Would you join a militant political movement, risking not only your job but potentially your family, friends and public reputation? What physical and emotional trauma would you be willing to face? These were all questions that faced women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when they joined the emergent women’s rights and suffrage... Continue Reading →
‘It’s a Sin’- COVID-19 and the AIDS Pandemic of the 1980s
This blog post is by our undergraduate student Joseph Price. Image from It's A Sin The recent Channel 4 drama series ‘It’s a Sin’ directed by Russel T Davies offers a terrifying and heartbreaking insight into the experiences of gay men in the 1980s. The series follows the lives of a group of friends where... Continue Reading →
We're excited to announce that Dr Kate Lister will be speaking at our virtual seminar series on Wednesday 17 March! Click here to register for this event.
In the light of another assault on democracy we need the Humanities more than ever
When I finally switched off from a day of online meetings on Wednesday I thought I’d relax by watching some gentle TV. Then a prompt from a friend on social media made me switch over to a new channel, the BBC at first and then CNN. Within moments I was hooked in to the drama... Continue Reading →
Attack on the Capitol and Appropriating the Medieval
Getty Images: Man dressed as a " Viking" storms the US Capitol While the world reels from the attempt by right-wing insurrectionists to storm the US Capitol, I'd like to draw the attention of my students studying Medieval Chivalry and its Afterlives to this striking image of a man dressed as a pseudo-Viking. Jake Angeli,... Continue Reading →
We all love a good conspiracy theory, even it if it might kill us
At the weekend ‘thousands of people took to the streets of central London and held a rally in Trafalgar Square. The numbers involved are disputed: ‘about a 1,000’ said most news reports, but I’ve seen posts on social media saying that there were 35,000 protesting in Nelson’s shadow. They were there to protest about the... Continue Reading →
There are bigger battles to fight so please just wear a mask folks
Even a cursory engagement with British history would be enough to remind us that we are a fairly rebellious people when we are told what we should or shouldn’t do. There is a proud tradition of standing up for our ‘rights’ even if, for the most part, those rights are nowhere defined in a written... Continue Reading →
Black Lives Matter – a series of posts from History at Northampton
Today we start a series of personal blog posts from staff and students reacting to the killing of George Floyd and the protests here and around the world. The first of these is from Ursula, who has just completed her second year of study for a degree in History at the University of Northampton. NB: Ursula's... Continue Reading →
‘Keep cool and you command everybody’*: reflections on history and why we are focusing on the wrong freedoms.
‘We live in societies where the positive freedom to act as we wish is perhaps our central concern. Whatever the professed fears f global warning, or the expressed sympathies with the poor and downtrodden, the willingness actively to change our way of living is the province of only a small minority. For most, the everyday... Continue Reading →
The Elites are Cummings
Dominic Cummings has been in the news lately, you may have noticed. He drove, whilst infected with COVID-19, from Islington to County Durham, with his family. He then took them on a tour of County Durham, whilst infected, and after having been discovered defended his actions, supported by the PM and the government he advises.... Continue Reading →
