All articles in Society & Culture
10th January, 2023 in Natural World, Society & Culture
Was it witchcraft or pragmatic plant medicine?
The use of plants as food and medicine is probably as old as man himself, and originally must have been discovered independently by different communities. Such knowledge would have been handed down orally from one generation to the next and of course it was only in historically r…
27th October, 2022 in History, Society & Culture
How the President of the United State’s secret daily newspaper began
President Harry S. Truman stared at the sheet of white paper, his brown eyes magnified by the thick lenses of his glasses. It was marked TOP SECRET and beneath the dramatic capital letters were two pages of typed text arranged under six headings. The paper was the first ‘Daily Su…
22nd September, 2022 in Biography & Memoir, Society & Culture
Riotous Assembly: The Hypocrites Club
‘The stamping ground of half my Oxford life and the source of friendships still warm today.’ – Evelyn Waugh, A Little Learning, 1964 On the evening of 8 March 1924, a young nun was seen by the porters of Balliol College, Oxford, trying to pass in just as the gates were due to clo…
15th August, 2022 in History, Society & Culture
Postcards and Pitman: A fascinating glimpse into a forgotten world
Postcards and Pitman shorthand have seen their heyday but combined they form a fascinating glimpse into a forgotten world… I got to Blackpool yesterday but so far I am not very much in love with it. It is too much of a city. The weather has been shocking today, raining all…
11th April, 2022 in Local & Family History, Society & Culture
Ask the author: Mark B Roe discusses the Dublin Foundling Hospital
The Dublin Foundling Hospital is the subject of a fascinating new book The Least of These by Mark B Roe. We caught up with the author to ask him about his approach to the work. Why did you find the story of the Dublin Foundling Hospital so compelling? Firstly, its sheer scal…
26th January, 2022 in History, Society & Culture
Antisemitism
The twenty-first century bears witness to the continuing hostility that has been expressed towards the Jewish people. Why is it that Jews have been so bitterly hated? The aim of Antisemitism is to answer this question by surveying the history of antisemitism from a global perspec…
10th January, 2022 in Local & Family History, Society & Culture
Workhouse buildings – whatever happened to them all?
Historian and author Peter Higginbotham showcases the history of workhouse buildings. Read more in his latest book Workhouses of Wales and the Welsh Borders including new research on the many parish and union workhouses that operated in that area of the UK. Facilities that we wou…
22nd November, 2021 in History, Society & Culture
Christmas in the Middle Ages
It’s a common misconception that our modern view of Christmas and how to celebrate it in the UK originated only in the nineteenth century. But although Queen Victoria and Prince Albert did much to promote various seasonal customs – for which I, for one, am grateful! – many of tho…
27th October, 2021 in Entertainment, Society & Culture, Women in History
Black women in British theatre
In his latest book, author Stephen Bourne celebrates the pioneers of Black British theatre. A powerful study of theatre’s Black trailblazers and their profound influence on British culture today, Deep Are the Roots is also a personal history, and not an objective, academic one. H…
7th September, 2021 in Society & Culture
Where does Halloween come from?
Halloween is one of those annual celebrations that we just accept as part of the year, like Christmas and Easter, often without question – it is just something that happens at the end of October. However, much like Christmas and Easter, Halloween is specifically placed at a time…
26th August, 2021 in Society & Culture, Women in History
Greenham Common Peace Camp in pictures
In 1981, a group of women marched from Cardiff to Greenham Common to protest American nuclear missiles on British soil. Greenham Common Peace Camp lasted for 19 years in one of the most successful examples of collective female activism since the suffragettes. Bridget Boudewijn vi…
11th June, 2021 in History, Society & Culture
Richard II and the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381
It was the year 1381. King Richard II was now in his fourteenth year and about to be tested by the Peasants’ Revolt… The coronation of Richard II and Anne of Bohemia He ruled over a troubled country. In the east and south of England there was great unrest, incited by the g…