Largest ever History Reading Party

Sixteen finalists in History and the joint degrees with History joined their tutors for this year’s reading party in Herefordshire. The books under discussion ranged widely as ever: from the Umayyad caliphate and early Islamic historiography via debt, architecture and society in Georgian England to Noraid and British intelligence in the Northern Ireland Troubles. The geographical scope ran from West Africa, Belarus, France and the European Union, via the USA in the era of Cold War and Civil Rights, to Japan and China. Large themes tackled included the Elizabethan mind, children in the welfare state, the control of infectious disease and the history of ignorance.

As ever, the historians refreshed themselves with afternoon outings, but a novel form of entertainment was the use of AI to generate a murder mystery involving all the participants.