Category Archives: Comment

The Cold War, the Drug War, and… Summer Camp in the 1980s, by Richard M. Balzano

Posted on August 18, 2021 by readinghistory

The Cold War shaped the latter half of the American twentieth century, and the bipolar standoff and its peripheral contests could be felt in every corner of domestic American life. Washington’s security pursuits often generated results that contradicted domestic goals, … Continue reading →

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The Joys of Being an Africanist: Summertime in Tanzania, by Dr Heike I. Schmidt

Posted on August 12, 2021 by readinghistory

Part II Conducting oral history interviews as well as participant observation are the prerogatives of the modern historian. These methods also need to be carefully learned and critically questioned as the research itself generates primary sources. They require the researcher … Continue reading →

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The Joys of Being a Historian: Summertime in Tanzania, by Dr Heike I. Schmidt

Posted on August 9, 2021 by readinghistory

Part I I knew exactly what I was doing. I planned my fieldwork to utter perfection. After all I was an experienced postdoc, having spent about three years living in Zimbabwe while studying and researching the country’s past. Now working … Continue reading →

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Marrows Over Maths: The history of England’s school harvest camps, by Tamisan Latherow

Posted on August 2, 2021 by readinghistory

There are certain images from the mass media that, as a child of the 1980s growing up in America, are ubiquitous to summer for me. The 1961 Disney film, The Parent Trap, staring Hayley Mills is one of them. Mills, … Continue reading →

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How did a fear of climate lead to a climate of fear in which demonic witchcraft loomed large? Professor Helen Parish explores the connections between weather, witchcraft, faith, fears, and the human imagination…

Posted on July 26, 2021 by readinghistory

In the first blog in this summer series, my colleague Ruth Salter invited us to hang up our umbrellas and celebrate the role played by St Swithin in our summer weather. While Ruth encouraged us to turn our eyes to … Continue reading →

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