All Our Yesterdays

York Membery looks at the advertisements that graced the first issue of History Today, and sees in them a reflection of the magazine's own past, and of a changing society.

What do Fisons farm products, Guards ale and Chilprufe thermal underwear have in common? They all advertised in History Today during the magazine’s first decade, mixed in among the more expected advertisements for the solid products of the university presses and the Historical Association.

It’s an eclectic mix, to say the least – somewhat like the editorial contents of the magazine, perhaps. But it gives an idea of the bewildering variety of products that were being plugged in the pages of the magazine in the 1950s – sandwiched uneasily between learned articles by the likes of A.J.P. Taylor, Geoffrey Barraclough and Lewis Namier.

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