The morality of state intervention in sexually-transmitted disease
Is it appropriate for governments to restrict personal liberty in an effort to control disease? This issue has come very much to the fore in the wake of the current worldwide Coronavirus epidemic. In this post, Darcy Mckinlay, a second year history student, writes about nineteenth-century arguments against forcible methods of controlling venereal diseases. During […]
How I learned to stop worrying and chose my dissertation topic
Third year student Sophie McKee gives some frank and timely advice about the process of choosing a dissertation topic. I’m not bitter that she rejected my topic, really – ed. When Rob James asked me to write a blog post about writing about dissertations we both enjoyed a wee chuckle. For I, after going back […]
The ‘Whitechapel Horrors’ – Victorian newspapers report Jack the Ripper as gothic fiction
The ‘Jack the Ripper’ murders in East London in the late Victorian period have become infamous. In this piece, first year UoP history student Seamus McLoughlin looks at how an article in a Victorian newspaper was of its time in choosing to ignore known facts about the case, or any compassion towards the victims, in […]
The Fitzroy Report, 1904: How the poor physical condition of Boer War army recruits prompted social change
Following the end of the second Boer War in 1902, the government appointed an Inter-Departmental Committee to investigate why so many would-be recruits had been in poor physical condition. The Committee, chaired by civil servant Almeric FitzRoy, has become known as the Fitzroy Report. Second-year UoP history student Ben Hessey discusses the report, what it […]
The Forty Elephants – a forgotten female gang of South London
Last year Emily Burgess produced an outstanding dissertation on the all-female working-class gang from South London known as the Forty elephants. Here she writes about how she came up with the idea and carried out the research, with Rob James as supervisor. Emily concludes with some useful advice for all our students currently writing proposals […]
Jewish persecution in Russia and its influence on Jewish immigration to London
The history team are excited to learn that recent UoP history graduate Emily Burgess has set up her own consultancy, Midas Tomes, for historical research and writing. Emily produced an outstanding dissertation on the female South London gang known as the Forty Elephants so it is great to see her prosper! Checkout this blog post […]
History Film Club – having a conversation about history and film
Our level 5 students have taken over running the UoP history film club, which launched in January. Below Emily, Kieran, Harry and Ben tell you about their exciting plans. Hi there – hopefully if you’re reading this blog piece you are interested in our student-run History Film Club (and for good reason)! Four of us […]
Not so merry England: a Swiss visitor comments on Elizabethan criminal justice
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 […]