27 April 2023
Emeritus Professor of 20th c. US History Neil Wynn pays tribute after the singer and activist’s death this week. “There’s a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza, there’s a hole in my bucket …” So began…
6 September 2022
Welcome new and welcome back returning students! We are looking forward to kicking off the new academic year with you all. There is lots going on already via City Voices at the Gloucester History Festival with our student…
28 June 2022
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson on Friday 24th June over-turning Roe v. Wade (1973) ended women’s constitutional right to abortion, and added yet further evidence of America’s lurch to the right. Thirteen states immediately…
2 June 2020
For American historians, and particularly those who focus on African American history and civil rights, the feelings felt in the last six days are a mixture of sorrow, anger, .. and also déjà vu. How often in the…
1 July 2019
On Tuesday 25th June I attended the 24th Annual DW Bryant Lecture at the Eccles Centre for American Studies in the British Library. This year’s speaker was Lonnie G Bunch III, the director of the Smithsonian’s new National…
23 January 2019
This post comes from Dr Catherine Bateson, a lecturer and tutor of US history, specializing in 19th century American history, Civil War history, and Irish American musical culture. She is the Vice Chair of the Scottish Association for the…
15 May 2018
By Neil A. Wynn Several things got me interested in U.S. history when I was a teenager – rock n’roll, blues, civil rights, John F. Kennedy (hard to believe now!), and the war in Vietnam. By the time…
25 August 2017
For as long as humanity has engaged in the process of erecting monuments in commemoration of individuals, events and occasions, there have been others intent on tearing them down. In the United States, the waves of hostility currently…
18 August 2017
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…
6 April 2017
One hundred years ago today, on April 6th 1917, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve Woodrow Wilson’s call for a declaration of war against Germany to “make the world safe for democracy”. Although the United States…