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Ofsted and History in Schools
Article
HM Inspector John Hamer reviews the evidence. In a lecture marking the 150th anniversary of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Schools, Peter Gordon recalled a nineteenth century HMI, the Reverend W.H. Brookfield. His circle of friends included Tennyson, the Hallams and Thomas Carlyle.
Ofsted and History in Schools
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What Have Historians Been Arguing About... the consequences of the industrial revolution
Teaching History feature
The British industrial revolution stands out as a pivotal moment in human history. Its timing, causes and consequences have all been major topics of historical enquiry for well over one hundred years. Many of the great Victorian commentators – Engels, Dickens, Blake to name a few – who lived through...
What Have Historians Been Arguing About... the consequences of the industrial revolution
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Podcast Series: British LGBTQ+ History
Multipage Article
In Part 4 of our series on Social and Political Change in the UK since 1800 we focus on UK LGBTQ+ History. This series of podcasts features Dr Matt Cook and Dr Sean Brady of Birkbeck, University of London, Professor Sally R Munt of the University of Sussex and Dr Emma Vickers...
Podcast Series: British LGBTQ+ History
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Film: Black British History – 1714 to 1785
Power and Freedom in Britain and Ireland: 1714–2010
In Episode 4, Dr Montaz Marché (University College London) and Professor Ryan Hanley (University of Exeter), discuss the lives and experience of 18th century Black Britons.
In this discussion they look at the lives of both the exceptional and the ordinary, and reflect upon the politics of race and gender in...
Film: Black British History – 1714 to 1785
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Uncomfortable secrets: uncovering family history and other stories
Historian article
Kate Brooks’ interest in her family history led her to trace the life of her great grandfather, Joseph Lowe. His life story provides insights into 19th-century life, disease, orphanages, and child labour, but she also reflects on the ways in which the past can sometimes resonate with the present in unexpected...
Uncomfortable secrets: uncovering family history and other stories
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A cuisine fit for wartime: history and practices of Ukrainian cooking
Historian article
Olena Braichenko examines the most common dishes of Ukrainian cuisine, describing the culinary traditions of the indigenous people of Ukraine – the Crimean Tatars. She explains how the Soviet past influenced the gastronomic culture of Ukrainians and what peculiarities of Ukrainian culinary behaviour contribute to stability and survival in the...
A cuisine fit for wartime: history and practices of Ukrainian cooking
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My Favourite History Place: Gladstone’s Library at Hawarden
Historian feature
When I first visited Gladstone’s residential library in 1977 for a pre-university History degree reading week, I barely knew who Gladstone was. I had just come back from a holiday in Italy and the contrast between Florence and Hawarden, a Welsh border town, was startling. I came from the sunny remains...
My Favourite History Place: Gladstone’s Library at Hawarden
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On Black Lives Matter
Article
2020 has been an interesting year in many ways – both as a year to make history and one that has sought to tackle many representations of the past. The Black Lives Matter campaign that has taken on new energy across the globe in response to the killing of a...
On Black Lives Matter
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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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My Favourite History Place: The Tenement Museum, New York
Historian feature
The Tenement Museum is not remotely like any museum I had previously visited. It is an old tenement building where generations of New York migrants lived and loved, worked and had families before moving both on and out. The Tenement Museum tells the story of the Lower East Side through the...
My Favourite History Place: The Tenement Museum, New York
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Film: Discussion: Historical memory of key individuals in the Civil Rights Movement
Film series: The African-American Civil Rights Movement
Professor Tony Badger, Professor Joe Street and Professor Brian Ward discuss the African-American Civil Rights movement and examine different ways we might interpret the significance of key individuals, groups, institutions and events that played a role in its development and progress.
This section reflects on how the past is portrayed...
Film: Discussion: Historical memory of key individuals in the Civil Rights Movement
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70 years – 70 ‘things’ that tell our story
Historian article
As part of the Historical Association’s recognition of our patron the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, The Historical Association asked our members and followers to put together a collection of 70 ‘things’ that tell the story of the last 70 years: how the UK and the world have changed; how they have developed;...
70 years – 70 ‘things’ that tell our story
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Film: Reimagining the Blitz Spirit
The mobilisation of World War II propaganda in our own times
Dr Jo Fox continued our virtual branch lecture series this July on the subject 'Reimagining the Blitz Spirit: the mobilisation of World War II propaganda in our own times'. Jo Fox is the Director of the Institute of Historical Research and a well-known historian specialising in the history of propaganda, rumour and truth telling.
This...
Film: Reimagining the Blitz Spirit
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Out and About: exploring Black British history through headstones
Historian feature
In what has become a very a topical article that was commissioned in late 2019, Jill Sudbury explores some of the known graves of the enslaved and formerly enslaved throughout Britain, and asks for help in recording others as yet unknown.
Along the bleak shore of Morecambe Bay, beyond the...
Out and About: exploring Black British history through headstones
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Linking Law: Viking and medieval Scandinavian law in literature and history
Historian article
Ongoing interdisciplinary developments have cast light on the surprisingly sophisticated world of Viking-age and medieval Scandinavian law and its wide-ranging influence in these societies.
In many ways, the Viking Age and its inhabitants are more familiar than ever before. From video games to television and films, new narrative frontiers and bigger...
Linking Law: Viking and medieval Scandinavian law in literature and history
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Gaming the medieval past
Historian article
Matthew Bennett and Ryan Lavelle explore how the devising, playing and discussion of war games can contribute to historical understanding.
Games as tools for learning are engaging for teachers and students alike. Whether computer-driven, board games, miniatures, role-play or re-enactment, they all provide scenarios within which learners can use a...
Gaming the medieval past
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Witchcraft, Werewolves and Magic in European History: on-demand short course
Online self-guided short course for lifelong learners
This self-guided short course provides an introduction to European witchcraft history from the fifteenth century to the present. Using a range of primary sources, the course explores important themes and questions relating to witchcraft history, examining how witchcraft has been imagined and understood at different times and in different places, and why...
Witchcraft, Werewolves and Magic in European History: on-demand short course
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Peterloo: HA interview with Mike Leigh and Jacqueline Riding
Article
The film Peterloo dramatises the people and events that led to the infamous ‘Peterloo’ massacre in August 1819. Respected film-maker Mike Leigh created the film using historical records and sources from the period, as he and historical adviser Jacqueline Riding explained to the HA in a recent interview, which you can watch below.
Peterloo: HA interview with Mike Leigh and Jacqueline Riding
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When was the post-war?
Article
There is a peculiar tension at the heart of scholarship about the years and decades after the Second World War. On the one hand, the political developments following the breakdown of the war-time alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union have spawned an enormous literature, in parts as old...
When was the post-war?
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Out and About: The Black Country Living Museum
Historian feature
In this article, Rob Pritchard reflects on his long-standing engagement with the Black Country Living Museum, exploring how visits to this ‘living history’ site transformed his approach to teaching history...
Out and About: The Black Country Living Museum
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The right to fight: women’s boxing in Britain
Historian article
In this article Matthew Taylor explores the history of women’s boxing in Britain from the early eighteenth century onwards, showing how prevailing gender norms have led to this activity being marginalised by historians. It is argued that the key women boxers he discusses should be celebrated as key figures, not just in the history of sport but...
The right to fight: women’s boxing in Britain
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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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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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Making and breaking Britain’s national energy order
Historian article
British history flows through energy. Changes to fuel sources, technologies, workplace organisation and power along with government policy and ownership have been defining turning points in British economic history. In this article Ewan Gibbs traces the making, development and subsequent breaking of a national British energy order across the second half of...
Making and breaking Britain’s national energy order
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Archaeology on the edge
Historian article
Major archaeological projects can be complex affairs, in terms of their funding, governance and the wide range of historical and technological expertise they require. Here National Trust archaeologist Kathy Laws describes the intricacies and successes of a multi-organisational project at an Iron Age site in north Wales. The challenges of the...
Archaeology on the edge
