November 2021

Thus, from the fourth century, England or ‘Angle-land’, had an eclectic range of dialects emerging. Eventually, the Angles and the Saxons united to become the Anglo-Saxons, with the separate dialects combining into Old English. This was the earliest recorded form of the English Language. As the Anglo-Saxons predominantly resided in the north-east, traces of Old English are still recognisable today in the modern Geordie dialect, making it the oldest dialect in England.

It is no coincidence that this spontaneous, less detailed form of artistic protest, largely deriving from deprived communities, has been treated less favourably than professionally commissioned “street art”.

In 2017-2018 the UK government introduced its commitment to a ‘Equality diversity and Inclusion’ initiative in their employment structure for the HS2 project. This commitment incorporated an employment system known as ‘Blind Auditioning’ which is an Affirmative Action method of screening job applicants based strictly on the candidate’s skills and qualifications. Therefore, employers have no access to information surrounding their age, gender, race or socio-economic status.

In 1948, the MV Empire Windrush docked in London carrying around five-hundred passengers from the West Indies. They were called to England as the first-wave in Britain’s drive to recruit and enlist a Commonwealth workforce to help rebuild the country post-war by feeding into the labour of state-controlled services such as Transport for London (TfL) and the National Health Service (NHS). They were encouraged to return to and serve their “Mother Country” of Britain, being promised a better life and a higher standard of living upon arrival. This was far from true. Many were ostracised, excluded, and met with intense racial abuse from an unwelcoming and hostile Britain.

Hungary had a rough 20th century.By 1953, there were grave issues with the Hungarian economy. After the death of Stalin there was also a certain level of uncertainty in the air – people were removed from positions and states’ politics were redefined.

On hearing the phrase ‘bus boycott’, for most people, a certain plethora of images would spring to mind. The determined Rosa Parks sitting next to a white passenger on the bus, white policemen conducting her subsequent arrest, Martin Luther King in his prime protesting on the streets of Montgomery, Alabama. All images which constitute the most significant, and successful example of resistance to oppression in modern Western history. Replace those names and faces with the likes of Paul Stephenson, Guy Bailey and Roy Hackett. It’s probable that the average person has never heard of these people; nor could they put a name to a face. And this is exactly the problem – The Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963 has slipped out of mainstream modern history. It may be omnipresent in the minds of those who witnessed it upfront in Bristol, but is mostly absent from the minds of young historians and from school curriculums today, despite its position as one of the most symbolic moments in Black British history.

As if composed of a lost set of newsreels, it evokes an observational truth similar in style to guerilla filmmaking – Pontecorvo calls this “the dictatorship of the truth”. He achieves this truth through meticulous reconstruction, using real life locations, such as rebuilding bombsites, and non-professional actors, including petty thieves and a former National Liberation Front (FLN) leader.

Many European football fans view South America as the ultimate embodiment of football as much more than just a game, with incredible fan culture and intimate relationships between football and politics. In Passion of the People (1994), Tony Mason seeks to study the origins of the beautiful game in the continent and examine the accuracy of this romanticised depiction.

The Black Panther Party and Black Power as a whole, are often not given this space: they are deemed separate from the civil rights movement and thus, not worthy of commemoration. For instance, there are at least thirty statues of Martin Luther King across the United States, but none to Black Panthers.

This article will feature in Issue 37: Oppression and Resistance It is hard to imagine what Franz Jägerstätter, a conscientious objector from Austria who was executed for his refusal to pledge his allegiance to Hitler during The Second World War, had to go through. Bearing in mind that he had to sacrifice his large family’s Continue Reading

Unless you have been deliberately avoiding all forms of news media since December 2010, there is a good chance you will have heard of the Arab Spring. It is potentially one of the most momentous series of events to occur across the Middle East since the break-up of the Ottoman Empire. For the most part, Continue Reading

Unless you have been deliberately avoiding all forms of news media since December 2010, there is a good chance you will have heard of the Arab Spring. It is potentially one of the most momentous series of events to occur across the Middle East since the break-up of the Ottoman Empire. For the most part, Continue Reading

Unless you have been deliberately avoiding all forms of news media since December 2010, there is a good chance you will have heard of the Arab Spring. It is potentially one of the most momentous series of events to occur across the Middle East since the break-up of the Ottoman Empire. For the most part, Continue Reading

The increasing reliance upon ‘online teaching’ has caused contention among some students who feel they are not getting enough for their money, with such little contact hours and an emphasis on self-study. The launch of Blackboard 9 has enabled the creation of the History Student Portal (HSP), a set of pages that give all History Continue Reading

Welcome back to the first edition of this year’s Manchester Historian! For those of you who don’t already know we are the departmental student led newspaper. Do you agree with the way history is being taught in schools? Do you think there is too much focus on certain parts of past? Are you tired of Continue Reading

Niall Ferguson certainly thinks so, but will following his lead be detrimental to the teaching of history in schools today?

Modern day experts look at the past in an attempt to understand the present.

A look at Niall Ferguson’s groundbreaking documentary series on financial history.