Raising the GCSE History Standard

During the last couple of weeks radio and TV stations have been running the story of King Charles I School in Kidderminster, which has seen its GCSE results rise by an extraordinary 18% in one year. In interviews with the media Geraint Roberts, deputy head at the school, has spoken about the causes of this [...]

The Cold War: Introduction

The Cold War was the most important political and diplomatic issue of the early postwar period. The main Cold War enemies were the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold war got its name because both sides were afraid of fighting each other directly. In such a “hot war,” nuclear weapons might destroy everything. [...]

Roosevelt’s first war…on the Depression

Image via Wikipedia By late winter 1933, the nation had already endured more than three years of economic depression. Statistics revealing the depth of the Great Depression were staggering. More than 11,000 of 24,000 banks had failed, destroying the savings of depositors. Millions of people were out of work and seeking jobs; additional millions were [...]

The Consequences of the Great Depression

Though the U.S. economy had gone into depression six months earlier, the Great Depression may be said to have begun with a catastrophic collapse of stock-market prices on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929. During the next three years stock prices in the United States continued to fall, until by late 1932 they [...]

United Irishmen

The Society of United Irishmen was founded in Belfast in 1791 through the inspiration of a certain young Dublin lawyer named Theobald Wolfe Tone. He was invited to Ulster on the strength of the publication of his short pamphlet entitled “An argument on behalf of the Catholics of Ireland”. It is sometimes forgotten that Ulster [...]

Sligo Potato Famine 1845 (3)

Why was the famine in West Ireland not foreseen? Why were there no structures for support already in place? The major reason for the devastation caused by the failure of the potato crops was the lack of alternative resources. Father James (see post below) had pointed out the invidiousness of exporting those alternatives, and the [...]

Sligo: Potato Famine 1845 (2)

An unknown disease had attacked the potato crops in the Eastern United States, ruining the harvests during the years 1843 and 1844. The likelihood is that some diseased potatoes from these crops were shipped to a few European ports. The Potato Blight had a devastating effect on the economy and the people of Ireland over [...]

Sligo: Potato Famine 1845 (1)

Between 1847 and 1851 over 30,000 people emigrated through the port of Sligo. On the Quayside, overlooking the Garavogue River, is a sculpted memorial to the emigrants. This is one of a suite of three sculptures commissioned by the Sligo Famine Commemoration Committee to honour the victims of the Great Famine. A plaque in the [...]

The Bitchiness of Historians (The Case of Herodotus)

Historians have always been bitchy towards one another. It just seems to go with the territory. They are touchy, quick to take offence, or apt to chuck cold water, wet blankets and trenchant abuse on one another in ample doses. Of course, some do operate under that wise axiom: “Rubbish not, lest thou be rubbished” [...]

From Gibbon to Goebbels? The Historians’ Trajectory

Gibbon and Goebbels are not the obvious choices for comparison to Herodotus and Thucydides, but bear with me. H & T are frequently regarded as the “first historians.” They wrote the book, you might say, on how to do history. At least, Herodotus was the first writer whose name and work survive. And yet: have [...]