A history of the present, socialist history seminars at the Institute of Historical Research March 2020-March 2025. From Covid to Zoom & back
On Monday 16th March 2020 I cancelled a socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research for the following reasons:
The historians say that encouraging people to travel to central London when they may not otherwise have had a reason to be there, and meeting in the relatively confined space of a seminar room, was not felt to be a sensible thing to do.
Rhys Williams gave the cancelled paper on Tom Mann in Australia, from Australia via Zoom in October 2020
The world had changed. For the previous 25 years of the seminar speakers had only even been ‘in person’.
On the equivalent day 5 years on Toby Manning delivered a paper on the Pop Chart as an Index in person to a decent audience and a good discussion followed (report to follow). It was almost certainly the first time in its long history that the Institute of Historical Research had echoed to Slade’s Cum on Feel the Noize and the Sex Pistols God Save the Queen.
Five Years, as David Bowie sang on Ziggy Stardust…
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