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Why did regional variations exist in the prosecution of witches between 1580-1650
Historian article
Regional variations in the intensity of European witchhunting existed because the necessary preconditions for panic chain-reaction hunts were only constantly in place in a very small number of regions. More than 35,000 witchcraft executions took place in the Holy Roman Empire where there was a wide acceptance of the cumulative...
Why did regional variations exist in the prosecution of witches between 1580-1650
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The Origins of the Local Government Service
Historian article
The concept ‘local government’ dates only from the middle of the nineteenth century. ‘Local government service’ emerged later still. In 1903 Redlich and Hirst1 wrote of ‘municipal officers’, while in 1922 Robson2 preferred ‘the municipal civil service’. ‘Local government service’ perhaps derives its pedigree from its use in the final...
The Origins of the Local Government Service
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Ralph Sadleir: Hackney's Local Hero or Villain: Examples of learning opportunities in museums and historic sites at Key Stage 3
Teaching History article
The benefits of learning in historical sites and museums are well documented. De Silva, Smith and Tranter wrote in Teaching History 102, Inspiration and Motivation Edition, about exploring identity through the biography of a house, suggesting the possibility of teaching from the local to capture the national picture. However, students...
Ralph Sadleir: Hackney's Local Hero or Villain: Examples of learning opportunities in museums and historic sites at Key Stage 3
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Chronology
E-CPD
N.B. This unit was produced before the new curriculum and therefore while much of the advice is still useful, there may be some out of date references or links.
Learning about the complex concept of chronology is often considered very challenging for young children, yet this understanding underpins children's developing...
Chronology
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'Wanted, The Elusive Charlie Peace': A Sheffield Killer Of The 1870s As Popular Hero
Historian article
On 28 November 1876, William and John Habron, Irish brothers habitually in trouble with the police, were tried at Manchester Assizes for the murder three months before of Police Constable Nicholas Cock (on the basis of ‘scientific’ footprint evidence at the scene of the crime). The jury found 19 year-old...
'Wanted, The Elusive Charlie Peace': A Sheffield Killer Of The 1870s As Popular Hero
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Louis, John, and William: the 'Dame Europa' pamphlets, 1870-1871
Article
The pamphlet printing industry in England received an unexpected boost in 1871 with the appearance of numerous works written, mainly, as commentaries, satires or allegories in Britain’s attitude regarding the Franco-Prussian War. The cause of this deluge was one particular tract, first issued on Salisbury in October 1870, whose purpose...
Louis, John, and William: the 'Dame Europa' pamphlets, 1870-1871
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Catherine de' Medici and the French Wars of Religion
Article
R. J. Knecht suggests that the 'Black Legend' may not be quite as unfair to Catherine as her defenders have argued. Few historical figures have aroused as much passionate controversy as Catherine de’ Medici who was queen of France from 1547 until 1559 and several times regent before her death...
Catherine de' Medici and the French Wars of Religion
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Durham
Article
Emeritus Professor G. R. Batho a personal perspective on the city of the prince bishops. We all have highly personal impressions of the towns and cities with which we are familiar. Few readers of The Historian are likely to emulate the good lady who hearing that I was leaving the...
Durham
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The Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Strait 1898-1899: The birth of social anthropology?
Article
Dr John Shepherd reviews the history of a major anthropological expedition one hundred years ago. On 10 March 1898 The Times reported that Cambridge Anthropological Expedition led by Alfred Cort Haddon had sailed from London, bound for the Torres Strait region between Australia and New Guinea. In Imperial Britain, the...
The Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Strait 1898-1899: The birth of social anthropology?
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Jane Austen: a writer for all seasons
Article
Irene Collins provides a fresh assessment of the life and work of one of this country’s greatest novelists, whose own wit and charm, combined with a deep insight into human nature, is reflected in her novels. Jane Austen was not the first woman novelist in England to achieve popularity and...
Jane Austen: a writer for all seasons
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The Handing Back of Hong Kong: 1945 and 1997
Article
Andrew Whitfield examines the recovery of Hong Kong from the Japanese, 52 years before its return to China. As the clock ticks ever closer to midnight on 30 June 1997, the sun will set on Britain’s last major colonial outpost. Thousands of miles from the motherland, the colony originally acted...
The Handing Back of Hong Kong: 1945 and 1997
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The Migration of Indians to Guiana and Surinam
Article
While migration from Europe to North America and elsewhere is well known, that from India is less familiar to Western readers. Ananda Dulal Sarkar provides an account of Indian migrants to the former British and Dutch Guianas. Within India, particularly during British rule, young and able-bodied males migrated hundreds of...
The Migration of Indians to Guiana and Surinam
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Writing Family Story, Writing History
Primary History article
Why did I research my family history and write a memoir based on my ancestors’ and my own life? And why is all this relevant to readers of the Primary History Journal and not just self indulgent musing? Because it is an insider’s story of trying to write honest history...
Writing Family Story, Writing History
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Cunning Plan 103: why did Henry VIII marry so many times?
Teaching History feature
This enquiry sequence was inspired by an Historical Association lecture given last year by Susan Doran entitled, ‘Why did Elizabeth I not marry?’ Through its 14-19 conferences, sections of this journal and local branch activity, the Historical Association has started to secure stronger connection between up-to-date historical scholarship and classroom...
Cunning Plan 103: why did Henry VIII marry so many times?
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Planning a Victorian School Day
Primary History article
Learning is more engaging and better retained when it is contextualised and when it appeals to a variety of learning styles. How better to bring history alive, than by having it invade children's school environment and transform their everyday experience? Getting away from predominantly auditory learning, the printed word and...
Planning a Victorian School Day
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Stories and National Identity
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
If you were asked to select just one story which you thought all children should know about British history, what would it be? Would it be Guy Fawkes or Florence Nightingale? The battle of Hastings...
Stories and National Identity
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How do we ensure really good local history in primary schools?
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Primary History regularly contains articles from teachers who have taken some aspect of their locality and turned it into a really good activity. Hundreds of OFSTED reports as well, comment on really good practice in...
How do we ensure really good local history in primary schools?
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Archaeology - An approach to teaching history at Key Stage 2. Curriculum history
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Alongside modern University buildings, at Beckett Park, (part of Leeds Metropolitan University), there is evidence of a monastic grange, a seventeenth century farmhouse, and an eighteenth century mansion which was extended in Victorian Times. The Beckett Park Archaeology Project was established in...
Archaeology - An approach to teaching history at Key Stage 2. Curriculum history
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Some teaching and learning strategies
Article
The history of the community is an important aspect of history in both key stages but is rarely something that can just be taken off the shelf. Wherever possible, local history should be used to link different periods of history. The specific Key Stage 2 unit should be an investigation...
Some teaching and learning strategies
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Beyond the classroom walls: museums and primary history
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Apart from the difficulty of getting hold of a hard copy of the new National Curriculum framework, museum educators have little to worry about in the results of the curriculum review. The framework reveals few changes that will affect what museums have...
Beyond the classroom walls: museums and primary history
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Putting life into history: how pupils can use oral history to become critical historians
Teaching History article
However imaginative and enquiring classroom history may be, the history itself is usually constructed by a historian, a textbook author or a teacher. It is rare that pupils gain the opportunity to construct original histories of their own. Oral history can offer this opportunity. Yet as a methodology, oral history...
Putting life into history: how pupils can use oral history to become critical historians
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Asses, archers and assumptions: strategies for improving thinking skills in history in Years 9 to 13
Teaching History article
Thinking skills’ is a term that has been substantially over-used. It often seems to be rather a lazy shorthand for justifying the teaching of history by suddenly bolting on some ‘thinking’ - as if history is not all about thought in the first place. Arthur Chapman suggests using techniques from...
Asses, archers and assumptions: strategies for improving thinking skills in history in Years 9 to 13
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Bruce! You're history.' The place of history in the Scottish curriculum
Teaching History article
History teachers in Scotland are feeling vulnerable. A curriculum review is leading to debates about history’s place in schools – will it or should it be a statutory part of Scotland’s curriculum for 11-14 year olds? Many of the concerns in Sam Henry’s article will ring true for teachers throughout...
Bruce! You're history.' The place of history in the Scottish curriculum
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Does the linguistic release the conceptual? Helping Year 10 to improve their casual reasoning
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Does new vocabulary help students to express existing ideas for which they do not yet have words or does it actually give them new ideas which they did not previously hold? James Woodcock asks whether...
Does the linguistic release the conceptual? Helping Year 10 to improve their casual reasoning
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Teaching about heritage through a cross-curricular enquiry
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
What should we do with our brightest and best? Neal Watkin and Johannes Ahrenfelt suggest an enquiry for a very high ability Year 8 group which is both challenging and genuinely historical. The enquiry itself...
Teaching about heritage through a cross-curricular enquiry
