Writing a History Textbook: Seven Things I’ve Learnt
Matthew McCormack has recently finished writing Citizenship and Gender in Britain, 1688-1928. A textbook aimed at the student market, it will be published by Routledge in June 2019. In this post for Historical Transactions, Matthew shares how the process differed from his other academic publications, and the things he learned along the way.
Reflections on “Contested Commemorations”, RHS Symposium at the Open University.
On 17 May 2019 the Open University History department hosted a Royal Historical Society symposium to reflect on the centenary of the First World War. Following four years of commemorative activity, our aim with “Contested Commemorations” was to assess how a range of countries and regions had marked the centenary. Vincent Trott reports on a day of fascinating presentations and lively discussion.
De Montfort University Launches Stephen Lawrence Research Centre
On 22 April 2019 the nation officially acknowledged the first annual Stephen Lawrence Day. The day served as a day of remembrance, reflection and educational impact concerning the life and legacy of Stephen Lawrence, a Black teenager murdered in a racist attack in 1993 while awaiting a bus in Eltham, South London. Here, Dr Kennetta Hammond Perry explains the significance of the Lawrence family’s work, and introduces the new Stephen Lawrence Research Centre at De Montfort University, Leicester, opened officially by Baroness Doreen Lawrence on 9 May 2019.
RHS Responds to Plan S Revised Guidance
In response to updated guidance from cOAlition S on Plan S, we provide History researchers, editors and learned societies with essential information on the revised criteria.
Cultures of secrecy and transparent archives?
In April 2019, during a panel discussion at Australia’s Parliament House, Anne Twomey, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Sydney, declared that the National Archives of Australia (NAA) have become ‘completely dysfunctional’. This was due to failures in procedures for sensitivity reviewing government files in order to provide access. Twomey argued that this was symptomatic of a ‘culture of secrecy’ which was ‘a serious problem when it comes to transparency in government’. In this post, Richard Dunley argues that this developing culture of secrecy is, paradoxically, a direct product of drives for transparency.
In All Our Footsteps: Tracking Walking Histories in Post-War Britain
May is National Walking Month. In this piece, Clare Hickman and Glen O’ Hara reflect on their new collaborative project which has emerged from personal as well as academic interests in walking, and has led them to reflect on the intersections of environmental, political and health histories.
Seeking Thomas Howard in Rotherham: local groundings for a global life
In the last weekend of April, as part of the program for Professor Elena Smilianskaia, a visiting fellow at the University of Exeter, Dr Julia Leikin, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, organized a trip to the town of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, to find out more about Thomas Howard, the third Earl of Effingham (1746-1791). In this post, Julia Leikin recounts the surprising results of the trip.
New Camden Volume: British Envoys to the Kaiserreich, vol. 2: 1884-1897
The Royal Historical Society is pleased to announce the publication of British Envoys to the Kaiserreich, 1871–1897, Volume 56 in the Camden Fifth Series, edited by Markus Mösslang. In this post, Dr Mösslang introduces the volume, and its part in the larger British Envoys project.
Beyond this Day – 6 May 1919: The Third Anglo-Afghan War and the Attack on “Warlike” Pathans.
Monday, 6 May 2019 marks a hundred years since the outbreak of the Third Anglo-Afghan War (6 May – 8 August 1919). In the first of a new series of posts examining the histories beyond significant dates, Kate Imy (Assistant Professor of History, University of North Texas) examines the significance of the conflict in the context of the World War that preceded it, and the longer history of British military recruitment of, and violence against, Pathans in the region.
The Emperor, His Castle and Modern Japan.
On May 1, 2019, Prince Naruhito (b. 1960) becomes the emperor of Japan following the abdication of his father, emperor Akihito (b. 1933), after a thirty-year reign. The enthronement ceremonies will take place in the Imperial Palace, a vast former castle complex that dominates the centre of Tokyo. Yet, the new emperor will only be the fifth to reside in Tokyo, after the so-called Meiji Restoration of 1868 saw the imperial institution move to the “Eastern Capital” following more than a millennium in the ancient city of Kyoto. In this blog post, Oleg Benesch explains the history and significance of this modern imperial location.
Write for the RHS Historical Transactions Blog!
In 2018, as part of the commemoration of the Royal Historical Society’s 150th Anniversary, we established Historical Transactions, an open-access online blog. The aim was to complement our traditional forms of History publication, publicise the work of the Society and showcase the research and ideas of our Fellows, Members, and other historians. The blog now has a new editor, and we would like to hear from you!
Putting History in its Place at The University of Chester
In this blog post the Symposium organizers – Jenny Hillman, Tom Pickles, and Katherine Wilson – reflect on the various ways that Chester has been putting history in its place.
