Category Archives: History

Zola : a political reading.

Posted on August 13, 2023 by Eddie Playfair

Political writing and political reading. Politics is concerned with ideas about how we live, power, class, inequality, social and economic relations and how they change over time. Writing also deals with how we live, and we can think of all … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Fiction, History, Politics | Tagged anarchism, Bonaparte, capitalism, Charles Dickens, class, Class Struggles in France, Communism, Coup-d’état, Elizabeth Gaskell, Emile Zola, France, Frederick Engels, Germinal, Hard Times, Honoré de Balzac, Ian Birchall, Jules Vallès, Karl Marx, L'Argent, L'Assommoir, La Curée, La Fortune des Rougon, Le Ventre de Paris, Margaret Harkness, Nana, Napoleon III, North and South, Pot-Bouille, revolution, Rougon-Macquart, Second Empire, socialism, strikes, The 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon, The Paris Commune, Travail, utopianism, William Gallois, working class | 3 Comments

Posts on Corsican themes.

Posted on August 10, 2022 by Eddie Playfair

Seneca in Corsica The Roman senator and philosopher spent several miserable years in exile on the island in the first century A.D. Paoli in London ‘The 18th century Che Guevara’ produced one of the first constitutions of the enlightenment era and fought … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, History | Tagged Corsica | 2 Comments

When Corsica welcomed thousands of Serb refugees (1916)

Posted on August 9, 2022 by Eddie Playfair

Kathleen Courtney in Corsica. In 1916, around 5,000 Serb refugees were evacuated to Corsica via Salonika, Corfu and the Adriatic coast to escape the conflict in the Balkans. On arrival they were settled in the major towns of Bastia and … Continue reading →

Posted in History | Tagged Bastia, Corsica, De La Corse aux Balkans, Friends War Victims Relief Committee, Jane Addams, Kathleen Courtney, Millicent Fawcett, refugee, Serbia, Women's International League, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Womens suffrage | Leave a comment

Pathologically wrong: Humours and Miasma.

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Eddie Playfair

Humours and Miasma: Science in Society 8. Humoral theory and miasma theory: two long-lasting medical paradigms now consigned to the history of human error but which shaped our ideas about health and disease and the development of medical practice and … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Science in Society, Students | Tagged Blood & Guts, cholera, disease, germ theory, Hippocrates, history, humours, John Snow, medicine, miasma, public health, Robert Koch, Roy Porter, Science, Science in Society | 4 Comments

My islands – by Line Mariani Playfair

Posted on March 11, 2018 by Eddie Playfair

I have always had a strong affinity for atlases and islands. Whether a single volcanic rock or one likely to fragment or disappear underwater, each one seems to be calling me, speaking to my imagination. I was fascinated by Thor … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Guest blogs, History | Tagged Corsica, Dorothy Carrington, Line Mariani Playfair | 1 Comment

Matisse in Corsica.

Posted on July 16, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

The great artist Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was inspired to use colour in radical new ways during his first visit to Corsica. After their wedding in early 1898, Matisse and his wife Amélie Parayre spent their honeymoon first in London and … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, History | Tagged Ajaccio, Amelie Parayre, Art, Corsica, culture, Fauvism, France, Henri Matisse, Hilary Spurling, painting | 1 Comment

Brecht’s radical Galileo

Posted on May 29, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

Brecht’s ‘Life of Galileo’ is a great piece of theatre with universal appeal. It’s also a particularly good one for science students because it brings the scientific method to life. Galileo’s struggle to get acceptance for the ‘Copernican’ heliocentric model … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, History, Learning resources, Science | Tagged Bertolt Brecht, Catholic church, doubt, Galileo Galilei, geocentrism, heliocentrism, Hiroshima, Joe Wright, Science, scientific method, The Life of Galileo, Young Vic theatre | Leave a comment

From ‘slumming’ to solidarity.

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

The evolution of responses to urban poverty and inequality. Part 2. From London to Chicago and back again Two selective and interlinked chronologies: London 1884: Toynbee Hall in Whitechapel was founded by Canon Samuel Barnett and his wife Henrietta Barnett … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, History | Tagged Barack Obama, Beatrice Webb, Canning Town, Charles Booth, Chicago, Citizens UK, Clement Attlee, East london, George Lansbury, Henrietta Barnett, Hull House, Jane Addams, London citizens, Mansfield House, Newham Sixth Form College, NewVIc, Percy Alden, Plaistow, Rebecca Cheetham, Saul Alinsky, TELCO, Toynbee Hall, Universities, University of East London, university settlements, William Beveridge | Leave a comment

From Toynbee to TELCO via Chicago.

Posted on March 26, 2017 by Eddie Playfair

The evolution of responses to urban poverty and inequality. Part 1. From settlement to social activism Living and working in East London, I am interested in how our part of the city has been shaped by its past, how today’s … Continue reading →

Posted in History | Tagged Barack Obama, Chicago, Citizens UK, East london, Henrietta Barnett, Hull House, Industrial Areas Foundation, inequality, Jane Addams, London citizens, poverty, Samuel Barnett, Saul Alinsky, Toynbee Hall, university settlements | Leave a comment

Four cousins went to war.

Posted on December 28, 2016 by Eddie Playfair

This is a very brief account of the lives of 4 young men from around a century ago; all members of the same Scottish family. The accounts are neither special nor representative and they form a tiny fraction of the story … Continue reading →

Posted in History | Tagged Anti-war, conflict, history, Ian Playfair, Lambert Playfair, Lyon Playfair, Patrick Playfair, peace, world war 1 | Leave a comment

Les réfugiés francophones de Londres.

Posted on October 25, 2016 by Eddie Playfair

Nous nous sommes réunis au Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle le 19 Octobre pour rappeler les évènements qui ont bouleversé le monde il y un siècle. Avant d’évoquer le Londres de 1916, je me permets d’évoquer celui de 1966. C’est … Continue reading →

Posted in en Francais, History | Tagged Anti-war, France, in French, Jean Jaurès, London, Lycee Francais Charles de Gaulle, Lycee Francais de Londres, refugee, Romain Rolland, world war 1, xenophobia | 1 Comment

London’s francophone refugees

Posted on September 25, 2016 by Eddie Playfair

We are roughly at the mid point of our commemoration of the First World War. Let’s look back just over a hundred years. London before the outbreak of war in 1914 was the greatest industrial city in the world and … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Learning resources, NewVIc | Tagged Anti-war, France, Goldsmiths University of London, Jean Jaurès, London, refugee, Romain Rolland, world war 1, xenophobia | Leave a comment

Jean Jaurès: ‘what is courage?’

Posted on August 5, 2016 by Eddie Playfair

Jean Jaurès (1859-1914), member of the French National Assembly, leader of the Parti Socialiste Français and peace campaigner was an eloquent and compelling public speaker. One of his most famous speeches was his 1903 address to young people at the … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Politics | Tagged courage, Discours à la Jeunesse, France, Jean Jaurès, peace | 1 Comment

Jane Addams and John Dewey

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Eddie Playfair

The Toynbee papers #2 An imagined conversation. Toynbee Hall, Commercial street, Whitechapel, 1921. Jane Addams of Chicago is greeting her old friend John Dewey who has just arrived. John, my dear friend – welcome to Toynbee Hall. I trust you … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, History | Tagged Education, Jane Addams, John Dewey, Toynbee Hall | Leave a comment

Boswell in Corsica.

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Eddie Playfair

The Scottish lawyer and writer James Boswell (1740-1795), famous for his Life of Samuel Johnson, was also a great supporter of Pasquale Paoli and Corsican independence. Boswell met enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire and Rousseau and was encouraged by Rousseau to … Continue reading →

Posted in History | Tagged Corsica, Democracy, enlightenment, Equality, James Boswell, Pasquale Paoli, Samuel Johnson | Leave a comment

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