History@Portsmouth

University of Portsmouth's History Blog

Tag Archives | leisure

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Bridging the gap between the academic and non-academic worlds III: Sharing local histories

By on February 20, 2023 in Alumni, Employability, Learning in Focus, Public History, Research in Focus, Uncategorized

In this blog Josh Wintle, who graduated with a History degree from Portsmouth last year (well done, Josh!), discusses a project he worked on in his second year with some of his fellow History students for the module ‘Working with the Past’, coordinated by Dr Mike Esbester. As part of their project, the students looked into how academic historians take their work ‘out of the academy’ and into the public realm. Josh and his fellow students interviewed our Dr Rob James, who researches leisure history, to find out how he has tried to engage the wider public in the history he researches. The aim of the interviews we conducted with […]

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Pompey History Society project exhibition 1

Pompey: Champions of England: A research collaboration between the History team, students and Pompey History Society

By on November 22, 2022 in Employability, Events, Learning in Focus, New Publications, Public History, Research in Focus, Uncategorized

In this blog, our Rob James, Senior Lecturer in History, discusses the local history project he worked on with one of our local community partners, Pompey History Society, that culminated in the publication of a book which includes a chapter written by Rob and four of our History students, Sam Ewart, Maria Kopanska, Dan Ward and Jack Woolley. Rob’s research explores society’s leisure activities and feeds into a number of optional and specialist modules that he teaches in the second and third year.   On 26 October 2022, I attended the launch of the book POMPEY Champions of England: The sporting and social history of Portsmouth FC’s league title wins […]

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UoP’s History Society welcomes new faces

By on September 23, 2022 in Events, News, Uncategorized

In the following short blog, third year UoP history student Pauline Standley encourages new students to join our student history society. The recently-formed history society NEED YOU to come and be part of a group who love history! We are a casual, student-led group currently run by third-year History students. As a society, we want to encourage discussion on anything historical, whether it be what we’ve been taught in lectures, a Henry VIII podcast which randomly came up on your Spotify recommendations, the most recent Russell Crowe historical movie, even down to hilarious history memes you’ve scoped out! Throughout the year, we are here to help whether it be a […]

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Urban football as a nineteenth-century blood sport

By on May 21, 2021 in Learning in Focus

Second-year UoP student Mandy Wrenn discusses a 1846 engraving showing a large group of men playing football in the centre of the town of Kingston in Surrey, and the contemporary concerns over the control of urban spaces and popular leisure activities it reflects. This piece was originally written for the Fear and Fun module, taught by Dr Rob James and Dr Karl Bell. The primary source is set in 1846, at a time of continued transition in Victorian Britain from the past to modernity. The depiction of the game, with a large crowd of men playing a game of football in the centre of a town, will have been received […]

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Poster from the Alexander Korda filk Knight without Armour

“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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Have yourself a (not quite so) very merry Christmas film

By on December 11, 2020 in Research in Focus

In this blog, UoP Senior Lecturer Rob James reflects on the changing popularity of the, now well-regarded, festive classic It’s a Wonderful Life. Rob tells us that the film’s success was not predetermined, and that it took a mixture of chance and luck, along with a well-told story of course, for the film to achieve its status as a seasonal favourite. Rob’s research covers society’s leisure activities and this feeds into a number of optional and specialist modules he teaches in the second and third year. In a recent poll featured in The Independent newspaper of the ‘Best Christmas Movies’, the 1946 Hollywood-produced film It’s a Wonderful Life came in […]

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