As the NHS strains under a ‘winter crisis’ without sufficient funding, Anne Summers looks at the limits of private provision of healthcare in 1800 and 2018.
Historians’ Watch
Grenfell Fire and the Politics of Public Inquiries
As the Grenfell Tower inquiry begins its hearing amidst criticisms about the process from survivors and families, Simon Peplow reflects on the politics of participation in public inquiries since the 1980s.
Democracy and Disaster: Pakistan in Bangladesh (1970) and Trump in Puerto Rico (2017)
Naomi Hossain compares President Trump’s handling of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017 to the Pakistani government’s response to the 1970 Bhola Cyclone in Bangladesh, to examine the implications of disaster for legitimacy, imperial power and democracy.
Navigating the Catalan Crisis: Independence in Context
As the Catalan question becomes one of the most salient contemporary issues in Europe, Andrew Dowling argues that the call for independence is remarkably new, but can only be understood in the context of centuries of dispute between Catalonia and Spain
The Heritage Justification: Public Monuments and Uses of History in Charlottesville and Oxford
As statues spark controversy, Laura Leonard critically examines how white supremacists in Charlottesville, as well as critics of the ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ campaign, have invoked heritage as a legitimising language.
Working class bodies in English garden cities
As the UK government announces plans for a dozen new “garden cities”, Sam Clevenger argues that, from their inception, garden cities were middle class attempts to civilize the bodies and health of the urban working class.
Thinking about denial: its impact on the climate, our politics and the writing of history
Catherine Hall and Daniel Pick reflect on the power of denial, the danger of myopia, and the ways denial holds people together, shaping collective and national memories.
Grenfell Tower: identifying the living and the dead
Edward Higgs discusses the problem of identifying the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire, and the ways immigrants and citizens are made known to the state.
Jennings’ Buildings and Grenfell Tower: Housing the Poor in Kensington, Then and Now
Jennifer Davis finds historical precedent for the tragedy at Grenfell Tower in Victorian era Kensington’s Jennings’ Buildings.
Brexit in Context: Reflections on the History of Referenda
Gareth Stedman Jones reflects on the history of referenda, and the ways they can be used to bring about unconstitutional or unscrupulous changes in government.
