in discourses of race and gender. In this article, Esme Cleall demonstrates how thinking about disability is essential to understanding the...
Mapping a disability history perspective onto the history of the British Empire
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Real lives: important lessons from the childhood experiences of Harry Drabble
Historian feature
Helen Parker-Drabble shows how the experiences of her father, Harry Drabble, who was hospitalised for bovine tuberculosis as a child, remain fiercely relevant for families, medical practitioners and policymakers in twenty-first century Britain...
Real lives: important lessons from the childhood experiences of Harry Drabble
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Doing history: Exploring behind the scenes in the corridors of power
Historian feature
As the official repository for records of government of England, Wales and the UK, The National Archives at Kew offers so many opportunities for revelationary research. In this article, Steve Illingworth shows how documents in this treasure trove provide new insights on activities and debates behind closed doors...
Doing history: Exploring behind the scenes in the corridors of power
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Finding fragments of change on Endell Street: an interdisciplinary approach
Teaching History article
Gemma Hargraves saw a history book recommended on social media and looked it up. Within the first pages she realised this was a book she needed to share with her students due to the positive female role models and other resonant themes. This article outlines a short sequence of lessons...
Finding fragments of change on Endell Street: an interdisciplinary approach
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Out and about: The Witney Blanket Mills
Historian feature
In this account of the history of blanket weaving in Witney (West Oxfordshire), Young Historian essay prize-winner Isabella Duncan reflects on the importance of local history for better understanding our place in the present...
Out and about: The Witney Blanket Mills
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‘Weaving’ knowledge
Teaching History article
Diane Relf was concerned by what felt like an unbridgeable gulf between Year 7’s vocabulary and comprehension, and her aspirations both for their inclusion in history and their later academic success. As a subject leader without the benefit of any history-specific training at the start of her career, she embarked on...
‘Weaving’ knowledge
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On-demand webinar: Curriculum intent in history: defining ambition under the new Ofsted framework
Webinar series: Effective practice in the history classroom: responding to the new Ofsted framework
Webinar series: Effective practice in the history classroom: responding to the new Ofsted framework
Session 1: Curriculum intent in history: defining ambition under the new Ofsted framework
Key topics:
Curriculum intent and coherence in history
Designing a knowledge-rich history curriculum
Connecting intent with implementation
This session examines how to articulate...
On-demand webinar: Curriculum intent in history: defining ambition under the new Ofsted framework
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Why history is the future: the centrality of historical thinking in the AI age
Teaching History article
Many young people, aware of the rapid development and widespread use of generative forms of artificial intelligence, assume that the knowledge and skills they will need to navigate their future bear little relationship to those offered by the study of history. In response to these assumptions, Kieran Lavis and Katharine Burn...
Why history is the future: the centrality of historical thinking in the AI age
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What Have Historians Been Arguing About... The role of digital archives
Teaching History feature
Archives and the use of primary sources sit at the heart of working or studying within the discipline of history. In the twentieth century, digital humanities, and more specifically digital history, emerged as a discipline or sub-discipline alongside the development of computerised library systems, though its roots lie in the...
What Have Historians Been Arguing About... The role of digital archives
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To historicise is to exercise: going back to the past to interpret the present
Teaching History article
Mila Bammens and Bjorn Wansink were concerned about young people’s reactions to recent nuclear threats. In the second part of this article they set out a series of approaches and resources, used with young people in the Netherlands, to teach about nuclear weapons. The first part of the article sets...
To historicise is to exercise: going back to the past to interpret the present
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Teaching Jewish, Queer and Roma experiences of Nazi persecution
Teaching History article
In this article, Jacob Thorpe relates his attempts to humanise the teaching of Nazi persecutions by focusing on individuals’ experiences and identity. Deep immersion in the sources enabled him to find the stories fitting his key themes of love, community, identity and culture. Thorpe built on the work of other...
Teaching Jewish, Queer and Roma experiences of Nazi persecution
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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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Recorded webinar: Apartheid in global context: transnational dimensions of South Africa’s racial state
Article
While often viewed as a pariah state existing in isolation, the apartheid project was deeply entwined with global shifts in the 20th century. This webinar explores how international ideologies, Cold War geopolitics, and global anti-apartheid movements both challenged and inadvertently shaped the South African state. By contextualising apartheid within a...
Recorded webinar: Apartheid in global context: transnational dimensions of South Africa’s racial state
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Challenging misconceptions and highlighting hidden histories in teaching the Holocaust
Teaching History article
A conversation with some undergraduate students prompted Rob Kanter to explore how his own historical research on Jewish–Muslim relations could be integrated into the history curriculum in secondary schools. Kanter identified two stories of Muslim rescue during the Holocaust which he shares here to empower teachers to challenge misconceptions and to...
Challenging misconceptions and highlighting hidden histories in teaching the Holocaust
