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Department of History

Annual Discussion Group Conference

Is history repeating itself?: Continuity and change since 1600

A Conference of the Early Modern and Modern History Postgraduate Discussion Groups

Birley Room, Hatfield College
Thursday 31 May 2012

Chaired by Dr. Phil Withington 

The idea that history is built up of continuously repeating patterns is an old cliché still prominent in popular culture, but how valid is it in the field of historical research? Conflicts of different types, whether military or ideological, certainly seem to persist, yet since the beginnings of the early modern period the world has experienced drastic change - colonisation, industrialisation, and globalisation. Such transitions have shaped the world culturally, economically and socially, though some broad structures - for instance, Great Britain - have held their form in some sense. Considering the upheavals of the modern period, can we still claim that history repeats itself? Is this idea of any use to historians? Taking this saying as a starting point, we invite papers from postgraduates on the subject of continuity and change in the early and late modern periods.

For more information, please contact Lindsay Varner. 

Conference Programme

10.00 - 10.30am: Tea & Coffee and Introduction.

10.30 - 12 noon: Session I

Andy Burn: ‘Is "urban development" a one-way street? Continuity and change in 17C Newcastle upon Tyne'

Rob Doherty: ‘From "White Heat" to "Rebalancing": Old problems, new ideas? Post-war British economic policy in perspective.'

12noon - 1pm: Lunch in Hatfield's SCR

1.00 - 2.30pm: Session II

Jonathan Bush: "'Struggling to be liberal, yet still bound in the chains of prejudice': Continuity and change in Victorian anti-Catholic ideology in the North East of England.'

Reetta Humalajoki: ‘Kill the Indian, Save the Citizen: Perceptions of Native American Citizenship in the New York Times, 1950 - 1970.'

2.30 - 2.45: Tea & Coffee

2.45 - 4.15pm: Session III

Paul Simpson: ‘The British Labour Party and Empire in the interwar years.'

Poppy Cullen: ‘"Winds of Change" and Continuity in British Foreign Policy 1960 - 1977'

4.30pm: Wine Reception

6.00pm: Dinner