Social

Women, Food and Politics 1880 - 1930

'The bread and butter of life' - Martin Pugh traces how the increasing electoral importance of food and domestic issues in Britain helped to entrench women in the mainstream of political life.

Gentlemen & Thugs in 17th-Century Britain

Keith M. Brown questions the extent to which humanism and Renaissance courtliness had weaned the Stuart aristocracy from random acts of violence and taking the law into their own hands.

May Days And After

From joyous spring rite to politicised holiday – Chris Wrigley traces the annexation of May Day through the efforts of the increasingly active labour movement in the early 1890s.

The Search for Uncle Sam

New Hampshire meat-packer to national symbol - Alton Ketchum recounts the rise and rise of Uncle Sam Wilson.

London's Charity Schools, 1690-1730

'The greatest Instances of publick Spirit the Age has produced', but confessional strife between Anglicans and Nonconformists, as well as the bitter battles of Whigs and Tories, was the stimulus for an educational programme for the poor. Craig Rose investigates.

The Baha'is of Iran

Juan Cole looks at the pacifist, prophetic and millenarian 'world religion' whose leader emerged from the social and political unrest of 19th-century Iran and whose followers have since been persecuted by shah and ayatollah alike.