Black's History Week

It is easy for us to associate steam trains with nostalgia. As British trains and railways were being developed, though, as Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss, they were at the forefront of British progress.

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart begin a new series on the development of British railways. How were they funded? Who were the key figures? Did trains simply supplant other forms of transport or cooperate with them? Find a seat and join us.

Professor Jeremy Black joins Graham Stewart to discuss slavery and reparations, and the complexity and potential folly of seeking to right moral evils of the past in the politics of the present. 

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss American disorder in the past and present, and whether the US or the UK is more welcoming of different opinions.

Did the French Revolutionary Wars dominate British politics or did they spur innovation and reform? Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss a tempestuous time.

18th Century England featured an exciting literary milieu — but also political and religious upheaval. Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart investigate.

How should we think about Britain's colonial expansion? Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart try to set it in historical context and discuss its economic and geopolitical implications.

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss conflict and cooperation between the different peoples of Britain in the 18th Century.

Professor Jeremy Black speaks with Graham Stewart about eighteenth century politics and the recurrent situations of history. 

How similar and different is the Russo-Ukrainian War from other conflicts in history? Graham Stewart interviews Professor Jeremy Black.

Why have the Conservative PMs who have followed David Cameron struggled to leave their mark? Professor Jeremy Black speaks to Graham Stewart.

Was Blair a shallow political operator — or something worse? Jeremy Black speaks to Graham Stewart

Was John Major’s premiership “continuity Thatcher”, something distinctive in its own right or just a long period of undistinguished drift from which Blairism offered escape? Professor Jeremy Black and The Critic ’s deputy editor, Graham Stewart, assess what Major wanted and what he got.

Is modern Britain the country that Margaret Thatcher largely shaped or a repudiation of much of what she strived to create? In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black and The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, debate the extent of the Iron Lady achievements.

Was David Cameron's premiership the last stable period of British government or did he bequeath many of the problems that beset Britain today? In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black makes the case for the prosecution to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart.

Gordon Brown is back, devising constitutional reform for the House of Lords and more devolution for Scotland. In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black and The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart discuss his legacy.

In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how the expansion of higher education has delivered so much less than it promised. Is government policy, managerial self-interest, funding models or student priorities most to blame?

How did the priorities of cartographers shape the past and, now that we have satellite imaging, how will map-making continue to inform our view of the world? In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart.

In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about America's political and strategic options and what the mid-term elections have changed or clarified.

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, and considers why there is so little agreement on what to do with the House of Lords.

What are the practices and politics behind book reviewing and what does "peer review" mean in reality? In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black tells all to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart.

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black weighs Britain's recent political and economic turbulence and suggests to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, that it is scarcely evidence of national decline.

Should we speak ill of the dead? Professor Jeremy Black tells The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, that we should.

In this concluding episode on German history, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about what holds German identity and heritage together given the institutional, political, religious and territorial ruptures that have shaped and reshaped German history. 

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about contemporary German foreign policy. Have German interests really been subsumed into a common European position on the world stage and why did Berlin so badly miscalculate its relations with Putin's Russia?