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The British soldier in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars
Historian article
Scum of the earth – or fine fellows?
Carole Divall asks whether the men of the British Army really were ‘the scum of the earth’, as often asserted, or willing soldiers who earned the respect of the French.
‘Soldiers were regarded as day labourers engaged in unsavoury business; a money...
The British soldier in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars
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Parliament, people or privilege: Do we need a better understanding of constitutional history?
Historical Association conference 2017: round table discussion
Join our panel, including Dr Alix Green, Professor Tony Badger and Professor Justin Champion as they discuss how recent polls and election results have confounded many pundits. Do calls to ‘give us our country back’ or ‘return our sovereignty’ suggest that many people in liberal democracies need a better understanding of...
Parliament, people or privilege: Do we need a better understanding of constitutional history?
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Virtual Branch recording: Crusader Castles
Article
During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the crusaders constructed tens of castles across the Middle East, some merely small watchtowers, others massive strongholds or fortress cities - but why did the crusaders place so much importance on fortifications?
Nicholas Morton explores the development of this remarkable phenomenon asking key questions...
Virtual Branch recording: Crusader Castles
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Update: Disability history
Historian feature
Expansion into new periods and places, new revelations of human diversity and difference, and a rethink of the tools we use to recover the past – disability history is not just thriving but is also exciting, as Daniel Blackie and Alexia Moncrieff demonstrate in their update on the state of...
Update: Disability history
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Deaf marriages and sign language recognition
Historian article
In the pre-modern world, the ability to speak and to hear were fundamental to participation in civil society. How, then, could prelingual deaf people survive and thrive? Rosamund Oates, author of the recently published Silent Histories: Deafness in Early Modern England, charts the long struggle for the recognition of sign...
Deaf marriages and sign language recognition
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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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‘I am your most troublesome pauper’: disability and the New Poor Law
Historian article
In nineteenth-century England and Wales, the New Poor Law was the state’s solution for those who wouldn’t – as well as those who couldn’t – work. Even for disabled paupers, the line between the two wasn’t always clear cut. In this article, Carol Beardmore shows how those with physical disabilities...
‘I am your most troublesome pauper’: disability and the New Poor Law
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Broken bodies and racial lessons: disabled Wehrmacht veterans in Nazi Germany
Historian article
Throughout history, war has been one of the great producers of disability, and the disabled veteran has often provoked feelings of pride and pity. In this article, Christopher Thomas Goodwin explores the multiple meanings of the disabled soldier in Nazi Germany...
Broken bodies and racial lessons: disabled Wehrmacht veterans in Nazi Germany
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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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In conversation with David Turner
Historian feature
Disabled people have always been present in Britain’s past. Yet they have often appeared only at the edge of historical narratives: as recipients of charity, as objects of medical attention, as casualties of war or work, or as figures in stories told by institutions rather than by themselves. In Disability:...
In conversation with David Turner
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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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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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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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Recorded webinar: The Crusades through Middle Eastern eyes: Islamic and Eastern Christian perspectives
Article
The Crusades were traditionally studied as an extension of western European history. In recent decades, however, historians have begun to study the Crusades from the perspective of Middle Eastern history, through sources left behind by local Muslims as well as Eastern Christians. This presentation will discuss this shift in the...
Recorded webinar: The Crusades through Middle Eastern eyes: Islamic and Eastern Christian perspectives
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Recorded webinar: Deafness in early modern England
Article
In this webinar, Professor Rosamund Oates shares her research for her new book Silent Histories: Deafness in Early Modern England (2026). Professor Oates is an expert in the historical cultures of early modern England and is passionate about exploring previously unknown stories of deaf and disabled people, using rigorous scholarly...
Recorded webinar: Deafness in early modern England
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Recorded webinar: Tsarist imperial society and ethnicity
Article
In this webinar historian Shane O’Rourke – a specialist in late-Imperial Russian society and ethnicities, including the Cossacks – explores society under the last three Tsars, examining Russification in the western Russian borderlands, Russian settler colonialism, the Caucasus and deportation, and current historiographical trends.
Recorded webinar: Tsarist imperial society and ethnicity
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Virtual Branch recording: The Maginot Line
Article
Why did the the Maginot Line – that marvel of 1930s engineering with its miles of fortifications and bunkers to deter German invasion – fail so spectacularly in 1940?
Its vast underground forts were designed to withstand artillery and chemical attack, yet France fell in just six weeks, leaving the Line as a symbol...
Virtual Branch recording: The Maginot Line
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The Aftermath of War: Allied Occupation and Displaced Persons in post-war Europe
Article
Dr Samantha K. Knapton [she/her] is an Assistant Professor in History at the University of Nottingham, UK. She is an historian of central and east-central Europe, forced displacement, and international humanitarianism. In 2023, she has published her first monograph, Occupiers, Humanitarian Workers, and Polish Displaced Persons in British-occupied Germany and a co-edited...
The Aftermath of War: Allied Occupation and Displaced Persons in post-war Europe
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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
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Female protagonists in early East India Company history
Historian article
Traditional histories of the East India Company have had a focus on the largely male characters who were involved as merchants, politicians and soldiers. Here Karin Doull considers the significance of the women who were part of the company’s story, discussing some of the issues encountered in researching and retelling...
Female protagonists in early East India Company history
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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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Eastern Nigeria market women and European businesses in colonial Nigeria 1900–29
Historian article
In this article Folusho Alabi reveals a relatively unknown story from the history of the British Empire. She analyses the issues and strategic manoeuvres in an ongoing struggle between Nigerian market women and the British colonial authorities in the early twentieth century. Despite an innate imbalance of power in this struggle,...
Eastern Nigeria market women and European businesses in colonial Nigeria 1900–29
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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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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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Kangxi and Louis XIV
Historian article
Recently the French and Chinese governments have joined together in a nostalgic reflection on cultural interactions between King Louis XIV and Emperor Kangxi in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. As Sean Heath explains here, these modern reflections are particularly interesting for an aspect of the relationship which they...
Kangxi and Louis XIV
