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History on stage: Queen Anne
By Carys Brown @HistoryCarys For the first ten minutes of Helen Edmundson’s Queen Anne at the RSC’s Swan Theatre, I have to confess I was sceptical. The complex political intrigue of the reign of this little-known monarch (1702-1714) is fascinating, but impossible, I thought, to convey on stage in a mere two hours and thirty-five minutes.…
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‘I got drunk – fie upon it’ – A look back at early modern alcohol consumption and guilt
By Alex Wakelam @A_Wakelam With the passing of the first month of the year many people across the country will be able to return to their vendor of choice and dispel their sobriety as Dry January ends. As a modern practice Dry January has its detractors but most agree that it’s a sensible idea to take a…
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3D scans – bringing History to a wider audience.
by James Lloyd – @jtlloyd3 James is a PhD student at the University of Reading/Exeter in Classics. His thesis is entitled: ”Music and Ritual in Ancient Sparta: the lead votive figurines of the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia” In recent years, there has been a flurry of new technologies emerging at a price which makes them…
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The Case of Betty John – gender ambiguity in a late eighteenth century small-claims court
By Alex Wakelam – @A_Wakelam Alex is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of History. His thesis is entitled “Imprisonment for Debt and Women’s Financial Failure in the Long Eighteenth Century”. Before the eighteenth century, it was potentially possible to stand at the window of an English townhouse and gaze out across the milieu of different classes, ages, and ethnicities…
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Electricity – public or private? Does it Matter? Is it even the right question?
by Kayt Button ICR Byatt, an economist who went on to advise The Treasury under Margaret Thatcher and held a number of posts related to public utilities and regulation wrote in his The British Electrical Industry 1875 to 1914 “electric lighting and electric tramways became commercially feasible at a time when Parliament was experimenting with…
