January 2024 – Manchester Historian

At the end of the 1960s, the world was witnessing one of the most volatile moments in American history. Accelerated by the unrest caused by the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, many movements had found support and power to rebel against America.

On April 18, 2021, football was rocked to its very core. Amidst the turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic, twelve of Europe’s leading football clubs suddenly announced their intention to form a new, breakaway continental competition in a move that would shock the world, giving birth to the deeply controversial and ill-fated European Super League.

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.

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 Louis-Charles. She had only two days to prepare for the trial against the ruthless Antoine Quentin Fouquirer-Tinville, President of the Tribunal.

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 the fact that the demonstration of women workers asking for bread was the stimulus for the Russian Revolution of 1917. It’s time that Russian women get their fair share of the limelight.