Contextual Essays

• Home
• Posts
• Contextual Essays

Propaganda and the mobilisation of consent during the two world wars

IntroductionThe British vote to exit the European Union (2016) and US administration under Donald Trump (2017−2021) have highlighted the degree to which appeals to personal and emotional belief are far more compelling than objective facts in contemporary politics. “Fake news”... Read more →

Published 12th September, 2023 · 16 min read

Further Reading: Britannia and Eve/Women’s Magazines.

If you have enjoyed engaging with our Britannia and Eve collection and are keen to explore the historical themes and issues that it raises in more detail, then we invite you to look at our extensive list of suggested further reading.... Read more →

Published 26th July, 2023 · 5 min read

The portrayal of the 1908 Olympic Games in The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News

During the Edwardian period, The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News (established in 1874) provided a visual insight into British sport and leisure, principally the events of interest to the middle and upper classes. In its reflections on the events of... Read more →

Published 19th December, 2022 · 13 min read

From the Archive: William Howard Russell and The Crimean Wars Cultural Legacy

Our exciting new collection, The Sketch, 1893-1958, explores British high society across some of the biggest social and cultural changes in Britain. Encompassing almost 170,000 images and over 3,000 issues, the collection is an invaluable source for students and researchers alike.... Read more →

Published 15th November, 2022 · 29 min read

The Tatler (1901-1965)

The Tatler has, since its original form in the early eighteenth century, been a publication concerned with status and social ideals. The original Tatler was very much focused on guiding the emerging middling sort on how to behave in a variety... Read more →

Published 21st September, 2022 · 15 min read

From the Archive: The Failures of Women in Art

“[Women] have been let loose upon arid fields for education” The Sketch, first published in 1893, was a popular sister title of the The Illustrated London News. This publication was created by Clement Shorter and William Ingram (former editor and managing... Read more →

Published 20th September, 2022 · 24 min read

The Transforming Effect of the 1960s

The 1960s continue to inspire and provoke. Despite the passage of time, there is a sense that the decade has not quite fully passed into the past. At one level this is a symptom of people’s interest in the surfaces... Read more →

Published 31st August, 2022 · 14 min read

Victoria Lady Welby (1837-1913) and Significs

1. Contextual highlightsBiobibliographical trajectoriesVictoria Lady Welby (1837-1912) was born into the British aristocracy on April 27, 1837 and baptised that same year (June 17) as Victoria Alexandrina Maria Louisa Stuart-Wortely. Her godmothers were Princess Victoria (coronated Queen Alexandrina Victoria five... Read more →

Published 18th July, 2022 · 47 min read

British Print Media, 1860s–1960s

The hundred years from the 1860s to the 1960s, covered in this collection, was in many respects the golden age of the print media in Britain. In the middle decades of the nineteenth century, a number of social, cultural, and... Read more →

Published 31st May, 2022 · 15 min read

The Meerut Conspiracy Trial, 1929-1933; an Introduction

The Communist Party has been a freely elected governing party in India in states such as Kerala and West Bengal more times than anywhere else in the world and it remains a mass party in India to this day. The... Read more →

Published 17th February, 2022 · 48 min read

British Government Information and Propaganda, 1939-2009: Further Reading

While primary sources provide an unparalleled insight into what successive British governments wanted their citizens to know, think, and do, for context, it is also important for students to read academic literature on the subject. Below you will find a number... Read more →

Published 1st December, 2021 · 2 min read

A Guide to British Government Information and Propaganda, 1939-2009

Although propaganda is thousands of years old, it really came of age in the 20th century, when the development of mass media (and later multimedia communications) offered a fertile ground for its dissemination, and the century’s global conflicts provided the... Read more →

Published 26th November, 2021 · 27 min read

British Government Information and Propaganda: Collections at the British Library and Elsewhere

The Ministry of Information (MOI) came into existence on Sept. 4, 1939, the day after Britain's declaration of war on Germany, and the first Minister was sworn into office on Sept. 5,1939. The MOI Digital website explains that it was... Read more →

Published 26th November, 2021 · 9 min read

The Historic Records held at Bethlem Museum of the Mind

Bethlem Museum of the Mind records the lives and experience and celebrates the achievements of people with mental health problems. Situated within the current day site of Bethlem Royal Hospital, the oldest psychiatric hospital in Europe, the Museum seeks to... Read more →

Published 18th November, 2021 · 11 min read

Shaping the Jewel in the Crown: How the British East India Company lay the Foundations for Colonial Subjugation of India.

In 1858, large swathes of the Indian subcontinent were officially subjugated under the British Crown and became known as the British Raj (translating literally in Hindi to ‘British Rule’). This was the culmination of many decades of British encroachment on... Read more →

Published 20th September, 2021 · 8 min read

The Post-War International Order: Past, Present, Future?

In Western historiography, it is often presented as a given that the end of World War II ushered in a new international order. As this archival collection shows, a series of treaties and institutions including the United Nations (UN), the... Read more →

Published 16th August, 2021 · 12 min read

Malawi Under Colonial Rule, in Government Reports, 1907-1967: An Introduction

Nyasaland was a British Protectorate from 1891 to 1964, when it became independent as Malawi. The country was known as the British Central Africa Protectorate until 1907. It was administered by the Foreign Office until 1904. Between 1953 and 1963... Read more →

Published 13th August, 2021 · 7 min read

The historian and her group: Dona Torr and Marxist history

Dona Torr was born in 1883. Her recently-deceased grandfather John Torr had been a merchant and for the last seven years of his life the Conservative MP for Liverpool. She was brought up in a large and newly-built Victorian mansion,... Read more →

Published 29th March, 2021 · 11 min read

A Brief Introduction: The Records of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts

I. The Archives of the SPGThese documents relating to North America are true archives in Sir Hilary Jenkinson's definition of the word: that is, they came into being as a result of the work of the Society for the Propagation... Read more →

Published 10th March, 2021 · 11 min read

The Parliamentary Labour Party Papers, 1968-1993: An Introduction

The Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), the organisation of Labour Members of Parliament, was founded in 1906, after Labour representation had increased from 2 to 30. Their situation changed very little from that date to 1968. Once they had been selected... Read more →

Published 9th February, 2021 · 9 min read

Soldiers and their Horses in The Great War

The British Army of 1914-1918 fully appreciated the numerous benefits to be gained by properly managing its equine resources. Despite the increased use of mechanised alternatives, horses were nevertheless still the most versatile and reliable means of transporting men and... Read more →

Published 30th October, 2020 · 6 min read

The Methodist Recorder, 1861-1919: Collection Guide

By Peter S. Forsaith, Ph.D., F.R.Hist.S. (Oxford Brookes University) with Rev. Dr. Martin Wellings.Methodism is arguably the most significant single Christian religious movement since the Protestant Reformation, now numbering some 80 million members and adherents worldwide. Other denominations (such as... Read more →

Published 22nd October, 2020 · 22 min read

Methodist Publications, 1855-1919: Collection Guide

By Peter S. Forsaith, Ph.D., F.R.Hist.S. (Oxford Brookes University) with Rev. Dr. Martin Wellings.Methodism is arguably the most significant single Christian religious movement since the Protestant Reformation, now numbering some 80 million members and adherents worldwide. Other denominations (such as... Read more →

Published 22nd October, 2020 · 22 min read

A Guide to Transatlantic Periodicals Published in the UK and Europe During the 18th, 19th, and 20th Centuries

This article provides a brief summary of each publication included in Transatlantic Civil Society in Periodicals, 1768-1925. It is largely derived from the work of Greg Palmer from the Institute of U.S. Studies in London, who penned the original microfilm... Read more →

Published 13th October, 2020 · 11 min read

From the Archive: Prosecuting the Holocaust

Our recently published primary source collection, ‘Prosecuting the Holocaust: British investigations into Nazi Crimes, 1944-1949’, provides a valuable and unique study into the British governments efforts to investigate and prosecute Nazi crimes after the Second World War. The featured evidence shines... Read more →

Published 21st February, 2020 · 7 min read

The Archives of the Communist Party Of Great Britain: An Introduction

Stalin, to go by a famous throwaway remark, had little time for 'archive rats'. Certainly, in his day and long afterwards the nosing out of archival detritus was an activity largely denied the historians of communism. In most cases, this... Read more →

Published 20th January, 2020 · 20 min read

The Departments of the Communist Party of Great Britain: A Detailed Guide

The singular nature of the CPGB's relationship with the Communist International means that the organisational holdings of the archives in Britain are of a highly asymmetrical character. Discrete groups of documents from the inter-war years, some of considerable historical significance,... Read more →

Published 20th January, 2020 · 28 min read

Notable Individuals of the Communist Party of Great Britain

Individual deposits within the CPGB archives are significant both for the biographies of the individuals concerned and as a record of the wider activities of the party and its ancillaries. The dividing line between these materials and the party's institutional... Read more →

Published 20th January, 2020 · 29 min read

British Military Intelligence in Context, 1938-1974

Military Intelligence Files: Land, Sea & Air provides access to secret British government files produced by the intelligence branches of the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force. Held by The National Archives of the United Kingdom, and covering... Read more →

Published 5th December, 2019 · 19 min read

European Settler Agriculture and Exploitation of Local Labour in Colonial Africa

To what extent did the establishment and growth of European settler agriculture depend on repressive colonial policies that allowed the European farmers to exploit local labour? In past and more recent literature it is commonly argued that the existence of... Read more →

Published 15th November, 2019 · 5 min read

Tracing the Origins and Consequences of Christian Missionary Activities in Africa

One of the most powerful cultural transformations in Africa’s modern history has been the dramatic expansion of Christianity in the 19th and 20th century (Hastings 1994). While in 1910 the share of Christians in Africa was 9%, by 2010 this... Read more →

Published 5th November, 2019 · 4 min read

The good servant: the origins and development of BBC Listener Research 1936-1950

'any research that might be undertaken should be so controlled as to secure that it never developed from a servant into a master, to the detriment of the essential qualities of good broadcasting ? a responsible but sensitive outlook and... Read more →

Published 1st January, 2006 · 46 min read