Category: Archive

  • “Teaching the lessons of the past through the music of the future”

    “Teaching the lessons of the past through the music of the future”

    By Richard Simpson From our earliest days on the long winding path to becoming historians we are taught adulterating source materials is an almost sacrilegious offence. But what would happen if we had never been taught this central tenet of our academic discipline?

  • Thomas Cromwell on stage

    Thomas Cromwell on stage

    By Joan Redmond Next month sees the London opening of the theatrical productions of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, the two hugely successful novels by Hilary Mantel that focus on the life of Thomas Cromwell. Cromwell rose to become Henry VIII’s chief minister during the tumultuous 1530s, which witnessed the rise and fall…

  • The Media in History and History in the Media Conference, 20th-21st March 2014 (Part 1)

    The Media in History and History in the Media Conference, 20th-21st March 2014 (Part 1)

    by Alex Campsie Alex Campsie is a PhD student in modern British political and intellectual history at the University of Cambridge. Last month saw Cambridge host an inaugural ‘European Graduate Conference’ on the broad theme of ‘History and the Media’. Like its sister event (entitled ‘History and the Law’), the project was generously funded by…

  • The Media in History and History in the Media, 20th-21st March 2014 (Part 2)

    The Media in History and History in the Media, 20th-21st March 2014 (Part 2)

    by Alex Campsie Alex Campsie is a PhD student in modern British political and intellectual history at the University of Cambridge. The first half of the conference (read Part 1 here), stylishly opened by Professor David Reynolds and the able presenters of panel one, raised a number of important questions for further discussion. What are…

  • HHhH by Laurent Binet (English Translation by Sam Taylor, 2012)

    HHhH by Laurent Binet (English Translation by Sam Taylor, 2012)

    By Emily Ward In the beginning of his historical novel, Laurent Binet warns the reader with a quote from Osip Mandelstam, “Once again, the writer stains the tree of History with his thoughts”. Yet, despite commencing his book with this ominous forewarning, Binet leaps straight into the fray to attempt to combine the composition of…