History at Large Archives

‘Building Welfare States’: Report on an Online Conference

Ed DeVane 19 November 202029 October 2022

Amidst the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic it seems that virtual conferences are here to stay. In the first half of this post, PhD student Ed DeVane reflects on the experience of ‘doing’ an online event. The second half of this…

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The National Charter Association and its legacy, 180 years on

Tom Scriven 30 July 20201 October 2022

In July 1840 a convention of twenty-three delegates met at the Griffin Inn, Great Ancoats Street, Manchester. Elected by Chartist bodies from across Britain, their purpose was to put together a plan for reorganising the movement following a…

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COVID-19 and Health Inequality

Agnes Arnold-Forster, Caitjan Gainty & Lucas Canino 8 June 202029 October 2022

COVID-19 is not an equal opportunity disease. Even as politicians, managers, and UN officials give us pep talks about how we’re all in this together, segments of our society are having vastly different experiences of this pandemic.

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The Memory Map of the Jewish East End

Rachel Lichtenstein 2 April 202029 October 2022

A new digital resource allowing users to explore former sites of Jewish memory in East London went online this week. On it you will find audio interviews, photographs, and essays about more than 70 sites (we hope to include more in future)…

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The Slippery History of the Dental Dam

Hannah J. Elizabeth 6 March 20207 January 2023

As an object, the dental dam awkwardly straddles the history of AIDS activism and queer sexuality, acting as an assertion that sex doesn’t require the presence of a penis to be real sex, while acknowledging simultaneously that such sex…

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Walking as radical history on the East End Women’s Museum Trail

Charlotte Tomlinson 20 January 202012 January 2023

What does the heritage trail format offer to the communication of radical histories? Charlotte Tomlinson introduces the East End Women’s Museum's (EEWM) Brilliant Women of Whitechapel, Bow and Barking Heritage Trail, which explores…

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Picket Line Perspectives: another university seems possible

Grace Redhead & Matt Griffin 3 December 201921 January 2023

On day 7 of the 8-day UCU strike action over pay, pensions, and poor working conditions, Grace Redhead and Matt Griffin discuss precarity, inequality, outsourcing, and picket line solidarity at UCL

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Food Walking and the Itineraries of Radical History

Charlie Taverner 1 October 201912 January 2023

Charlie Taverner reflects on how historical food walks can enrich radical history by opening new up trajectories and generating unexpected perspectives on the experience of the pre-industrial city.

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A brief history of anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka

Shamara Wettimuny 22 July 201921 January 2023

Delving into Sri Lanka's colonial past, Shamara Wettimuny shows how the 'Easter attacks', or recent anti-Muslim violence has its roots in the ethno-nationalistic paradigm of the island.

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‘Paradise’ in Missing Pictures: A Brief and Incomplete History of Sri Lankan Photography

Vindhya Buthpitiya 15 July 201929 October 2022

What is a 'photography of the East'? Taking the case of the 'paradise island' of Ceylon, Vindhya Buthpitiya explores how the island's photographic past survives in fragments, glimpses, memories and fading archives.

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What’s the Matter with Capital?

Trevor Jackson 21 March 201913 December 2022

Trevor Jackson examines the history of financial crises in the United States, coincidentally in the years 1819 and 1919, and asks what the future of capitalism holds in 2019.

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What does it mean to decolonise History teaching and research at SOAS?

Eleanor Newbigin 11 February 201912 January 2023

Decolonising History teaching and research at SOAS, a London based institution that uniquely teaches only non-Western histories requires an approach that is non-eurocentric but at the same time ensures that local communities and…

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Conscientious Objection Remembered

Joanna Bornat 12 November 201813 December 2022

The streets of Haringey, north London, hide an intriguing history of First World War peace activism. Joanna Bornat explores a walking tour of forgotten sites of conscientious objection.

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The 1943 Bethnal Green Shelter Disaster: 75 Years of Forgetting and Remembering

Toby Butler 4 March 20184 January 2023

In March 1943, 173 people were crushed to death as they took shelter in Bethnal Green’s underground station. Toby Butler led a project remembering the disaster.

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Denis Delay: Docker, Trade Unionist and Writer

Sam Patterson 23 June 201410 January 2023

The story of archiving the papers of Trade Unionist Dennis Delay, by Sam Patterson

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New Centre for Modern British Studies

Matthew Hilton 22 May 201410 January 2023

In March 2014 a group of historians at the University of Birmingham launched a new Centre for Modern British Studies: MBS@Birmingham

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Little Germany, Stratford 1914

Simon Buck 17 February 201410 January 2023

As the centenary approaches of the outbreak of the First World War, Simon Buck of Eastside Community Heritage invites support for a local initiative in London's East End to remember the treatment meted out to the tens of thousands of German…

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‘Reflections on Jacoby and All That’: An Unpublished Essay by E. P. Thompson

Carlos Aguirre 25 November 201310 January 2023

A previously unpublished paper written by E P Thompson in 1987, and presented at the History and Society Program of the University of Minnesota during the 1987-1988 academic year.

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Memorializing Partition

Ramachandra Guha 31 August 201320 December 2022

Historian and columnist Ramachandra Guha on the memorialisation of the Partition in India

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Invisible Histories – Keeping the Memory Alive

Neil Dymond-Green 18 August 201320 December 2022

Neil Dymond-Green on the Invisible Histories oral history project at the Working Class Movement Library, Salford, UK

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Campaigning for the Vote: Kate Parry Frye’s Suffrage Diary

Elizabeth Crawford 12 May 201316 December 2022

The discovery of 60 volumes of diaries belonging to suffrage society activist Kate Parry Frye, has allowed author Elizabeth Crawford to shine new light on the work of New Constitutional Society for Women’s Suffrage during the period 1911…

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Reinventing the Academic Journal: The ‘Digital Turn’, Open Access, & Peer Review

Jason Kelly & Tim Hitchcock 22 April 201312 January 2023

Tim Hitchcock and Jason M. Kelly discuss the transformations of the ‘digital turn’ to academic publishing practises and ways of defining an academic community

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Trabajadores: Spanish Civil War Archives Online

Liz Wood 12 April 201316 December 2022

Liz Wood, Assistant Archivist at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick, writes about the Centre's recent digitisation project for primary sources in English from the Spanish Civil War

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The Indian Memory Project

Anusha Yadav 5 March 201316 December 2022

Designer and photographer Anusha Yadav writes about the Indian Memory Project website, a visual and oral history of the Indian sub-continent through family and personal archives

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Lincoln Again

Manisha Sinha 24 February 201316 December 2022

Manisha Sinha on Spielberg's mythic rather than historical Lincoln, and missed opportunities to uncover the complex history of emancipation.

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East End Lives

John Rennie 22 February 201316 December 2022

John Rennie writes about the East London History website, whose brief is to cover the history of the East End of London, from when the Romans arrived to the present day

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Secondary Modern

Michael Rosen & Emma-Louise Williams 24 January 201316 December 2022

Michael Rosen and Emma-Louise Williams explain the background to their website, Sec Mod, which is collecting memories of education at secondary modern schools in Britain

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Why it was Kicking off Then

Paul Mason 21 January 201316 December 2022

Journalist and author Paul Mason shares his fascination with the “unruly women” of the Paris Commune

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Searching for Histories of Black Women’s Service across the Seas in the Second World War

Jo Stanley 14 January 201313 January 2023

The histories of Black and minority ethnic women who served with the Allied Forces during the Second World War by Dr Jo Stanley

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Fear of Forgetting

Josh Baum 29 November 201216 December 2022

A story of copying and illuminating a manuscript by Josh Baum

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History at Large

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Where

When

Series

‘Building Welfare States’: Report on an Online Conference

The National Charter Association and its legacy, 180 years on

COVID-19 and Health Inequality

The Memory Map of the Jewish East End

The Slippery History of the Dental Dam

Walking as radical history on the East End Women’s Museum Trail

Picket Line Perspectives: another university seems possible

Food Walking and the Itineraries of Radical History

A brief history of anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka

‘Paradise’ in Missing Pictures: A Brief and Incomplete History of Sri Lankan Photography

What’s the Matter with Capital?

What does it mean to decolonise History teaching and research at SOAS?

Conscientious Objection Remembered

The 1943 Bethnal Green Shelter Disaster: 75 Years of Forgetting and Remembering

Denis Delay: Docker, Trade Unionist and Writer

New Centre for Modern British Studies

Little Germany, Stratford 1914

‘Reflections on Jacoby and All That’: An Unpublished Essay by E. P. Thompson

Memorializing Partition

Invisible Histories – Keeping the Memory Alive

Campaigning for the Vote: Kate Parry Frye’s Suffrage Diary

Reinventing the Academic Journal: The ‘Digital Turn’, Open Access, & Peer Review

Trabajadores: Spanish Civil War Archives Online

The Indian Memory Project

Lincoln Again

East End Lives

Secondary Modern

Why it was Kicking off Then

Searching for Histories of Black Women’s Service across the Seas in the Second World War

Fear of Forgetting