On Monday 14th August, Paul Oliver – the world’s most prolific writer and most respected blues scholar – passed away in Oxfordshire at the age of 90. Scores of blues historians, researchers, enthusiasts and musicians are paying tribute […]
The web is bursting with tributes and obituaries to Chuck Berry, the songwriter and guitarist who died on Friday at the age of 90. And this is understandably so. Berry’s famous repertoire which includes songs like ‘Johnny B […]
On the face of it this year’s Cheltenham Literature Festival does not offer a great deal of interest to the student of history. Yes, there are sessions on Rethinking the Somme, the Great War, Cheltenham in the Great […]
Having just been to see Race, the (rather boring, I have to say) bio-pic about the great African American athlete, Jesse Owens, I found myself thinking about people like Owens, and Joe Louis, and contrasting them with Muhammad […]
This Friday will witness the funeral of Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer in history and a figure whose importance transcended sport. Hundreds will attend his funeral and many thousands more around the world will mourn his passing because […]
Last Saturday, while on my four month stay in the USA, I took the opportunity to visit the nearby International Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina. This museum is in the Woolworth building, which holds a special […]
This weekend I leave for Elon in North Carolina, where I will be spending four months teaching and researching as part of the Fulbright-Elon Scholar Award 2015-16. I was delighted to receive this award as I would have […]
Thank you and well done to all of the Level 6 students who presented their posters at History Dissertation Day on 14 January at the Wilson Art Gallery and Museum in Cheltenham. You’ve made us all proud! Thanks […]
How often is “Happy Birthday”, the song by Stevie Wonder, played to celebrate people’s birthdays? It features quite a lot on Radio 2 … but how many people realise the song was written by Wonder in 1981 as […]
Students took part in the first ever History Dissertation Day at The Wilson Gallery in Cheltenham. January can be a very stressful time for third-year students approaching the final few months of their undergraduate studies. Weighing heavy on […]