Digital Archive Review: The Internet Archive This review is the first of a new series, intended as a learning resource, and aimed primarily at undergraduates about to embark on individual research projects and dissertations, but will also be relevant to anyone interested in the rich potential of digital archives for accessing primary sources. Here, Robert […]
Abstract European diplomacy was born of the relations between northern Italian city-states during the Renaissance, and developed from occasional delegations to resident embassies in the early modern period. In the seventeenth century, the Kingdom of France became the protagonist of European political and military affairs, particularly under the reign of Louis XIV. This article analyses […]
Contemporary Scottish Diplomacy: Some Recent and Distant Parallels The Scottish government under the SNP has frequently employed diplomacy to help secure its strategic goals. In response to this prevalence, this article explores how contemporary Scottish diplomacy compares to three other related forms of diplomacy, drawn from both the recent and the distant past, in the […]
Election Day and Britain’s Existential Crisis In this Spotlight article for Election Day in the UK, David Robinson discusses how the past forty years of Britain’s economic and social history have led to a divided nation and a present day existential crisis, which no main political party seems willing to discuss. Across the UK, local […]
Abstract This article provides an overview of theory and practice in current trans historical scholarship. It delineates key historiographical discussions and examines their implications for one of the most controversial and long-standing questions in the field: when does trans history begin? It is argued that there are three prominent schools of thought in contemporary trans […]
Value and Values Dr David Civil is a Research Fellow at the Jubilee Centre in the School of Education at the University of Birmingham. His PhD research explored the concept of meritocracy in post-war Britain’s intellectual politics. Since their inauguration in 1948, the BBC Reith Lectures have provided historians with an annual window into the […]
The “Woke” Bite Back! David Robinson takes a light-hearted look at the shifting reputation of the Humanities academic but concludes there are serious reasons for their voices to be heard… In a pre-pandemic life I was asked at a social event the obligatory question about what I do. I replied that, having been made redundant […]
Abstract This article examines how Iranian regime, politics, and religion shaped the presence and roles of women in film. In the monarchical Pahlavi era, film followed early 20th century Western archetypes, marginalizing women to the binary role of virgin or whore. Despite misogynistic undertones of the Islamic Revolution, the “New Woman” created in the image of […]
Download PDF Author Biography Natalie Grace is a History PhD student at the University of Nottingham researching witchcraft in print in Germany and England. She is funded by the Midlands4Cities DTP and supervised by Dr David Gehring and Dr Simone Laqua-O’Donnell. Twitter: @Witchy_Nat Midlands4Cities VPP: https://www.midlands4cities.ac.uk/student_profile/natalie-grace/ Abstract This paper compares the creation of witch identities […]
Author Biography Alex Riggs is an MA History student at the University of Nottingham. He will be starting a Midlands4Cities funded PhD there in September, studying Ted Kennedy and Jesse Jackson’s presidential primary campaigns. Book Review: ‘The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party’ by John Nichols In recent years, the American left has […]
Download PDF Author Biography Gillian Owen is a Masters Student studying Classics at the University of Nottingham. Gillian‘s interests cover a range periods and cultures centred around the Mediterranean. Her current dissertation focuses on the image of the sea in Etruscan burials. LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/gillian-owen Twitter: @Gillianowen97 Book Review: ‘Greek Military Service in the Ancient Near East, 401-330 BCE’ by Jeffrey […]
Book Review: Horden, P. and Purcell, N., The Boundless Sea: Writing Mediterranean History (London, 2020) Link to PDF Nicholas Thompson Unlike this year’s Wolfson History Prize Winner The Boundless Sea: A Human History of Oceans, The Boundless Sea: Writing Mediterranean History (hereafter, Boundless) focuses on methods of approaching the Mediterranean.[1] Boundless is a reflection on […]
Bad or Mad? Infanticide: Insanity and Morality in Nineteenth-Century Britain PAIGE MATHIESON Download PDF Introduction Infanticidal mothers have been murdering their newly born offspring for hundreds of years. Historically, infanticide was used as a form of contraception by hunter-gatherers in nomadic tribes, when their societies were at war and food supplies were scarce.[1] The horrific […]
Link to PDF Featured image courtesy of Online Archive of California Author Biography Kieran Blake is a postgraduate student of History at the University of Lincoln, researching twentieth-century American social movements—specifically addressing queer studies and the history of sexuality. Abstract This paper examines the 1977 Coors beer boycott, to analyse the interplay of socio-political groups […]
Link to PDF Featured image courtesy of Brooklyn Museum, object 34.493 Author Biography Ilya Maude is a recent graduate of the University of Nottingham. This article formed part of Ilya’s undergraduate dissertation supervised within the Department of History. Abstract In early modern England, milk was a culturally potent substance, laden with meanings and symbolism. These meanings […]
Link to PDF Featured image courtesy of Aviva Archives Author Biography Joshua Thorpe graduates this year from the University of Leicester with a History BA. He will now complete an MSc at the London School of Economics, exploring empires, colonialism and globalisation. Abstract The 1890s saw the yields on the Norwich Union’s traditional domestic investments […]
In this article Samantha Armstrong reviews The Game of Love in Georgian England by Sally Holloway, recently published in January 2019. This book is a welcome exploration of the emotions of romance within the conceptualization of love in material and popular culture. The Game of Love in Georgian England investigates facets of the material culture […]
In this article, Robert reviews Britain’s Europe: A Thousand Years of Conflict and Cooperation by Brendan Simms, published immediately prior to the referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union in 2016. The book challenges the existing historical tradition that places Britain as exceptional due to its insular geography and instead gives an account of […]