Professor Susan Carruthers new book 'Making Do; Britons and the Refashioning of the Postwar World' was officially published Thursday 24 April. In this richly textured history, Prof Carruthers unpicks a familiar wartime motto, 'Make Do and Mend', to reveal how central fabric was to postwar Britain. Clothes and footwear supplied a currency with which some were rewarded, while others went without. Making Do moves from Britain's demob centres to liberated Belsen – from razed German cities to refugee camps and troopships – to uncover intimate ties between Britons and others bound together in new patterns of mutual need. Filled with original research and personal stories, Making Do illuminates how lives were refashioned after the most devastating war in human history.

The Sunday Times featured the publication as 'book of the week' and the Daily Mirror ran an exclusive two page feature about the book.

For more information about Prof Carruthers new book visit Cambridge University Press website.

‘This is a necessary inoculation for anyone prone to nostalgia. Making Do is proof that clothing is always a reflection of the human condition - especially when those conditions are dire. Carruthers deftly brings the historic significance of wartime down to the human level, with entertaining interludes and well-researched stories that will make you question your own relationship to your garments.’ Avery Trufelman - host and producer of Articles of Interest

‘From Land Girl breeches to demob suits, austerity chic to Dior’s New Look, Making Do follows the fascinating story of bodies in motion, through air raids, rationing and recycling, as a nation sought to dress the part for war and peace.’ Alan Allport - author of Britain at Bay: The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1938–1941

Congratulations to Professor Susan Carruthers, Professor of US/International History, who has had an article linked to the 80th anniversary of Belsen published in The Conversation.

Read the article in full

Clothing can kill. So, too, can the absence of personal protective equipment. For decades, the medical establishment has understood the role of fabric in both spreading contagion and guarding against its transmission — but never with greater urgency than 80 years ago.

On April 15 1945, British troops liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp near Celle in northern Germany. Shocking scenes awaited behind the barbed wire.....

It is with great sadness that the Department of History announce the death of Professor Fred Reid.

Imperial War Museums (IWM), and the University of Warwick are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded Collaborative doctoral studentship from October 2025 under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships (CDP) scheme.

Start date: 1 October 2025

Application Deadline: 3 June 2025

Interviews: 30 June 2025 (online)

Find full details of the studentship and how to apply at https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/news/phd_studentship/

'Our Subversive Voice: The History and Politics of English Protest Songs, 1600-2020', a new multi-disciplinary book is launched on the four hundred year history and politics of protest songs. Dr Angela McShane, Department of History Honorary Reader, is part of the 'Our Subversive Voice' research project team looking at the use of song to register protest through the ages.

The book is published by McGill Queens University Press in Canada: https://www.mqup.ca/our-subversive-voice-products-9780228023722.phpLink opens in a new window 

The protest song is - and has always been - a form of political oratory as vital to political representation as it is to performance. Investigating five centuries of English history, Our Subversive Voice establishes that the protest song is not merely the preserve of singer-songwriters; it is a mode of political communication that has been used to confront many systems of oppression across its many genres, from street ballads to art song, grime to hymns, and music hall to punk.

For more information about the research project visit website: https://oursubversivevoice.com/Link opens in a new window

A life-sized Lego Suffragette statue named ‘Hope’ will be on display in the Agora, Faculty of Arts Building until the 28th of February 2025. Originally exhibited in the UK Parliament House of Commons, Hope’s visit coincides with the University of Warwick’s 60th birthday and commemorates 75 years since the election of the first female MP for Coventry, Elaine Burton, in 1950.

The History Department is hosting a series of activities during Hope’s stay, raising awareness of local Votes for Women campaign stories and sparking diverse conversations about women’s voting and equal rights in Britain and across the globe today.

More Information on events, news, research and collaborative work related to Hope’s visit can be found here. 

The Department of History is looking to appoint a Research Fellow for a fixed-term period of 24 months from 1 September 2025 to work with Dr Anna Toropova on the Wellcome Trust funded Career Development Award: ‘Traumatised Minds, Neurosis and Hysteria in Soviet Medicine and Culture, 1917-1953’.

This project examines scientific, medical and cultural approaches to psychological trauma in the Soviet Union between 1917 and 1953.

The full advert and job description can be found on the University of Warwick website. For informal queries, please contact Dr Anna Toropova at anna.toropova.1@warwick.ac.uk.

The deadline for applications is Sunday 16 March 2025 at 11.55pm.

Congratulations to Professor Roberta Bivins and Professor Mathew Thomson who have had their article about NHS anniversaries published in Modern British History.

This was drawn from reflections from The Cultural History of the NHS research project.

Read the full article here.

Abstract

Delivered a day after Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) reached its 75th year since its opening on the Appointed Day of 5 July 1948, the Pimlott Lecture for 2023 explored the culture of NHS anniversary-making. What can the marking of these anniversaries tell us about changing attitudes towards the service, and indeed, the British state? Here, examining evidence from the media, government archives, and Mass Observation, we argue that NHS anniversaries have long functioned as points of reflection but that their role as moments of national celebration and even communion has come to the fore only recently and culminated in the apparent ‘anniversary fever’ of 2018. We will explore the reasons behind the growing public fervour, what it can tell us, and the lessons offered by our work on this (still) best-loved of British institutions for historians working on highly politicized objects in ‘fevered’ times.