Subject Index: History (Theory & Practice)

The content on this site is put into subject categories. These pages list content filed under each subject. You can also use the Tag Index to see a full list of keywords used on the site.

What can we learn about mental health care from Bristol’s psychiatric hospital?

Colourful poster listing dates, times and themes
  In 1861, Bristol’s Lunatic Asylum opened its doors and 164 pauper patients transferred from the workhouse. What treatment did this new state-of-the-art hospital provide, and how did it evolve over the next 130 years until closing in 1994? Stella Mann of the Glenside Hospital Museum, housed in the old asylum chapel, will talk about the evolution of Bristol’s mental health provision from the Victorian age to the present day. History can be discovered through many different routes. Every […]

Putting History on Television

Colourful poster listing dates, times and themes
Producer/directors David Parker and Colin Thomas have both challenged conventional approaches to television history in their productions: David by tapping into home movie archives and by seeking out 'history from below' contributors in West Country series like Reel Lives; and Colin by including different historical perspectives within the same programme. Michael Sheen described The Dragon Has Two Tongues, a series on Welsh history which Colin made for Channel 4, as “one of the greatest history […]

Haunting Ashton Court

A Creative Handbook for Collective History Making

By edited by Elinor Lower and Jack Young
“Mishmash” is the term the authors of this book use to describe their various working methods. It is also an accurate description of the book itself which contains not only the performance script of the Haunting Ashton Court production but also its sources and inspiration, some creative writing, a toolkit for similar productions and a wise afterword. Plus – totally new to me – QR code sections that enable a reader with a smart phone to see and hear parts of the live production. I confess that […]

Making History Then and Now – Bristol Broadsides and Haunting Ashton Court

Two influential projects, one from the past and one from the present.....

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We are very pleased to have Ian Bild a founding member of the influential Bristol Broadsides and the cast, researchers and organisers of the recent Haunting Ashton Court project speaking and performing at M Shed. Bristol Broadsides was a non-profit making publishing co-operative founded in 1977. Its aims were best summed up by the Hut Writers from the Southmead council estate in their book Corrugated Ironworks: For too long we’ve been sitting back, complacently accepting everything that has been […]

The role of Museums in constructing our understanding of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

Black Lives Matter banner displayed in Brecon
As I worked on gathering pertinent words that will appear in the index of my forthcoming book: The Journal of Captain Thomas Phillips of Brecon, the Slave Ship Hannibal, and all who Sailed on Her (1693-1695) the key word ‘museum’ appears on my list. Why had a word associated with exhibition interjected itself into a narrative of events that had occurred nearly 330 years ago? To answer this question, I refer to the plaque commissioned by Brecon Town Council in 2010 to honour the life of the slave […]

Colonialism and Memory in Bristol

Mnemoscapes of the South West SWWDTP Memory Studies Research Cluster

transparent fiddle Not A BRHG Event
Rosemary Caldicott and Mark Steeds will be speaking at the Colonialism and Memory in Bristol. Join us for a public workshop on colonialism and memory in Bristol. Moving between the museum, the city, and space for discussion and reflection, we’ll be asking what decolonisation means, what it might look like in practice, as well as the challenges facing these efforts. Join us at the M Shed in Bristol on 1st July, The workshop is free and refreshments and lunch will be provided, but space is limited […]

Putting Welsh history on TV

transparent fiddle Not A BRHG Event
7.00-9.00pm 3 March 2023 Clwb Y Bont, 85A Taff St, Pontypridd CF37 4SL This talk with video extracts, will look at attempts to turn the complexities of Welsh history into accessible television. It will include clips from Horrible Histories, Huw Edwards's The Story of Wales and The Dragon Has Two Tongues in which Wynford Vaughan Thomas and Professor Gwyn Alf Williams offer two very different versions of Welsh history. The latter series, produced and directed by Colin Thomas, was recently […]

‘The Recent Politicisation of The Riot Charge’

BRHG workshop talk and book stall at the Bristol Radical Bookfair on 10 December

transparent fiddle Not A BRHG Event
BRHG is pleased to support the latest Bristol Radical Bookfair on Saturday 10th December, co-ordinated by Active Distro, and hosted at the Exchange, on Old Market, BS2 0EJ. All are welcome at this free event. As Active Distro state in the FB event and Headfirst Bristol listings: We're under attack from all sides, and we need radical ideas and community more than ever. At the bookfair, you'll find new and second hand titles, kids books, novels, calendars and more from radical publishers, zine […]

Bristol Radical Bookfair on 25th September

Come and visit the BRHG book stall

transparent fiddle Not A BRHG Event
Bristol Radical History Group is once again supporting the Bristol Radical Bookfair. We'll be taking along our book stall, with our Radical Pamphleteer series of publications, and a choice selection of other titles designed to interest, inform and stir you into action. In addition, regular BRHG author Rosemary L Caldicott will be speaking at 12 noon, as part of a series of talks/workshops, about her book Nautical Women and the histories therein. Do come and say hello, one of the reasons we enjoy […]

The Dawn of Everything

A new history of humanity

By David Graeber and David Wengrow
This is a hugely ambitious book, setting out to provide an integration of the work of both archaeologists and of anthropologists. The extent of their ambition is spelt out on page 24 “we will not only be presenting a new history of humankind, but inviting the reader into a new science of history, one that restores our ancestors to their full humanity.” I accepted that invitation but confess that I sometimes found it hard going, as demanding an intellectual workout as some choose to subject […]

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