The Open University

Lockdown lessons from the history of solitude

9 April 2020

David Vincent, Professor of History at The Open University writes for The Conversation about this history of solitude. When the poet John Donne was struck down by a sudden infection in 1623 he immediately found himself alone – even his doctors deserted him. The experience, which only lasted a week, was intolerable. He later wrote: […]

LGBT History Month: a retrospective on Alan Turing

15 February 2019

February of each year is LBGT History Month, a month-long focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, with the overall aim of promoting equality and diversity, and increasing the visibility of the LGBT community. Professor Sophie Grace Chappell, Professor of Philosophy at The Open University, regularly writes about her own experiences as transgender, as well as discussing […]

‘They died with stones in their mouths’: Hiroshima’s last survivors tell their stories

3 January 2019

This article was written by Elizabeth Chappell, PhD Candidate, for The Conversation. At 84, Shoso Kawamoto is one of the few surviving hibakusha – the Hiroshima atomic bomb survivors – orphans, still telling his story. When I first interviewed Kawamoto for my work in 2012, I hadn’t come across tales of orphans in Hiroshima. The bomb, […]

Game of Thrones: imagined world combines romantic and grotesque visions of Middle Ages

17 October 2018

Take the dragons and the zombies away from the television adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s epic A Song of Ice and Fire novels and you are left with the seemingly authentic portrayal of a pseudo-medieval world. Indeed, Martin was inspired by historical events such as the Wars of the Roses, the Crusades and the Hundred […]

The remarkable story of Auschwitz survivor and OU graduate Evelyn Lipmann

8 August 2018

The lives of hundreds of thousands of people have been transformed by their study at The Open University, but few can have valued it more than Evelyn Lipmann. Evelyn, now 94, enrolled for a Humanities degree in the early 1970s to help put behind her the horror of the Nazi concentration camps. Decades later, she […]

Etruscan Stele, which was discovered by archaeologists at an ancient temple near Florence, Italy

Ancient inscription offers insight into extinct language

15 June 2016

A team of archaeologists has recently discovered a 2,500 year old stone on which is an inscription in an ancient, extinct language. We spoke to one of the academics leading on the project, Professor of Archaeology, Phil Perkins, about the impact of this on our understanding of the past: What is the ‘Etruscan Stele’? “Basically, […]

Why did Tutankhamun have a dagger made from a meteorite?

3 June 2016

Scientists have long speculated that the ancient Egyptians used metal from meteorites to make iron objects. Now an analysis of a dagger found in Tutankhamun’s tomb has given us strong evidence that this was the case – and that the Egyptians knew the iron had come from the sky. But why did they use such […]

The obscure history of the ‘virgin’s disease’ that could be cured with sex

5 January 2016

Female virginity, we’re increasingly told, is a psychological rather than a physical condition. It’s not something that can be “lost” or “taken”. Not every woman has a hymen, and it’s rarely some tough barrier that keeps a woman “closed” and which has to break and bleed; instead, it’s a flexible set of folds of mucous […]

‘Twas millennia before Christmas

23 December 2015

Who doesn’t love Christmas? The tree standing proud, adorned with baubles, lights, and surrounded by gifts; the radio singing festive songs, whilst the turkey slowly roasts in the oven; and the family gathered around the television with the grandparents eagerly awaiting the Queen’s Christmas Speech. Where did it all begin? Reader in British History at […]

The free speech battle that forced Britain’s 18th-century radicals to flee

18 December 2015

Main picture: “The Friends of the People”, Isaac Cruikshank (1764–1811), Mary Mark Ockerbloom While emigration into Britain has often been (and still is) associated with fear of oppression and escape from conflict, there is a general perception that emigration out of the country has been a rather more positive pursuit. Leaving Britain has long been associated […]

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Category: History