Social

The Boy Scout movement produced a little-known offshoot of ‘intellectual Barbarians’, whose charismatic leader had dreams of overcoming the existential crises of the 20th century.

During the 1950s and 1960s, debates over the legality and morality of homosexuality drove gay men and doctors to desperate and dangerous measures in their search for a ‘cure’, writes John-Pierre Joyce.

Since their arrival in Britain around 500 years ago, Gypsies have created a rich tapestry of romantic folklore. Yet, argues Jeremy Harte, this aspect of their past has been almost completely ignored by academic historians.

Goethe’s novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, was blamed for a spate of suicides during the ‘reading fever’ of the 1700s. It set a trend for manufactured outrage that is with us still.

Throughout the 20th century responses by Britons to the sexual abuse of children have been hindered by the desire to avoid scandal and blame the victim, argue Adrian Bingham, Lucy Delap, Louise Jackson and Louise Settle. 

A subtly nuanced picture of European Roma.

Were the fifties a dull decade? Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes: The Story of Women in the 1950s by Virginia Nicholson has the answer.

The ‘hands-on’ parenting style, so often thought to be unique to modern western society, has deep roots in the family life of the Middle Ages, argues Rachel Moss.

Hugh Gault charts the long-running debate over the privatisation of the Post Office amid rising competition and shifting political agendas.