August 2020

In common with students and staff at Northampton and elsewhere, and in solidarity with the family of George Floyd and all victims of racism we add our voice to those protesting worldwide. History does not belong to any group or person and does not exclude any group or person.  The history we teach, the history… Continue Reading →

The next in our continuing series of blogs inspired by the BLM movement from students and staff is from Catriona, who has just completed her second year of study with us.  As another middle aged, middle class white person, I also wondered what contribution I could make to the quest for change, the need for… Continue Reading →

This week we are posting personal blogs from students and staff in History at the University of Northampton. Today’s post is by Joseph, a first year History Undergraduate.  When you look back in history and you see black people as slaves, then you see them segregated and treated as second class citizens and you think… Continue Reading →

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 →

‘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 →

This recipe is pretty easy and pretty healthy but also quite delicious! If you are missing your KFC or Nandos this might be a good way to pretend we’re all out of lockdown. For this you will need: A large frying pan, a meat tenderiser or rolling pin, some cling film, a spatula/cooking turner, and… Continue Reading →

I don’t do many puddings but one I can make is a crumble. The great thing about a crumble is you can use whatever fruit is available, and mix it up to suit your taste (or the contents of your fridge or fruit bowl). Apples (eating or cooking ones), plums, pears, gooseberries, and rhubarb –… Continue Reading →

My wife and I have been isolating now for almost two weeks and it is making me more creative in the kitchen. For all of March we ate an almost entirely vegan diet and we’ve stayed vegetarian since then. It can get a bit tricky to keep producing something tasty and healthy when you can’t… Continue Reading →

History is supposed to give us a sense of perspective, some way of understanding current events by looking backwards, at those in the past. I’ve seen some very good articles, comments and blogs on the 1919 ‘Spanish Flu’ pandemic (which wasn’t Spanish at all of course), and some reflections on how our ancestors coped with… Continue Reading →

Hello everyone. As we struggle with the uncertainty and disruption to normal life that the Coronavirus pandemic has brought I thought it might be nice to share some basic ways to cope with isolation and a reduction in social interactions. I am staying at home as much as possible but have stocked up (sensibly, not… Continue Reading →

I have a lot of sympathy for my students – we Millennials were criticised for exactly the same reasons that they receive public condemnation.

One twenty-two-year-old (Instagram ‘influencer’ Freddie Bentley, pictured above) recently caused consternation by suggesting topics such as climate change and Brexit should be taught in schools rather than the history of the Second World War. It followed comments by contestants on the reality show The Apprentice that revealed that they weren’t sure of the dates of… Continue Reading →

  On Monday this week I removed my second-year class on crime and punishment from the confines of a Waterside campus classroom (lovely as they are) and transported it to a real life courthouse in the centre of Northampton. Northampton’s Sessions House was built after the fire that destroyed much of the town in 1675…. Continue Reading →

Starting on Wednesday 13 March 2019, the University of Northampton will be hosting an exhibition about the life of Reverend Dr James Parkes (1896 – 1981). Parkes was one of the most remarkable figures within twentieth-century Christianity. Yet since his death in 1981, he has largely been forgotten by the church, by Jews, and by… Continue Reading →

Jim Beach of the University of Northampton reflects on a visit to the Czech Republic.   Speaking neither Czech nor Polish, it was with some trepidation that I accepted an invitation to speak at a workshop on the Seven Days’ War between the Czechs and Poles in 1919.   The initial invite came from Tomáš… Continue Reading →

For several years now I’ve been putting undergraduates on trial. Before you get excited I only mean as an exercise in understanding the criminal trial in the past, I don’t lock them up or send them to Botany Bay! Each year I set an assessment which involves groups of 2nd year History and Criminology students… Continue Reading →

As a academic historian who works on the history of crime (and most of that in London) when I was offered the chance to take a peek inside a working English prison I could hardly refuse. I run modules on crime and punishment at the University of Northampton and help students explore the changing nature… Continue Reading →

On Wednesday this week I will be moving into my open office space in the Learning Hub at the University of Northampton’s new Waterside Campus. I’m pretty excited about the change because I’ve been down to Waterside and it looks fantastic. In fact it has exceeded my hopes so far and I hope and believe… Continue Reading →

Following on from the success of last year’s trip, fifteen third-year students travelled to Vienna in the first week of June.  Organised by the History Society, the group were again guided by Jim Beach, one of the History lecturers, who took them around many locations connected to modules they had studied during their degree.   UoN… Continue Reading →

On the 8 May 1968 a series of dawn raids were carried out by ‘more than 100’ Metropolitan Police detectives, led by DS Leonard ‘Nipper’ Read. The target of these raids was organized criminal gang that surrounded two East End gangsters that have passed into London folklore and garnered more column inches, True Crime books… Continue Reading →