Manchester culture thrives from being a diverse city with a rich heritage. It also has a history of welcoming immigrants, especially European post-war refugees and the families who were fleeing the destruction left by WW2. In 1990, the inmates of Strangeways prison began the longest riot in British penal history. Once revered as a “last […]
Alex Byrom reviews Michael Wood ‘in conversation’ with Tristram Hunt MP. Charlotte Johnson interviews public historian and new staff member in the History Department, Professor Michael Wood. Darren Davies interviews the new nineteenth century British History, Dr Henry Miller. Since it was founded two years ago, the Manchester Historian has grown and developed with each […]
The term ‘Little Ice Age’ was coined in 1939 and focused on environmental impact in the North Atlantic. It refers to a period of widespread glacial expansion and cooling from 1300-1850. While today’s environmental reality acknowledges climate change as global, most assessments of the Little Ice Age follow Western narratives. As European climates became colder […]
The Vietnam War (1955-1975), was a significant conflict in American history. When reflected upon today, it often instills a sense of regret. An immensely costly war in terms of casualties, displacement and destruction, the conflict is often perceived as one fought for nothing more than ideological motivations. But what was the Vietnam War and how […]
Mao was deeply Marxist in his convictions but he heavily sinified Marx’s theory, applying it to the Chinese situation and adapting it from a European context. Born out of the Marxist theory of scientific inquiry called dialectical materialism, Mao ‘sinified’ his own political actions according to this framework. Insofar as this can be interpreted as […]
Recent cries of anger over the BBC’s decision to axe BBC Three instead of BBC Four have been coupled with mass mourning over the loss of television staples such as my personal favourite ‘Don’t Tell the Bride’, in favour of BBC Four’s partiality for many a documentary. Yet, through the dense cloud of predominantly military […]
The very first female agent that served with SOE was a Polish-Jewish Aristocrat known as Krystyna Skarbek. In addition to being the first woman to serve with the SOE, Skarbek was also the longest serving field agent, male or female, during the SOE’s existence. We have retold the stories of the Second World War without […]
Working class histories threaten the ideology of the ‘good old days.’ To tell a story that is unafraid of discussing the realities of poverty is to rebel against the narrative of the ‘good old days’ which is used to romanticise oppression using false nostalgia. Through reading Peterloo People, a compilation of autobiographies from residents of […]
Throughout history, women have often played a pivotal but underappreciated role in political resistance. Traditional gender norms of the mid-20th century placed women in less political roles; they were subservient housewives. In reality, many women have been crucial in the fight against totalitarian regimes, the Mirabals illustrating as such. Devlin was born in 1947 to […]
When Thatcher came to leadership on the 4th of May 1979, she said “where there is discord, may we bring harmony;” in her leadership speech. Although it wasn’t exactly the ‘harmony’ she had in mind, the British public grouped together to form their own, home-made ‘harmony’ in the form of illegal raves backdropped by the […]
The effect of menstruation on females in concentration camps has often been omitted from popular research. Until recently, the history of the body has been somewhat omitted from historiography regarding the Holocaust, yet menstruation must be recognised as a feature which defined the female experiences of the Holocaust. Menstruation became a symbol of the horrific […]
The first thing to notice when watching a televised lecture by AJP Taylor is how different the style of this history programme is when compared with the historical programmes on today. Minimalism rules, with a plain black background and the lecturer the only objects in shot for 30 minutes. No music and no cutaway scenes, […]
Olive Elaine Morris (b.1953) was a grass-roots and radical Black feminist, likely known for her constant resistance to racism, sexism, and class oppression. Olive campaigned against racism, and in support of both women’s rights, international rights, and squatters’ rights. It is clear that she sought to unpick the interconnected systems which upheld the discriminatory structures […]
Welcome to this year’s first issue of the Manchester Historian. Ata and I are really excited to take over as editors. Florence and her team last year got the paper off to an incredible start. I was so impressed when I heard that Price Waterhouse Cooper had shortlisted the paper award. So, we’ve got really […]
