H&P encourages historians to use their expertise to shed light on issues of the day. If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece for publication, please see our editorial guidelines. We currently have 338 Opinion Articles listed by date and they are all freely searchable by theme, author or keyword.
As the UK considers joining America in bombing the terrorist group Islamic State (IS) in Iraq, Dr Marc-William Palen considers the light early-twentieth century theorists can throw on today’s state-sponsored militarism, democratic and despotic alike.
If the British Empire still existed, there would be no talk of Scottish independence, argues Dr Bryan Glass, of Texas State University, who examines the imperial legacy of today’s referendum.
History shows that hackneyed rhetoric about 'health and safety gone mad' fails to understand the benefits of the 1974 Act, which has saved untold numbers of lives since it was passed 40 years ago this week. Dr Mike Esbester of Portsmouth University investigates.
In the wake of the 2014 World Cup, Dr Neil Carter, of De Montfort University, examines the historical developments underpinning the relationship between sport, particularly football, and medicine.
It's not only the NHS and BBC that can learn lessons from the Savile investigations. Dr Adrian Bingham, of Sheffield University, argues in an new opinion piece co-published with Opendemocracy that press culture at the time contributed to Savile's ability to abuse.
As khat is banned in the UK today, Dr Luke Gibbon, of Strathclyde University, considers past prohibitions of the herbal stimulant in colonial Aden and Kenya - which had unintended negative consequences and ended in failure.
Instead of lambasting Labour's proposed reforms to the private rental housing sector, critics should look to the past to understand why regulation is needed, argues Phil Child of Exeter University.
They were messengers in the First World War, jumped over Normandy on D Day and detected mines in Afghanistan and Iraq. Military working dogs have played a key role in conflicts and been decorated for their service in the British Armed Forces. As Kim Brice of King's College London explains, they are likely to remain a mainstay.
‘The introduction of a girl’, warned diplomat Ralph Stevenson in 1934, ‘would be a very disturbing factor and quite possibly impair the efficiency of the Chancery machine.’ Attitudes and rules have changed dramatically since the interwar years, but today women still fill only 25% of top posts in the British Diplomatic Service. Dr Helen McCarthy, of Queen Mary University of London, explores the legacy of a profession established in the nineteenth century for elite white men supported by uncomplaining spouses.
Could the fall in serious violence announced recently be related to declining alcohol consumption in Britain since the mid-2000s? Dr James Nicholls considers changing drinking levels, licensing laws and social mores over 400 years to understand the complex effects on violence and health. In doing so, he punctures the myth of boozy Britain and binge drinkers.
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