What challenges do we face in narrating living memory as history, asks Helen Kingstone, and how can oral history challenge linear stories and foster intergenerational generational exchange.
Tag: contemporary history
How do Family Historians Work with Memory?
Not just nostalgia: family historians are at the forefront of challenges to traditional histories that are ‘gendered, classed, raced and heteronormative’, argues public historian Tanya Evans.
The Stansted 15 and the Criminalisation of Migrant Solidarity
The Stansted 15, peaceful protesters who grounded a deportation charter flight have been convicted of terror-related charges. This disproportionate response by the British state must be situated within a wave of criminalisation and delegitimisation of migrant solidarity across Europe at a time of great political and economic unease.
Radical Object: A pot plant from Patty Ortiz’s “WWKY: I Am Here”
In an exploration of Patty Ortiz’s art with DACA migrants to the US, Irina Popescu argues that performance art can encourage empathy and political responsibility.
Brexit, Empire, and Decolonization
The British Empire was built on economic and racial exploitation and now that debt must be recognised, writes Gurminder K. Bhambra.
The American Civil War: Finally Passing?
The latest issue of The Economist turns it’s laser eye on the legacy of the civil war, as the US prepares to mark the 150th anniversary of the start of what’s described as ‘America’s bloodiest war’.
Reading Room Only
The British Museum reading room opened in 1857 and was, until recently, the main reading room of the British Library. Phil Cohen gives a moving and at times very funny account of how his life as a (sometime) shoplifter, Situationist, squatter and sociologist has been deeply entwined with the British Library Reading Room and the surrounding London streets.
