The monarchy, mythmaking, and VE Day

The monarchy, mythmaking, and VE Day

By Ed Owens On the 75th anniversary of VE Day, Ed Owens — author of The Family Firm. Monarchy, Mass Media and the British Public, 1932-53 — reflects on the royal family’s careful cultivation of a media image in wartime, culminating with the events of...

Recent articles on the First World War

It is with some trepidation that I launch into a post on the First World War. There has been a spat between government ministers and historians about the myths/realities/teaching of the war and already some commentators are arguing against the commemoration of the...

Nineteenth-century print and digital resources

A recent issue of Media History has a special issue simply entitled “Ephemera”. The essays outline various justifications for the value of ephemera for historical research, covering such subjects as American humour in the late-Victorian British press, agony aunt...

Freedom of Information – benefits and limitations of the Act

Archives and SocietyFreedom of InformationBen Worthy (University College London)4 October 2011Ben Worthy explains the benefits, limitations and difficulty of the Freedom of Information Act brought in by the Blair administration in 2000.  The act would subsequently...

1920s and 1930s fashion and film – Screen Search Fashion

Carly Eck and Hannah Kauffman discuss the website Screen Search Fashion in Costume. The film and fashion website is an online teaching and learning resource that is freely accessible and presents material that has been underused by fashion and costume historians. The...