January 30th saw the History Society’s annual Trip abroad. This year was the turn of Amsterdam, the historical hotbed of student frivolity. The trip inevitably began with a rather long coach journey from the Armitage Centre to Dover. The long slog was made slightly better with in-flight entertainment courtesy of Shaun of the Dead and […]
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 […]
20 years it took for their cherished novel to finally reach television screens were most likely spent anticipating the disappointment they would inevitably feel. How could a TV adaptation of a tale that pushes all human emotion to the very brink of despair, embodied in the charming Stephen Wraysford (played by Eddie Redmayne), ever replicate […]
The end of the Second World War and the collapse of Nazism necessitated an enormous change to German ideals of masculinity. For decades prior to the conflict, it had been drilled into German men to be unfeeling, disciplined and efficient soldiers; their loss to the allies therefore precipitated a crisis of masculinity. When considering this crisis in post-war Germany, it is […]
Factory Records was a fiercely independent and experimental Mancunian record label started by local news presenter and post-punk enthusiast, Tony Wilson. Though it closed down in 1992 its influence on Manchester and the UK music scene is undeniable and continues today. The history of its creation and philosophy reveals why Factory Records remains legendary in […]
Wikimedia Commons The 28th June 1914 not only marked the anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo in which the Ottoman army defeated the Serbians at tremendous human cost, it commemorated the 14th wedding anniversary of Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie. Crucially, it would also mark the beginning of the July Crisis in the lead […]
The 17th century Rokeby Venus painting by Diego Velázquez has been damaged by two Just Stop Oil protesters in the National Gallery in London. Armed with hammers, the two students smashed the protective glass of the painting. The same painting suffered a slashing in 1914 by the suffragette and fine arts student Mary Richardson. The […]
Oftentimes provincialism prevents one from diligently searching for clues to past, present, and future human behaviour. Resistance and revolts are not exclusive to the most recent past; instead, over 2,300 years ago they were being documented… As crisp, cool autumn sea air covered Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, Alexander the Great’s invasion was welcomed as liberation from […]
“Our BODIES, our LIVES, our RIGHTS, our FUTURE”, chants the website of the women’s rights organisation poignantly titled the Handmaid Coalition. Formed in response to the outcome of the 2016 American Presidential election, which, they claim, “changed us all”, this collective are “fighting to ensure fiction does not become reality”. But why would a modern […]
The early 1980s was a scary period to live through for American homosexual men. Homophobia and discrimination not only effected day to day life but it went hand in hand with the threat of a highly infectious and fatal disease that had no known cure. The so called ‘AIDS crisis’ of the 1980s originated, paradoxically, […]
The entirety of humanity’s relationship with nature is not a topic which lends itself to a 450 word article, with a huge diversity in attitudes to topics like sustainability throughout human history. However, in looking back at how we have perceived nature throughout the years, we can gain insight into how we have treated nature […]
Happy Holidays from everyone at the University of Manchester history department. We hope you have a a great break and see you in the new year! The Roman triumph was one including military, religious and political aspects. Holding a triumph was the highest honour for a Roman, the peak of a political career. There is […]
“What an artist dies in me?” The famous last words of Emperor Nero: an individual so convinced of his talents that he thought his death was a tragedy for mankind – not a man known for his modesty. He may have been convinced of his own worth but historians have crowned him the dubious honour […]
History began as a means for documenting the victories of rulers, surges of empires, and catastrophic events such as plagues, earthquakes, and famines. The magna opera of Herodotus and Thucydides, seen as history’s traditional ‘fathers’ despite their being predated by Confucius, focused on the Peloponnesian and Persian wars, respectively. But there was always room for […]