Should Friedrich Engels be reappraised as a radical historian for our times? To mark #Engels200, the bicentenary of Engels’ birth, Christian Høgsbjerg assesses the revolution in historiography that he helped to foment.
Historians’ Watch
Honouring Trans Lives, Historicising Trans Death
November 20th marks Trans Day of Remembrance, an annual day of mourning for trans lives stolen by violence in the past 12 months. While many remembrance ceremonies are now moving from community centres to online platforms, the central purpose remains the same: to acknowledge and reckon with high rates of trans murder worldwide that are otherwise obscured from public view.
Of, or For Mary Wollstonecraft?
Is Maggi Hambling’s ‘A Sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft’ attuned to the intellectual accomplishments of the woman it was created for, or to the particular struggles of women in the present? Vic Clarke investigates.
Henry Dundas: Naming Empire and Genocide
How do we name empire and genocide, the structural violence embedded in our built environments, and why does it matter? Melanie J. Newton unpicks the contested legacy of Henry Dundas, eighteenth-century imperialist & “Uncrowned King of Scotland”
Amy Coney Barrett, Enoch Powell and IVF politics
When it comes to IVF politics, have the British been too quick to paint Americans as occupying the anti-scientific fringe? Laura Beers responds after the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the US Supreme Court.
The Fifth Pan-African Congress, 1945: A Landmark Moment in British Radical History
In October 1945, delegates from across the world gathered in Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall, half a mile south of St Peter’s Field, to take part in the Fifth Pan-African Congress.
Sex Work and Police Violence in the Archives
How should historians respond to acts of violence in the official archive? Catherine Phipps considers the life of Samia, an Algerian-French teenager, arguing that the epistemic attacks she faced highlight the urgency of historical work which takes account of police violence against sex workers.
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