
History at the University of Northampton
A regular blogspot for the historians at the University of Northampton. The views are ours, not necessarily those of the institution
A regular blogspot for the historians at the University of Northampton. The views are ours, not necessarily those of the institution
Like millions of others I eagerly tuned in to watch the BBC’s historical retelling of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Most of us are familiar with the basics of the story: a group of determined men schemed in private to blow up King James I while he was opening Parliament. The conspirators were motivated by [...]
Last Friday I visited the British Library’s new Harry Potter: A History of Magic exhibition with my wife. She is much more of a Potter fan than I am but I am happy to admit to having read the entire series and I have seen all the films. I’ve also got a long standing fascination [...]
In September 2017 the Digital Panopticon website was launched at an international conference in Liverpool, the culmination of a four year project to trace the lives of those sentenced to transportation to Australia from between 1788 to the mid 1800s. The website combines several online datasets to allow the user to follow individual lives from [...]
Here are the History contributions to the Education and Humanities Research Seminar at Northampton this year. 12 October Martyn Green (Northampton), ‘Volunteering, local identity and national identity in the Napoleonic Wars’ 16 November Prof Ted Vallance (Roehampton), ‘Writing about regicide in the “Age of Revolution”: the case of Mark Noble’ 7 December Dr Jim Bjork [...]
When I read that Jon Snow had told his MacTaggart lecture audience that he believed the modern media were out of touch with ordinary people’s lives I must say I almost spat out my coffee. The media out of touch? Really? Who knew? He’ll be telling us that politicians are out of touch next… But seriously [...]
Immediately after their exams, seven members of the University of Northampton History Society travelled to Vienna. A self-organised culmination to their studies, the visit focused upon the history and culture of what is now Austria from the Renaissance through to the end of the Second World War. They were accompanied by Jim Beach, one of [...]
Every year History second year students at the University for Northampton showcase the work they have done on their work placements. We have established good working relationship with a number of placement providers in the Heritage sector than take small groups of our undergraduates and give them a taste of what life is like in [...]
On Wednesday 1 February 2017 two historians from the University of Northampton (Mark Rothery and Drew Gray) visited the London Academy in Edgware to run a workshop with two classes of A-Level students and their teacher Ms Marshall, on the Chartists. They’ve been studying the Chartist Movement as part of their course unit ‘Protest, agitation [...]
150 years ago this week the Pall Mall Gazette carried the following opinion piece reflecting comment from across a variety of leading newspapers in Britain. ‘The Star does not believe the United States have any designs on Mexico. Certainly the French Cabinet seem to think that Mexico must be annexed by somebody, and that the [...]
Today is Jane Austen Day, celebrating the birth of the great novelist on 16 December 1776. Austen’s novels remain hugely popular and are regularly adapted for TV and film. They are also of great interest to historians. Because Austen was such a perceptive social commentator, her novels have been extensively used by historians of gender, [...]