political history

Topic description and stories

The philosopher who wants us to think deeply about ordinary things

15 Dec 2021

Nikhil Krishnan, winner of a 2021 Pilkington Prize for outstanding teaching, says that what he loves about teaching is what he loves about philosophy...

Queen Elizabeth I by unknown continental artist (c.1575), NPG 2082. Image: The National Portrait Gallery, London

Queen Elizabeth I would tell Boris to tax the rich rather than cut universal credit, a new book argues

11 Oct 2021

A new book about how Covid-19 rocked the world argues that Elizabeth I would have supported the poor in the aftermath of the pandemic.

1989: The year Margaret Thatcher’s apparent mastery slipped away

09 Mar 2019

Forty thousand pages of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s personal and political papers from 1989 are being opened to the public at the...

Thatcher speaking in the White House grounds during her 1987 visit to the USA

‘Don’t put yourself through it again’: Thatcher papers reveal ‘distress’ after bruising election win

10 Oct 2017

Margaret Thatcher’s third and final election victory dominates the 50,000 pages of her personal papers for the year 1987 – opening to the public from...

‘Hectoring, strident and bossy’: Thatcher papers for 1985 reveal plans to soften the Iron Lady

09 Oct 2015

Massive unemployment, the end of the miners’ strike and a controversial decision to try and exclude the Prime Minister from a Falklands War memorial...

Deliberations among a Local Women's Council in Qamişlo, Rojava

Can the Revolution in Kurdish Syria succeed?

02 Feb 2015

We can but hope, argue sociologist Dr Jeff Miley and Gates Scholar Johanna Riha, who here summarise some of their observations following a recent...

An interview with Tony Badger: 50 years a historian

04 Jul 2014

The Choir of Clare College will tomorrow (5 July 2014) perform a special concert at West Road as tribute to outgoing Master and eminent historian...

Darcus Howe, far right, leading the demonstration on the Black People’s Day of Action, March 2, 1981. He is accompanied on the truck by two of his sons, Darcus Jr. and Rap., Credit: Private collection of Darcus Howe

Black Power in Britain becoming “forgotten history”

05 Jan 2014

A new biography of Darcus Howe, which offers the first detailed history of Britain’s little-known Black Power movement, claims that the racism it...

After landing at San Carlos, a heavily laden paratrooper of 2 Parachute Regiment heads south for Sussex Mountain on 21 May 1982. From there the Battalion attacked Goose Green.

Thatcher Archive reveals deep divisions on the road to Falklands War

22 Mar 2013

The Falklands War – the conflict that defined much of Margaret Thatcher’s political career and legacy – dominates the release of her personal papers...