Fostering the Foundlings
The governors of the London Foundling Hospital recruited an external network of nurses to care for children. For many, the bonds established endured.
Social
Hawk this Way
London used to ring with the cries of street sellers. Changes for the city brought changes to their way of life.
Stealing a Living
Theft in East Germany was so common as to be nicknamed ‘the people’s sport’. Why were citizens of the GDR so light-fingered?
What Have Strikes Achieved?
Withdrawing labour is an age-old response to workplace grievances. But how old, and to what effect?
The Grunwick Dispute Begins
The sacking of a young worker on 20 August 1976 escalated into a defining industrial conflict of the late 1970s.
Upon Clouded Hills
A century of struggle over the meaning of ‘Jerusalem’.
On the Ballot
Before the secret ballot, voting in Britain was a theatrical, violent and public affair. The Act that made democracy private turns 150 this year.
Charity Begins at Home
The ‘emigration’ of thousands of poor London children in the 19th century was seen by its organisers as an act of Christian deliverance, but the experience of the young people sent to Canada tells a different story.
In the Shadow of the Poor Law
Britain has been a high inequality, high poverty nation for most of the last 200 years.
Take me to the Church
The medieval parish church was the meeting point of many different things, both sacred and secular.