Category: Archive

  • Significant anniversaries in 2016: the Contagious Diseases Act of 1866?

    Significant anniversaries in 2016: the Contagious Diseases Act of 1866?

    By Carys Brown @HistoryCarys 2016 is to be a year of historical anniversaries: 950 years since the Battle of Hastings; 400 years since the death of William Shakespeare; 350 years since the Great Fire of London; 100 years since the Battle of the Somme. The list could go on. Marking anniversaries is a long established tradition…

  • A Story about Exploding Bowels: The Bible, Hagiography, Monastic Foundation Documents and the Use of Historical Exemplars

    A Story about Exploding Bowels: The Bible, Hagiography, Monastic Foundation Documents and the Use of Historical Exemplars

    By Fraser McNair Fraser is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of History. His thesis is entitled ‘The development of territorial principalities between the Loire and the Scheldt, 893-99′. When I originally wrote these words, on the 19th November, it was (so Wikipedia informed me) World Toilet Day. Yet the question of human faeces is not only a…

  • The ‘Re-making’ of Great British Class

    The ‘Re-making’ of Great British Class

    By James Dowsett Britain is a nation peculiarly obsessed with social class. And not, perhaps, without reason, as Professor Mike Savage’s new book Social Class in the 21st Century argues: “classes are indeed being fundamentally remade.” [1] Really, one might argue that social class never really went away. Those of us wise to the cynicism of…

  • Head Shaving during Ireland’s War of Independence

    Head Shaving during Ireland’s War of Independence

    By Conor Heffernan Troops storm into the house and forcibly evicting those inside. Screams of terror emanate from the house, growing louder and louder with each moment. Soon the house will be set on fire. In the melee that ensues, troops single out a woman known for collaborating with the enemy. Held down at gunpoint,…

  • Played to death: bringing music back to life

    Played to death: bringing music back to life

    Written By Anastazja Grudnicka | @AGrudnicka Every once in a while I come across a certain kind of evidence that stays on my mind long after I move on with my research. Sometimes it’s the source itself, other times it’s the circumstances in which a particular text, object, picture appears that makes it echo at the…