Author: Doing History in Public

  • “Separate but equal”? The challenges of life as an African American under Jim Crow

    “Separate but equal”? The challenges of life as an African American under Jim Crow

    By Zack Rose (zr239@cam.ac.uk) Under the Jim Crow laws (1877-1950s), segregation based on race was legally justified in the United States.1 The key Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v Ferguson (1896) was that it was not unconstitutional to enforce racial segregation, so long as segregated facilities were “separate but equal”.2 However, it is well known…

  • Sympathising with the Past?

    Sympathising with the Past?

    By Dominic Birch (Dominic.birch@gmail.com)  One of the most pleasurable parts of archival work is discovering new stories, narratives and characters. In the type of work I do (early modern social history) some subjects seem to jump out of the page, demanding attention. Take, for instance, the case of Sara and Elizabeth Mayhew, two women who…

  • Researching with English Legal Records: some tips on getting started

    Researching with English Legal Records: some tips on getting started

    By Laura Flannigan (@LFlannigan17) The vast archives produced by the English legal system are some of our most valuable materials for legal, political, social, and family histories.  Issuing from national and local courts, from common, ecclesiastical, and equitable jurisdictions, and covering civil and criminal law, they offer a window into the lives of ordinary people and…

  • Book Review – Australianama: The South Asian Odyssey in Australia by Samia Khatun

    Book Review – Australianama: The South Asian Odyssey in Australia by Samia Khatun

    Mobeen Hussain (@amhuss27) reviews Samia Khatun’s Australianama (Hurst Publishers, December 2018, ISBN 9781849049696 £25.00) In Australianama, author and academic Samia Khatun skilfully weaves an intricate patchwork of hitherto unexplored connections between South Asia and Australia. I first heard about Australianama at an Islam and Print in South Asia Workshop at the British Library where Khatun…

  • History for Schools

    History for Schools

    PhD students Eleanor Barnett (@eleanorrbarnett), Trina Moseley (@trina_moseley) and Lewis Defrates (@lewisdefrates) talk to Doing History in Public about their experiences running sessions with primary school children for the Faculty of History’s History for Schools programme. What was your History for Schools session about and how does it link with your research? Eleanor and Trina:…