Looking back over the Black History Month blog posts from last year, you will find descriptions of the many powerful Black women who successfully overcame the frightening violence and persecution that followed the uptick in racism and fearmongering in the 1950s following the post-war economic collapse. Figures such as Mavis Best who changed the law from a tool of persecution to a standard for equality that gave police sweeping powers of arrest without cause and allowed them to intimidate Black people with the threat of arbitrary arrest and instigated the Race Relations Act of 1965 that replaced colonial laws and established equal rights in law for everyone, regardless of their ethnicity. These figures are so important that I wanted to revisit them again briefly here.

A database reminder One person in seven experiences disability (World Bank, World Report on Disability, 2015, Washington, DC). Yet the story of this community and its contributions is largely absent from the scholarly record. Disability in the Modern World: History …

Disability in the Modern World Read more »

The history of the University of Portsmouth stretches back to 1869.  A display telling the story of the various institutions which became our current university is now on show at the Portsmouth History Centre until mid-May.  The display is a joint project between Portsmouth …

University of Portsmouth: Our History exhibition Read more »

The academic study of queer culture and lifestyles has become a popular field of study in several degree courses.  We have a broad range of books about this subject in the University Library.  You can find more resources on diverse …

Exploring queer cultures and lifestyles in the creative arts in Britain c1885-1967 Read more »

For those of you who love archives and libraries and enjoy visiting museums and art galleries, this may be the website for you.  If you like finding out about forthcoming exhibitions (and anything archaeological and historical) see http://www.culture24.org.uk/home. It’s partly …

Culture24 Read more »

Channel 4 and British film culture It’s always satisfying to review a title produced by ‘one of our own’  so here’s a a collection of academic journal articles printed in book form and co-edited by Justin Smith.  Those of you …

Creative Arts Book of the Week 28/09/15 Read more »

“Women’s Wear Daily”, as the name suggests, is a daily publication focusing on the business of women’s clothing. Published in America from 1910, it’s been monitoring trends for over a century. The complete archive of this publication, complete with high …

Don’t forget your pants! An exploration of the Women’s Wear Daily archive online Read more »

20th Century Fashion: 100 Years of Apparel Ads by Jim Heimann (editor) and Alison A. Nieder (text) This week I chose a book on fashion; a subject I have not covered before.  During the 20th century, fashion evolved from being …

Creative Arts Book of the Week 13/04/15 Read more »