Smallpox was the first contagious disease for which a vaccine was invented. As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, Sanne Muurling, Tim Riswick and Katalin Buzasi ask how social inequalities shaped the last smallpox epidemic in Amsterdam, even after the vaccine was available.
Historians’ Watch
The Cerne Abbas Hermit?
In the light of new dating evidence, Thomas Morcom uncovers an exciting new theory as to the identity of the Cerne Abbas giant in Dorset.
The past and future of live animal exports
As the government considers banning live animal exports, James Bowen unpicks the contentious history behind this practice. How have activists, farmers, and government policy converged on this economic and ethical issue since the mid-twentieth century?
Black & Asian soldiers and the ‘White Man’s War’
Following the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s apology for the non-commemoration of Black and Asian soldiers in the First World War, John Siblon explores how and why their memory was deliberately hidden by Britain.
Shared Heritage
In our series on ‘Radical History after Brexit’, Matt Stallard of the Legacies of British Slavery project reflects on the ongoing politicisation of heritage.
Racial Trauma & Structural Harm
Molly Corlett reflects on the links between her research on racial trauma in the eighteenth-century, and her work for youth justice reform in Britain today.
White Supremacy as Daily Practice
As Donald Trump is acquitted for inciting the Capitol riots, Micah Jones asks what justice looks like in a legal system that privileges whiteness. To understand the roots of the spectacular events at the Capitol, she argues, we must turn our gaze to the quotidian violence of the Jim Crow grocery store.