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Not so merry England: a Swiss visitor comments on Elizabethan criminal justice

By on March 25, 2021 in Learning in Focus

English people tend to think highly of our long-established legal system.  But as second-year student Liam Fisher explains, visitors from Europe didn’t always see things the same way.  Liam’s blog is based on work he did for the second-year module: Underworlds: Crime Deviance and Punishment: 1500-1900, taught by Fiona McCall and Brad Beaven. The English justice system during the early-modern period was iconic both socially and politically, ingrained into English culture and minds as something to be proud of. While the wider European population were no strangers to barbaric forms of punishment, the extent of English glorification and creativity of punishment would no doubt come as a shock to outsiders.  […]

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Martin Guerre: a student podcast on Natalie Davis’s famous microhistory

By on March 12, 2021 in Learning in Focus

Seminar tutor Dr Katy Gibbons explains: Mandy and Beth’s podcast came out of the level 5 core module, Dealing with Debates. One strand of this module explores Natalie Davis’ book, The Return of Martin Guerre, and the questions and possibilities it raises for historical scholarship. We had some fantastic discussions online, including: how historians analyse and make use of primary evidence, the role of imagination in historical writing, and how the tale of a 16th century peasant who pretended to be someone else can help us reflect on what it is that historians do! Mandy and Beth’s podcast did a brilliant job of exploring some of these issues, weaving them […]

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“There are no revolutions in well-governed countries” – British film and the Russian Revolution

By on February 1, 2021 in Learning in Focus, Research in Focus

In this blog, Rob James explores how the events of the 1917 Russian Revolution impacted British film production in the mid-twentieth century. Rob tells us that the chance of a film being made depicting those tumultuous events depended on how they were presented. If the film demonstrated any sympathy towards the revolutionaries, then a ban was inevitable. Rob’s research covers society’s leisure activities and how they were shaped and controlled from both within and outside the entertainment industry. His research feeds into a number of optional and specialist modules that he teaches in the second and third year. In the 1934 film Princess Charming, produced by Michael Balcon, one of […]

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Winston Churchill’s thoughts on women’s work

By on December 7, 2020 in Learning in Focus

In this blog, written last year for the second-year Introduction to Historical Research module, second-year UoP student Jaina Hunt wrote about how minutes of government discussions reveal changing attitudes to women’s war work. During the twentieth century, minutes were created and absorbed by the system of government, making them an important part of the political machinery of Britain.[1] The minutes of the Prime Minister Winston Churchill to his secretary of state for war show the importance of women’s war effort in changing attitudes towards women. Churchill placed great emphasis on the “immense importance of having a large number of women” in crucial wartime roles, such as positions in batteries and […]

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Coping with your second year of history studies – time management is the key

By on October 5, 2020 in Learning in Focus

Charlotte Lewis chose the History with Politics pathway in her second year of studies at Portsmouth.  She found the second year to be a ‘step-up’ from the first year, and gives three suggestions for ways to meet the challenge. This time last year I began my second-year studies in History with Politics at the University of Portsmouth. I remember very clearly the intense anticipation of increased workloads and importance of essay submissions as they now counted towards your final grade. So I write this blog with the intention of allaying the fears and worries some new second year students may have by recounting my experience and offering a few tips […]

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Enjoy your adventures in history at Portsmouth – don’t let coronavirus put you off

By on October 5, 2020 in Learning in Focus, Uncategorized

Emily Winslade, one of last year’s first-year students, advises this year’s history freshers not to let Coronavirus put them off enjoying their studies and broadening their horizons. Firstly, welcome to the University of Portsmouth! University is perhaps one of the most incredible adventures you will undertake as an adult. To begin with, it can seem a bit daunting which is quite understandable bearing in mind this is a brand new environment. In spite of this, once you are able to get settled, it is a fantastic opportunity to grow as a person and broaden your horizons. You are perhaps tired of hearing about Coronavirus at this point, so I will […]

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