Dr Fanny Louvier, University of Oxford fanny.louvier@balliol.ox.ac.uk In the first half of the twentieth century, domestic service was one of the main occupations for women in both France and Britain. We often imagine these women wearing black dresses, white aprons and white caps on their heads. This popular image is not too far from the … Continued
Dr Christine Grandy, University of Lincoln cgrandy@lincoln.ac.uk Peter Mandler’s piece, ‘The Problem with Cultural History’, published in Cultural and Social History’s inaugural issue, did what all good methodological interventions in the field should – haunt the historian for years. His use of the term ‘throw’, as an elegant analogy for the transmission of cultural knowledge, … Continued
In April 1947, the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) was authorized to bring 1000 young Holocaust survivors to Canada through the War Orphans Project. The Canadian federal government required all young newcomers to be placed in foster families. This led the CJC to set up a campaign to find potential foster parents. Bringing together scholarship on … Continued
Dr James Jones, University of Sussex @JamesTJones We all have experiences of visiting the cinema: memories of going as a child; a first independent visit with friends; visiting today to catch the latest superhero blockbuster or to make a pilgrimage to an independent screening. That cinema-going is still a popular past-time in an age … Continued
The house was a miracle of miniature technology, from the pair of Purdy shotguns that actually broke even if they didn’t fire, to the electric lift and working plumbing. It was also packed with beautiful and very tiny works of art and literature that represented a major shift from their creators’ wartime output. C.R.W. Nevinson’s “Paths of Glory” had been banned in 1918 because of its shockingly unpatriotic content of faceless British corpses lying in the trench mud, but his contribution to the dolls’ house was a pretty watercolour of a mountain town.
Dr Henry Irving, Leeds Beckett University @drhenryirving One of the most important things I learned during my undergraduate degree was that academics read differently. Critical analysis, the lecturers’ said, was as important as comprehension. I still remember feeling shocked when one explained that they would begin marking an essay by looking at the bibliography. “But, … Continued
Dr Duncan Stone, University of Huddersfield @StoneDunk Writing of the thirteen elite public schools of England in 1891, the educationalist M. J. Rendell unashamedly pointed out that ‘of the “thicks”; “intermediates” and “clever” boys, it is the intermediates: a group of “honest workers with sound headpieces and average wits, who will soon be playing a … Continued
Dr Wendy Ugolini is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests focus on the relationship between war and identity in the twentieth century. Her first monograph, ‘Experiencing War as the “Enemy Other”: Italian Scottish Experience in World War II’ (Manchester University Press, 2011), was awarded the Royal Historical Society’s Gladstone Prize.
In her contribution to the Research Exchange, she discusses the dual Welsh and British identity she explores in her recent article for Cultural and Social History: ‘The “Welsh” Pimpernel: Richard Llewellyn and the Search for Authenticity in Second World War Britain’.
