Last week we showcased a series of blog posts written by History (and Joint Honours History) students at the University of Northampton. Today we have another, from Amelia, who has just competed her first year at Northampton studying History and Media Production. Again, this is a very personal reflection and it contains language which might cause offence out of context.  […]

On 12 May every year the Mass Observation Project asks people living in Britain to keep a diary and submit it for posterity. They are building up a wonderful social history archive. Lecturer Rachel Moss has documented hers on her blog here. Meanwhile, our undergraduate student Ursula Watkins submitted the following: May montage by Rahul […]

The internet has been filled with blog posts reminding us of the importance of self-care during the Covid-19 crisis. But what does comfort actually mean, both historically and today? Ruth Barton, one of our PhD students, explores. What does “comfort” mean to you? A cup of tea? A cuddle? Or something more complicated? (Image: Annie […]

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 – […]

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 […]

Note: we are committed to running this conference. If the global health situation means that it’s not safe for us to run this on campus in September, we will either re-arrange it to run virtually, or we will reschedule it to a later date to run on campus. So please do submit your abstracts. If […]

At the beginning of this week the incumbent Home Secretary announced that from January 2021 new legislation would restrict immigration into the UK, as the government had promised in the run up to the 2019 General Election. In brief the aim of the Conservative administration is to limit the amount of poorer, less well educated, […]

Since 22 February 2019 Algerians have been protesting in the streets. As usual there has been very little coverage of events in the British, indeed Western, media. This is, however, one of the most impressive pro-democracy movements the world has seen. It was triggered by President Bouteflika’s decision to stand for a fifth term of […]

I recently paid my first visit to the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle. Doing research there is a wonderful experience, so I thought it would be useful to blog about it here. I work on eighteenth-century British history and the Royal Archives is a key repository for this period, since it houses the records of […]

Recently lecturer in history Dr Rachel Moss was invited to speak at Times Higher Education’s LIVE event, a major conference celebrating UK Higher Education and addressing the problems it faces. This is the text of her talk (with a few modifications for online clarity), given in a session titled Educating Generation Z. Part of this […]

Senior Lecturer in History Mark Rothery writes on emotional economies:  Emojis – tiny pictures representing emotions. Picture via British Library.  As we leave Christmas and a very divisive general election behind ‘Emotional Economies’ seems an appropriate choice for this blog – it’s the subject of a paper I’ll be giving on the subject at the […]

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 […]

Matthew McCormack gave this paper at the ‘Eighteenth Century Now’ conference at University College London on 26 April 2019. This conference was held to mark the 30th anniversary of the ‘British History in the Long Eighteenth Century’ seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, and was intended to reflect on the state of the field. […]

William Hogarth, ‘The Assembly at Wanstead House’ (c. 1728-32): Wikimedia Commons In recent decades, the eighteenth century has been a notable growth area in historical studies and related disciplines. Since its study was long neglected, historians of the period tended to work with scholars from other disciplines under the banner of ‘eighteenth-century studies’, leading to […]