• The Restoration of the Chimney Map

    Written by Emma Marriott. In the heart of Edinburgh, our University and the National Library of Scotland (NLS) have been working in collaboration to research the mystery that is known as the restoration on the ‘Chimney Map’. Fifteen years ago a rare antique map was deposited into the NLS after having been found in a…

  • The Illusive Window: Insights into an Irish Tale

    Written by Deana Davis. The extent to which written sources can be relied upon has constantly plagued historians in their attempt to recreate and “see” the past. In Ireland’s case, its unique plethora of cycles, or tales, contain pseudo-historical stories that have been fertile ground for such recreation. One such collection of tales, the Ulster…

  • My Year Abroad: Studying History in France

    Written by Martin Greenacre. In Britain, we have an absurd fixation with university league tables. In the absence of a similar system in France, I knew little of what to expect when I arrived in Dijon for my year abroad studying history at the Université de Bourgogne. The titles of the courses were not even…

  • The Great War Column: Edinburgh’s Fallen Alumni

    Written by Ashleigh Jackson. James Crozier was a former medical student at the University of Edinburgh and was tragically killed within the first few weeks of World War I. The University’s Roll of Honour from 1915 lists the first of those to be killed during the opening months of the conflict. The document, which can…

  • Film Review: Anthropoid – The Czech Assassination Plot

    Written by Ciara McKay. Anthropoid seems a strange name for a film, but makes sense once you realise that this was a code-name for a secret Czech plan to assassinate one of the highest ranking Nazi officers, Reinhard Heydrich, in 1942. The acting ‘Reichsprotektor’ of Bohemia and Moravia, Heydrich was notorious for his vicious methods.…

  • Thomas Jackson: The Stonewall of Confederate Honour

    Written by Kevin Kempton. On 21 July 1861, Union Brigadier General Irvin McDowell fought against Confederate Brigadier General Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard at First Bull Run (or First Manassas). As the Confederate lines began to crumble under McDowell’s heavy Union assault, a brigade arrived, providing significant reinforcements on Henry House Hill. Confederate Brigadier General Barnard Elliott…

  • 5 Minutes With… Dr Robert Crowcroft

    Written by Sophia Fothergill. Dr Robert Crowcroft has been teaching at the University of Edinburgh for five years, and currently teaches an honours class entitled ‘From New Jerusalem to New Labour: The Labour Party in Contemporary Britain’. The interview below was conducted in October 2016. Can you briefly summarise your area of interest in history? I…

  • Pan-Africanism and Western Domination

    Written by Pablo Perez Ruiz. “Toussaint’s failure was the failure of enlightenment, not of darkness.” – C.L.R James, Black Jacobins. “This is where the African intellectual lives in paradoxical terms: powerful yet powerless.” – Toyin Falola, Nationalism and African Intellectuals. Pan-Africanism, when taken as a broad ‘group of movements’ with ‘no single nucleus’ and stemming from the experiences of the…