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The National Year of Reading 2026
31st March 2026
2026 has been declared as the National Year of Reading, a timely reminder of the importance of literacy, but also the power of the written word.
Throughout recorded history the ability to read and write has been an important form of communication, often used to control access to power and...
The National Year of Reading 2026
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Film series: Power and Freedom in Britain and Ireland, 1714–2010
New HA film series
From royal courts to radical protests, from industrial revolutions to global empires – this compelling new film series traces the dramatic evolution of power, rights, and freedom across three centuries of British and Irish history.
We will trace Britain and Ireland’s transformation from 1714 to 2010, unpacking power struggles, social revolutions, and...
Film series: Power and Freedom in Britain and Ireland, 1714–2010
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More than ever, history and historians need a collaborative and co-ordinated approach
27th February 2025
It’s been an especially grim start to 2025 for many in UK higher education. News in early January of cuts and job losses at the universities of Canterbury Christ Church, Northampton and Staffordshire has been followed by announcements from Cardiff, Durham, Newcastle, Reading and, once again, Kent. This, moreover, is...
More than ever, history and historians need a collaborative and co-ordinated approach
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Secondary Membership Sample Resources
Supporting your professional growth and classroom practice
Enjoy a taster of our expert-produced resources and see how HA membership can boost your pedagogy, your classroom practice and your professional journey at every stage of your career.
Teaching resources are just one part of the secondary membership package – find out more here.
Teaching History journal
The UK’s...
Secondary Membership Sample Resources
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Virtual Branch: Birds and British History
Article
In his recent book The Cuckoo's Lea Michael J Warren provides a exploration of how birds are entwined with British history, particularly in our place names.
Join us for an exclusive Q&A with the author to weave together literature, history and ornithology and discover a fascinating heritage that matters deeply now when so...
Virtual Branch: Birds and British History
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Virtual Branch Recording: Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife
Lives of medieval women
What was life really like for women in the medieval period? How did they think about sex, death and God? Could they live independent lives?
Few women had the luxury of writing down their thoughts and feelings during medieval times. But remarkably, there are at least four who did: Marie de France,...
Virtual Branch Recording: Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife
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Primary Membership Sample Resources
Unlock a toolkit of trusted resources
Explore free samples of our expert-produced resources and see how HA membership can transform history teaching in your school.
Teaching resources are just one part of the primary membership package – find out more here.
Primary History magazine
The UK’s leading magazine for primary history educators, offering expert insights, practical...
Primary Membership Sample Resources
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Teaching History 202: Out now
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
Read Teaching History 202: Organising Principles
Late last year, the government responded to the final report of the Curriculum and Assessment Review, making clear its commitment to revising the National Curriculum for schools in England and promising various reforms to public examinations. As they await new drafts (with publication of...
Teaching History 202: Out now
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Virtual Branch Recording: Food and drink in the medieval monastery
Article
In his recent book The Monastic World, Andrew Jotischky looks at how from the late Roman Empire onwards, monasteries and convents were a common sight throughout Europe. The history of monasticism is defined by the fierce and passionate abandonment of the ordinary comforts of life, the most striking being food and drink....
Virtual Branch Recording: Food and drink in the medieval monastery
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Virtual Branch Recording: Women and the Reformations
Article
The Reformations, both Protestant and Catholic, have long been told as stories of men. But women were central to the transformations that took place in Europe and beyond. What was life like for them in this turbulent period? How did their actions and ideas shape Christianity and influence societies around the world? ...
Virtual Branch Recording: Women and the Reformations
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Teaching History 200: Out now
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
Read Teaching History 200: Telling Histories
In his recent book on the experiences of Parisians in the years leading up to the French Revolution, Robert Darnton describes the Tree of Cracow, a large chestnut tree in the garden of the Palais-Royal in central Paris.1 ‘Nouvellistes de bouche’ (oral newsmongers) gathered...
Teaching History 200: Out now
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Photographs and Historians: Reflections on some Nazi Era Photos in U.S. Archives
History journal blog
I recently enjoyed what a historian would consider cut-up-the-rug fun; several days of research in the United States National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, MD and the Third Reich Collection in the Library of Congress.
In NARA’s reading room, I lost myself among open shelves containing dozens of...
Photographs and Historians: Reflections on some Nazi Era Photos in U.S. Archives
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Virtual Branch Recording: Assassins and Templars
Article
In this talk, Steve Tibble discusses the Assassins and Templars, two of history's most legendary groups.
One was a Shi’ite religious sect, the other a Christian military order created to defend the Holy Land. Steve Tibble traces the history of these two groups from their origins to their ultimate destruction showing how they survived...
Virtual Branch Recording: Assassins and Templars
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Recorded webinar: The Cult of the Duce: Mussolini and the Italians at the time of Fascism
Article
The Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini understood more than other leaders of his generation the power of images and used them to great effect in building his personality cult which was central to Italian Fascism. In this illustrated webinar, Professor Giuliana Pieri will explore the evolution of the iconography of...
Recorded webinar: The Cult of the Duce: Mussolini and the Italians at the time of Fascism
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Recorded webinar: Revisiting the witch trials
Article
The East Anglian witch hunt under Matthew Hopkins, self-appointed Witchfinder General, has garnered a great deal of popular and historical interest over the years. An image has developed of a zealous, misogynistic young man serving crazed 'justice' against supposed witches, whipping up panic and turning neighbours against each other in...
Recorded webinar: Revisiting the witch trials
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Recorded webinar: Natural disasters in medieval Britain
Article
Natural disasters frequently affected medieval populations. This webinar explores some examples of what happened when meteorological hazards struck medieval communities, how they reacted and what steps they took to protect themselves against future risks. Through archaeological and historical sources of evidence, Peter Brown explores the diverse impacts unleashed by disasters...
Recorded webinar: Natural disasters in medieval Britain
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Virtual Branch Recording: Rebellion and Resistance of the Enslaved in the Atlantic World
Article
This talk explored the struggle for liberation from the perspective of the enslaved, wherever possible in their own words. Dr Sudhir Hazareesingh shines a light on the lives of revolutionaries like Toussaint Louverture, José Antonio Aponte, Nat Turner, and the pregnant rebel Solitude; touching on the stories of the freed...
Virtual Branch Recording: Rebellion and Resistance of the Enslaved in the Atlantic World
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Virtual Branch Recording: Magna Carta
Article
This month at the Virtual Branch, renowned medieval historian David Carpenter will delve into the enduring legacy of Magna Carta. Drawing on his recent work uncovering and authenticating a Magna Carta document in the United States, Carpenter will explore why both the dating and the content of this foundational charter...
Virtual Branch Recording: Magna Carta
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Virtual Branch Recording: The Lines we Draw
Article
In this Virtual Branch Tim Franks, acclaimed BBC Journalist, talks about his personal history and identity drawing on his new biography The Lines we Draw: The Journalist, The Jew and an argument about identity.
We will delve into Tim's experiences as a journalist in some of the world's major conflict zones,...
Virtual Branch Recording: The Lines we Draw
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Recorded webinar: Indian Suffragettes: women's activism in South Asia and beyond
Article
Between 1917 and 1947, women in the Indian subcontinent were engaged in active debates and noteworthy demonstrations for the vote, building up a national suffrage movement. In this talk Professor Sumita Mukherjee discusses the activities of Indian suffragettes in this period, showing how they were connected with British and other...
Recorded webinar: Indian Suffragettes: women's activism in South Asia and beyond
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Recorded webinar: Researching the history of migration and refugees in Europe
When the present informs the past
Research on the history of migration continues to flourish and grow, but scholarship is also becoming increasingly splintered, often focusing on particular settings or population groups. Migration is often used as a way to discuss questions of national identity or diverse religious, ethnic, religious and local identities in the UK,...
Recorded webinar: Researching the history of migration and refugees in Europe
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Recorded webinar: The post-emancipation Caribbean and the meanings of freedom
Article
This webinar examines the era of ‘post-emancipation’ in the Caribbean from around the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. It interrogates the notion of ‘emancipation’ and asks what kind of ‘freedom’ did abolition bring to the formerly enslaved? How did colonial states and other authorities seek to regulate the lives of...
Recorded webinar: The post-emancipation Caribbean and the meanings of freedom
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Recorded webinar: Ottoman trade with Europe in the early modern era
Article
For European states in the early modern era the Ottoman empire represented a huge trading bloc, stretching at its height from Hungary in the west to Iran in the east, from Ukraine in the north to Egypt in the south, and along the southern shores of the Mediterranean to the...
Recorded webinar: Ottoman trade with Europe in the early modern era
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Write Your Own Historical Fiction competition 2024 – the winners
The HA's writing competition for children aged 10-15 years
Real history contains some of the most fanciful, exciting, worrying and incredible stories – learning about the past can open our eyes to how people have interacted with the world and each other for centuries. It is not surprising that alongside the real history most cultures and traditions have a...
Write Your Own Historical Fiction competition 2024 – the winners
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The Great Debate Final 2024
25th March 2024
Winner:
Emma Crow of Broxburn Academy, Broxburn, Scotland
Runners up:
Abigail Powers of The Ladies’ College, Guernsey
Erica Wright of William Farr School, Lincolnshire
Rachel McGarry of Shavington Academy, Crewe, Cheshire
Finalists
Sofia Ntege, North Oxfordshire Academy, Banbury
Harry Gray, Exeter School, Exeter
Rhea Cherrington, Bablake School, Coventry
Molly Grimshaw,...
The Great Debate Final 2024
