News items of interest to WHN Members
“Uncleanliness of the mind and body act and react,” wrote the Edinburgh-trained physician J. Milner Fothergill in his 1874 Maintenance of Health, “and perfect health of one is incompatible with an unhealthy state of the other.” The Victorian middle classes…
In mid-August 2020, Dolly Parton was in the news. This is not unusual, but the headlines were a bit bigger this time because, unlike her usual practice, Dolly had made a political statement. In a prominent interview for Billboard,[1] she…
“Race… It is an area of enormous sensitivity in this country. You know. Oh God, the things I listen to on public radio, I can’t believe it. But, you know, the part that’s unpleasant about that is: why do you…
Lips that Touch Liquor: Fighting for the Face of Female Temperance, forthcoming with the Royal Historical Society / University of London Press (2021), will be the first full-length examination of the female temperance movement. Women played a significant part in…
Over the course of two days in July of 1962, more than 150,000 people packed Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, California for the fourth edition of the United States-Soviet Union dual track and field meet, an event organized to encourage…
Whilst the events of this summer have thrown into sharp relief the effects of state sanctioned violence against Black communities, globally, it is important to recognise that alongside the campaigns to end racism there has also been activity that seeks…
In many ways, Diane Abbott is a pioneer. In 1987, she became the UK’s first black woman MP. This alone was a historic achievement and should entitle her to a place in any serious history of British politics. However, this…
In 1990, a group of African and Caribbean ex-service personnel appeared on an episode of the BBC television show ‘Hear-Say’. One woman explained why Britain’s Black citizens chose to take up arms in the Second World War. If Hitler had…
Menopause, a key aspect of most women’s lives, is no longer off limits. Much is written about it, increasing airtime on radio and TV is allocated to it, websites are dedicated to it, and support groups are burgeoning. As October…