‘The Monster of the Andes’, ‘The Butcher of Rostov’, ‘The Wolf of Moscow’, The ‘Rippers’, Jack, Camden and Yorkshire. Serial killers, the very embodiment of brutality, bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses of the baying public like no other criminal type. Throughout history, serial killers have been sensationalised, their crimes detailed in explicit detail […]
The 1960s were a period of cultural radicalism. During the civil rights era, counterculture became prevalent. From the hippie movement to London’s Notting Hill Carnival, cultural expression emerged not simply as a means of voicing oneself but also as a form of protest. Civil rights and music culture in America were notably intertwined and expressed […]
Students often complain about the Manchester weather, but in June 1919 one of our alumni, Sir Arthur Whitten Brown, braved freezing temperatures and lashing sleet, hail and rain to do what was necessary. If this sounds like your morning commute to lectures, bear in mind that Brown was somewhere over the Atlantic, clinging unprotected to […]
The region occupied by the people of Israel and Palestine has seen more than a thousand years of bloodshed. Modern conflict follows a long line of violent history. Historically the state now known as Israel was located along the lucrative Silk Road from China, what Samuel P. Huntington would describe as the ‘cultural edge’ or […]
Just five days after his second inauguration as President of the US, Donald Trump signed an order to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. The decision formed part of his new executive order, entitled ‘Putting America First in international climate agreements’. It outlined changes to reverse pre-existing US climate regulations, boosting oil and gas production, […]
Often described as the jewel in the crown of the British Empire, India occupied a special place in the imperial psyche. Direct rule from London began in 1858 as a result of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against the rule of the British East India Company. British influence in the subcontinent began much earlier. Although […]
The Gaelic revival refers to the revival of interest in the Irish language and Irish Gaelic culture. While this broad movement emerged as early as the 1840s, it rapidly gained traction in the late nineteenth century. A variety of organisations espoused this revival, for example by promoting Gaelic literature or traditional sports. The Gaelic League, […]
Nowadays, Britain looks on as a plethora of religions, ethnicities and cultures celebrate their traditions in this now-diverse nation. But why is it that we don’t have our own? The first point of blame might be colonialism. British fashion, for example, was spread worldwide, carried overseas by explorers to the Americas and Asia. We have […]
On November 9th, 1989, Gunter Schabowski was in a press conference. He was the unofficial press officer for the new East German Government led by Egon Krenz, who had replaced the ailing tyrant, Erich Honecker. Reading from a note that he had not long received, and did not fully understand, Schabowski announced that GDR citizens […]
160 years ago, President Abraham Lincoln sent a letter to the ‘working men of Manchester’, acknowledging their ‘sublime Christian heroism, which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country’. These words are now memorialised at the foot of the Lincoln statue, sculpted by George Grey Bernard, which stands in recently-remodelled Lincoln Square […]
HS2 phase 2 is the high-speed train line that will connect Manchester and Leeds to Birmingham and on to London. Promoted as an attempt to bring ‘the UK’s Victorian railway infrastructure dramatically into the 21st Century,’ the Government expects to spend billions in a plan set to transform North-South transport infrastructure, encourage business, boost employment […]
The Mongol Empire was one of the largest empires in the history of the world, covering a massive nine million square miles at its greatest extent; approximately a quarter of the world’s population were under Mongol rule. One man in particular is credited with this awesome feat of conquest: Genghis Khan. Born Temujin in around […]
On October 16th 1793, a widow and mother-of-four died. Her hair allegedly turned white overnight from the stress of anticipating her execution. Two weeks prior she had lost her son and heir, Louis-Joseph, at age 7. She was on trial for treason and theft, alongside a false charge alleging sexual abuse against her youngest son […]
The canvas on which tattooing is etched on may only be skin deep, but the history of this art form goes much deeper. If, like me, you have partaken in the joy of the needle (having a professional doodler draw upon your skin not, I hasten to add, drugs) we are participating in a social […]