British history

British Universities are Researching Ties to Slavery. Conservative Alumni Say "Enough"

Historian Nicolas Bell-Romero found that influential Cambridge backers were happy to learn of the links between the university and famous abolitionists, but not on the university's historical links to an imperial elite that benefitted from the slave trade, part of a broad battle about the politics of British history. 

What I Saw when I Snuck In to the British National Conservatism Conference

by Seth Thévoz

If a group of fervent young British conservatives were packed into a wood-paneled room in Westminster with the freedom to say what the pleased, what would a party-crashing historian and journalist hear? 

The Coronation was a Modern Charade of Historical Continuity

by Fintan O'Toole

The pomp and ceremony of Charles III's coronation is largely a recent creation, invented to declare the continued importance and power of a monarchy that is vanishing in real significance. 

Why a Long-Maligned Housing Style Endures in Leeds

Once a progressive improvement on court-style housing in working class neighborhoods, then disfavored as cramped and lacking in privacy, urbanists look to Leeds's back-to-back rowhouses as a guide to more efficient and affordable housing for modern cities. 

The National Trust Must Update its Idea of What Makes History and Speak in Multiple Voices

by Neil MacGregor

Neither preserving sites of national glory nor stripping them of honor represents the true mission of the National Trust as a preserver of British history for the public. 

Documents Confirm Direct Ancestors of King Charles III Involved in Slave Trade

Researcher Desirée Baptiste discovered documents of the sale of 200 Africans in Virginia to the family of the late Queen Mother. 

Review: Lingering Ghosts of British Empire

by Priya Satia

Journalist Sathnam Sanghera insists that British education needs to renew a focus on empire to allow students to understand the global significance of empire and colonialism in the present, particularly as contemporary Brits debate the merits of a multicultural society. 

The Pugilistic Pastor: Nigel Biggar and the Imperial History Wars

by Dane Kennedy

The recent "Colonialism" won’t win over many historians, but it isn’t meant to. Its target audience is right-wing ideologues, whose grievances and opinions it both echoes and enhances.

Kate Strasdin Breaks Down Authenticity on Bridgerton and other Costume Dramas

A fashion historian examines the accuracy of costuming and other design elements of historical dramas like "Bridgerton." 

Brits Don't Need to Compare Refugee Policy to Nazis—British History is Cruel Enough

by Priyamvada Gopal

"As its government demonises undocumented people seeking shelter today, it is worth remembering that Britain has historically been more a refugee-making country than a refugee-taking one."

How The Irish Saved Wellington at Waterloo

by Brendan Farrell

For centuries, the Irish provided manpower to the British military, never more notably than on June 18, 1815. 

The Secrets of Bog People

Scholars have released a comprehensive survey of bodies discovered in bogs, including a database of more than 1,000 bodies from 266 sites spanning approximately 7,000 years of northern European history.  

Does Novelist Robert Keable Deserve a Reappraisal?

by Simon Keable-Elliott

Briefly celebrated in the 1920s, then consigned to posthumous obscurity, the missionary and novelist, whose experiences encompassed the collision of colonialism, war and racism in the British empire, is overdue for rediscovery. 

Why Liz Truss Couldn't Channel Margaret Thatcher

by Robert Ralston

Truss couldn't claim to present a solution to British decline because she took over as Prime Minister as an insider to a party seen as the agents of that decline. 

Hilary Mantel, Historian

by Samuel Clowes Huneke

The celebrated novelist legacy to scholars is a model for examining psychological complexity and political motivation in the past. 

The Ostensibly Apolitical Nature of the Royals Explains Americans' Obsession

by Suzanne Schneider

The Royals appeal to an American fantasy of power without politics, in which civility and decorum conceal the process of determining a society's winners and losers. 

Queen's Funeral Reflects Centuries of Ritual

by Emilie M. Brinkman

Since the rise of the Tudor dynasty, the occasion of a royal funeral has been an opportunity for the successor to demonstrate their authority by ostentation and pomp in remembrance of a predecessor. 

When the News of a Royal Death Arrived Slowly, it Changed American History

by Helena Yoo Roth

The void of power in the American colonies created by rumor of the death of King George II was critical to loosening the monarchy's claims to rule in North America. 

Boris Johnson's Legacy? It's Complicated

by Luke Reader

The British constitution depends on adherence to norms and tradition commonly called the "good chap" principle. Johnson's ministry raised troubling questions about what happens when No. 10 Downing is occupied by a different sort of chap. 

Mourn the Queen, Not the Empire

by Maya Jasanoff

As the head of the postwar British Commonwealth, the Queen symbolized the effort to put the brakes on the global wave of decolonization, including deadly and secret campaigns of state violence in Northern Ireland, Kenya, and elsewhere.