St Patrick’s Day Protests
St Patrick’s Day is a global celebration of Irish culture, but in the US its parades have always been political.
Social
Defending the Tichborne Dole
The introduction of bread rationing by the postwar Labour government threatened the centuries-old tradition of the Tichborne Dole and, with it, the national understanding of what England was.
Black Voices from the Archive
The testimonies of formerly enslaved people, collected in the 1930s by the Federal Writers’ Project, provide a unique archive for historians.
The Coffee Poets of 16th-Century Islam
The early modern Islamic world was embroiled in a bitter controversy over coffee. Much ink was spilt by poets on both sides.
‘Folklore’ by Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook review
Rather than a catalogue of a fanciful past, Folklore: A Journey Through the Past and Present by Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook is a field guide to a constantly changing Britain.
‘Hard Streets’ by Jacqueline Riding review
Hard Streets: Working-Class Lives in Charlie Chaplin’s London by Jacqueline Riding goes where few historians dare: south of the river.
‘Elves and Fairies’ by Matthias Egeler review
In Elves and Fairies: A Short History of the Otherworld, Matthias Egeler follows the huldufólk from the wild places of Iceland, Britain, and Ireland to the domesticity of the bedtime story.
The British Empire’s Brothels
British servicemen overseas bought sex, sometimes in brothels run by the British army. In the 1970s they began to talk about it.
Kent Philpott and the Origins of Conversion Therapy
1960s San Francisco is remembered as the capital of gay liberation, but it also saw the birth of conversion therapy.
Hortense Mancini’s English Affairs
In exile, Hortense Mancini captivated 17th-century Europe – and king Charles II – with her beauty and charm. But her path to freedom was mired in scandal.