1910s, Academia, Conferences and talks, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Videos

Seminar: ‘Constructing the enemy within’

On Friday, 1 April 2016, I gave my second Humanities Research Seminar (again introduced by Nathan Wise) at the University of New England, under the title of ‘Constructing the enemy within: rumours of secret German forts and aerodromes in Britain, August-October 1914’. It was based on a (hopefully) forthcoming article, which in turn is based […]

1920s, 1930s, Aerial theatre, Conferences and talks

Strength in numbers

In July I’ll be at this year’s Australian Historical Association conference, which is being hosted in Ballarat by Federation University Australia. I’m pushing my aerial theatre project along with a talk entitled ‘The RAF versus the Wottnotts: Hendon’s imaginary wars, 1920-1937’: The Royal Air Force (RAF) Pageants held between 1920 and 1937 at Hendon in

Acquisitions, Books

Acquisitions

I walked into the local secondhand bookshop thinking I should try to buy something to support them; and of course then walked out with an armful, including: P. M. S. Blackett. Military and Political Consequences of Atomic Energy. London: Turnstile Press, 1948. Blackett was a bit of an overachiever: the Tizard Committee, the Royal Aircraft

1910s, 1920s, Air control, Australia, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Tools and methods

Airships against the Mad Mullah; or, #fundTrove

The following article appeared on p. 4 of the 15 June 1914 issue of the Broken Hill (NSW), newspaper, the Barrier Miner: AIRSHIPS AGAINST THE MAD MULLAH Aden, Saturday. Naval Lieutenants Boothby and Richard B. Davies are at Berbera, investigating the feasibility of utilising airships for the purpose of an expedition to subdue the Mad

Acquisitions, Books, Publications

Acquisitions

Edward Bujak. Reckless Fellows: The Gentlemen of the Royal Flying Corps. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2015. Much of our understanding of the airmen of the First World War has been dominated by the image of the knight of the air (or debunkings thereof); there hasn’t been a lot of work done from a

1910s, Archives, Books, Civil defence, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Rumours

The airship panic of 1915 — V

One of the advantages of studying wartime airship panics, like the one in January 1915, is the relative abundance of private archives, diaries, letters and interviews for the 1914-1918 period which have been collected and catalogued. This makes it theoretically possible to compare the press view and the official view with the view from below,

Acquisitions, Books

Acquisitions

Jeremy Black. What If? Counterfactualism and the Problem of History. London: Social Affairs Unit, 2008. What if I confused this book with an expanded edition under a different title? I’d probably end up ordering that edition too. John Connor, Peter Stanley and Peter Yule. The War at Home. The Centenary History of Australia and the

Australia and the Great War
1910s, Australia, Books, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures, Publications

Publication: ‘The enemy at the gates’

I have a new publication out — at least, it’s out electronically, I haven’t seen a physical copy yet! It’s a chapter in a collection published by Melbourne University Press and edited by Michael J. K. Walsh and Andrekos Varnava, Australia and the Great War: Identity, Memory and Mythology. My chapter is entitled ‘The enemy

Keep Calm and Carry On
1930s, 1940s, Books, Ephemera, Periodicals, Pictures

1939 vs. 1940

The Guardian has published a very interesting piece by Owen Hatherley on the ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ phenomenon, an extract from his new book, The Ministry of Nostalgia: Consuming Austerity. He persuasively locates the poster within the context of an ‘austerity nostalgia […] a yearning for the kind of public modernism that, rightly or

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