In this blog, recent BA (Hons) History with Politics graduate Phil Matthews reflects on the impact immigration has had on British culture in the post-Second World War era. Phil, who wrote the blog as part of his assessment for the second year module ‘Working with the Past’, coordinated by Dr Mike Esbester, describes how many […]
Tag Archives | imperialism
Empire and its Afterlives 3: Using primary sources to avoid simplistic narratives of history
This is the third post in the Empire and its afterlives series. The introduction can be found here and the second installment here. Several students mentioned current debates around #RhodesMustFall in South Africa and the UK and the idea of decolonising the curriculum, in order to reflect on what that might mean for the teaching […]
Empire and its afterlives 2: How do you teach history with primary sources?
This is the second post in the Empire and its afterlives series. The introduction can be found here. Primary sources represent a wide range of materials which historians can draw on, and students made the most of this diversity. The podcast episodes included discussions of armed forces recruitment posters, political speeches and pamphlets, as well […]
Empire and its Afterlives 1: Applying the skills of the historian to the present
This is the first post in a series of four showcasing the work of second year students from across the University of Portsmouth Faculty of Social Sciences Click this link to see a video of George the Poet on the Benin Bronzes Empire and its Afterlives is a module available for second year students across […]
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 […]
La Marseillaise: has the song that unified the French republic become too divisive?
David Andress, Professor in Modern History at Portsmouth, has recently published an article in The Conversation on the recent controversies surrounding the French national anthem, La Marseillaise. Dave is a historian of the French Revolution, and of the social and cultural history of conflicts in Europe and the Atlantic world more generally in the period between the […]