Histories of the Present Archives

The Political Environment

Elly Robson 15 November 202129 October 2022

As the global ecological crisis deepens and spreads through virus, fire and flood, Elly Robson introduces a new HWO series on The Political Environment. How have politics shaped the way we identify ecological problems and solutions, and how…

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Researcher Wellbeing and What We Can Learn from Mental Health Professionals

Jessica Hammett & Claire Nunan 1 November 202120 January 2023

The authors of new Researcher Wellbeing Guidelines examine barriers faced by history researchers, ways to mitigate risks, and the value of collaborating with mental health professionals

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Radical Object: Potato Planter at Frating Hall Farm

Ken Worpole 20 October 202120 January 2023

How did Russian anarchism, Teesside socialism and Jewish phenomenology find a home in rural Essex? Ken Worpole delves into the fragile archive of an influential pacifist settlement at Frating Hall farm.

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Taking Photos of the First Women’s Liberation Conference

Chandan Fraser 13 October 202125 February 2025

What was it like to take photos at Britain's first Women's Liberation conference? Chandan Fraser shares her memories and pictures with us.

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Electric Light

Samson Lim 6 October 202120 January 2023

Why are displays of electric light an effective way to challenge inequality? Samson Lim explores the history of electrification in Thailand, and the way in which infrastructure itself became a site for both elite expressions of power and…

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Radical Object: The Medieval Face Mask

Sadegh Attari 14 September 202129 October 2022

What can the medieval face mask tell us about the role that medical face coverings play, not only in prevention of illness, but also as a signifier of identities and anxieties? Sadegh Attari explores how medical, cultural, and religious…

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Remembering the New Cross Massacre

Aaron Andrews 1 September 202129 October 2022

In the early morning on Sunday 18 January 1981, a fire broke out at 439 New Cross Road in the London Borough of Lewisham. The fire was almost certainly the result of a deliberate racist attack. Thirteen young Black Britons lost their lives…

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Falling in Love with the Past

Agnes Arnold-Forster 25 August 20215 November 2022

In the early years of the National Health Service, the medical romance novels published by Mills & Boon became a unlikely voice for progressive change in the provision of health care and the professional advancement of women. Agnes…

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Radical Object: Campaign for Women’s Ordination Badges

Grace Heaton 16 August 202120 January 2023

The campaign for women’s ordination dominated discussions about the Church of England’s gender politics during the twentieth century. Grace Heaton examines the badges produced by campaigners and untangles some of the powerful emotions…

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Refugee Tales: Now and Then

Margaret Reynolds 11 August 202120 January 2023

What might be the links - real and metaphorical - between Anne Frank's story of exile and persecution and the work of C.S Lewis? Margaret Reynolds explores.

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Radical Objects: ‘These are not ordinary women’

Urvi Khaitan 9 August 202129 October 2022

Urvi Khaitan explores how US Air Force photos reveal the hidden history of female labour in World War II India.

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Losing Minds

Philippa Carter 4 August 202129 October 2022

To what extent can today's diagnoses of postpartum psychosis illuminate past women's experiences of childbirth and "madness"? Philippa Carter explores that question in this companion piece to her article in History Workshop Journal 91.

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Children on Strike

Alice Haworth-Booth 26 July 202112 January 2023

What part do children occupy in protest movements? Alice Haworth-Booth locates the story of school strikes and children’s activism within a broader history of political change.

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Radical Object: Half Moon Gallery Comments Book

Ruby Rees-Sheridan 19 July 20215 November 2022

What can a gallery comments book tell us about the role radical photography can play in social change? Ruby Rees-Sheridan discusses the Half Moon Photography Workshop Comments Book as a radical object.

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Radical Objects: Irish Women Emigrants’ Letters

Beth Kitson 28 June 202129 October 2022

At the end of a long day of physical domestic work, Margaret Nagle, an Irish-born domestic servant living in 1860s […]

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Radical Object: Fergusson Vaginal Speculum

Lisa Godson 23 June 202120 January 2023

What does the vaginal speculum have to do with power? How does the history of this instrument help us to understand how bodies have been understood, policed, and governed? Can this object be reclaimed? Lisa Godson explores.

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The Roots of the Green New Deal

Will Rees 21 June 202129 October 2022

How should we understand the Green Deal in relation to the legacy of its predecessor, the New Deal? William Rees argues that much can be learnt from the environment of disorganisation, contradiction and compromise that led to FDR's economic…

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Radical Object: Richard Carlile’s Little Hammer

Robert Forder 14 June 202120 January 2023

How does a small gavel on display in the offices of Britain's National Secular Society commemorate past struggles for free thought and free speech? Robert Forder explores.

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On Molly Street Sex Workers Belong

Kundai Manamere 9 June 202120 January 2023

Content Note: This article contains a description of a murder. In the late 1950s, Rhodesian settlers established Chiredzi, an agricultural […]

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Colonial Fantasies of the Offshore

Lucy Mayblin, Joe Turner, Arshad Isakjee & Thom Davies 7 June 202120 January 2023

What do colonial histories of movement across the ocean tell us about present day proposals to send asylum seekers to offshore sites?

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Intersectionality and the New York Gay Liberation Front

Jack Mason 3 June 202113 January 2023

Jack Mason uses Kimberle Crenshaw's framework of intersectionality to reconsider the work of the New York Gay Liberation Front.

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The Limits of Refugee Policy

Ria Sunga 24 May 202129 October 2022

The Philippine government was confronted with refugee movements in the early years of the Cold War. Ria Sunga explores how the state applied the refugee label selectively and what implications this had on people on the move, in the fourth…

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Medical Migration and the NHS

Anna Caceres 17 May 202129 November 2022

The NHS has long relied on immigrant personnel, and restrictions to migration have an impact on its staffing. In the third piece for the Moving People feature, Anna Caceres writes about the fallacy of the 'good' migrant narrative.

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The Global Terrain of Argentine State Terror

Pablo Bradbury 12 May 202120 January 2023

How does state violence extend internationally? While historians often discuss global resistance to national dictatorships, Pablo Bradbury considers the international terrain of Argentine state terror.

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A Regime of Immobility

Doina Anca Cretu 10 May 202129 October 2022

Can refugee assistance become a way to contain? In the second piece for Moving People, Doina Anca Cretu explores how those fleeing Austria-Hungary's peripheries in the First World War could also be immobilised as they were subject to…

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Reforming Medicine: Dr. Krishnabai Kelavkar

Mrunmayee Satam 6 May 202129 October 2022

A look at the lives of early women physicians in India reveals the impact of social reform in on health outcomes. Dr. Krishnabai Kelavkar, who transformed maternal and infant health in the state of Kolhapur, is such a trailblazing woman, as…

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Moving People

Ria Kapoor 4 May 202120 January 2023

This is the first piece in a series titled Moving People. In exploring how people on the move are labelled, remembered, and constrained, it offers new understandings of the experiences (and inconsistencies) underpinning issues of…

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Uncovering Histories of Care

Kate Gibson 30 April 202129 October 2022

'Care Experienced' people are often denied agency and advocacy in the present. By uncovering histories of care and centring their voices, Kate Gibson writes, we can understand inequalities in the past and challenge them in the future.

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Black & Asian soldiers and the ‘White Man’s War’

John Siblon 26 April 202113 January 2023

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.

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Shared Heritage

Matthew Stallard 23 April 202120 January 2023

In our series on 'Radical History after Brexit', Matt Stallard of the Legacies of British Slavery project reflects on the ongoing politicisation of heritage.

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Histories of the Present

What

Where

When

Series

The Political Environment

Researcher Wellbeing and What We Can Learn from Mental Health Professionals

Radical Object: Potato Planter at Frating Hall Farm

Taking Photos of the First Women’s Liberation Conference

Electric Light

Radical Object: The Medieval Face Mask

Remembering the New Cross Massacre

Falling in Love with the Past

Radical Object: Campaign for Women’s Ordination Badges

Refugee Tales: Now and Then

Radical Objects: ‘These are not ordinary women’

Losing Minds

Children on Strike

Radical Object: Half Moon Gallery Comments Book

Radical Objects: Irish Women Emigrants’ Letters

Radical Object: Fergusson Vaginal Speculum

The Roots of the Green New Deal

Radical Object: Richard Carlile’s Little Hammer

On Molly Street Sex Workers Belong

Colonial Fantasies of the Offshore

Intersectionality and the New York Gay Liberation Front

The Limits of Refugee Policy

Medical Migration and the NHS

The Global Terrain of Argentine State Terror

A Regime of Immobility

Reforming Medicine: Dr. Krishnabai Kelavkar

Moving People

Uncovering Histories of Care

Black & Asian soldiers and the ‘White Man’s War’

Shared Heritage