From its beginnings in the 1967, the History Workshop movement advocated ‘history from below’: history envisioned from the perspective of ordinary people rather than elites. It sought to move the study of the past beyond the academy into public gatherings – “workshops” – that were open to anyone.
Established in 2010, History Workshop is a digital magazine of radical history. It seeks to deepen understandings of the past, cast fresh light on the present and agitate for change in the world we live in now. We continue the democratising spirit of the History Workshop movement, and expand the ongoing work of History Workshop Journal.
Today, History Workshop provides a space where historians and historically-minded people can engage – passionately, professionally and personally – with the histories that shape our lives today. We believe that the production and communication of history can be a radically democratic activity, taking place across and beyond the boundaries of the academy.
We publish work which brings cutting-edge approaches to history into dialogue with pressing questions in the present. We provide a platform for academics, activists, archivists and other practitioners to communicate creatively via short articles, podcasts and social media. We promote the participation of grassroots organisations, community groups, family historians and the public at large in these conversations.
History Workshop is a politically pluralistic platform which publishes a wide spectrum of progressive radical opinion. We are committed to work that is radical, relevant, rigorous and accessible. You can read our submission guidelines here.
Our Partners
History Workshop Journal
Published by Oxford University Press, History Workshop Journal (HWJ) is one of the world’s leading journals of radical history, featuring peer-reviewed articles and papers. It is committed to innovative scholarship, accessible writing and lively engagement with the politics of historical knowledge.
In 2010, the editorial collective of HWJ founded History Workshop, as a digital magazine which would expand and enrich the journal’s academic work and continue the spirit of the History Workshop movement in a digital era. While closely linked – in personnel and in spirit – HWJ and History Workshop are separate publications, each with their own editorial processes.
History Workshop is funded and published by History Workshop Journal (Registered Charity 1081686), whose mission is to “advance the education of the public in history and related subjects in particular by promoting research and disseminating the useful results of such research”.
Raphael Samuel History Centre
Today, the in-person “workshop” element of History Workshop can be found at the Raphael Samuel History Centre – named after Raphael Samuel, a founder of the History Workshop movement. The Centre’s events and projects are ‘dedicated to exploring public, interdisciplinary and experimental history’.
The Raphael Samuel History Centre is supported by History Workshop Journal, as well as Birkbeck and Queen Mary, University of London.
Our Team
[On leave 2025-26] Elly Robson Dezateux (she/her) is the Managing Editor of History Workshop. She is a historian of early modern Britain and its Atlantic world and a postdoctoral research fellow at Christ Church, University of Oxford, where she is leading a project on institutional legacies of colonialism. Her research examines the environmental politics generated by ambitious projects of agricultural improvement and colonial plantation, investigating wetlands, woodlands, and islands as sites of reform and conflict. Her monograph, titled Violent Waters: Environmental Politics in Early Modern England, is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press in 2025.
Marral Shamshiri (she/they) is the Managing Editor of History Workshop (2025-26). She is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Exeter and a PhD candidate in history at the London School of Economics. Her work explores the transnational history and politics of anti-imperial and socialist movements in and beyond the Middle East in the mid-to-late twentieth century, focusing on the shared visions, alliances and experiences of Iranian and Arab people across borders. She is co-editor of the book She Who Struggles (Pluto Press, 2023).
Marybeth Hamilton (she/her) is the Coordinating Editor of History Workshop. She is the author of two works of cultural history, In Search of the Blues and When I’m Bad I’m Better: Mae West, Sex, and American Entertainment, has written and presented several documentary features for BBC Radio, and is a longtime member of the editorial collective of History Workshop Journal. She is currently working on a project on radical feminism, sex, love, and rage. She is an Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London and a Fellow of the Raphael Samuel History Centre.
Beckie Rutherford (she/her) is an Editorial Fellow at History Workshop and an Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck. She is a historian of gender, sexuality and disability in modern Britain with a particular interest in the politicisation of disability from 1970 to the present day. Beckie completed her PhD at the University of Warwick in 2023 and was a Doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research 2022-23. She is now a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Worcester, working on the history of disabled motherhood.
Leila Sellers (she/her) is an Editorial Fellow at History Workshop and a Wellcome funded PhD candidate at Northeastern, London. Her research explores the everyday lives and experiences of trans women through a history of the Beaumont Society – a UK trans support group.
Sophie Turbutt (she/her) is an Editorial Fellow at History Workshop and a LAHRI Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow at the University of Leeds. She is a historian of the anarchist movement in Spain, with a particular interest in emotions, gender, and intimacy. Her PhD thesis examined how comradeship was constructed amongst Spanish anarchists during the interwar period, and she is now working on a new research project which entwines themes of love and ageing over a hundred years of anarchist history.
Alex White (he/him) is an Editorial Fellow at History Workshop. He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge, where he researched anticolonial radio broadcasts and their reception in British East Africa. Now based in Kampala, he works as a public history writer focused on information politics, the everyday labour of radical activism, and the global struggle against colonial rule. He also coordinates social media for the International Press Association of Uganda.
Advisory Board
History Workshop is supported by an Advisory Board, comprised of current History Workshop Journal editors and former History Workshop editors.
The members of the Advisory Board are: Julia Laite (chair), Barbara Taylor, Becky Taylor, Hannah Elias, Justin Bengry, Mark Pendleton, Poppy Sebag Montefiore, Sadiah Qureshi and Yasmin Khan.
Our History
1967: History Workshop movement
‘History is too important to be left just to professional historians.’
Raphael Samuel
History Workshop was a popular movement for the democratisation of history which flourished in Britain from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s. Through lively, participant-led “workshops”, it aimed to turn historical research and writing into (as founder Raphael Samuel put it) ‘a collaborative enterprise’ that could be used to support activism and social justice, and inform politics.
1976: History Workshop Journal
‘Our journal will be dedicated to making history a more democratic activity – and a more urgent concern – by reaffirming the unity of teaching and scholarship, learning and life.’
Manifesto, 1975
History Workshop Journal (HWJ) was established by History Workshop activists in 1976, explicitly subtitled a journal of “socialist” and later also “feminist” history. Its first editorial called for the democratisation of history, its deprofessionalisation and politicisation, taking aim at the ‘competitive individualism’ of the academy. HWJ has since grown to become one of the most prestigious academic history journals in the world, while maintaining a deep commitment to radical history.
2010: History Workshop Online
Reflecting in 2010 that the pages of the Journal had become ‘more staid and indeed more academic’, its editors announced a new project: History Workshop Online (now known as History Workshop). By taking advantage of digital methods, networks and forms of participation, History Workshop’s digital magazine would ‘reach more effectively beyond the academy’ and ‘expand our range of expression’.
Today, History Workshop is at the forefront of radical public history, working across and beyond academic boundaries, communicating creatively in visual and audio formats, and offering historical insights into the world today.
Find out more about the history of History Workshop.
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