Past and Future - Institute of Historical Research

1 downloads 155 Views 1MB Size Report
Dec 4, 2015 - [email protected]. 020 7862 8086 .... and hosting colloquia or of travel and accommodation ..... agri
Past and Future The magazine of the Institute of Historical Research Issue 18 Autumn/Winter 2015–16

Contents

Letter from the Director What is history? That simple question will bring to mind for very many readers E. H. Carr’s famous little book of that title, read by generations of sixth-formers before they embarked on a university degree course in our subject. But what history is changes over time. Carr, a historian of the Russian Revolution, wrote his book in the confident knowledge that the Soviet Union was strong and would endure. A generation after the fall of the Soviet Union, things look different: history itself has changed course and changed in conception also. To assess just how different, the IHR is bringing together 24 leading historians in six seminars over the course of this winter to take the pulse of the discipline. Daniel Snowman, our Senior Research Fellow who has organised these events, writes about the series and its purposes in this issue. Other articles here on

German history and the IHR’s recent participation in a major conference on the transformation of the modern British state held in Osaka, Japan, draw out our international links. An update, meanwhile, on recent publications from the Victoria County History, a report on last summer’s Anglo-American conference on Fashion in History, and an article on medieval baptism, which comes out of a most enjoyable colloquium at the IHR organised by one of our Junior Research Fellows, provide alternative perspectives: history is local and material as well as international and conceptual. There is no simple answer to Carr’s question as the diversity of the IHR’s programme and activities demonstrates.

Past and Future

Lawrence Goldman December 2015

[email protected] 020 7862 8086

Institute of Historical Research University of London Senate House Malet Street London WC1E 7HU www.history.ac.uk 020 7862 8740 Editorial and advertising Vanessa Rockel, Gemma Dormer and Olwen Myhill [email protected] 020 7862 8747

[email protected] 020 7862 8790 Production Emily Morrell [email protected]

Cover image: Rt. Hon. William Kenrick, Watercolour of an interior with Chinese Porcelain. A colour sketch of the Hall, The Grove, Harborne c.1977 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Past and Future

2

Letter from the Director

4 5 6

IHR news Library news Fellowships news Historical Research news IHR events

7

British historians discuss the legacy of Magna Carta at conference in China

8

History now and then Daniel Snowman

10

German history at the IHR Lawrence Goldman

12

Living stone: the history and materiality of medieval baptism Carolyn Twomey

13

The IHR in Japan Laurence Goldman

14

Fashion in history Gemma Dormer

15

Victoria County History – new publications

16 18

Development news Making history: moving forward, reaching out Project highlight: Outreach Officer Marc Fitch Fund supports the IHR’s Elaine Paintin Fund Remembering Professor Jacob Price IHR Friends

20

Seminar in focus: Women’s history Kelly Boyd

21

Postgraduate research training courses at the IHR

Archives: production and experience Lawrence Goldman

Seminars at the IHR

3

IHR news

IHR Doctoral Fellows – Royal Historical Society Lucy Hennings (Oxford) 1 year P. J. Marshall Fellow England in Europe during the reign of Henry III, 1216–72

Library news

Sarah Ward (Oxford) 1 year Centenary Fellow Royalism, religion and revolution: the gentry of north-east Wales, 1640–88

Alex Zaleski completed her year as library trainee in September 2015, and will be taking up a publishing position, with plans to do a library/information course in the next few years. Alongside routine library duties and continuing to help sort things out after the move, Alex has worked on the reclassification of the American holdings, maintained the new books display, updated the library’s Facebook page and written some fascinating items for the IHR blog. Our trainee for 2015–16 is Siobhan Morris, who recently completed a history Master’s degree at the University of Edinburgh. We will be holding the next History Libraries and Research Open Day on 27th November 2015 and hope many people will join us for an opportunity to find out more about history collections across London. There will be stands from libraries and archives, a programme of talks, and one-on-one research advice. A special feature this year will be an American Trail, which will highlight North American collections among a diverse range of other subjects. See the History Collections website for more about the Open Day and other news from the libraries: http:// historycollections.blogs.sas.ac.uk. New collection guides on Italian, London and Fashion history have been added to the collections pages of the website: http://www.history. ac.uk/library/collections. Researching material on subject areas allows us to uncover the vast range of material in the collection. Sources as varied as handbooks for travellers to the Gold Coast, advertisements in newspapers and directories, legal and parliamentary sources and letters, diaries and travel writing all contained examples of Fashion history. The conservation fund established with a grant from the Mercers’ Company and donations from the Friends and American Friends continue to allow us to repair books from the library. If you would like to make a donation please visit http://www.history. ac.uk/support-us/campaign/library or contact the Development Office [email protected]/020 7862 8791.

4

IHR Doctoral Fellows – Scouloudi Fellows Will Eves (St Andrews) 6 months The assize of Mort d’Ancestor: from 1176 to 1230 Felicity Hill (UEA) 1 year Excommunication and politics in 13thcentury England Julia Leikin (UCL) 1 year Prize law, maritime neutrality and the law of nations in Imperial Russia, 1768–1856 James Norrie (Oxford) 6 months Property and religious change in the diocese of Milan, c.990–1140

Advertisements from the Gold Coast handbook, 1928

Ben Bankhurst finished his post as Postdoctoral Fellow in North American History in July 2015, and during his time wrote a range of interesting blog posts, and has updated the collection guides for Canadian and American history, as well as organising a number of events. See http://www.history.ac.uk/library/ collections for further information. The IHR is recruiting a new one-year Postdoctoral Fellow to survey and promote our library collections in the history of the Low Countries.

Fellowships news

Paul Kreitman (SOAS) 1 year Economic and social dimensions of sovereignty in the North Pacific, 1861– 1965 John Morgan (Exeter) 1 year Financing flood security in eastern England, 1567–1826 Judy Stephenson (Cambridge) 1 year Occupation and labour market institutions in London, 1600–1800 Jacobite Studies Trust Fellow Mindaugas Sapoka (Aberdeen) 1 year Poland-Lithuania and Jacobitism, c.1714–c.1750

After a highly competitive process, the Institute is delighted to have appointed 18 Junior Research Fellows for the 2015– 16 year. We received a record number of applications for Junior Fellowships this year, and panels found it challenging to select the successful candidates from a range of excellent submissions. Thank you to everyone who took the time to apply.

Past & Present Fellows Jennifer Keating (UCL) 1 year Images in crisis: landscapes of disorder in Russian Central Asia, 1915–24

We welcomed the new cohort in October, and have been enjoying their presentations at the Director’s seminar throughout the autumn.

Junqing Wu (Exeter) 1 year Anticlerical erotica in China and France: a cross-cultural analysis

Economic History Society Fellows Alice Dolan (UCL) 1 year Re-fashioning the working class: mechanisation and materiality in England, 1800–56



Roel Konijnendijk (UCL) 1 year Courage and skill: a hierarchy of virtue in Greek thought Tehila Sasson (UC Berkeley) 1 year In the name of humanity: Britain and the rise of global humanitarianism

Pearsall Fellow Ben Thomas (Aberdeen) 1 year The Royal Naval Reserve in rural Scotland and Wales, c.1900–39

www.history.ac.uk

Joan Redmond (Cambridge) 6 months Popular religious violence in Ireland, 1641–60 IHR Doctoral Fellows – Thornley Fellow Cécile Bushidi (SOAS) 1 year Dance, socio-cultural change, and politics among the Gĩkũyu people of Kenya, 1880s–1963 We would also like to announce that Jacob Currie (Cambridge) was awarded a six-month Scouloudi Fellowship, which has been deferred to 2016–17. New Fellowship competitions Applications for 2016–17 fellowships will be accepted from January 2016. The 2016–17 competition will include a new Fellowship in Jewish History. Power and Postan Fund and Junior Research Fellow colloquia The newly established Power and Postan Fund will award up to £6,000 a year to our Junior Research Fellows. The fund will support the cost of organizing and hosting colloquia or of travel and accommodation costs accrued when conducting research or attending conferences. A number of our Junior Fellows are already in the process of planning colloquia for the new year. Roel Konijnendijk will be co-hosting a conference, in collaboration with

Past and Future

UCL, on 27–29 April at UCL on War in the Ancient World: the Economic Perspective. The conference seeks to consolidate the growing research on the role of economics in the study of ancient warfare. Julia Leikin, along with Jennifer Keating and Roel Konijnendijk, will host Best Laid Plans in early April. This will explore stories of ambitious plans, schemes and propositions that were intricately designed by individuals, groups or even governments, with a lofty purpose such as bettering the lives of their group or altering the course of history. Judy Stephenson is organising a colloquium for late May/early June on Means of pay in early modern work. The colloquium will explore wage formation, wage rates, piece rates and other forms of pay 1650–1850. Junqing Wu plans to hold a workshop in June on Anticlericalism in Chinese and European history [1000–1900]. The workshop sets out to explore the relationship between anticlerical discourse and the role of religion in societies by putting anticlericalism in a global comparative context.

Historical Research news We were delighted with the success of our first Historical Research Annual Plenary Lecture (sponsored by our publisher Wiley) at the recent AngloAmerican conference. Reflecting this year’s topic of Fashion, Lucy Worsley, chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces, entertained and informed us on the theme of How fashion helps make a monarch: 500 years of royal dress, and shared with us some royal hits and misses from the historic catwalk. The 2015 Pollard Prize for the best seminar paper given by a postgraduate or early career researcher has been awarded to Cornelis Heere with ‘That racial chasm that yawns eternally in our midst’: the imperial politics of Asian immigration, 1900–14 (International History seminar). Runner up was Martin Spychal for ‘One of the best men of business we had ever met’: Thomas Drummond, the boundary commission and the 1832 Reform Act (Parliament, Politics and People). The winning papers will appear in the journal in due course.

IHR events History Now and Then: Rewriting the Past The need felt in each generation to reconfigure the past. 13 January 2016, IHR Panel: Penelope Corfield, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Ian Kershaw, Jonathan Steinberg IHR Friends Film Evening– Glory (Development Office) 25 January 2016, IHR Holocaust Memorial Lecture 2016 27 January 2016, IHR Antisemitism, ‘Volksgemeinschaft’ and Violence: Inclusion and Exclusion in Nazi Germany Professor Michael Wildt (Humboldt University, Berlin) In collaboration with the Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism (Birkbeck). IHR Winter Conference 2015 –The Production of the Archive In collaboration with The National Archives and Royal Historical Society 29 January 2016, IHR History Now and Then: Pictures of the Past How far can artworks provide a pathway – or a stumbling block – towards understanding the past? 10 February 2016, IHR Panel: Vic Gatrell, Simon Goldhill, Marion Kant, Simon Shaw-Miller History Now and Then: Uses and Abuses of the Past History as ideology, consolation, nostalgia, vindication, identity, revenge. Where does ‘History’ go from here? 9 March 2016, IHR Panel: Anne Curry, Peter Hennessy, Paul Preston, Donald Sassoon Early American Workshop 11 March 2016, IHR Is Britain Part of Europe? An AngloFrench Perspective (Anglo-French Conference) 17–18 March 2016, IHR Gerald Aylmer Seminar 2016: The Experience of the Archive 29 April, 2016, IHR In collaboration with The National Archives and Royal Historical Society Kehoe Lecture in Irish History 17 May 2016, IHR

5

Archives: production and experience Lawrence Goldman, Director

This year’s winter conference is the first of two ambitious linked events that will bring together historians and archivists to discuss ‘The Production of the Archive’ (IHR, 29 January) and ‘The Experience of the Archive’ (IHR, 29 April). Both events are collaborations between the IHR, The National Archives and the Royal Historical Society, and the second event in April will be the annual Gerald Aylmer Seminar in which historians and archivists have traditionally come together to discuss their work. We will be calling on a wide variety of professionals and practitioners to examine the way archives are changing, in terms of the things they now collect, the media in which they collect them, and the use made of them by historians and the public.  Many archives remain traditional locations for the deposition of documents, and will continue to fulfil that vital function into the future. But in our first event we shall consider not only print archives but the growing number of archives collecting and holding oral and material sources – objects and other non-traditional historical sources. We shall also consider how the internet itself can be archived because so much material that historians will want to examine and research in the future has an online presence only. This is of special interest in the IHR where Jane Winters and the publications team have been involved in several projects and international collaborations to consider and plan for the ‘archiving of the web’. The internet may have existed for most of us for barely a generation, but already it has its historians and its archivists, and preserving it in the best way will be of vital importance if we are to leave the right sources for the historians who come after us. The focus at this event will be on producing, preserving and transmitting archives. 

6

British historians discuss the legacy of Magna Carta at conference in China This year, the British-Chinese History Conference travelled to Beijing to discuss the foundational and international importance of Magna Carta. From 9 to 13 September, eight leading figures of early modern and modern British history presented papers at Beijing University and engaged in an educational exchange with their Chinese counterparts. In the 1980s, the rapid economic and social change sweeping through China threw up a host of problems not unlike those faced by Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries, during its own period of transformation. Since 1985, the British-Chinese History Conferences have promoted a productive dialogue between academics from both countries to address and examine these common issues. Chinese scholars, in conversation with the British, were able to better understand and appreciate the changes

Then, in April, we shall turn to consider the use of the archive by researchers today and in the future. In the common view, historians used to enter dusty archives, notebooks and pencils in hand, and be lost for months, if not years on end, only to re-emerge with piles of notes and indigestible material that had to be shaped into readable history. This was never a very accurate view of the collaboration between historians and archivists, and does not hold today when the kinds of sources that historians use are more varied and eclectic – not just letters, diaries and newspapers, but personal possessions, objects, recordings, film and newsreel, advertisements, ephemera - and when so much material has been digitised. This second event will consider, therefore, how the experience of using archives is changing, and speculate on the archive of the future, one in which



many different types of source, in different media, are collected and made available in different ways. We will also consider how the expanding range of new sources, and the contraction of old source material – how many statesmen today keep detailed journals or write reflective, lengthy and collectable letters? – will affect the way that history is written in the future.  Taken together, our Winter Conference and the Gerald Aylmer Seminar will in this academic year survey many crucial questions about the raw material of history. These events are evidence of the IHR’s commitment to serving all those engaged in the historical professions (in the plural) and we hope that many people, from different backgrounds, will want to consider the future of the archive. 

www.history.ac.uk

Photos by Sophie Ambler

happening around them, and British historians were afforded an unparalleled opportunity to compare their theories to an actual ‘industrial revolution’. Held periodically since their inception, the theme of these gatherings has slowly evolved. What began as a study of economic and social history has naturally transformed into a curiosity about political and legal history. It is no surprise, then, that when asked what should be the topic for the 2015 Conference, Professor Chengdan Qian, of Beijing University, replied without hesitation: ‘The history and influence of Magna Carta’. To discuss Magna Carta is to discuss the concept of rule of law and how it transcends the arbitrary and authoritarian exercise of power by a monarchy or government. The rule of law is a necessary building block in the construction of liberal, plural and democratic societies and Magna Carta, as the foundation of English liberty, has provided this for Britain. It is of considerable intrigue, then, that in China – a country that has developed a type of

Past and Future

open market and is perhaps on the path to a much more open society – there is such strong interest in Magna Carta. This year’s delegation consisted of Sophie Ambler (UEA), David Carpenter (KCL), Harry Dickinson (University of Edinburgh), Rachel Foxley (University of Reading), George Garnett (St Hugh’s College, Oxford), Alex Lock (British Library), Nicholas Vincent (UEA) and Sir Robert Worcester (Chairman, 800th Anniversary Commemoration Committee). Professor Lawrence Goldman, Director of the Institute of Historical Research, also joined the delegation. In addition to speaking on the British memory of Magna Carta and commemorations of the 800th anniversary, Professor Goldman delivered two lectures on the history of the British labour movement, furthering the international exchange of ideas. Support for this conference was generously provided by the Magna Carta Trust. For more information, visit www. magnacarta800th.com.

7

History Now and Then Daniel Snowman, senior research fellow, IHR; chair and co-convener of the History Now and Then public seminar series How does the present regard the past? In a series of public seminars, leading historians debate the often controversial ways in which history can be used and abused. Daniel Snowman, who is chairing the sessions, introduces some of the themes that have been emerging.

We start with a paradox. On the one hand, history is possibly more popular today than ever: in schools and universities, on film, tv and the internet, in sales of historical biographies, visitor numbers to heritage sites, family history, re-enactment societies and the like. Yet we also live in an aggressively here-and-now culture in which many people seem to lack any real sense of how the present is linked to all that has preceded it. It is not just a question of ignorance of the ‘facts’ (recent polls reveal that only one British teenager in six knows that the Duke of Wellington led the British army at Waterloo and only one in 10 can name a 19th-century Prime Minister). More importantly, major current issues – migration policy or possible Scottish independence, for example, or continued British membership of the EU or Russian involvement in Ukraine – are frequently discussed with little sense of their longer-term historical roots. As Jo Guldi and David Armitage argued in their recently published History Manifesto, it is vital to understand the past if we are to have any chance of planning sensibly for the future. One indication of current interest in the past is the widespread concern about what has come to be called ‘Heritage’ (Seminar 2). There have always been people keen to preserve valued aspects of the past. But a greater sense of urgency developed in Britain in recent decades as more and more of the nation’s historic fabric seemed in danger of being lost. The traditional corner store was being elbowed aside by the shopping mall and pedestrian precinct, while fading aristocrats were forced to vacate their country estates, often seeing their crumbling townhouses replaced by concrete tower blocks. Euston station lost its classical arch and nearby St Pancras was only reprieved at the last moment from demolition.

8

the historical resonance such stories can acquire.

History Now and Then Seminar – Rewriting the past. Panel: Penelope Corfield, Felipe FernándezArmesto, Ian Kershaw & Jonathan Steinberg.

Pressure groups and governmental authorities began to take action (English Heritage was set up in 1983). But what should be conserved and what scrapped? Why this building but not that? Who should – and who shouldn’t – be memorialised by a Blue Plaque? Do we, by preserving our past, value and learn from it? Or is ‘Heritage’ in danger of becoming a sentimental, commercial movement that overvalues and perhaps mythologises the aristocratic past and sets its collective face against social and aesthetic change? The idea of ‘Heritage’ is a topic capable of arousing powerful passions. So is the relationship between history and myth (Seminar 3). What do you know – and how, and from what sources – about ‘Boadicea’ and her knife-



endowed chariot, or Drake playing bowls before defeating the Spanish Armada? Or about the Trojan Wars, or of Joan of Arc trouncing the English (if you are French), George Washington and the cherry tree (if American) or the Emperor Barbarossa (if German)? Many widely repeated historical myths concern the origins, creators and subsequent continuity of nation states. As a child growing up in London, I proudly repeated that ‘we won the war’ and how we’d had a continuous monarchy for something like a thousand years. True? At best true-ish (as Jonathan Miller might have said). But the very repetition of certain mythologies, from those of Homer or Virgil, via the ‘cake’ anecdotes associated with Alfred the Great or Marie Antoinette to the preternaturally unsmiling Queen Victoria, remind us of

www.history.ac.uk

Any self-respecting historian would avoid repeating myths about the past as though they were ‘true’. Then why does no work of historical research ever seem to be definitive, the final word on the subject? Is there even such a thing as historical ‘reality’? Perhaps we all, despite protestations to the contrary, see the past through the shifting perspectives of the present with each generation seemingly constrained to re-interpret the past (Seminar 4). Thus, the Japanese have recently been re-writing their school history books (particularly re: World War II), and they’re doing something of the same in Ukraine and Poland as they attempt to distance themselves from Russia. How do you regard – and label – the mass murder of Armenian Turks a century ago? Did Lincoln fight the Civil War in order to free the slaves or to prevent his nation from falling apart? Next Easter marks the centenary of the Dublin uprising and 2017 that of the two Russian Revolutions: plenty of scope here, I would surmise, for new bouts of historical revisionism. Maybe artworks, however historically inaccurate, can help provide pathways to the past (Seminar 5). Last year, with all the extraordinary to-do about the re-interment of Richard III, I had another look at Olivier’s 1955 film of the Shakespeare play. In the opening titles, a medieval-style illuminated manuscript informs viewers that, while the play may not be a work of historical scholarship, it’s none the worse for that: The history of the world, like letters without poetry, flowers without perfume, or thought without imagination, would be a dry matter indeed without its legends, and many of these, though scorned by

Past and Future

proof a hundred times, seem worth preserving for their own familiar sakes. Shakespeare’s historical portrayals may misrepresent the facts, and we might say the same of a battle image on a Greek vase, a painting or statue of Louis XIV, an opera by Lully, Schiller’s (or Verdi’s) portrayal of Philip II of Spain or Rodin’s Burghers of Calais. But these surely tell us something about the ways people in a previous era regarded those of a still earlier period. What then does ‘history’ mean to those who so avidly consume it? Nostalgia to some, perhaps (especially among older aficionados), and it may also offer elements of consolation, affirmation, vindication – and for others a sense of identity: think of the popularity of family history, for example, and of

histories touching on gender, ethnicity or nationhood. Where, finally, does ‘history’ go from here? The focus has shifted in recent decades from political to economic and social history, then cultural history, a burst of post-modernism and, more recently, a much-heralded ‘return to narrative’. What new historiographical ‘turn’ should we be anticipating? Maybe the IHR could re-run this series of seminars a decade hence so we can all find out!

To register for this seminar series visit www.store.london.ac.uk. Tickets are £5 per session or free for IHR Friends. Enquiries: [email protected].

9

German history at the IHR

Organisers of the Bismarck exhibition and lecture, IHR Senior Research Fellow Dr Karina Urbach and Dr Ulf Morgenstern, of the Bismarck Foundation

Lawrence Goldman, Director

In the early summer of 2015 three events organised by the IHR provided a fascinating insight into the state of modern German historiography. First, Professor Jonathan Steinberg of the University of Pennsylvania, who taught for many years in the History Faculty in Cambridge, lectured on the life of Otto von Bismarck, the first German Chancellor, to commemorate the bicentenary of Bismarck’s birth in 1815. The lecture coincided with an exhibition on Bismarck’s life and his associations with Britain which the Bismarck Foundation, based in Friedrichsruh in Germany, kindly brought to the IHR before moving it on to Paris and St Petersburg. Professor Steinberg was followed by a conversation in a crowded Beveridge Hall between the two preeminent British historians of the Third Reich, Professor Sir Richard Evans, who has chronicled and analysed the Hitler regime, and Professor Sir Ian Kershaw, Hitler’s biographer. Then, it was a great pleasure to launch Go Betweens for Hitler (Oxford University Press), the new book by the IHR’s Senior Research Fellow, Karina Urbach, which examines those German intermediaries, largely from aristocratic backgrounds, who acted for the Third Reich in clandestine contacts with British diplomats and sympathisers with Nazism in the 1930s. Steinberg presented an insight into the personality and experiences of the man who created modern Germany in the 1860s, focusing on Bismarck’s life, interests and vulnerabilities. Bismarck’s control of European affairs for nearly three decades conjures images of a great statesman; his diplomacy and use of force in three wars between 1862 and 1870 suggest calculation and cynicism on a continental scale. But Steinberg’s Bismarck was a man with human flaws, self-doubt and lost romantic attachments, who maintained an essentially defensive approach to foreign policy once the Second Reich had been created in 1871. Bismarck’s

10

the appropriate register and language with which to discuss Nazism, and in their sober, disciplined and careful conversation the audience were shown how the best historical work defines itself through the manner and style in which it is expressed.

major concern was to limit the use of German power so as to conciliate those nations – the Danes, the Austrians, the French – vanquished in the course of the 1860s and conserve the new national entity he had constructed through warfare. In the discussion which followed the place of conservative ideology in Bismarck’s outlook was raised and debated, as he is often seen as the apotheosis of the values and prejudices of the Juncker landed elite from which he came. We also discussed the Euro and Germany’s stance on the single currency in the context of this long view of German history, a discussion which continued over dinner with the German ambassador who attended the lecture. Although Ian Kershaw has written the outstanding modern biography of Hitler, his conversation with Richard Evans, in contrast to the lecture on Bismarck, was anything but biographical. The discussion focused on the ways in



which Nazism and the course of German history from 1918–45 have been conceptualised and written. The themes were largely historiographical: how treatments of Nazism and the Hitler regime had changed over time. Whereas early, post-Second World War histories had focused on what might be called the sociology of Nazism – on the social groups which had supported the Nazi Party and the values and interests they espoused – the present generation of historians has focused on the racial politics of the regime and on their consequences, the Holocaust. As Evans and Kershaw explained, until the mid 1970s historical analysis of the Holocaust had been unsystematic. More recently it has come to be the dominant theme in historical writing on Nazism because Nazism itself is now seen as a ‘racial order’ above all, an ideology in which all other social categories were subordinated to race and racial difference. Both historians spoke also about the problem of finding

www.history.ac.uk

Karina Urbach’s monograph fits within the very broad framework that Kershaw and Evans set for Nazism. It is a fascinating study of a subject which has long interested historians and the media in Britain and elsewhere: how close were the relations between the British and German elites in the 1930s? Urbach focuses on a number of people who passed messages between ministers, high-ranking officials and notable public figures in both countries,

and who tried to influence public opinion as well. They included the Duke of Coburg, grandson to Queen Victoria, and Stephanie von Hohenlohe, an intimate of Hitler’s, as well as more familiar figures (in Britain, at least) like Edward VIII and Lord Rothermere, the owner of the Daily Mail. By chance, Go Betweens for Hitler was published just before the unfortunate publication of pictures of the British royal family playing at Nazi salutes. It is the product of meticulous research in many different British and German archives and bears no relation to historical gossip, the usual style in which this subject has been approached. But as Urbach noted in her remarks at the IHR, the Royal Archives at Windsor remained closed to her.

Taken together, these events testify to the continuing centrality of German history for historians and the public alike. As Urbach has shown, there is still scope for entirely fresh research into the German past. As Steinberg demonstrated, there is also scope to examine a leading life in German history from a new perspective. And as Evans and Kershaw explained with care and discretion, German historiography is constantly evolving and developing new approaches to the analysis of the worst of regimes.

Why are we obsessed with the Nazis? The Third Reich in History and Memory: Sir Richard Evans and Sir Ian Kershaw in conversation with Professor Nikolaus Wachsmann at Senate House

Past and Future

11

Living stone: the history and materiality of medieval baptism Carolyn Twomey, junior research fellow During the late 11th and 12th centuries, baptismal fonts appeared in parish churches across medieval England, a phenomenon that saw the place of baptism fixed in stone for the first time since the age of the late antique baptistery. Accompanied by no corresponding change in the baptismal liturgy, this transition emerged during a period of rapid rebuilding of England’s parish churches and renewed theological discussion of the Eucharist.1 As a 2014–15 IHR junior fellow, I investigated the history of early fonts from the Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods as part of my doctorate at Boston College, a project which took me to hundreds of churches this year. Fonts, like the particularly splendid example at North Grimston (E Yorks), are objects that sit at the intersections of medieval intellectual history and the history of material things, and are valuable tangible avenues into the lives of men and women in the middle ages. Described by Nikolaus Pevsner in 1972 as ‘a mighty and barbaric piece,’ the baptismal font at North Grimston dominates the nave of its contemporary early 12th-century church.2 Unlike most early Romanesque fonts, which are undecorated, the drum of North Grimston has a cable molded rim and a series of scenes within an arcade: Christ’s Descent from the Cross, the Last Supper, a geometric panel, and an ecclesiastical figure commonly attributed as St Nicholas after the medieval dedication of the church. The prominent table of the Last Supper is not only a central focal point for the scene, but also a skeuomorphic band imitating the metal hoop of a wooden barrel, one of the likely earlier AngloSaxon vessels of portable baptism.3 In the North Grimston font, however, the sculptor has creatively integrated the central band into the iconographic programme, allowing the community gathered around the font for baptism to join the Apostles at the table and

12

The IHR in Japan Lawrence Goldman, Director In August 2015 the IHR helped organise the 8th Anglo-Japanese Historians’ conference, held in Osaka, Japan’s second city. Eight modern British historians travelled to Japan to participate in a conference alongside many Japanese scholars on the subject of ‘Changing Networks and Power in British History: Politics, Society, Trade’. Over the past two decades these periodic meetings have brought together scholars from both countries, offering Japanese historians of Britain an opportunity to learn about current historical thinking, new publications and fresh projects in the UK. We estimate that there are more historians of Britain at work in universities in Japan than in any other country in the world. By convention, the British delegations travelling to Japan and the meetings of the conference in Britain have been organised by the IHR. This year the Institute was assisted by generous grants from the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and from the Friends of the IHR.

The large Romanesque baptismal font in the Church of St Nicholas, North Grimston (E Yorks), carved with narrative scenes of the Descent from the Cross and the Last Supper. Photo by Carolyn Twomey.

become a part of the work of salvation set in liturgical time. A focus on the physical stone of the font connects the object to the surrounding church building and medieval landscape. The sheer size of the North Grimston font — nearly a metre in diameter — advertised the expense of quarrying and transporting the calcareous grit (finegrained sandstone) from appropriatelysized beds in North Yorkshire.4 The new material permanence of stone fonts solidified an individual church’s right to baptise as parish churches replaced the minster system across England; fonts like that at North Grimston stood as monuments of parochial status for future generations. Stone also held theological and social meanings for the church community. The creation of fonts in ‘living stone’ (1 Peter 2:4-5) reified the permanence of the sacrament and standardised the performance of baptism for the community into one shared place within the church building.



The decorated tub font at North Grimston is just one of many early Norman fonts in England. It is important to see these baptismal fonts as active objects, rather than simply passive furniture: things which created an entirely new habitus for the Christian community. The medieval afterlives of these ‘living stones’ continue to influence the lives of parishioners today and deserve renewed scholarly attention as medieval religious history continues to embrace the material turn. Notes

Paul Barnwell, The Place of Baptism in AngloSaxon and Norman Churches. Deerhurst Lecture 2013. Friends of Deerhurst Church, 2014. 2 Nikolaus Pevsner, Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (1st edn., Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England. London: Penguin, 1972). 3 John Blair, ‘The prehistory of English fonts’, in Intersections: the Archaeology and History of Christianity in England, 400–1200: Papers in Honour of Martin Biddle and Birthe KjølbyeBiddle (Oxford, 2010), pp. 149–77. 4 Many thanks to Dr Liam Herringshaw and Dr Dav Smith for geological discussions during fieldwork this summer. 1

www.history.ac.uk

the search for networks, whether of a social, economic, intellectual or political character, was changing both historical methodology and the view we take of the British past. Alongside these papers Japanese participants delivered contributions on a wonderful variety of modern subjects: domestic science lessons in lateVictorian girls’ schools; Victorian friendly societies for the support of workers; British systems exported to Japan for the control of infectious diseases; and the education of vagrant children in industrial schools in Manchester. The professionalism and scholarly commitment of the many Japanese historians who spoke was evident in the intrinsic interest of their subjects and the care with which they presented their findings.

The conference reached its climax with some exchanges on the subject of British exceptionalism: was the Industrial Revolution the outcome of distinctly British factors – successful agriculture, growing population, cheap and plentiful resources, increasing demand for material goods, a strong scientific and technical culture, imperial markets and sources of raw materials – or could it have occurred elsewhere in Europe had a few factors been more favourable in, for example, France, the Low Countries or Germany? The division between a British and a global perspective was made evident, much to the interest of the conference, but the jury is still out. Perhaps we shall have an answer when the IHR hosts our Japanese colleagues here in London in 2018.

There were sessions in Osaka on the history of civil society in Victorian Britain; on the history of education over the past two centuries; and on the impact of the non-European world on the development of British industry. James Kirby from Trinity College, Cambridge spoke about the development of Victorian historiography; Richard Huzzey from the University of Liverpool discussed Victorian laissez-faire economics; John Styles from the University of Hertfordshire considered the role of fashion in the origins of industrialisation; and Giorgio Riello from Warwick gave a paper on the Asian context of the Industrial Revolution. There were also broad syntheses from Martin Daunton (Cambridge) on the development of the British state and changing patterns of public expenditure; on the origins of the Industrial Revolution from Patrick O’Brien, a former Director of the IHR now at the London School of Economics; and from Lawrence Goldman who spoke on continuities within the history of education in England since 1800. Joanna Innes gave a magisterial survey of the recent use of ‘networks’ in British historiography: how

Past and Future

13

Fashion in history

Victoria County History – new publications

Gemma Dormer, events officer The IHR took Fashion as its theme for the Anglo-American Conference of Historians in July 2015. Fashion in history is a topic which has come of age in recent years, as scholars have turned to addressing what is chic and what is style over the ages and across different cultures. The history of fashion, and the role of fashion in history, is not just confined to the study of dress and costume, but encompasses design, innovation, architecture, retailing, consumption, taste and zeitgeist. Across the world, fashion brings together museums, graduate teaching programmes, learned societies and the fashion profession around a common set of interests and concerns. With this in mind the IHR attracted a wide variety of speakers and delegates who all shared a common passion for fashion history. The conference took place on 2–3 July at Senate House and the V&A and in total featured over 250 delegates from across the globe, over 100 papers, 33 panel sessions, six plenary lectures and an afternoon at the V&A Museum. The conference was headlined by six plenary speakers, including Ulinka Rublack (University of Cambridge) and Maria Hayward (University of Southampton) who opened the conference with a lecture on the The First Book in Fashion. This was followed by an afternoon lecture given by Beverley Lemire (University of

Alberta) on A question of trousers: mariners, masculinity & empire in the fashioning of British male dress, c.1600– 1800. The first day of the conference ended with the Wiley Historical Research Lecture, which was presented by Lucy Worsley (Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces and BBC) who spoke about How fashion helps make a Monarch: 500 years of royal dress. The Wiley Historical Research Lecture was followed by the conference reception, which allowed the delegates to socialise and network, discussing their favourite panels from the first day. After the morning’s panel sessions on the second day, the conference moved locations to the V&A Museum, where delegates were treated to a series of fascinating talks on Fashion in the Museum. This included a plenary lecture by Chris Breward (Edinburgh College of Art) speaking about Alexander McQueen and a panel session by three curators of the V&A discussing their exhibitions, and culminated with the last plenary lecture from Valerie Steele (Fashion Institute of Technology Museum, NY) who spoke about some of her favourite exhibits from across the world and those that she has curated at the FIT Museum, New York. A publishers’ fair was held over the two days of the conference, featuring publishers such as SAS Publications, Oxford University Press and Cambridge

University Press among others, each showcasing specialist fashion history books (many written by conference presenters) and a variety of general history books. The diverse range of speakers and topics resulted in a great atmosphere and an exciting and fascinating conference programme, which received positive feedback from publishers, speakers and delegates. The IHR Events office would like to take this opportunity to thank those involved in the organisation of the conference and all the speakers and delegates for attending.

May was a busy month for the Victoria County History with two new titles published in quick succession. First was Newport, the latest addition to our Shorts series. This book is a result of a successful volunteer project in Essex. All the volunteers had expertise of both local and national history and Anthony Tuck ably convened the group. Exploring the varying character of Newport over eleven centuries, the book examines the changing patterns of landownership, social structure and economy of the village and its institutions, not least its 16th-century grammar school. It also discusses the part played, especially in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, by the owners of Shortgrove Hall, within the parish, and Quendon Hall, a few miles to the south. Newport is priced at £12 and is now available from the School of Advanced Study’s publications department (http:// events.sas.ac.uk/support-research/ publications/1040).

14



www.history.ac.uk

Past and Future

Shortly after the publication and launch of Newport, Mary Siraut’s volume on Somerset was next to arrive. The Victoria History of the County of Somerset, volume 11: Queen Camel and the Cadburys is the latest red book to be published in the county. It is a comprehensive account of the 10 parishes comprising the southern half of the Catsash hundred, an area rich in its archaeology and history. To the north, the Barrows, of which Queen Camel, North Cadbury and Sparkford (home of the Haynes Motor Museum) are the largest and most populous. To the south, prominent hills include Cadbury Hill, crowned by Cadbury Castle, an Iron Age hill fort dating from 600–400 BC. In South Cadbury and the surrounding parishes there is much evidence of prehistoric activity such as Bronze-Age finds. From a later period, the manor at Queen Camel is recorded in 1066, though decimated by fire in 1639 and subsequently rebuilt in local Blue Lias stone; and the sites of abandoned medieval homesteads are visible at Sparkford, Weston Bampfylde, Sutton Montis and Maperton. Later still, Compton Castle in Compton Pauncefoot was constructed in 1821 while North Cadbury’s medieval manor house still survives today. This volume is available from our publisher Boydell & Brewer and is priced at £95.

The next volume in the Shorts series, Yate, by Rose Wallis, came out in August. Yate is a town in South Gloucestershire, north-east of Bristol. Its ancient parish extended across a largely flat vale, which until the 13th century lay within Horwood forest, and was then cleared, inclosed and farmed as rich pasture by the tenants of the influential owners of its three manors. A limestone ridge fringing the vale provided good building stone, and across the parish seams of coal and a rare mineral – celestine – have been exploited until recent times. Yate lay on an important early route between Bristol and Oxford, and its mineral wealth attracted early railway links, so that it was well placed for industrial development. Bristol-based industries moved there during the decades after 1900, including wartime aviation production, so that Yate’s population and housing began to increase. During the 1950s a ‘new town’ plan was devised which carefully controlled Yate’s expansion, and included pioneering housing estate design, diverse industrial development and a large and progressive shopping mall. Yate is priced at £12 and is now available from the School of Advanced Study’s publications department (http:// events.sas.ac.uk/support-research/ publications/1053).

15

Development news Susan Reynolds, VCH 1952–9, Chair of the Friends 2002–8, shares some memories

Making history, moving forward, reaching out Now that we have redeveloped our capital assets and our facilities, it seems the occasion and opportunity to develop our academic resources as well. We aim to make the Institute accessible and open to all: to provide services for the traditional historical professions and to engage the public more actively. We are looking for funding in three areas: public engagement, academic excellence and securing our future through our endowment. The first of three priorities that we are focusing on is public engagement. Many of our events and conferences are attended by interested members of the public, in addition to postgraduates and academic historians and our aim is to reach out more systematically to this section of the community.

Project highlight: Outreach Officer The IHR is a nodal institution which links together academic historians within and beyond the UK and is a key player in promoting a wider public understanding and appreciation of history as a discipline. The IHR would like to leverage its unique position at the centre of this vast network and cultivate closer contact with the groups that it already works with as well as foster new relationships both in the UK and abroad. To further its external engagement, the IHR would like to establish an Outreach

Friends Film Evening: Glory The Friends of the IHR will host a film evening featuring the Academy Awardwinning Glory, which tells the tale of the US Civil War’s first all-black volunteer company. 17.00, 25 January 2016, IHR

Marc Fitch Fund supports the IHR’s Elaine Paintin Fund We are delighted to announce that the Marc Fitch Fund has awarded a generous grant of £20,000 to the Elaine Paintin Fund, which was established in December 2010 to recognise Elaine’s unique contribution to the IHR. This new grant will bring the Fund’s total to £32,000. The Elaine Paintin Fund will focus on meeting the needs of young researchers in our community who would like to visit archives and libraries, or attend conferences, outside London. We plan to offer awards totalling approximately £2,000 per annum for a minimum of 10 years. Information on how to apply will be advertised in January 2016 and we hope that the first awards will be made for this academic year. Many members of the IHR community have contributed to the Fund already, and we would like to thank those of you who have done so once again. The Marc Fitch Trustees have made their grant in the hope that it will encourage more giving to the Fund We hope you will help us to achieve this goal.

Planned giving Have you considered continuing your philanthropy beyond your lifetime? If you are thinking about a leaving a bequest to the IHR, please let us know. All legacies should be directed to ‘The IHR Trust’. It can be helpful to review the specific terms of your wishes, to ensure the IHR will be able to meet them in the future. If you are interested in discussing a potential legacy, please contact the Development Office directly ([email protected]/020 7862 8764/8791).

16

Dates of future events

Officer. This role would provide vital support in promoting the work of the Institute, encouraging individuals and groups to become involved in the IHR and managing current relationships while developing domestic and foreign networks. We are looking to fund this post at £75,000 per annum for a three year period.



Professor Jacob Price

Remembering Professor Jacob Price Professor Price was one of the most distinguished historians of the early modern Atlantic economy. After serving in World War II, he received his PhD from Harvard University in 1954 and went on to teach at Harvard, Smith College and finally at the University of Michigan, where he spent most of his career. He won numerous awards on both sides of the Atlantic for his pioneering work on the flows of trade and the world of 18thcentury merchants. Some of his most notable publications include France and the Chesapeake (1973) and Capital and Credit in British Overseas Trade (1980). Professor Price was a frequent visitor to the IHR and was part of a vibrant network of historians that continues to come together at the Institute to shape historical thought and the development of the profession. In an effort to support this ‘History Lab’, he worked to form the American Friends of the IHR, of which he was the Founding President (1989–2000). This group continues to be actively involved in the Institute, providing vital support, particularly to younger scholars. Professor Price leaves a lasting legacy to the historical profession through his academic work and the lives he touched as a teacher and mentor. The IHR is proud to have played a role in his life and is a richer place for having had Professor Price as part of its community of scholars. His support of the Institute continued through his life and now stretches beyond it through his generous benefaction.

www.history.ac.uk

2015 Friends summer outing at Sutton House..Photo by Mark Lawmon.

IHR Friends In July, the Friends held their annual summer outing at Sutton House, Hackney’s oldest residential building. The tour, which was led by archaeologist and historian Dr Nick Holder, not only explored the splendid Tudor exterior and marvellously diverse interior of the house, but also climbed the 16thcentury St Augustine’s Tower.

In October, the Friends met and agreed to award just over £20,000 to various projects in the IHR including support for a Master’s student bursary, funding for the Library’s Conservation Fund and enabling the IHR to develop its Archive (the Friends paid for a survey of the IHR Archive in 2007). After the meeting, Professor Nigel Saul gave the Friends Annual Lecture, ‘Reflections on the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta’.

For tickets to this event, please contact the Development Office (IHR. [email protected]/020 7862 8764/8791).  

The Friends would like to congratulate the following winners of the 2015/16 Friends’ Bursaries: Katie Bridger, Giulio D’Errico, Alexandra Hughes-Johnson, Chih-Hao Lee, Matt Raven, Daniel Reed, Callie Wilkinson and Hatice Yildiz.

Become a Friend/American Friend of the IHR today! St Augustine’s Tower

Each year at their Annual Meeting, the Friends of the IHR vote to generously support the Institute in so many ways: funding for seminar travel expenses, financing for major projects like the 2014 Redevelopment Campaign, and student bursaries. We would like to thank each and every Friend for their contributions.

Past and Future

In addition to making a valuable contribution to the IHR, Friends also receive a number of valuable benefits including: • Discounted library membership and access to the IHR Common Room • Discounted access to digital resources: • Save over 30% on British History Online’s premium content and gold subscription • Save over 40% on a subscription to the Bibliography of British and Irish History Contact the Development Office at [email protected] / 020 7862 8791 for more information or to join.

17

Seminars at the IHR The IHR’s world-renowned programme of seminars continues to go from strength to strength. Seminars meet weekly during term time and all are welcome. Please note not all seminars meet each term. An up-to-date programme for each seminar can be found on the IHR’s website at www.history.ac.uk/ihrseminars/ and is also displayed within the IHR.

American history Fortnightly on Thursdays at 17.30 Dates: 1, 15, 29 Oct, 12, 26 Nov, 10 Dec, 7, 21 Jan Archives and society Fortnightly on Tuesdays at 17.45 Dates: 29 Sept, 13, 27 Oct, 10, 24 Nov, 8 Dec, 5, 19 Jan

Disability history First Monday of every month at 17.15 Dates: 5 Oct, 2 Nov, 7 Dec, 4 Jan Earlier middle ages Weekly on Wednesdays at 17.30 Dates: 30 Sept, 7, 14, 21, 28 Oct, 4, 11, 18, 25 Nov, 2, 9 Dec, 6, 13, 20, 27 Jan

British history in the 17th century Fortnightly on Thursdays at 17.30 Dates: 8, 22 Oct, 5, 19 Nov, 3, 17 Dec, 14, 28 Jan

Economic and social history of the early modern world Fortnightly on Fridays at 17.15 Dates: 25 Sept, 9, 23 Oct, 6, 20 Nov, 15, 29 Jan

British history in the long 18th century Fortnightly on Wednesdays at 17.15 Dates: 30 Sept, 14, 28 Oct, 11, 25 Nov, 9 Dec, 6, 20 Jan

History of political ideas Fortnightly on Wednesdays at 17.15 Dates: 7, 21 Oct, 4, 18 Nov, 2 Dec, 13, 27 Jan

London Society for Medieval Studies Fortnightly on Tuesdays at 19.00 Dates: 6, 20 Oct, 3, 17 Nov, 1 Dec, 12, 26 Jan

Modern religious history Fortnightly on Wednesdays at 17.15 Dates: 7, 21 Oct, 4, 18 Nov, 2 Dec, 13, 27 Jan

Socialist history Fortnightly on Mondays at 17.30 Dates: 28 Sept, 12, 26 Oct, 9, 23 Nov, 7 Dec, 11, 25 Jan

History of political ideas/early career seminar Fortnightly on Wednesdays at 17.15 Dates: 30 Sept, 14, 28 Oct, 11, 25 Nov, 9 Dec, 6, 20 Jan

Low Countries history Fortnightly on Fridays at 17.15 Dates: 9, 23 Oct, 6, 20 Nov, 4 Dec, 15, 29 Jan

Oral history First Thursday of every month at 18.00 Date: 1 Oct, 5 Nov, 3 Dec, 7 Jan

Society, culture and belief, 1500–1800 Fortnightly on Thursdays at 17.30 Dates: 8, 22 Oct, 5, 19 Nov, 3, 17 Dec, 14, 28 Jan

Parliaments, politics and people Fortnightly on Tuesdays at 17.15 Dates: 6, 20 Oct, 3, 17 Nov, 1 Dec, 5, 19 Jan

History of sexuality One per term on Tuesdays at 17.15 Dates: 20 Oct, 10 Nov, 1 Dec, 19 Jan

Marxism in culture Fortnightly on Fridays at 17.30 Dates: 2, 16, 30 Oct, 13, 27 Nov, 11 Dec, 8, 22 Jan

Education in the long 18th century Once a month on a Saturday from 14.00–16.00 Date: 3, 24 Oct, 14 Nov, 30 Jan

Imperial and world history Fortnightly on Mondays at 17.15 Dates: 5, 19 Oct, 2, 16, 30 Nov, 14 Dec, 4, 18 Jan

Metropolitan history Fortnightly on Wednesdays at 17.30 Dates: 30 Sept, 14, 28 Oct, 11, 25 Nov, 9 Dec, 6, 20 Jan

British maritime history Fortnightly on Tuesdays at 17.15 Dates: 29 Sept, 13, 27 Oct, 10, 24 Nov, 8 Dec, 5, 19 Jan

European history 1150–1550 Fortnightly on Thursdays at 17.30 Dates: 15, 29 Oct, 12, 26 Nov, 10 Dec, 14, 28 Jan

International history Fortnightly on Tuesdays at 18.00 Dates: 1, 13, 27 Oct, 10, 24 Nov, 8 Dec, 5, 19 Jan

Military history Fortnightly on Tuesdays at 17.15 Dates: 6, 20 Oct, 3, 17 Nov, 1 Dec, 5, 19 Jan

Christian missions in global history Fortnightly on Tuesdays at 17.30 Dates:  29 Sept, 13, 27 Oct, 10, 24 Nov, 8 Dec, 12, 26 Jan

European history 1500–1800 Fortnightly on Mondays at 17.15 Dates: 28 Sept, 12, 26 Oct, 9, 23 Nov, 7 Dec, 11, 25 Jan

Jewish history Fortnightly on Mondays at 17.15 Dates: 5, 19 Oct, 2, 16, 30 Nov, 14 Dec, 4, 18 Jan

Modern British history Fortnightly on Thursdays at 17.15 Dates: 1, 15, 29 Oct, 12, 26 Nov, 10 Dec, 7, 21 Jan

Collecting & display (100 BC to AD 1700) Fortnightly on Mondays at 17.30 Dates: 19 Oct, 2, 16, 7, 14 Dec, 11, 25 Jan

Film history Fortnightly on Thursdays at 17.30 Dates: 8, 22 Oct, 5, 19 Nov, 3, 17 Dec, 14, 28 Jan

Late medieval and early modern Italy Fortnightly on Thursdays at 17.15 Dates: 8, 22 Oct, 5, 19 Nov, 3, 17 Dec, 7, 21 Jan

Modern French history Fortnightly on Mondays at 17.30 Dates: 5, 19 Oct, 2, 16, 30 Nov, 14 Dec, 4, 18 Jan

Reconfiguring the British: nation, empire, world 1600–1900 Fortnightly on Thursdays at 17.30 Dates: 8, 22 Oct, 5, 19 Nov, 3, 17 Dec, 14, 28 Jan

Colonial/Postcolonial new researchers’ workshop Fortnightly on Mondays at 17.15 Dates: 28 Sept, 12, 26 Oct, 9, 23 Nov, 7 Dec, 11, 25 Jan

Gender and history in the Americas First Monday of the month at 17.30 Dates: 5 Oct, 2 Nov, 7 Dec, 4 Jan

Late medieval seminar Weekly on Fridays at 17.30 Dates: 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 Oct, 6, 13, 20, 27 Nov, 4, 11 Dec, 8, 15, 22, 29 Jan

Modern German history Fortnightly on Wednesdays at 17.30 Dates: 30 Sept, 14, 28 Oct, 11, 25 Nov, 9 Dec, 6, 20 Jan

Religious history of Britain 1500–1800 Fortnightly on Tuesdays at 17.15 Dates: 29 Sept, 13, 27 Oct, 10, 24 Nov, 8 Dec, 12, 26 Jan

Latin American history Fortnightly on Tuesdays at 17.30 Dates: 6, 20 Oct, 3, 17 Nov, 1 Dec, 12, 26 Jan

Modern Italian history Fortnightly on Wednesdays 17.30 Dates: 30 Sept, 14, 28 Oct, 11, 25 Nov, 9 Dec, 13, 27 Jan

Rethinking modern Europe Fortnightly on Wednesdays at 17.30 Dates: 7, 21 Oct, 4, 18 Nov, 2 Dec, 13, 27 Jan

Comparative histories of Asia Fortnightly on Thursdays at 17.30 Dates: 1, 15, 29 Oct, 12, 26 Nov, 10 Dec, 7, 21 Jan Conversations and disputations Once a month on Fridays at 17.30 Dates: 9 Oct, 6 Nov, 4 Dec, 15 Jan Crusades and the Latin East Fortnightly on Mondays at 17.15 Dates: 28 Sept, 12, 26 Oct, 9, 23 Nov, 7 Dec, 11, 25 Jan Digital history Fortnightly on Tuesdays at 17.15 Dates: 29 Sept, 13, 27 Oct, 10, 24 Nov, 8 Dec, 5, 19 Jan

18

History and public health Fortnightly on Wednesdays at 12:45 Dates: 14, 28 Oct, 11, 25 Nov, 20 Jan History Lab seminar Fortnightly on Thursdays at 17.30 Dates: 8, 22 Oct, 5, 19 Nov, 3, 17 Dec, 14, 28 Jan History of education First Thursday of every month at 17.30 Dates: 1 Oct, 5 Nov, 3 Dec, 7 Jan History of gardens and landscapes Fortnightly on Thursdays at 18.00 Dates: 1, 15, 29 Oct, 12, 26 Nov, 10 Dec, 7, 21 Jan History of libraries Usually Tuesdays at 17.30 Dates: 6 Oct, 4 Nov, 1 Dec



Philosophy of history Fortnightly on Thursdays at 17.30 Dates: 1, 15, 29 Oct, 12, 26 Nov, 10 Dec, 7, 21 Jan Psychoanalysis and history Fortnightly on Wednesdays at 17.30 Dates: 7, 21 Oct, 4, 18 Nov, 2 Dec, 13, 27 Jan Public history Fortnightly on Wednesdays at 17.30 Dates: 7, 21 Oct, 4, 18 Nov, 2 Dec, 6, 20 Jan

Sport and leisure history Fortnightly on Mondays at 17.15 Dates: 5, 19 Oct, 2, 16, 30 Nov, 14 Dec, 4, 18 Jan Studies of home First Wednesday of every month at 17.30 Dates: 7 Oct, 4 Nov, 2 Dec, 6 Jan Tudor and Stuart history Fortnightly on Mondays at 17.15 Dates: 28 Sept, 12, 26 Oct, 9, 23 Nov, 7 Dec, 11, 25 Jan Voluntary action history Fortnightly on Mondays at 17.30 Dates: 5, 19 Oct, 2, 16, 30 Nov, 14 Dec, 4, 18 Jan War, society and culture Fortnightly on Wednesdays at 17.15 Dates: 7, 21 Oct, 4, 18 Nov, 2 Dec, 13, 27 Jan Women’s history Fortnightly on Fridays at 17.15 Dates: 2, 16, 30 Oct, 13, 27 Nov, 11 Dec, 8, 22 Jan

Life-cycles Fortnightly on Tuesdays at 17.15 Dates: 29 Sept, 13, 27 Oct, 10, 24 Nov, 8 Dec, 5, 19 Jan Locality and region Fortnightly on Tuesdays at 17.15 Dates: 6, 20 Oct, 3, 17 Nov, 1 Dec, 12, 26 Jan

One-year seminar sponsorship costs £1,000 which can be covered by one individual, one institution or by a group of supporters:

London Group of Historical Geographers Fortnightly on Tuesdays at 17.15 Dates: 6, 20 Oct, 3, 17 Nov, 1 Dec, 12, 26 Jan

Similar arrangements can be made for a five-year sponsorship. For more information, please contact Michelle Waterman in the Development Office ([email protected] / 0207 862 8764/8791).

www.history.ac.uk

• Three people paying £28 per month for a year • Eight people paying £11 per month for a year

Past and Future

19

Seminar in focus:

Postgraduate research training courses at the IHR

Women’s History

Kelly Boyd, senior research fellow, IHR The Women’s History seminar was founded in 1986 to provide a venue for papers on the history of women in particular, and of gender more broadly. Its pioneering nature is testament to the IHR’s commitment to opening up new areas of research. The convenors come from around the UK and signify the breadth of the seminar’s coverage and its dedication to forging links between scholars from around the world. Two of the founding convenors remain active today: Professor Dame Janet Nelson (KCL) and Professor Pat Thane (KCL/ICBH). They are joined by Dr Kelly Boyd (IHR), Dr Anna Davin, Dr Lucy Delap (Cambridge), Dr Amy Erickson (Cambridge), Professor Laura Gowing (KCL), Professor Clare Midgley (Sheffield Hallam), Dr Krisztina Robert (Roehampton) and Professor Cornelie Usborne (IHR/Roehampton). The seminar meets regularly through the academic year and is attended by UK and visiting academics, graduate students and the wider public. Over the years it has become a globally key seminar on the subject, where leaders in the field have spoken. The seminar is also about the varieties of female experience. Papers range from the ancient world to the modern, from the local to the global, and deal with all corners of the globe. The speakers take a wide range of approaches from the political and social meanings of the suffragette to the lives of both medieval and modern nuns. They investigate the ways gender interacts with other factors, particularly race and class, to explore the experience of women from the factory floor to the milking parlour to the milliner’s shop to reveal the varieties of female experience. The history of masculinity and the way men’s lives are affected by gender norms are also addressed. In 2014–15 our speakers came from around the world. Our first speaker was Professor Charlotte MacDonald of Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, who spoke on the 19th-century feminist Harriet Gore Browne’s attitude towards empire. In the second term, Dr Midori Yamaguchi of Daito Bunko University in Japan shared her research on daughters of the Victorian Anglican clergy. Dr Lisa

20

Thomas (RHUL) on female artists, while Elin Jones (QMUL) shared her findings on men’s work on an 18th-century naval warship. Perhaps even more importantly, the discussions following these presentations (as with all seminar papers) are treated as an opportunity to explore the topic in more depth, which most speakers see as extremely helpful in clarifying their argument. Women’s experiences are also explored in papers on, for example, mysticism and sexuality (Dr Tanya Cheadle, Glasgow), the Indian feminist Pandita Ramabai and transnational liberal religious networks (Professor Clare Midgley, Sheffield Hallam), 18th-century childbirth (Sarah Fox, Manchester), 17th-century ideas of beauty (Dr Tim Reinke-Williams, Northampton), marriage as metaphor in Renaissance Italy (Dr Serena Ferrente, KCL) and ‘Vampires of Slough: women in the Second World War blood transfusion service’ (Dr Sheena Evans). British First World War postcard which uses positive discourses of modernity to associate women’s war work with physical freedom, technological progress and gender equality. Image: Arthur Butcher, ‘Making Rapid Progress’, Ten-Nine-Eight Series, No. 1099, London: Inter-Art Co., probably 1916. From the collection of Krisztina Robert.

Cody of Claremont McKenna University in California examined the gendered nature of the language of rebellion as it pertained to the American Revolution, including the seeming paradox that nascent discussions about gender rights did not result in political or legal progress for women, but instead were symbolically used to represent men’s political disenfranchisement at home and in the colonies. Our final speaker was Professor Anna Clark of the University of Minnesota. Her paper delved into the way two countries approached what were construed to be moral problems: alcoholism and prostitution. She revealed how gender played a major role in the way both Britain and New Zealand attacked these challenges in the 1890s. Postgraduate students also present their research regularly, which allows us to see new approaches developing and to support the next generation. Women and work were explored by several recent papers, including Julie Hipperson (KCL) on women veterinarians and Zoe



The seminar also frequently presents roundtables to illuminate current debates in the field. In 2015 we took the opportunity to address the role of women and war in a panel discussion. Professor Susan R. Grayzel (Mississippi), Dr Lucy Noakes (Brighton) and Dr Krisztina Robert (Roehampton) participated in a roundtable discussion entitled ‘Gender and the two World Wars’ which wrestled with the effect of war on women’s lives both on the home front and in the military. In autumn 2015 our seminar welcomes a joint presentation from Dr Jill Liddington (Leeds), Professor Pat Thane (KCL/ICBH) and Elizabeth Crawford on the suffragette boycott of the 1911 census. In 2016, we will celebrate our 30th anniversary with a paper from our former fellow convenor, Lyndal Roper, Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford.

Each year the IHR runs a wide-ranging and extensive training programme in skills for historical researchers from UK universities. Using a range of teaching approaches (workshops, seminars, lectures, hands-on practicals and visits), important and specialised skills are explained and explored by expert practitioners. Courses are short (from one day to one term), cover the whole range of necessary skills – from archival use and languages to databases and the internet – and are priced to be within the means of students.

Archival research skills

Citation for historians

Methods and sources for historical research

Correct referencing is a complex but fundamental skill for historians. In this one-day workshop, participants will learn when and how to reference, with detailed exploration of the citation systems in use and explanation of when each is appropriate. The session will conclude with an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of computer referencing software such as EndNote or Zotero. The course fee is £25.

16–20 November 2015/25–29 January 2016/11–15 April 2016/11–15 July 2016 A week-long introduction to finding and gaining access to primary sources for historical research in archives, museums and online through an intensive programme of lectures and archival visits. Repositories to be visited will include the British Library, The National Archives, the Parliamentary Archives and the Wellcome Library among many others. Fee £250. Visual sources for historians (Spring 2016, TBA) A theoretical and practical guide to using visual sources for historical research (post-1500). Through lectures, discussions and visits the course will explore films, paintings, photographs, architecture and design as historical sources, as well as introducing particular items both in situ and in repositories. Fee £TBC

General historical skills An introduction to oral history Tuesdays, 12 January – 22 March 2016 This 11–week course introduces all the practical and technical skills necessary to conduct interviews for historical research, showing how to get the most out of participants while also providing a complete grounding in theoretical and ethical questions. The course fee is £250.

The seminar meets fortnightly on Fridays at 5.15pm during the IHR term and welcomes all who share an interest in women’s history or gender history, or are attracted by a particular paper. Details of the programme and related items of interest are circulated via an email list. For more information, contact Dr Kelly Boyd ([email protected]) or visit www.history.ac.uk/events/ seminars/150.

www.history.ac.uk

Past and Future

Tuesday 10 November 2015

Oral history spring school 21–23 April 2016 The IHR Spring School in Oral History is held in association with the Oral History Society. The programme this year addresses six major areas: memory; experience; representativeness and generalisability; the researcher’s habitus; re-use of recordings; outputs and impacts. The final day will include best practice in teaching oral history. The fee is £250. Local history summer school July 2016, TBA The school is open to all those keen to expand or update their skills in local history research. It will introduce the most up-to-date methods, sources and successful approaches to the subject through an exciting programme of lectures and workshops. There will be two main strands: firstly we shall explore Sources, looking at how best to find, obtain and interpret written and visual evidence in the archive and online, looking in depth at the spectacularly rich resources now to be found on the web. We then move on to Techniques and Themes, with sessions on Palaeography, Computers for Local History, Landscape and the Built Environment, Family and Neighbourhood and many other topics. The fee is £185.

Explanatory paradigms: an introduction to historical theory Spring/summer 2016, TBA A critical introduction to current approaches to historical explanation, taught on Wednesday evenings by Professor John Tosh, Dr John Seed and Professor Sally Alexander. Each session will examine a different explanatory approach, such as Marxism, gender analysis or postmodernism, equipping students to form their own judgements on the schools of thought most influential in the modern discipline. Fee £225. Public speaking for historians Tuesday 27 October 2015 This one-day workshop is devoted to presentational techniques for historians. Covering both the processes of writing and delivery, there will be detailed instruction on performance with and without AV not just in papers, but also in job interviews, media appearances and the many other contexts in which academics are asked for comment. Fee £60.

Languages and palaeography An introduction to medieval and Renaissance Latin Wednesdays, 7 October – 9 December 2015 This 10-week course will provide an introduction to Latin grammar and vocabulary, together with practical experience in translating typical post-classical Latin documents. It is intended for absolute beginners, or for those with a smattering of the language but who wish to acquire more confidence. Students will emerge at the end with not just a strong grounding in the mechanics of Latin, but also an understanding of the changes that it underwent, and the new ways in which it was used in medieval and early modern Europe. The course is open to all who are interested in using Latin for their research. The fee for the course is £250.

21

Friends of the IHR Join the Friends and bring history to life By joining the Friends, you make a valuable contribution to the IHR and bring life and community to the Institute.

Intermediate medieval and Renaissance Latin Wednesdays, 13 January – 16 March 2016 This course builds upon the basis of Medieval and Renaissance Latin I, deepening and extending understanding of the language. By the end of the course, students should feel confident to tackle most basic Latin historical sources. Fee £250 (or £500 for all three Latin courses). Further medieval and Renaissance Latin Wednesdays, 27 April – 29 June 2016 A third course, carrying on from the first two IHR Medieval and Renaissance Latin courses, to round out students’ grasp of the language and allow them to tackle more advanced Latin texts. Fee £250 (or £500 for all three Latin courses). Palaeography and diplomatic Tuesdays, 6 October 2015 – 10 May 2016 (TBC) This course provides an introduction to the history of script from the Roman Empire to the early modern period together with practical instruction in reading manuscripts and understanding the context in which they were written. The course concentrates on Latin and English palaeography in the British Isles, but scripts of other national traditions may be included if there is demand. Please note that this course is not an IHR course, but is run by QMUL and taught by Dr Jenny Stratford: please email [email protected] for further information and to apply for a place. Fee £250/term.

22

Information technology courses Databases for historians I 17–20 November 2015, 12–15 April 2016 and 7–10 June 2016 This four-day course introduces the theory and practice of constructing and using databases. Through a mixture of lectures and practical, hands-on, sessions, students will be taught both how to use and adapt existing databases, and how to design and build their own. No previous specialist knowledge apart from an understanding of historical analysis is needed. The software used is MS Access, but the techniques demonstrated can easily be adapted to any package. This course is open to postgraduate students, lecturers and all who are interested in using databases in their historical research. The course fee is £250. Databases for historians II: practical database tools 3–8 August 2016 The aim of this course is to develop the practical skills necessary for constructing and fully exploiting a database for use in historical research. Assuming a basic understanding of the conceptual issues in digitally managing information from historical sources, the course aims to introduce the specific tools and techniques required for improving the utility of the database from the data entry stage, through to the generation and presentation of analysis. The course consists of ‘handson’ practical sessions in which students are provided with practical guidance on employing these techniques through the use of Microsoft Access. Familiarity with the basic concepts of database use is required: participants should be confident working with Microsoft Access, and should have some knowledge of working with data tables and simple queries. The course fee is £200.



For £30 (£15 for students) you receive many benefits, including: • Discounted membership to the IHR Library • Discounted subscriptions to BHO and BBIH

Internet sources for historical research

For more information or to join, please visit www.history.ac.uk/support-us/friends or contact the Development Office [email protected] | 020 7862 8791

1 December 2015, 2 March 2016, 6 June 2016 This course provides an intensive introduction to use of the internet as a tool for serious historical research. It includes sessions on academic mailing lists, usage of gateways, search engines and other finding aids, and on effective searching using Boolean operators and compound search terms, together with advice on winnowing the useful matter from the vast mass of unsorted data available, and on the proper caution to be applied in making use of online information. The fee for the course is £100.

Specialist and Academic Military History www.helion.co.uk telephone 0121 705 3393 email [email protected] online

26 Willow Road, Solihull B91 1UE, England

Historical mapping and Geographic Information Systems 26–27 November 2015, 5–6 May 2016 Researchers increasingly see the value of including mapping in their work, but the software used for creating maps – Geographic Information Systems (GIS) – can do much more than simply create maps as illustrations. GIS is being used in a variety of contexts to make sense of information with a spatial component, be it at the level of buildings and streets or at the level of nations, and to perform sophisticated geospatial and topographical analyses. The workshop will include hands-on practical sessions using GIS software to view and manipulate historical data, and will provide the opportunity for generating (and analysing) the kind of thematic mapping that is the product of this research tool. Fee: £75 For further information and application forms see www.history.ac.uk/researchtraining or contact Dr Simon Trafford at Institute of Historical Research, University of London, Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU or by email at [email protected]

www.history.ac.uk

MA/MRes in Historical Research • • • • •

Equips students for both independent research and analysis in primary and secondary material, and writing at an advanced level Tuition and dissertation supervision by leading historians Small group teaching Access to a dedicated history research library Study full-time or part-time

For further information, see www.history.ac.uk/study

MA in Garden and Landscape History Email: [email protected] Telephone: +44 (0)20 7862 8663 www.sas.ac.uk/graduate-study

Explore historical studies journals from Edinburgh University Press

The Scottish Historical Review Architectural Heritage Archives of Natural History Britain and the World Cultural History The Innes Review Journal of Scottish Historical Studies Northern Scotland Psychoanalysis and History Scottish Archaelogical Journal

www.euppublishing.com

History From Manchester University Press

@ManchesterUP

www.facebook.com/ManchesterUniversityPress

‘Here for the first time, the reader can see in full Eva’s articles and poetry on women’s suffrage, trade unions and women’s right to work campaigns. These will be a valuable resource for teaching and studying women’s history.’ Jill Liddington Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Leeds

Edited by Sonja Tiernan HB 978-0-7190-8874-2 £75.00* PB 978-0-7190-9768-3 £17.99*

The political writings of Eva Gore-Booth brings together a fascinating array of material from this important Irish author and political activist. The volume includes a selection of letters, political pamphlets, newspaper articles and poetry relating to key aspects of Irish and British events of the early twentieth century; events which are now entering centenary commemorations. The volume is presented in three sections focusing on women’s suffrage and women’s trade unionism, pacifism and conscientious objection during the First World War, and Irish nationalism before independence. Many of these writings are out of print and difficult to source, and this volume offers a valuable research and teaching resource. *25% off until 30th November 2015. Quote discount code OTH557 Tel: +44 (0)1752 202301 Email: [email protected] www.nbninternational.com Manchester University Press, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

Examine the Past and become an examiner for our GCSE and A Level History papers • Understand in depth the specification you are teaching • Gain insight into the National Standards • Develop your career and boost your income For further information and the online application please visit our website or send an email: www.edexcel.com/aa-recruitment [email protected]