Issue 41 – Gender and Identity In Britain, the women’s liberation movement brought women’s history from the margins into the mainstream of historical thinking, seeking to trace both inequality and oppression through the past and to rediscover female experiences left out by traditional historiography. As the field developed, a gendered approach to history has provided Continue Reading
The 60s Ban the Bomb Movement in Manchester, by Isaac Feaver
The ‘Ban the Bomb’ movement was a direct challenge to the existence of nuclear weapons and adapted to the changing technologies and doctrines of the ensuing Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union that followed the end of the Second World War. Among the major actors of the Cold War was Britain, whose nuclear research predated and had added substantial scientific knowledge to the U.S. Manhattan Project. Britain pursued nuclear weapons independently from the U.S., gaining atomic weapons in 1952 and the far more destructive hydrogen bomb in 1957. Although Britain established itself as a member of an exclusive international nuclear club, there were significant, albeit, small movements in favour of nuclear disarmament at home.
The Causes and Conclusions of the 1981 Moss Side Riots, by Millie Jacobs
The uprising of Moss Side had an air of inevitability about it. Following riots in Brixton, Toxteth and Handsworth, on 8 July 1981 Manchester became the next site of protest. When a small group of young Black men left the Nile Club, then Manchester’s leading black nightclub, they were met with jeers of “there could Continue Reading
The Peterloo Massacre: The Power of Peaceful Protest, by Romy Nicholson
On the 16th of August 1819, in what is now St Peter’s Square, over sixty thousand peaceful protestors gathered to hear “Orator” Henry Hunt speak, with the aim of invoking government reform. Despite the organised, civilised nature of the protest, the crowd was charged by paramilitary yeomanry, which resulted in the death of over fifteen civilians.
Suffragette City: Manchester in the Fight for Women’s Votes, by Aimee Butler
With the amount of recognition, promotion and publicity today’s feminist movement receives worldwide, it is important to reflect that the gruelling fight for female suffrage took place not so long ago. Whilst we still have a long way to go in terms of gender equality, the progress made since the suffragette movement of the nineteenth and twentieth century is a remarkable feat that is worthy of recognition.