This is the blog of Martin Johnes, Professor of Modern History at Swansea University.
Recent blogs
Christmas and Mass Observation: Studying Traditions, Emotions and People
By the time Mass Observation was established in the 1930s, Christmas had become an integral part of British culture. Although its form and meaning varied between individuals and classes, it was something that everyone interacted with in one way or another. It upset and angered some but more often Christmas was a moment of joy,…
Why history matters
A short video I made for a Welsh Government event about history in the Curriculum for Wales.
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…
Martin Johnes 