The Centre for Modern and Contemporary History

World-class research that engages the public

Established in 2022, the Centre for Modern and Contemporary History (CMCH) supports the research of LJMU's historians, strengthens our partnerships with museums and historical societies and creates opportunities for new collaborations at local, national and international levels. It also houses LJMU History's extensive range of externally-funded research projects and Impact Case Studies.

The CMCH hosts a range of activities including seminars, workshops, book launches and other public speaking events. For updates on these events, please follow us on Twitter - @LJMUHistory.

For enquiries related to the CMCH, please contact one of its Directors:

Prof James Crossland - j.n.crossland@ljmu.ac.uk

Dr Chris Vaughan - c.m.vaughan@ljmu.ac.uk

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News

CMCH members

CMCH research projects

Externally-funded projects

"Anxiety, Prejudice, Paranoia: Shaping British Intelligence Culture, 1880s-1920s"

Leverhulme Trust (£113,000 / 2022-2025)

This project examines how colonial anxieties, prejudices and trauma shaped the culture of Britain’s intelligence community during its formative period from the 1880s to the 1920s. This will be done using a novel interdisciplinary method, which will involve combining the study of emotions and human experience (affective science) and collective biography (prosopography) to explore the emotional states and activities of 19 individuals who, after experiences in the colonies, returned to Britain to work for the Community. By uncovering the connections between colonial experiences and the development of the Community’s institutional culture, this project will contribute new knowledge to the field of imperial history, and pioneer a more human-centric approach to intelligence studies, in which the emotional states of intelligence officers will be given greater consideration when analysing how they assess and respond to threats. Through a range of outputs aimed at both academics and the public, this research will open avenues for a wide discussion of the troubling colonial origins of today’s intelligence Community.

Researchers: James Crossland and Lukasz Grzymski.

"Engaging with a Pariah State: British Cultural Diplomacy in Rhodesia, 1965 to 1980"

British Academy (£7,715 / 2023-2025)

Debates about the value of cultural boycotts re-emerge on a cyclical basis, often coming hand-in-hand with the implementation of economic sanctions. The key question is always whether it is better to isolate a pariah state, or maintain cultural contact with the general population in the hope of softening attitudes, promoting change, and gaining influence. One example, which has received little scholarly attention, is the efforts by Britain to utilise cultural diplomacy in its dealing with the ‘rebel colony’ of Rhodesia. While Britain and Rhodesia had a unique relationship, and this contact took place at a very different time, this case study can be used as a microcosm for the contemporary challenges states face when attempting to sustain linkages through cultural contact with the aim of maintaining long-term influence.

Researcher: Dan Feather.

"Sharing Lands: Reconciliation, Recognition and Reciprocity"

AHRC (£509,400 / 2024-2027)

The remarkable story of the $172 sent by members of the Choctaw tribe to Ireland via the General Irish Relief Committee of the City of New York during the Great Famine in 1847 is one that is often recalled by people worldwide. Despite that fact, both the details surrounding the connection between the Choctaw Nation, the people of Ireland and the gift's legacy have been greatly understudied. Rooted in the Choctaw concept of ima (giving), the project will consider the gift's expression of core indigenous values as well as models of sharing and collective wellbeing. It will also construct a deeper understanding of the ways in which Choctaw traditions have led to moments of empathy, recognition, and international alliance between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. There are other relevancies to be considered too, given that the tribe's donation was dispatched soon after Choctaw Removal to Indian Territory in the mid-1830s. Also suffering from hunger, disease and land loss, swathes of the population in Ireland-had experienced numerous privations caused by colonial expansion. It is also a tragic fact that many Irish born migrants and Irish-America settlers-President Andrew Jackson amongst them-would go on to play a large part in expansionist U.S. policies during the 1830s and beyond. Set within the broader interpretative contexts established by this project, the enduring story of the Choctaw gift can speak, compellingly, to issues surrounding collective trauma and indigenous responses to colonisation. Moreover, the critical(re)assessment of this story, as well as the memorialisation, commemoration and celebration of it in the twenty-first century, underlines the potential for recovery and reconciliation, both within and between communities. Finally, set against a backdrop of famine and removal, in the first instance, as well as forms of sustenance and sharing, in the second, the donation might prompt audiences to consider questions relating to immigration, internationalism and belonging, patterns of inter-relationality and reciprocity during times of crisis and catastrophic change, and the ethics of production and consumption, especially around food sustainability.

Researchers: Gillian O'Brien and Prof LeAnne Howe (University of Georgia).

Partner Organisations: Irish Heritage Trust, Department of Foreign Affairs, Irish American Heritage Museum, Nano Nagle Place and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

"From Slavery to Roe vs Wade: Using Theatre to Explore Black Diasporic Understandings of Reproductive Health and Justice"

British Academy (£7,810 / 2023-2024)

This collaborative between LJMU, Collective Encounters and the International Slavery Museum, works with women from local descendant communities to better understand how participatory theatre methodology can help curators understand difficult sources and artefacts. The objective is to co-produce research into slavery, midwifery and reproductive health. In the trauma-informed sessions – led by local artists – the project researchers explore links between reproductive violence under slavery and in the present day. The participants and artists will use creative methodologies to share in the archival material, building knowledge and developing critical skills.

Researchers: Andrea Livesey and Isabel Robinson.

Partner Organisations: Collective Encounters and the International Slavery Museum.

Impact case studies

"History Through Advertising"

This project seeks to engage children at Key Stage 2 (KS2) in the study of history, generating enthusiasm for the subject by providing an accessible means to understand the past. It seeks to do this by using historic press advertisements given that pupils will be familiar with such outputs, making it accessible and being presented in a language they understand, thereby making connections with their contemporary circumstances. The intention is to develop resource/teaching packs which open up an entirely new approach to the KS2 National Curriculum unit, ‘Beyond 1066’, the states aim of which is to develop pupils’ chronological understanding typically by following a theme across time. The parameters of the unit in this case will follow specific products/brands from the mid-nineteenth century through to the 1980s. This timeframe witnesses the evolution of modern advertising as we recognise it today, in large part a consequence of the Industrial Revolution whereby production volume and diversity increased calling on producers to devise ever more effective methods to shift units. Starting at this point, pupils will learn more about the rise of industrial Britain and the birth of modern consumer society. Further, we witness the rise of the modern newspaper, a crucial vehicle for spreading such messages: via this means, lessons can be taught which demonstrate the erosion of local identities and the rise of a more homogenous nation.

Researchers: David Clampin, Ailsa Fidler and Avril Rowley.

Research clusters

Risk, Emergencies and Security

Crises, emergencies, and the notion of a global “risk society” have become a mainstay of the public discourse. In the first two decades of the 21st century alone, societies faced the challenges of international terrorism, global financial crises, the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, and various armed conflicts. We believe these pressing contemporary issues are rooted in long-term historical developments and thus warrant historically-informed analysis and discussion. Understanding these phenomena requires multi- and cross-disciplinary approaches, and we are therefore keen to include colleagues with a background in sociology, political science, media studies, linguistics and literature, and law (but not limited to them) in the work of the cluster alongside colleagues from history. This cluster aims to provide a forum for researchers in to engage with these issues and to facilitate multi, inter- and cross-disciplinary discussion and collaboration.

Cluster leader: Andre Keil

The Postcolonial World: Ends and Legacies of Empire

The end of European global empires in the decades following World War II seemed to herald a fundamental and unprecedented historical shift from a world of empires to a world of nation-states. The process of decolonisation in Asia and Africa, its contingencies and contested outcomes, has come under sustained historical scrutiny in recent years, and the study of newly independent states in the post-colonial world is a key area of interest within the wider context of global history. Yet the questions of whether imperialism really ended with the decolonisation of European empires - particularly given the character of American and Soviet power in the post-war era, and the continued efforts by Britain and France to maintain their imperial spheres of influence - and the nature and extent of the legacy of European imperialism in today’s world, remain key academic and public concerns. This cluster brings together historians of diverse regions and scholars from associated disciplines who work on the ends and legacies of empires in the recent past and contemporary world, with the aim of facilitating sustained conversations and potential collaborations among members of the CMCH.

Cluster leader: Dan Feather

Gender, Race and Sexuality

This cluster brings together the complex research and ideologies that constitute the histories of gender, race and sexuality. By taking an intersectional approach to these histories, the Gender, Race and Sexuality cluster will provide a space for discussion, sharing of ideas, and constructive feedback for researchers working across disciplines.

Cluster leader: Andrea Livesey

Home and Domestic Cultures

This research cluster will provide an interdisciplinary and collaborative space to investigate home and domestic cultures from a historical and contemporary perspective. The nineteenth century famously saw the proclamation of ‘home, sweet home’, while the recent pandemic has centred home and domestic culture as never before. Home and homemaking continue to be central to our daily lives. Yet, home is not just as a physical space of dwelling, but a feeling and emotion that can extend into other home-like spaces such as gardens, parks, workspaces, community spaces, the nation, and institutions. Broadening understandings of home and domestic cultures, this interdisciplinary research cluster aims to explore more fully how people have made themselves at home both in the past and the present. By decentring a romanticised reading of domestic space, we recognise that not everyone finds their homes to be a place of security and tranquillity. We therefore aim to address how homes are made and unmade, embraced and rejected, located and displaced. This research cluster will run a regular reading group, meetings, and workshops. We are keen to provide a space for researchers across the HSS and APSS who have an interest in home and domestic cultures and to extend this network to the broader community with a view to building partnerships across the heritage, charity, and public sectors. A key component of our research group will be to support knowledge exchange work and to develop funding opportunities.

Cluster Leaders: Lucinda Matthews-Jones and Emily Cumming

Recent publications

James Crossland - The Rise of Devils: Fear and the Origins of Modern Terrorism (Manchester University Press, 2023)

In the dying light of the nineteenth century, the world came to know and fear terrorism. Much like today, this was a time of progress and dread, in which breakthroughs in communications and weapons were made, political reforms were implemented and immigration waves bolstered the populations of ever-expanding cities. This era also simmered with political rage and social inequalities, which drove nationalists, nihilists, anarchists and republicans to dynamite cities and discharge pistols into the bodies of presidents, police chiefs and emperors. This wave of terrorism was seized upon by an outrage-hungry press that peddled hysteria, conspiracy theories and, sometimes, fake news in response, convincing many a reader that they were living through the end of days. Against the backdrop of this world of fear and disorder, The rise of devils chronicles the journeys of the men and women who evoked this panic and created modern terrorism - revolutionary philosophers, cult leaders, criminals and charlatans, as well as the paranoid police chiefs and unscrupulous spies who tried to thwart them. In doing so, this book explains how radicals once thought just in their causes became, as Pope Pius IX denounced them, little more than 'devils risen up from Hell'.

Susan Grant - Soviet Nightingales: Care Under Communism (Cornell University Press, 2022)

With the advent of the USSR, nurses were instrumental in helping to build the New Soviet Person and in constructing a socialist society. Disease and illness were rampant in the early 1920s after years of war, revolution, and famine. The demand for nurses was great, but how might these workers best serve the country's needs? By examining living and working conditions, nurse-patient relations, education, and attempts at international nursing cooperation, Grant recounts the history of the Bolshevik effort to define the "Soviet" nurse and organize a new system of socialist care for the masses. Although the Bolsheviks aimed to transform healthcare along socialist lines, they ultimately failed as the struggle to train skilled medical workers became entangled in politics. Soviet Nightingales draws on rich archival research from Russia, the United States, and Britain to describe how ideology reinvented the role of the nurse and shaped the profession.

Nick Ridley - Carlo Di Rudio and the Age of Revolution (Routledge, 2023)

From a Europe convulsed by revolutions to an assassination plot and international secret diplomacy, to conflict between major European powers which changed the strategic power balance, to the American Civil War, and finally, to Custer’s Last Stand, this tumultuous vista is told through the life and times of a comparatively little-known but indomitable revolutionary. This book provides an account of the life of a little-known nineteenth-century revolutionary, Charles di Rudio, narrating the revolutions and insurgencies of nineteenth-century Europe from 1840 to 1870 and of the United States to 1880 in which di Rudio was involved, offering through his biography a unique perspective on the revolts and insurgencies that took place during this period and placing both his life and these revolts in the wider context of European history.

Kate Ballantyne - Radical Volunteers: Dissent, Desegregation and Student Power in Tennessee (University of Georgia Press, 2024)

Radical Volunteers tells the largely unknown story of southern student activism in Tennessee between the Brown decision in 1954 and the national backlash against the Kent State University shootings in May 1970. As one of the first statewide studies of student activism—and one of the few examinations of southern student activism—it broadens scholarly understanding of New Left and Black student radicalism from its traditionally defined hotbeds in the Northeast and the West Coast.

Dan Feather - British Cultural Diplomacy in South Africa, 1960-1994 (Palgrave, 2024)

This book analyses the British government’s use of cultural diplomacy in South Africa from 1960 to 1994. Previously, scholarship on UK-South African relations has focussed mainly on political, economic, or military links; this book makes an important and original intervention by emphasising how the British government sought to use cultural ties as part of its diplomacy in South Africa. The book also highlights the controversy these links generated owing to broader international efforts to ostracise South Africa owing to the racist apartheid system in the country at the time. By examining British policy towards educational exchanges, performing arts tours, radio and television broadcasts, and sporting contact, this book provides a dynamic case study from which to analyse Britain’s use of cultural diplomacy during a period of relative decline, while also adding a new layer to the well-established literature on the UK-South African special relationship.

James Crossland - Rogue Agent: From Secret Plots to Psychological Warfare, the Untold Story of Robert Bruce Lockhart (Elliott & Thompson, 2024)

Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart (1887–1970) was an impressive figure: a diplomat, intelligence agent, conspirator, journalist and propagandist who played a key role in both world wars. He was a man who charmed his way into the confidences of everyone from Leon Trotsky to Anthony Eden. A man whom the influential press baron Lord Beaverbook claimed ‘could well have been prime minister’. And yet Lockhart died almost forgotten and near destitute, a Scottish footnote in the pages of history. Rogue Agent is the first biography of this gifted yet habitually flawed maverick. It chronicles his many exploits, from his time as Britain’s ‘Agent’ in Moscow, and his role in a plot to bring down the communist regime, to leading the Political Warfare Executive, a secret body responsible for disinformation and propaganda in the Second World War. Exploring Lockhart’s unorthodox thinking and contributions to the development of psychological warfare as well as his hedonistic lifestyle, late nights and many affairs that left him in a state of perpetual debt, Rogue Agent tells the thrilling story of this unconventional war hero.

Andre Keil - Emergency Powers and the Home Fronts in Britain and Germany during the First World War (Oxford University Press, 2025)

The First World War transformed modern politics. No example demonstrates this more powerfully than the enactment and use of emergency powers by all belligerents. Wartime governments passed extensive emergency legislation that allowed them to pursue their war efforts with little democratic scrutiny and legal restrictions. In Britain, the Defence of the Realm Act transferred law-making powers from Parliament to the government and suspended vital elements of the unwritten constitution. In Germany, the declaration of the state of siege meant that the military assumed executive powers on the home front. These powers were initially used to suppress dissent, establish censorship of the press, and combat espionage. Yet, by 1918, they had been extended to regulate almost any aspect of everyday life on the home front. Understanding the political and social dynamics on the home front is only possible when the crucial importance of these emergency powers is considered. The experience of life under a permanent state of exception during the war transformed the relationship between the state and its citizens. Yet it also marked the rise of the state of exception as a paradigm of rule.