| History
| History
On Monday 14th August, Paul Oliver – the world’s most prolific writer and most respected blues scholar – passed away in Oxfordshire at the age of 90. Scores of blues historians, researchers, enthusiasts and musicians are paying tribute to his…
One hundred years ago today, on April 6th 1917, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve Woodrow Wilson’s call for a declaration of war against Germany to “make the world safe for democracy”. Although the United States was only…
The web is bursting with tributes and obituaries to Chuck Berry, the songwriter and guitarist who died on Friday at the age of 90. And this is understandably so. Berry’s famous repertoire which includes songs like ‘Johnny B Goode,’ ‘Maybellene,’…
This review was written by 2nd year undergraduate student Jenna M. Pateman. As November begins, I felt it was right to look back at this year’s Black History Month in Cheltenham, a yearly event put together by a number of collaborating…
This post comes from John Hughes, Professor of Nineteenth Century Literature at the University of Gloucestershire, and author of Invisble Now: Bob Dylan in the 1960s (2013). Any admirer of Bob Dylan’s work soon becomes aware of all the tiresome and…
Writing a preview of the Cheltenham Literature Festival, I suggested all History students should read literature. I was reminded of this today when I read the (belated – he died in June) obituary of Michael Herr in The Guardian. Herr’s…
On the face of it this year’s Cheltenham Literature Festival does not offer a great deal of interest to the student of history. Yes, there are sessions on Rethinking the Somme, the Great War, Cheltenham in the Great War, and…
Having just been to see Race, the (rather boring, I have to say) bio-pic about the great African American athlete, Jesse Owens, I found myself thinking about people like Owens, and Joe Louis, and contrasting them with Muhammad Ali. How…
This Friday will witness the funeral of Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer in history and a figure whose importance transcended sport. Hundreds will attend his funeral and many thousands more around the world will mourn his passing because Ali was…