Social

Robert Owen: Towards a New Moral World

The year 1812 was a turning point in the career of the industrialist Robert Owen. Ian Donnachie examines his Essays on a New View of Society, in which Owen first aired the ideas about popular education and workers’ welfare that would make him famous as a reformer.

Birth of John Bright

The leading Victorian radical and Liberal politician John Bright was born on November 16th 1811.

Mass Observing The British

Dorothy Sherindan, the Archivist of Mass-Observation at the University of Sussex, traces its development - and revival in the 1980s.

Shifting Attitudes on Homosexuality

Fifty years ago a British film challenged widespread views on homosexuality and helped to change the law. Andrew Roberts looks at the enduring impact of Basil Dearden’s Victim.