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We are delighted to congratulate Dr Anna Hájková, Reader in Modern European Continental History, on receiving the 75th National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust category for their latest publication, .

The book is the first to examine queer Holocaust history, exploring same-sex desire and gender variance during the Shoah.

The National Jewish Book Awards are North America’s longest-running programme recognising outstanding work on Jewish history, culture, and ideas. Further details on all award recipients can be found on the .

is the latest publication from , Professor of Early Modern European History, published by Cambridge University Press.

How did Huguenots stay connected in the 16th-century? And how did they maintain clandestine religious and political networks across Europe? Beginning with the chance discovery of an intriguing interrogation document, concerning correspondence to be smuggled from France to England hidden in a basket of cheese, this study explores the importance of truth and secrecy within Huguenot information networks.

Penny Roberts provides new insights into the transnational operation of agents: fanning out from confessional conflicts in Normandy to incorporate exiles in England, scholars and diplomats in Germany, the Swiss cantons and the Netherlands, and spy networks operating between France and Scotland.

is the forthcoming book release from , Associate Professor in the History of Science and Technology, due for release March 2026.

This first book-length history of gems in early modern science offers a thought-provoking new take on the Scientific Revolution, and has been featured in the .

For more information and to order the book visit the .

We are delighted to share that People without History are Dust, the new book by Dr Anna Hájková, Reader in Modern European Continental History, has been shortlisted for the National Jewish Book Award. The book is the first to examine queer Holocaust history, exploring same-sex desire and gender variance during the Shoah.

The National Jewish Book Awards are North America’s longest-running programme recognising outstanding work on Jewish history, culture, and ideas.

Find a full list of shortlisted titles and more about the awards on the .

is the new book release from Professor Luca Mola, Professor of History, published by Laterza.

Marco Polo's fame is linked to his travel experiences in the East and the description of Chinese civilization contained in Il Milione, a source of wonder throughout Europe. But what did he do after his return to Venice in 1295? This book reveals the truth using a series of new, previously unknown documents and reconstructs his story.

Professor Mola tells an untold story that portrays Marco Polo as a key figure in the economic development of Venice and Italy, capable of capitalizing on the knowledge he acquired on his travels.

Professor Susan Carruthers new book 'Making Do; Britons and the Refashioning of the Postwar World' was officially published Thursday 24 April. In this richly textured history, Prof Carruthers unpicks a familiar wartime motto, 'Make Do and Mend', to reveal how central fabric was to postwar Britain. Clothes and footwear supplied a currency with which some were rewarded, while others went without. Making Do moves from Britain's demob centres to liberated Belsen – from razed German cities to refugee camps and troopships – to uncover intimate ties between Britons and others bound together in new patterns of mutual need. Filled with original research and personal stories, Making Do illuminates how lives were refashioned after the most devastating war in human history.

The Sunday Times featured the publication as 'book of the week' and the Daily Mirror ran an exclusive two page feature about the book.

For more information about Prof Carruthers new book visit .

‘This is a necessary inoculation for anyone prone to nostalgia. Making Do is proof that clothing is always a reflection of the human condition - especially when those conditions are dire. Carruthers deftly brings the historic significance of wartime down to the human level, with entertaining interludes and well-researched stories that will make you question your own relationship to your garments.’ Avery Trufelman - host and producer of Articles of Interest

‘From Land Girl breeches to demob suits, austerity chic to Dior’s New Look, Making Do follows the fascinating story of bodies in motion, through air raids, rationing and recycling, as a nation sought to dress the part for war and peace.’ Alan Allport - author of Britain at Bay: The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1938–1941

'Our Subversive Voice: The History and Politics of English Protest Songs, 1600-2020', a new multi-disciplinary book is launched on the four hundred year history and politics of protest songs. , Department of History Honorary Reader, is part of the 'Our Subversive Voice' research project team looking at the use of song to register protest through the ages.

The book is published by McGill Queens University Press in Canada:  

The protest song is - and has always been - a form of political oratory as vital to political representation as it is to performance. Investigating five centuries of English history, Our Subversive Voice establishes that the protest song is not merely the preserve of singer-songwriters; it is a mode of political communication that has been used to confront many systems of oppression across its many genres, from street ballads to art song, grime to hymns, and music hall to punk.

For more information about the research project visit website:

Congratulations to and who have had their article about NHS anniversaries published in Modern British History.

This was drawn from reflections from The Cultural History of the NHS research project.

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Abstract

Delivered a day after Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) reached its 75th year since its opening on the Appointed Day of 5 July 1948, the Pimlott Lecture for 2023 explored the culture of NHS anniversary-making. What can the marking of these anniversaries tell us about changing attitudes towards the service, and indeed, the British state? Here, examining evidence from the media, government archives, and Mass Observation, we argue that NHS anniversaries have long functioned as points of reflection but that their role as moments of national celebration and even communion has come to the fore only recently and culminated in the apparent ‘anniversary fever’ of 2018. We will explore the reasons behind the growing public fervour, what it can tell us, and the lessons offered by our work on this (still) best-loved of British institutions for historians working on highly politicized objects in ‘fevered’ times.