-
History on Film: genre, fact, and resonance in Mary Queen of Scots and The Favourite
By Laura Flannigan (@LFlannigan17) Within the first month of 2019, historians were treated to not one but two blockbuster movies: The Favourite (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) and Mary Queen of Scots (dir. Josie Rourke). Both grossed millions of dollars in the short time since their worldwide release, reminding us that film is by far the most accessible form of…
-
Royal babies: a late-nineteenth-century perspective
By Helen Sunderland (@hl_sunderland) Last week, the world’s media was fixed on the arrival of another royal baby. At less than a week old, pictures of Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, the first child of Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and the Queen’s eighth great-grandchild, have been shared around the globe. Although the…
-
Unconventional History: El Paso, Texas according to an early-twentieth-century postcard
By Savannah Pine (@savannah_pine) El Paso, Texas (my hometown) features in the news frequently nowadays because of the migrant crisis and the administration’s desire to build a wall on the border between the United States and Mexico. The border, which lies along the Rio Grande, separates a large urban area into two cities: El Paso…
-
How to abuse and misuse history: a guide from twentieth-century politics
By Spike Lister The utilisation of history in political discourse has itself a long history. For as long as there has been a public space and a shared experience, communities have looked to the past as a lens through which to understand their issues. History offers us a guiding light by which to move forwards…
-
Public History in the Digital Sphere: /r/AskHistorians
By Joe Rachman What sparked the craze for martial arts, particularly kung fu, in 1970s America? Why did some Serbs commit acts of genocide in the late twentieth century despite Serbs themselves having been victims of genocide during World War Two? What started the Opium Wars? Did Zarathustra, the supposed founder of Zoroastrianism, actually exist?…
doinghistoryinpublic.org 