On History
News, articles & research from the
Institute of Historical Research
Latest posts
Reviews in History – Mini reviews
The IHR's online book review journal, Reviews in History, would love you to send us a short review on a recent History book, article, chapter, film, exhibit, event, podcast, seminar, etc. that’s really impressed you. How to take part … Once you’ve chosen a piece to...
Call for Section Editor: Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH)
The Bibliography of British and Irish History seeks to appoint one new Section Editor with research and/or teaching expertise in the following area: Ireland since 1800 Section Editors play a vital role in the Bibliography’s editorial process. They provide specialist...
Reporting back from the 2024 ‘Place-Based Histories: interdisciplinary ECR workshop’
In this blog post Ruth Slatter (IHR) and Kathy Davies (History Lab Plus) reflect on the IHR, Centre for the History of People, Place and Community, and History Lab Plus Place-Based Histories: interdisciplinary ECR workshop held in Sheffield on 5 September 2024. On 5...
Spotlight
Women’s Suffrage at Home and Away
By Sara Charles Although the history of the women’s suffrage movement (and particularly the Suffragettes) often focusses on London, there was huge amount of activity throughout the U.K. and further afield in the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth...
Features & Articles
Colonialism’s climatic legacies
In the tenth article in our ‘Environment and History’ series, Dr Harriet Mercer discusses how histories of knowledge production help us understand whose voices are more privileged in the discussion of climate change, and why. Drawing on research on late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Australia, Harriet highlights the value of indigenous knowledge. Here she urges us to appreciate the value of that knowledge, not only for histories of the environment or climate, but for solving our current environmental crises.
Deltas after rice: agrarian pasts, environmental futures
The ninth contribution to our ‘Environment & History’ series is by Dr Aditya Ramesh of Manchester University. The article takes us back to waterways, this time in southern India. Reflecting on the historiographical positioning of the Cauvery delta, and new digital projects to map how it has changed over the long-term, Aditya Ramesh points us to the importance of understanding the wider socio-political landscapes created by the actual landscape.
The nectar of the forest: drinking water as an ecosystem service in early modern Augsburg and in Europe today
In the eighth contribution to our ‘Environment & History’ series, post-graduate researcher Davide Martino reflects on his research into hydraulic philosophy in early modern European cities, with a focus on the water supply of early Augsburg. Davide points to how, historically, awareness of the services provided by an ecosystem could result in unintentional eco-schemes, in a process not dissimilar to those which the EU is seeking to create today. The findings suggest paying closer attention to how historical and present-day communities’ understand and utilize the benefits of local ecosystems.
Environment, emotions, and experience: child migration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
By Claudia Soares Environment & History, essay no. 7 The next contributor to our ‘Environment & History’ series, Dr Claudia Soares, considers how histories of the environment, emotions, and welfare intersect, through the written experiences of poor and...
Publications News
New from the Victoria County History: Launching Tamworth
The Victoria County History (VCH) is well known for its detailed studies of individual localities, which assemble (in the words of one recent reviewer) 'countless tiny parts to build a much larger whole'. The 'Big Red Books' describing the histories of places large...
New from the Victoria County History of Oxfordshire: The South Oxfordshire Chilterns: Caversham, Goring, and Area
The Victoria County History (VCH) is well known for its detailed studies of individual localities, which assemble (in the words of one recent reviewer) 'countless tiny parts to build a much larger whole'. This latest volume in the VCH Oxfordshire series turns the...
Public History in Action: VCH Wiltshire and the Bremhill Parish History Project
John Chandler Between Chippenham and Calne, not quite the Marlborough Downs, not quite the flat Wiltshire claylands, lies Bremhill, a large parish of scattered hamlets and farms, connected by a network of minor lanes. It has its quirks – a kind of Nelson’s column...
The Evil May Day riot of 1517 and the European Union elections of 2014: Writing about the history of anti-immigrant politics
Brodie Waddell’s latest article The Evil May Day riot of 1517 and the popular politics of anti-immigrant hostility in early modern London is published in the latest issue of Historical Research. Here Brodie explains the development of that research. In the Spring of...
Research & Resources News
Meet Dr Giacomo Savani, new BBIH section editor for Roman Britain
In this blog post, we meet Dr Giacomo Savani, an expert in Roman baths and ancient senses, recently appointed as the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) section editor for Roman Britain. My name is Dr Giacomo Savani, and I’m the new editor for the...
BBIH February 2023 update
What’s new in BBIH? The February 2023 update to the Bibliography of British and Irish History adds 3145 new publications. The new update includes books, journal articles, book chapters and edited collections covering all areas of British and Irish history, from 55...
Meet Dr Tristan Griffin, new BBIH section editor for Empire and Commonwealth to 1783
In this blog post we meet Tristan Griffin, recently appointed as the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) section editor for Empire and Commonwealth, prior to 1783. My name is Tristan Griffin, in 2021 I graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of...
Meet Dr Ben Guy, new BBIH section editor for Medieval Wales
In this blog post, Dr Ben Guy reflects on his recent appointment as the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH) section editor for medieval Wales, drawing attention to the importance of the BBIH for providing coherence to the historical subject of ‘Medieval...