6 December 1956: The closing moments of an Olympic water polo match. Hungarian Ervin Zádor leaves the pool bleeding due to a punch from Soviet player Valentin Prokopov. The fracas? Evidence of the tensions consequential to a month’s worth of revolt in Hungary against the Soviet regime between 23 October and 10 November 1956. The uprising […]
The 16th century was a tumultuous epoch, overseeing momentous events, as well as a significant rise in the popularity and presence of magic in society. Magic was believed to be strongly connected to the relationship between God and man, with practising magicians performing divination rituals and trying to contact God. People believed God was reaching […]
Is that time of year where the essays are piling on, nights in the library are getting longer and exam revision is looming. But the end of the semester does lead to one good thing: Christmas. To whet your Christmassy appetites we have been looking at the history behind London’s Trafalgar square tradition that we […]
Hello everyone, and welcome to the History Society for the 2015/16 academic year! After a very busy Welcome Week and Week 1, we’ve kicked the year off with a bang and have loved seeing so many of you at our events or passing by the Welcome Week Fair stall. The History vs. English Pub Crawl […]
‘No, tell me where you’re really from.’ Not as recent a phenomenon as we may think… Ata Rahman looks at everyday racism by exploring his own family’s roots. The last editors’ notes from 2012/13 editors Ata Rahman and Charlie Bush. A review of Dr Parthasarathi’s lecture on the European-Asian economic divergence.
In 1904, Thomas R. Marr produced a map of Manchester using a colour-coded key to indicate where Manchester’s slums were located. The city centre was awash with a sea of blue, illustrating the multitude of factories and warehouses which filled Manchester at the turn of the twentieth century. Surrounding these warehouses was a large band […]
Emperor of China, Qianlong Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Emperor Indian Prince’s parade ceremony King Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt Marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert Napoleon crowning himself Emperor Pharoah Narmer, King of Egypt Queens bedchamber, Palace of Versailles Shaka, King of the Zulus The Royal Family in France dressed […]
The extraordinary lives of women in Russia get somewhat buried by the histories of men. Icons such as Valentina Tereshkova and Anna Pavlova are overshadowed by dominating figures like Lenin, Stalin and Putin. Women made enormous contributions to the complex history of Russia; in fact, women directly influenced the course it took, as illustrated by […]
Contemporarily, we often learn of identities through mainstream media and popular culture. Being black, you soon realise the restricted identities the media portray you as are simply inadequate. Black men are aggressive, Black women are angry, and the only way we can rise to the top is through the sport and entertainment industries. But where […]
After 22 months of enquiries a plaque was erected in December of 2021, officially recognised Ancoats as ‘Little Italy’, a “community integral to Manchester’s economic and cultural heritage since the late Nineteenth Century”. Manchester’s Italian community is described by third-generation Anglo-Italian Anthony Rea, as having provided an “exemplar for immigrant behaviour,” having “brought such character […]
Ireland has often been described as England’s blueprint for colonialism. Since the 12th century, the kings of England have claimed dominion over Ireland and the Irish have been resisting British dominion ever since. If Ireland was England’s blueprint for colonialism, then Ireland has also served as a blueprint for anti-colonial resistance. On April 18, 2021, […]
The Manchester Historian If you are a current student at The University of Manchester, or a History alumnus, please get in touch by email with article ideas. We welcome submissions from all students, and if you would like to write for us at any point in the year, we would love to hear from you! […]
The Prayer Book rebellion, also referred to as the Western Rising, took place between 6th June and 17th August 1549, in Devon and Cornwall. This was a response to widespread opposition to the authorisation of the Book of Common Prayer in January of the same year. Both historically and contemporarily, Manchester has been considered by […]
This article is a contribution from our recent collaboration with pupils at Cedar Mount Academy. There’s an area in Manchester called Ancoats, also known as ‘Little Italy’. Between 1891 and 1901, 24,382 Italians migrated to Manchester, most of them were found living in Holborn, Saffron Hill and Hatton Garden, but Italians were usually found everywhere […]
