Tristram Hunt on BBC 4

New History Lab speaker Tristram Hunt is presenting an episode of the series 'The Joy of Motoring' next week on BBC 4. It's on at 9:00pm on Wednesday (19th Feb).

Eighteenth-Century Vampirism

A few years ago I found this nice bit of foreign journalism in the Gentleman's Magazine. I think it's worth sharing:

From Madreyga in Hungary, That certain dead Bodies called Vampyres, had kill’d several Persons by sucking out all their Blood. The Commander in Chief, and Magistrates of the Place were severally examin’d and unanimously declared, that about 5 Years ago, a certain Heyduke named Arnold Paul, in his Life Time was heard to say, he had been tormented by a Vampyre, and that for a Remedy he had eaten some of the Earth of the Vampyre’s Graves, and rubbed himself with their Blood. That 20 or 30 Days after the Death of the said Arnold Paul, several Persons complained they were tormented; and that he had taken away the Lives of 4 Persons. To put a Stop to such a Calamity, the Inhabitants having consulted their Hardnagi took up his Body, 40 Days after he had been dead, and found it fresh and free from Corruption; that he bled at the Nose, Mouth and Ears, pure and florid Blood; that his Shroud and Winding Sheet were all over Bloody; and that his Finger and Toe Nails were fallen off, and new ones grown in their room. By these Circumstances they were perswaded he was a Vampyre, and, according to Custom, drove a Stake thro’ his Heart; at which he gave a horrid Groan. They burnt his Body to Ashes, and threw them into his Grave. ‘Twas added, that those who have been tormented or killed by the Vampyres become Vampyres when they are dead. Upon which Account they served several other dead Bodies as they had done Arnold Paul’s, for tormenting the Living.

The item appeared in 1732, and predates the earliest citation of the word 'vampire' in the OED. It must therefore be one of the earliest accounts of vampirism in English. John Polidori refers to it (or, at least, another version published elsewhere) in the introduction to his brilliant 1819 short-story 'The Vampyre'.

Cool Text Tools, part 2

Next is the much more nerdy Text Stat. This is a free and relatively simple computer program which can analyse text corpora. One of its most useful functions is its ability to produce a frequency list of all the words in a text. For example, I used it to find that there are 39 references to 'king' or 'kings' in John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel - 'parliament' and its variants do not appear. This is interesting, because I expected that word to appear at least somewhere in a thousand-line poem about the king's relationship with parliament.

Of course, one shouldn't read too much into what is little more than a crude count of how many times a word appears in a document. However, being able to look at texts from an entirely new angle might prove to be a useful stimulus of new ideas. One could then investigate them by doing a proper, conventional reading of the texts.

Legacies and Futures: The History Workshop and radical education (CFP)

Cynthia (who gave the paper on the land grabbers) has sent me details of this call for papers, for a conference to be held on 19/9/2009 at Ruskin College, Oxford. - looks good fun!

The recent opening up of the History Workshop archive at Ruskin College - in addition to the Raphael Samuel Archive at the Bishopsgate Institute - provides new opportunities for thinking about History.

The History Workshops held in the 1960s, 70s and 80s provided particular opportunities for wide-ranging discussions of History and its application in the present. The History Workshop Movement was seen as a radical movement dedicated to political change and new ways of thinking about the past and present.

While discussion of the past in the public domain has arguably opened up extensively, History in schools, colleges, universities and adult education is circumscribed by different constraints to those of the early years of the History Workshop.

What are the possibilities now of practising radical history-making? Is democratic scholarship viable - and what forms can it take? What new forms of engagement are possible? What have we learned and what should be left in the past? What different roles might History have in local and community activism?

This one day conference is not intended to be a nostalgic event but to provide an opportunity to think about and discuss visions and practical examples now. We are also exploring publication of conference contributions.

Speakers include Dr Anna Davin, editor of History Workshop Journal, Ken Jones, Professor of Education at Keele University and author of Schooling in Western Europe: the new order and its adversaries (Palgrave 2008),Jorma Kalela, Professor (emeritus) University of Turku and author of The Historian in Society (forthcoming 09/10) Marjorie Mayo, Professor of Community Development & Head of the Centre for Lifelong Learning and Community Engagement Goldsmiths College, University of London and author of Global Citizens (Zed 2006)

Please send proposals for both analytical and practical papers, presentations, displays in no more than 200 words by 31 March to Kynan Gentry [email protected] and Hilda Kean [email protected]

Poster this: Festival of Postgraduate Research (CFP)

Here are some details of the poster festival of postgraduate research held in July. A worthwhile activity - it would be great to see more history being put out there!

For the fifth successive year, the University of Leicester is holding its one-day poster presentation exhibition to showcase postgraduate research to employers and the general public, as well as to the wider research community. As a postgraduate researcher, this is an exciting opportunity to publicise your research to new audiences and to make useful contacts. There will also be the opportunity to win substantial prizes provided by employers for the best presentations. In addition, the best exhibitors will be asked to represent the University of Leicester at a regional competition organised by Vitae on Tuesday 7th July 2009.

Posters should be designed to explain your research to the widest possible audience. The University will select the 50 best proposals from postgraduates across the University. These proposals will be posted on the Festival of Postgraduate Research website and promoted to academics, employers and the press. The selected postgraduates will then have the opportunity to attend a one-day training course entitled Presenting Research to Different Audiences covering poster design, employability, networking skills and media awareness.

Successful applicants will be invited to present their posters on Thursday 25th June in the Belvoir Suite, 2nd Floor, Charles Wilson Building, to an audience drawn from the University, employers and the general public.

For details of the application procedure, and further information, visit the graduate school website.

More detailed information briefings will be held from 1-2pm in the Student Development Zone Seminar Room (David Wilson Library) on:
Monday 9th February, and Thursday 12th February

The deadline Friday 6th March 2009.

A nation obsessed with weather

"Pray don't talk to me about the weather, Mr. Worthing. Whenever people talk to me about the weather, I always feel quite certain that they mean something else."

What with the recent chilly snap, the topic of snow seems have been almost the sole topic of conversation of late. This rather interesting article on just how jolly cold it got in 1947, and the consequences of such a chill, then, is bound to go down rather well. From The Times.