History@Portsmouth

University of Portsmouth's History Blog

Author Archive | Fiona McCall

John Lacy as Mr Scruple in the Cheats by John Michael Wright cropped

How people despised and feared the puritans

An article on animosity to puritans was published by history lecturer Dr Fiona McCall recently in The Conversation as part of the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Mayflower in the United States. She shows how puritans were often depicted as fools until they had a shot at government, and then the humour got darker. https://theconversation.com/mayflower-400-how-society-feared-and-ridiculed-puritans-144232   Fiona specialises in the religious and social history of seventeenth-century Britain, and is currently writing a book, Ungodly Religion in the English Parish, 1645-1660, looking at how and why English people rejected puritan religious extremism in the 1640s and 1650s.    

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

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

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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Reiss Simms

Top tips for beginning your study of history at Portsmouth

Reiss Sims, one of last year’s first-year students, offers some great tips for those beginning their study of history at the University of Portsmouth in 2020. “The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future.” – Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the U.S. Now let me start off by apologising for the classic “insert quote by famous person” approach to the start of this blog, but I do believe that Roosevelt hit the nail on the head – the study of history provides us with the understanding of the world we live in and outlines the possibilities for change, so congratulations for joining the […]

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Third-year history – don’t be daunted and have confidence you will be OK

Ben Humphreys, who graduated in history with the UoP this year, expected to find his third year of history studies hard but actually found he had acquired the skills and resilience in his previous two years of study to get through the third year smoothly.   There are a lot of assumptions that the third year of university is the hardest both in terms of quantity and quality of work.  There’s also a huge assumption that the first year is a walk in the park – just fun and games and a busy social life. To be honest, I found first year really hard; I struggled to understand what was expected […]

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The banality and brutality of war: Wilfred Owen’s letter to his mother, Susan Owen, February 1917

In the second in our series on First World War sources, second-year UoP student Charlotte Lewis discusses what can be learned from a letter by famed WWI poet Wilfred Owen to his mother Susan. Whilst Wilfred Owen’s poetry is well known for describing the horrors of the First World War, his letters to his mother, Susan Owen, give the reader an insight into Owen’s personal experiences and reactions hiding behind his poetry. In light of this, this blog will focus on a letter written by Owen in February 1917 to his mother.[1] Through the analysis of this letter, this blog will try to convey not only its significant use in […]

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