History (Theory & Practice) Archives - Page 5 of 9 Bristol Radical History Group

Bristol Local History Bookfair 2014

Booksellers will include Bristol Books, Bygone Bristol, Redcliffe Press, the South Gloucestershire Mines Research Group and Tangent Books, several independent authors – and more. 10am-1pm Family history advice from the Bristol & Avon Family History Society 1.30pm – Bristol: the City at War, 1914-1918 (Eugene Byrne, co-author of ‘Bravo Bristol!’) As a major British city and port, Bristol played a key role in the First World War. Join Eugene for stories of Bristolians on the battlefield, on […]

International History From Below network

The international History From Below network is a diverse community of historytellers, historical agitators, artists, independent archivists, history groups, political archaeologists etc. It was founded 2012 in Barcelona to reflect a growing worldwide movement of historical activism and public interest in radical history, and to build an alternative, non-academic resource for the production and transmission of oppositional forms of history. As radical history becomes increasingly popular, more […]

The guillotine, knitting and terror…

So you think you know about the French Revolution?

By Roger Ball

A demonstration of the ‘humane’ guillotine

Introduction The last few years I have been playing word association games; asking people at work and at the pub to say the first thing that comes into their head about a particular historical event or figure. So typically the English Civil War carries mental images of 'laughing cavaliers', 'miserable roundheads' and blood-thirsty executions of kings, World War I produces 'mud, blood and barbed wire' and recently, PC Blakelock elicits 'brutal mob violence'. Of course some people and events […]

Radical History Network

The Radical History Network of North East London, hereafter RaHN, was formed in February 2006 and has generally met monthly ever since. It has participated in events like the Anarchist Bookfair every year and is related to others groups like that of South London . Essentially the group covers subjects that are “ local, topical or of special interest “. It is broadly libertarian socialist in outlook. Its slogan is “celebrate our hisory, avoid repeating our mistakes”, with an obvious meaning. […]

Some Hidden Histories of the British State Revealed in 2013

By Roger Ball

Republican mural drawing attention to the complex web of organisations involved in the counter-insurgency campaign in Northern Ireland

In ten years we'll leak the truth By then it's only so much paper According to the U.S. punk band the Dead Kennedys it takes about 10 years before our 'democracies' decide to "leak the truth" about activities of secret arms of the state. In the current world of social media and the information highway there seems to be a perception that no secret is safe and that "it will get out somehow". This suggests the cosy idea that somehow the internet is leading us to a more open society with rapid […]

Mythical Battle Over WW1

By Randell Brantley

A few days ago Dan Snow wrote a piece entitled Lions and donkeys: 10 big myths about World War One debunked on the BBC website. The tone of the article was strange, in that it seemed to be implying that World War 1 was not as bad as everybody thinks and that and that a lot of working class soldiers quite enjoyed it while upper class officers were martyred. The 10 myths were: It was the bloodiest war in history to that point. No, it was our civil war in the mid 17th century Most soldiers died. […]

Remembering the Real WWI: Public meeting #3

This is the third meeting in Bristol to discuss opposition to David Cameron's 'truly national commemoration' of WW1 stressing our 'national spirit'. Nationally there are plans to ensure that attention is given to the real causes and effects of the war, rather than an opportunity for our government to re-habilitate this war in particular or war in general. Bristol has long radical traditions and we know there are groups and individuals across the city who will want to ensure that there are events […]

Remembering the Real WWI: Public meeting #2

This is the second meeting in Bristol to discuss opposition to David Cameron's 'truly national commemoration' of WW1 stressing our 'national spirit'. Nationally there are plans to ensure that attention is given to the real causes and effects of the war, rather than an opportunity for our government to re-habilitate this war in particular or war in general. Bristol has long radical traditions and we know there are groups and individuals across the city who will want to ensure that there are […]

Bristol Local History Fair

Stalls Avon Local History & Archaeology Bishop Books Bristol Books Bristol Radical History Group Bristol Record Society Bygone Bristol Diesel, Dru Marland, Fiducia Frenchay Village Museum Long John Silver Trust Past & Present Press S Glos Mines Research Redcliffe Press Silverwood Tangent Books Talks 1.30pm William Fairney: Humphrey Davy 2.30pm Mark Steeds: Wulfstan and Clarkson 3.30pm Lucienne Boyce: The Bristol Suffragettes

Archive.org & Openlibrary.org

These are two related initiative that can be a great help when trying to do a little research form the comfort of ones own computer. Archive.org contains the Wayback Machine which archives snap shot of websites. You can thus see pages on websites as they used to be. However, archive.org also contains free and complete copies of many books that are out of copyright and in the public domain. Openlibrary.org aims to get "One web page for every book ever published". You can search for the details of […]