12 February 2015
Can a single book change the world? In 1859, Charles Darwin’s On The Origin of the Species became an instant bestseller – and swiftly took its place as the lightning rod for controversy it has been ever since….
Read more11 February 2015
On 4th of July 1776 the Declaration of Independence, a document drafted by Thomas Jefferson and other ‘framers,’ declared that the 13 former British colonies now formed the first independent nation of the Western world. Alongside the Constitution,…
Read more10 February 2015
Oh dear; dates are funny things aren’t they – as this series has already demonstrated. Just when you think that you have hit on a genuine ‘game-changer’ then you are forced to think again. And so it is…
Read more9 February 2015
1688 is not the most visible of British constitutional landmarks. Especially in this 800th anniversary year, 1215 often gets more love, and Magna Carta is more often enthused about by politicians and historians alike than the Glorious Revolution….
Read more8 February 2015
In 1517, the Augustinian monk Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral. At least, that’s the story: in truth, this is probably a legend put around after the event, and the list of…
Read more6 February 2015
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. So goes the rhyme that many schoolchildren still learn in order to remember the date which has come to be thought of as the moment Europe ‘discovered’ North America. In truth, this is…
Read more5 February 2015
This month is looking like quite a busy one (in a good way!) for students and staff in History. We have a range of events, papers and seminars taking place over the next few weeks, all of which…
Read more2 February 2015
A massive fire that broke out on Friday evening has destroyed the building housing one of Moscow’s major research libraries and unique collections of social science and humanities documentation. It has been reported that an electrical fault caused…
Read more30 January 2015
Doing history is often a process of digging beneath the surface, of uncovering stories, people and events that have been hidden from view to give a better understanding of the past. It also often involves challenging simplistic interpretations…
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