This is the blog of Martin Johnes, Professor of Modern History at Swansea University.
Recent blogs
A brief history of work Christmas parties
This is an extract from Martin Johnes, Christmas and the British: A Modern History (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016) One reason for the ebbing of work was excitement over Christmas parties. These were not new phenomenon – some late nineteenth-century factories had held them for example – but they undoubtedly increased in number in the middle of the twentieth century and by … Continue reading “A brief history of work Christmas parties”
Anglo-Welsh football relations: a history
This article was first published in Tom Gibbons & Dominic Malcolm (eds), Sport and English National Identity in a ‘Disunited Kingdom’ (Routledge, 2017) All national identities owe something to relations with an ‘other’. As Linda Colley (1994: 6) put it, ‘men and women decide who they are by reference to who and what they are … Continue reading “Anglo-Welsh football relations: a history”
Why fans still matter: quick thoughts on the European Super League
Some of the reactions to the planned European Super League give the impression that money and profit are something new in football. Yet money, and arguments over money, are central to football’s history. There were loud and emotional complaints that football was all about cash as early as the 1880s. The Victorian elite complained that … Continue reading “Why fans still matter: quick thoughts on the European Super League”
Martin Johnes 