Category: Archive

  • ‘Our story remains unwritten’: the ethics of writing histories across cultures

    ‘Our story remains unwritten’: the ethics of writing histories across cultures

    by Tom Smith What does it mean to write a history of a culture other than our own, and how do we do this sensitively? This is an issue upon which historians rarely reflect explicitly. My dual passions for American history and Pacific Ocean history have been fuelled not by any particular personal investment or…

  • Identifying and removing barriers to digital history

    Identifying and removing barriers to digital history

    By Carys Brown, James Baker, Richard Deswarte, Adam Crymble Originally posted on the Defining Effective Mentorship in Digital History site. What factors are preventing academics from learning the digital skills that could enhance their research? A diverse group of twenty scholars consisting of postgraduate students and academic staff, assembled in Cambridge this past month to find…

  • Marian Mason: England’s Trailblazing Woman of Fitness

    Marian Mason: England’s Trailblazing Woman of Fitness

    By Conor Heffernan Although sporting historians have long noted the importance of English women in the development of sport in general, few studies have devoted themselves to the study of gymnastic exercise systems such as callisthenics. This has done a great injustice to Marian Mason, England’s first female physical fitness instructor who, beginning in the…

  • Crying Wolf in the early middle ages?

    Crying Wolf in the early middle ages?

    By Robert Evans @R_AH_Evans The chronicles and histories of the early middle ages have a reputation for describing somewhat unusual events. In his history of contemporary events, for example, Prudentius, bishop of Troyes (d.861) describes how, in 846 ‘Wolves attacked and devoured with complete audacity the inhabitants of the western part of Gaul. Indeed, in some…

  • In praise of history teachers

    In praise of history teachers

    By Carys Brown @HistoryCarys I learned more about the nature of the discipline of history during my PGCE and year as a Newly Qualified Teacher than I have in all of the rest of my academic study combined. It might be that I’m a poor academic historian, but rather I think it says something about the immense…