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Doing History in Public, Faculty of History, Cambridge (2024)

11/06/2024

by Vinolen John, Studies concerning histories of conflicts are always a thin line to tread. This is particularly true with regards to Naga History which revolves around facets of decolonisation, nation and identity construction, insurgency and conflict, inter alia. The Nagas are a group of disparate tribes in the highlands of India’s northeast and Burma’s northwest characterized by a societal system based around autonomous village republics....

by Vinolen John, Studies concerning histories of conflicts are always a thin line to tread. This is particularly true with regards to Naga History which revolves around facets of decol…

04/06/2024

by Bipasha Bhattacharyya, “Science is an essentially anarchic enterprise”[i] begins Feyerabend’s controversial book; And with it, the author becomes “science’s worst enemy.” This epithet is not all that surprising for the ‘serious academic’. After all, anarchy means Guy Fawkes's masks, and burning effigies, cheers of Inquilab Zindabad on the streets of West Bengal without the consecutive electoral victory....

by Bipasha Bhattacharyya, “Science is an essentially anarchic enterprise”[i] begins Feyerabend’s controversial bo…

29/05/2024

by Sam Phoenix Clarke, 'Recent advances in physics hold out the prospect that human civilisation may be destroyed. Recent advances in history, revealing to us with a startlingly clearer insight what the nature of civilisation is, might, if they were more widely understood, give us the little bit of extra wisdom which would induce us to continue with the experiment rather than destroy it.'...

by Sam Phoenix Clarke, ‘Recent advances in physics hold out the prospect that human civilisation may be destroyed. Recent advances in history, revealing to us with a startlingly …

21/05/2024

by Rebecca Goldsmith The field of modern British history has experienced a new ‘turn’ in recent years. Historians like Jon Lawrence, David Cowan and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite have pioneered the re-use of archived interview field-notes from post-war social science.[1] By and large, this trend has been motivated by an interest in the subjects of social science, rather than the social scientists themselves....

by Rebecca Goldsmith The field of modern British history has experienced a new ‘turn’ in recent years. Historians like Jon Lawrence, David Cowan and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite hav…

14/05/2024

In this week's post, Marlo Avidon explores if there is a place for anachronism in historical research, sharing some of her favourite anecdotes from the archive in the process

By Marlo Avidon () Sitting in my first year of undergrad, I remember the stern admonishment of my seminar leader prepping us for the submission of our coursework: anachronism doesn’t be…

09/05/2024

Socialist Albania was made by modernisation, and a political pursuit of its aesthetic and sociological derivatives. Enver Hoxha sought to transform Albania into a self-conscious nation-state via the transformation of the physical landscape. This was done according to contemporary discourses connecting modernity and architecture and informed by the acute sense of vulnerability that defined Hoxha’s regime. Socialist Albania was to…...

Socialist Albania was made by modernisation, and a political pursuit of its aesthetic and sociological derivatives. Enver Hoxha sought to transform Albania into a self-conscious nation-state via th…

30/04/2024

by Jake Bransgrove, Historian Highlight is an ongoing series sharing the research experiences of historians in the History Faculty in Cambridge and beyond. For our latest instalment, we sat down with Benjamin Iago Gibson, a first-year PhD candidate at Trinity Hall, to discuss mountains and their roots, Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, and conceptions of time in the Medieval landscape....

by Jake Bransgrove, Historian Highlight is an ongoing series sharing the research experiences of historians in the History Faculty in Cambridge and beyond. For our latest instalmen…

23/04/2024

By Shamsher Bhangal The 1919 Treaty of Versailles is arguably the single most significant document of the twentieth century. It was the peace treaty which marked the conclusion of the First World War and cemented a series of ultimately contentious territorial and political changes in Europe. The Treaty of Versailles has become a staple of the GCSE and A-Level history syllabus and enjoys a surprising amount of recognition in the popular consciousness in Britain today....

By Shamsher Bhangal The 1919 Treaty of Versailles is arguably the single most significant document of the twentieth century. It was the peace treaty which marked the conclusion of the First World W…

19/03/2024

by Chris Campbell, E. H. Carr must surely be one of the most seasonal names in British historical education. It emerges towards the end of summer in suggested reading lists, multiplies throughout the autumn in sixth form history classrooms, and returns to hibernation shortly after the personal statement deadline passes. How many times throughout that period must admissions tutors skim over the lines ‘I have found E....

by Chris Campbell, E. H. Carr must surely be one of the most seasonal names in British historical education. It emerges towards the end of summer in suggested reading lists, multip…

12/03/2024

by Zara Kesterton, Toni Bucky came across T.844–1974 in the Victoria and Albert Museum during her PhD research into blackwork embroidery. She was hunting for evidence of the geometric stitching, usually completed in black thread on linen, which became popular in England during the sixteenth century. In the V&A collections, Toni found an unstitched piece of cloth covered in ink markings of flowers, birds, and insects....

by Zara Kesterton, Toni Bucky came across T.844–1974 in the Victoria and Albert Museum during her PhD research into blackwork embroidery. She was hunting for evidence of the geometri…

05/03/2024

By Molly Groarke, Agnes Acland was nineteen years old in 1870, when her brothers left Britain to travel overseas. Her eldest brother Charlie, heir to the family fortune and baronetcy, departed on a world tour, travelling as far as Australia and New Zealand. Gib, the brother she was closest to, had a successful military career, stationed first in Dinapore, India, then in Aden, Yemen....

By Molly Groarke, Agnes Acland was nineteen years old in 1870, when her brothers left Britain to travel overseas. Her eldest brother Charlie, heir to the family fortune and baronetcy…

20/02/2024

by Chris Campbell Although the idea of the ‘public historian’ is a relatively recent concept - spurred on by the growth in consumption of documentaries, podcasts, blogs and social media - there have always been academic historians who have found a broader readership and commanded a certain influence amongst the general public. This new series of Historian Highlights aims to explore those academics of the past who were doing history in public long before TikTok put millions of viewers within arm’s reach, and seeks to understand their impact on the popular view and interpretation of history....

by Chris Campbell Although the idea of the ‘public historian’ is a relatively recent concept – spurred on by the growth in consumption of documentaries, podcasts, blogs and …

13/02/2024

by Daniel Gilman () The 80th anniversary of the end of the Nazi’s Siege of Leningrad came and went only a couple of weeks ago, on 27th of January, with little attention in much of the world. The protracted horror of this siege is one of the most intense tragic events in world history. The evolving memorialisation of the siege of Leningrad reflects the dynamic nature of public history, illustrating how the remembrance of such tragedies is influenced by shifting priorities and agendas....

by Daniel Gilman () The 80th anniversary of the end of the Nazi’s Siege of Leningrad came and went only a couple of weeks ago, on 27th of January, with little attention in much of th…

06/02/2024

Zara Kesterton, interviewed by Jake Bransgrove Historian Highlight is an ongoing series sharing the research experiences of historians in the History Faculty in Cambridge and beyond. For our latest instalment, we sat down with Zara Kesterton, a second-year PhD candidate at Jesus College and former DHP editor-in-chief. We discuss artificial flowers, French fashion merchants, and some of the realities of being a young historian today....

Zara Kesterton, interviewed by Jake Bransgrove Historian Highlight is an ongoing series sharing the research experiences of historians in the History Faculty in Cambridge and beyond. For our latest…

30/01/2024

by Beatrice Leeming There exists an established filmic tradition that has dealt with the ethics of representation and subscribed to the pedagogical power of cinema. The Holocaust has been documented and dramatized with progressive intensity since its occurrence. The perpetrators have been satirised, the victims heroized, and the narrative memorialised in both powerful and problematic cinema. The taboo on representation has repeatedly been broken....

by Beatrice Leeming There exists an established filmic tradition that has dealt with the ethics of representation and subscribed to the pedagogical power of cinema. The Holocaust has been documente…

23/01/2024

By Matúš Lazar Alongside his doctoral research on public history, Matúš Lazar also runs a YouTube channel under the name M. Laser. In this post, he discusses his experience in producing historical content online. My real name is Matúš Lazar, but most people know me under my online pseudonym M. Laser. As M. Laser I have been communicating history online, primarily on YouTube, X and various podcasts, for the past seven years....

By Matúš Lazar Alongside his doctoral research on public history, Matúš Lazar also runs a YouTube channel under the name M. Laser. In this post, he discusses his experience in producing historical …

13/01/2024

Joint Editor-in-Chief for 2023 - 2024

Joint Editor-in-Chief for 2023 – 2024

24/12/2023

by Tiffany Laloy At the height of Counter-Reformation France in the XVIIth century, Baroque art was in part used as a tool to promote the Catholic faith and to inspire and impress the masses.[1] And whilst the extravagance and opulence of some of these religious paintings did indeed arouse emotion and religious fervor, Georges de La Tour chose the simple, mundane representation of the divine to awaken relatability and empathy in the viewer....

by Tiffany Laloy At the height of Counter-Reformation France in the XVIIth century, Baroque art was in part used as a tool to promote the Catholic faith and to inspire and impress the masses.[1] An…

23/12/2023

By Floris Winckel It’s the season of gift-giving. Some of you might be cash-strapped or lost for ideas of what to give (or indeed both). In December 1610, Johannes Kepler, imperial mathematician to the Holy Roman Emperor and one of the most renowned intellectual figures of early modern Europe, found himself in exactly this position. He sought a New Year’s gift for his patron, court counsellor Johannes Matthaeus Wacker von Wackenfels, but set himself the challenge of finding something so small and insignificant, so inexpensive and fleeting, that it approximated Nothing....

By Floris Winckel It’s the season of gift-giving. Some of you might be cash-strapped or lost for ideas of what to give (or indeed both). In December 1610, Johannes Kepler, imperial mathematician to…

22/12/2023

By Marlo Avidon () Featured image: Recueil des modes de la cour de France, 'Damoiselle en Habit de Chambre', Henri Bonnart (France, 1642-1711), France, Paris, 1678-1680, Hand-colored engraving on paper, Los Angeles County Museum of Art ( In the nearly two centuries between the decline of the sixteenth-century costume book and the rise of the late eighteenth and nineteenth-century fashion plate, the late seventeenth century experienced a brief resurgence in printing images of contemporary dress....

By Marlo Avidon () Featured image: Recueil des modes de la cour de France, ‘Damoiselle en Habit de Chambre’, Henri Bonnart (France, 1642-1711), France, Paris, 1678-1680, Han…

21/12/2023

Advent Calendar Day 21! Lauren Walker discusses the Christmas classic, 'It's a Wonderful Life', and the film's communist connections...

by Lauren Walker Frank Capra’s 1946 film, It’s a Wonderful Life, is an established Christmas favourite. However, upon release, it received mixed reviews and came $525,000 short of breaking even at …

20/12/2023

By Ellie Doran () The Mediceo del Principato is a collection of over four million letters from the Medici court, dating from 1537 to 1743.[1] The collection has survived ‘virtually intact’ and now occupies a mile of shelf space at the Archivio di Stato di Firenze (State Archives of Florence).These letters are fascinating sources, offering insight into the personal and emotional lives of the grand ducal family, Florentine courtiers, and those often overlooked by other sources such as servants, entertainers, and children....

By Ellie Doran () The Mediceo del Principato is a collection of over four million letters from the Medici court, dating from 1537 to 1743.[1] The collection has survived …

19/12/2023

By Tomas Brown Recipes for milk punch are intriguingly elusive; in one early nineteenth century receipt book they are found nestled among the ‘German method of Blackening Leather’, ‘Dr Fullers Vapour for a Quincy’ and ‘Fine Red Ink’.[1] They present themselves to us pervaded by logistic and cultural incongruities. Are they recreational or medicinal? Hot or cold? Deliciously creamy or a disgusting, split mess?...

By Tomas Brown Recipes for milk punch are intriguingly elusive; in one early nineteenth century receipt book they are found nestled among the ‘German method of Blackening Leather’, ‘Dr Fullers Vapo…

18/12/2023

by Yolanda Lam With Christmas just around the corner, people are flocking into department stores to do some last-minute gift-shopping (myself included). As one traverses Central, one of the busiest urban districts in Hong Kong, one will find the first and oldest department store chains in the city – The Sincere Co. Ltd. Celebrating its 124th birthday next year, The Sincere first opened on 8 January 1900 on Queen’s Road Central, before moving to 173-179 Des Voeux Road nearby....

by Yolanda Lam With Christmas just around the corner, people are flocking into department stores to do some last-minute gift-shopping (myself included). As one traverses Central, one of the busiest…

17/12/2023

by Zeynep Olgun, The life of Theodore of Sykeon, an ascetic who lived in the Eastern Mediterranean around sixth-seventh centuries, was documented by his disciple George shortly after Theodore's demise.[1] The narrative includes two intriguing episodes of exorcism involving rodents and maritime culture. To analyse these episodes, we can briefly turn our attention to two shipwrecks to contextualize the relationship between rodents and ships....

by Zeynep Olgun, The life of Theodore of Sykeon, an ascetic who lived in the Eastern Mediterranean around sixth-seventh centuries, was documented by his disciple George shortly afte…

16/12/2023

Tourists to Zagreb might be tempted by its medieval Old Town or its Gothic Cathedral. They might come for its award-winning Christmas market, or, in the summer, for re-enactments of medieval conflicts put on by the Order of The Silver Dragon. Round the corner from the players, an increasing number have headed on to the Museum of Broken Relationships. What started as a joke when Olinka Vištica, a film producer, and Dražen Grubišić, a sculptor ended a four-year relationship, metamorphized into a travelling – and now permanent – exhibition in the Upper Town of Zagreb....

Tourists to Zagreb might be tempted by its medieval Old Town or its Gothic Cathedral. They might come for its award-winning Christmas market, or, in the summer, for re-enactments of medieval confli…

15/12/2023

by Sophia Feist Cover Image & Fig. 1 - Jan van Eyck, The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele, oil on wood, 141 x 176.5 cm, Groeningemuseum, Bruges (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) - Detail of Jan van Eyck, The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele (Photo: author’s own) One of my favorite paintings is Jan van Eyck’s…...

by Sophia Feist Cover Image & Fig. 1 – Jan van Eyck, The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele, oil on wood, 141 x 176.5 cm, Groeningemuseum, Bruges (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) [Fig. 2…

14/12/2023

By Tiéphaine Thomason, It should come as no surprise that, in a society of highly variable literacy, satire was often oral. Such was the world of the Parisian street in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This satire was often set to popular tunes to be sung, as well as recited, and stuck up on posters that would have been read aloud by passers-by for their less literate peers....

By Tiéphaine Thomason, It should come as no surprise that, in a society of highly variable literacy, satire was often oral. Such was the world of the Parisian street in the seventeenth a…

13/12/2023

By Molly Groarke This 1784 painting by Robert Pollard depicts a scene from the American War of Independence, shortly after the Battles of Saratoga in 1777. The British forces had been defeated and one of their officers, Colonel John D**e Acland, had been wounded and captured. In the painting, his wife Lady Harriet Acland, who had accompanied her husband to the Americas, holds out a piece of paper bearing a request from General Burgoyne (of the British forces) to General Gates (of the American forces) for Harriet’s safe passage to tend to her husband....

By Molly Groarke This 1784 painting by Robert Pollard depicts a scene from the American War of Independence, shortly after the Battles of Saratoga in 1777. The British forces had been defeated and …

12/12/2023

By Zoë Jackson () The Monument to The Great Fire of London by Sutton Nicholls, circa 1753. Wikimedia Commons If you have ever disembarked off the London Tube at Monument, you have probably walked past the memorial from which the station gets its name. This 202-foot (61 metres) high column was built to memorialise the 1666 Great Fire of London, which destroyed thousands of houses and numerous churches in central London....

By Zoë Jackson () The Monument to The Great Fire of London by Sutton Nicholls, circa 1753. Wikimedia Commons If you have ever disembarked off the London Tube at Monument, you have prob…