As we mark the centenary of the First World War, this epochal event is usually remembered as a bloody conflict between rival alliances of nations. But there was another struggle as well: between people who regarded the war as a noble and necessary crusade, and a brave minority who felt it was tragic madness and who refused to fight. Writer Adam Hochschild describes this battle in an illustrated talk, focusing on the country where that tension was sharpest, Great Britain. Adam Hochschild's […]
World War One is often portrayed as an inevitable or necessary conflict, which the majority of Britons enthusiastically accepted. This is far from the truth. Remembering the Real World War One is three weeks of events aimed at uncovering hidden histories of resistance to the ‘Great War’ in Bristol from deserters, conchies and pacifists to rebel miners, radical trade unionists and reds. We will also meet those who have been ignored by the official histories, the Indian, African and Asian soldiers […]
Scenes from the Life of Poet and War Casualty: FW Harvey The poet FW Harvey (1886-1957) spent the last thirty years of his life in Yorkley in the Forest of Dean. I was brought up in the Forest of Dean and was always taught that Harvey was our very own war poet and First World War hero who won a medal for “conspicuous gallantry” which included killing a number of German soldiers at close quarters. However this book is about Harvey the man, who was both human and flawed. The book challenges some […]
This book describes the making of the 1991 TV documentary ‘Hughesovka and the New Russia, Dreaming a City’ created by the author and the Welsh historian Gwyn Alf Williams. Focusing on the town of Donetsk in the Ukraine from its origin in eighteen-seventy, when it was a small village occupied by one hundred and seventy people, it documents the historical events from that time through the Russian revolutions, Bolshevism, Stalinism, Nazi occupation, the collapse of Communism and rising Ukraine […]
The public meeting on Eastville Workhouse and the Rosemary Green burial ground on Thursday 28th August was very successful. A lively crowd of 35 residents turned up to St Annes' Church Hall in Greenbank. BRHG laid out maps and other historical sources around the room. Steve and Roger gave a presentation (attached) on the Poor laws and the Eastville Workhouse, Rosemary Green burial ground and other similar projects, which stimulated lots of discussion. See the slides from the presentation. A […]
In April we hosted Black Star: Britain’s Asian Youth Movement, a talk by Anandi Ramamurthy on her book of the same name. Recently a film has been released on the same subject: A documentary film made by local young people looking at the history of their community from the 1960s to the 1980s with particular interest in the murder of Gurdeep Chaggar in 1976, the 1979 anti-fascist demonstrations and the death of Blair Peach and the 1981 burning down of the Hambrough Tavern. The film uses the […]
Public meeting St Anne's Church, St Leonards Road, Greenbank, Bristol, BS5 6JN Over the last two years local historians from Bristol Radical History Group (BRHG) have been researching an old burial ground that lies on Rosemary Green (BS5 6LB) between Rosemary Lane and Greenbank View in Greenbank, East Bristol. It appears that upwards of 3,000 paupers from the Eastville Workhouse (originally 100 Fishponds Rd) were buried in unmarked graves on the site between 1855 and 1895. BRHG believe the […]
The recorded crime rate in the East End of London fell during the period of 1875 until 1900. The rate of common assaults, aggravated assaults, and assaults on the police fell from 423 crimes per 100,000 people in 1875 to 204 crimes in 1900 and even prosecutions for drunkenness fell after 1875. The purpose of this book is to show clearly how that decline was directly related to the actual behavior of the public rather than changes in law enforcement or people’s attitude to crime. In the later […]
Opposition to WW1 in Bristol in August 1914 War enthusiasm? There is a perception in Britain that popular patriotic pressure drove politicians to declare war on Germany on August 4th 1914 and that the population somehow desired war. This so-called ‘war enthusiasm’ has been characterised in the popular memory as: "cheering crowds outside Buckingham Palace, long lines outside recruiting offices and of soldiers marching away singing 'Tipperary'" . These images have been recently promoted by TV […]
