Heritage Open Days are happening across the UK from 10 to 19 September 2021, which are a great opportunity to explore historic locations. There are lots of events happening locally, including at Delapre Abbey this weekend. Do come along to this free history festival to explore this beautiful historic building and park, see a display... Continue Reading →
What can shoes tell us about the history of medicine?
Last week I went on my first research trip in nearly two years. The pandemic has been a difficult time to do historical research, as archives and libraries have been closed or operating in a very restricted way. It has been particularly challenging for historians who work on material culture: looking at digitial images of... Continue Reading →
Fifty five years of hurt
The first time I heard 'Three Lions' was at Wembley. It was a warm-up game for Euro 96 and my university's football society ran a minibus from Yorkshire down to London so we could go to the game. At half time England were winning comfortably and the tannoy played Baddiel and Skinner's new song. It... Continue Reading →
@HistoriansUON Euros sweepstake
It's Euro 2021 so we are organising a sweepstake on our twitter account, @HistoriansUON. It's just for fun. Free to enter and no prizes, except glory among the historical community! We might even do some football blogs and historically themed facts along the way. To enter, just follow us on twitter and reply to our... Continue Reading →
Charismatic Leadership and the Far Right
For students at Northampton interested in studying fascism, this blog on charismatic leadership I wrote for Fair Observer and the Centre for the Analysis of the Radical Right may be of interest to you, Dr Paul Jackson. Horia Sima, a central figure within the interwar Romanian fascist organization the Iron Guard, once described his leader,... Continue Reading →
Call for contributors: Innovations in Teaching Eighteenth-Century History
Following the successful online workshop last year on 'Innovations in Teaching Eighteenth-Century History', we plan to publish an edited book on this theme. As well as developing papers from the workshop into chapters, we are seeking additional chapters for the book, so this is a further oppotunity to get involved. The book will focus on... Continue Reading →
Hobbits and histories
Jim Beach reviews a new history of Britain in the early years of the Second World War. Occasionally a history book comes along and you’re obliged to point and shout “wow!” Alan Allport’s Britain at Bay is one of those books. It is also very timely. At a moment when our government is wrapping itself... Continue Reading →
Personal Correspondence in English History: An Online Conference
On the 15th and 16th of April Rachel Moss and Mark Rothery, both of the History department, hosted an online conference exploring letters in history, as primary sources and as themes for research. Over 100 delegates registered and attended the conference, it was very successful and enjoyable, we all learnt a lot! The delegates were... Continue Reading →
Count Binface: A Very British Phenomenon
What would British elections be like without candidates such as Count Binface, who is one of 20 people standing for London Mayor today? Britain has a long tradition of joke candidates contesting elections. Sometimes they have something more serious to say, other times they are seemingly motivated by the attention they draw. Famously, in 1984,... Continue Reading →
Line of Duty, politics and corruption
THIS BLOG CONTAINS SPOILERS The sixth and final series of police corruption drama Line of Duty concluded on Sunday night. I say 'concluded', but the ending was rather inconclusive, to the extent that it may have left the door open to continue the story. The revelation of the identity of 'H' proved to be a... Continue Reading →