The ‘Quakers’, or the Religious Society of Friends, stretch back to the 1600s in Cumbria when local George Fox, disillusioned with the church at the time, said that he had experienced a vision from God as he climbed the idyllic Pendle Hill. This vision encouraged Fox to spread the word that Quakers still live by […]
Jo Perdicchia’s next offering: a review of the book, World War Z by Max Brooks, urging you, as an history student, to read it! The Cornerhouse and MGM have ushered in the autumn with Film Noir. Alex Hulmes explores this dark genre, past and present.
The British Museum’s Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition opened to considerable fanfare at the end of March. A number of prime-time TV documentaries heralded its coming and the Mayor of London, no doubt enchanted with the subject he studied at university, waxed lyrical at the press opening. Neil MacGregor, Pontifex Maximus of the cultural establishment, had […]
The death of Venezuela’s longstanding and out outspoken Hugo Chávez has led academics and analysts including historians, to attempt to come to terms with how far the polarising president fulfilled the manifesto of his Bolívarian Revolution. The populist agenda of his administration amassed widespread support amongst the working classes. Vehement and widely publicised condemnations of […]
Women’s arrival in positions of political and economic power coincided with the emergence of gender history as they entered the historical mainstream. Scholars began to analyse gender’s role in familial and political power dynamics, and its use as a tool to reinforce male dominance. In 1970, black revolutionary Angela Yvonne Davis was prosecuted for three […]
Whenever anyone imagines the “Wild West” certain images are always conjured up. A heroic gun-toting cowboy (probably John Wayne), a grand stallion, free in the desert plains, delivering justice, saving the girl. These Hollywood visions are increasingly resisted. Historians of the American West are recovering the stories of marginalised groups and individuals, helping us understand […]
Charles Worsley was a soldier and politician. He fought in the First Civil War, was an enthusiastic supported of Oliver Cromwell and was Manchester’s first MP in the First Protectorate Parliament. In the First Civil War, Worsley was a captain in a Lancashire infantry regiment. A fierce persecutor of royalists, he made his name and […]
“Reality is as thin as paper, and betrays with all its cracks its imitative character. A hundred times I had to try and test its taut skin with my hands, and had found it hopelessly botched.” These are the words of Jewish Galician writer Bruno Schulz, a globally relevant artist and painter, particularly recognised among […]
Both historically and contemporarily, Manchester has been considered by many as synonymous with resistance and rebellion, the rebellious younger sibling of London. This is a long legacy, and most pertinent to it is Manchester’s lively spirit of working-class political activism.
As you sit at a desk trying to recall a mountain of information learnt in three hours each week for the last few months, it’s tempting to dream about pastures sunny. In this issue, we’ve provided you with the perfect fodder for those forgetful exam moments, though we’d recommend saving it for after you’ve walked […]
1980s Britain was stamped by Thatcherite politics, unemployment, and a rising pop culture. Alongside this, amidst the climactic conclusion of the Cold War, fears of nuclear attack swept through the British public. In 1981, President Reagan named Greenham Common, Berkshire, as a base for US cruise missiles to be positioned in by 1983, galvanising fear […]
During the development of this summer issue of The Manchester Historian, a tragic and horrific attack occurred upon our city of Manchester. Our team at the Manchester Historian wanted to pay tribute to the victims and all those affected by the awful incident. On 22 May, a suicide bombing occurred at Manchester Arena during an […]
In 1968 there were 55,000 men employed at Ford Motor Company’s Dagenham Factory and only 187 women. These female machinists were informed that their job had been degraded to ‘unskilled’ work resulting in reduced pay. Consequently, the women went out on strike demanding, quite rightly, their grading be changed, and that they be given the […]
Such conditions worried the early Victorian state immensely. Emerging social research confirmed that the environment as well as the physical and moral habits of a locality’s inhabitants stimulated disease and ensured its spread. The belief proliferated that sexual debauchery was at once a product of material squalor and a causal factor in the decline of […]
