Oral history and the built environment: using personal testimonies to understand spatial experiences and urban change

by Philip Carter | 21 Aug 2025 | General, Guest Posts

  In this post, Eve Pennington describes the use and value of oral history in her study of the Lancashire new town of Skelmersdale. As Eve argues, oral history offers creative approaches to urban history, helping us better appreciate the motivations, expectations...

Dane saga: Imagining a viking Past in the Late Medieval Low Countries

by | 12 Aug 2025 | General, Guest Posts

    Preserved in the Dutch town of Breda, an unassuming manuscript offers exceptional insights into the way that vikings were (re)conceived during the later medieval period – their memory built on a historical bedrock that never was. In this post, Christian...

The Holograph Letters of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots (1489-1541)

by | 05 Aug 2025 | Camden Series, General, RHS Publications

    In this post Helen Newsome-Chandler introduces her new volume in the Royal Historical Society’s Camden Series, The Holograph Letters of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots (1489-1541), published in August 2025. This volume presents the surviving holograph...

Four Suggestions for the Future of (Environmental) History

by | 27 Jul 2025 | General, Guest Posts, Transactions

    In April 2023, eighteen scholars from a range of disciplinary backgrounds in the humanities, natural and social sciences came together for a one-day workshop to study past environmental change and its effects on human societies. Selected conversations...

RHS Elections 2025: Insights into the Society’s Council and the role of Councillors

by | 23 Jul 2025 | General, RHS Work

    Each year the Royal Historical Society holds elections to appoint three new members to its Council. The Council is the Society’s governing body, with responsibility for the objectives and work of the RHS. The election round for 2025 is now open, with an...

Piloting responsible and effective use of generative AI in undergraduate History Teaching

by | 16 Jul 2025 | AI, History and Historians, General, Guest Posts, Teaching Fellowships, Teaching Portal: For Teachers, Teaching Portal: Main Blog

    How do UK history undergraduates routinely use generative AI in the classroom? In this post David Clayton, Henrice Altink and Esther Wilson (University of York) review the findings of their recent research project: ‘Piloting the responsible and...