Hello everyone, and welcome to the History Society for the 2015/16 academic year! After a very busy Welcome Week and Week 1, we’ve kicked the year off with a bang and have loved seeing so many of you at our events or passing by the Welcome Week Fair stall. The History vs. English Pub Crawl Continue Reading
Hero or Villain? Enoch Powell
“As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding; like the Roman, I seem to see ‘the River Tiber foaming with much blood.” These are the words of Enoch Powell from his infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ Speech made on 20th April 1968 at the General Meeting of the West Midlands Area Conservative Political Centre. Made Continue Reading
Questioning Hungary’s Response to the European Migrant Crisis
Early in September this year, I was traveling through Hungary and arrived in Budapest at the same time as reports emerged that 30,000 refugees had entered the country and were stranded outside Keleti train station. Primarily a result of the ongoing Syria conflict, yet also a consequence of continuing violence elsewhere, this summer Hungary became Continue Reading
Ellis Island: a Gateway into a New World
‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breath free’ begins the inscription below the Statue of Liberty. Yet despite this, early 20th century immigration to the United States was often greeted with hostility and not the open arms you’d expect in a country built by immigrants for immigrants. Across the Upper Continue Reading
Islamophobia
The term ‘Islamophobia’ is defined by the Runnymede Trust in 1997 as being an ‘unfounded hostility towards Islam’. There are some issues with this term. Specific emphasis on religion, race or individual phobias can cloud a precise a definition. However, arguably it is an invaluable term to use in discussing the current stance of the Continue Reading