In 1343, more than 150 inhabitants of Great Yarmouth attacked two ships belonging to a certain Robert Morley that were anchored at the roadstead of Kirkley, a village ten kilometres to the south, and seized around £5,000 worth of goods.1 The assailants were members of the leading families of Great Yarmouth and ranged from ship owners and traders, to holders of political office (both royal and municipal), customs officers, bailiffs, and admirals. They were involved in the administration of ju...| ghil.hypotheses.org
Investigating Violence at Sea In 1343, more than 150 inhabitants of Great Yarmouth attacked two ships belonging to a certain Robert Morley that were anchored at the roadstead of Kirkley, a village ten kilometres to the south, and seized around £5,000 worth of goods.1 The assailants were members of the leading families of Great Yarmouth … Continue reading Markets, Marginalization, and Maritime Violence in Late Medieval England| German Historical Institute London Blog
In recent years, railways have undergone a remarkable renaissance in Europe—night train lines have been (re-)established, the high-speed rail network continues to grow, and in the continent’s effort to reduce CO2 emissions, railways play a key role in the much-needed reform of the transportation sector. However, persistent issues like delays and cancellations highlight the consequences … Continue reading How to Commemorate Railways at 200? Unearthing Histories of Maintenance, Global Mat...| German Historical Institute London Blog
Roundtable Discussion: Mirjam Brusius, Mirjam Hähnle, Mallika Leuzinger, Markus Mößlang, Ole Münch, Michael Schaich, Indra Sengupta, Pascale Siegrist, Clemens Villinger, Christina von Hodenberg The archival repositories historians work with, and the methods they use to analyse their source base, have undergone significant changes in the past few decades. Increasing efforts are being made to reconstruct the history of groups which are historically under-documented in institutional archives...| German Historical Institute London Blog
The brutalist Philips Building in central London does not look very inviting at first. Nevertheless, it is a magnet for students and researchers from all over the world working on Asia and Africa. Nowadays probably the most important institution in the Global North for research on the Global South, SOAS (School of Oriental and African … Continue reading Knowledge Production between Mission, University, and Colonial Administration: Swahili Studies in Britain and Germany, 1840s–1940s| German Historical Institute London Blog
‘It’s a woman’s work.’ With these words, a 1939 leaflet encouraged women to join the Metropolitan Women Police, which at this point had existed for twenty years. While one of the photos in the brochure shows female officers learning self-defence, other pictures emphasize more gender-conformist tasks: a photo of a female officer comforting a child … Continue reading ‘Woman’s Work’? What Debates about Policewomen in the Inter-War Period Tell Us about Contemporary Understandings ...| German Historical Institute London Blog
Public performance of the dawsa, a traditional Sufi ritual, was an inseparable part of the traditional mawlid festival1 held every year in Cairo. Mainly affiliated with and performed by the Saʿdiyya Sufi order, the ritual had several phases. The most striking part of the ritual was when the Shaykh of the Saʿdiyya Sufi order rode his stallion, on his way to his tent, over the backs of hundreds of dervishes (disciples) lying face-down in the streets of Cairo. According to some historical acco...| German Historical Institute London Blog
Part 3—Deindustrialization as Pollution Export: From Pittsburgh and Chicago to Baghdad and Delhi In spring 1960, a senior city councillor from Frankfurt set off on a two-week trip to the USA to study the measures taken there to keep the air clean in industrial cities, and to bring them back to Germany if appropriate.1 From … Continue reading From London Fog to Frankfurt Smog: Sensing Anthropogenic Weather Conditions from a Transurban Perspective in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries| German Historical Institute London Blog
‘To the seventh interrogatory this deponent saith that . . . the said ship or vessell Concordia was bound to Cork in Ireland and from thence to Saint Eustatius aforesaid in the West Indies and from thence to Amsterdam in Holland and to no other port or places in her voyage and that . . . she carried from Bremen a … Continue reading The Concordia: A Global Microhistory of a Bremen Ship| German Historical Institute London Blog
Part 2—Sniffer Squads on the Odour Trail: Smog in Frankfurt The fog phenomenon seen, and smelled, in London in the late 1800s had still not been eradicated by the midpoint of the next century. On the night of 22 January 1957, mysterious events occurred in Frankfurt am Main that were similar to those in Victorian London. As ‘all Frankfurt daily newspapers unanimously’ reported, adults, and especially children, were afflicted by headaches, dizzy spells, and nausea, while passers-by stagge...| German Historical Institute London Blog
This blog post marks the launch of the latest monograph in our series, Publications of the German Historical Institute London: Racializing Caste: Anthropology between Germany and India and the Legacy of Irawati Karve (1905–1970) by Thiago P. Barbosa, winner of the 2023 Prize of the German Historical Institute London and the Frobenius Research Promotion Award 2023 … Continue reading Germany–India Entanglements in the Scientific Racialization of Caste| German Historical Institute London Blog
Part 1—Shades of Yellow, Black, and Grey: The London ‘Pea Souper’, The ‘Manchester Entire’, and Sooty Hamburg around 1900 In London, a mysterious weather phenomenon clouded the fin de siècle. For eight consecutive winters from October 1893, large parts of the city were repeatedly engulfed in a mixture of smoke and fog which were perceived … Continue reading From London Fog to Frankfurt Smog: Sensing Anthropogenic Weather Conditions from a Transurban Perspective in the Nineteenth ...| German Historical Institute London Blog