The blues across four centuries – Robert Burton’s ‘Anatomy of Melancholy’
Self-help books about depression are nothing new. Institute of English Studies fellow, Dr Karen Attar, looks at an important example that was first published in 1621.
All posts filed under: Archives & Libraries
‘Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?’ – a very Christmas murder
Dr Karen Attar, research fellow at the Institute of English Studies, uncovers traces of Thomas Becket in the Senate House Library.
New life for petitions that made English history
Dr Philip Carter, director of digital and publishing at the Institute of Historical Research (IHR), marks the completion of an ambitious research partnership with historians from Birkbeck and University College London to digitise and publish more than 2,500 petitions from early modern England. Available free on IHR’s British History Online, they offer remarkable insight into the […]
Shaking the scholarly world: Francis Bacon and 400 Years of the ‘Novum Organon’
Tucked away among the treasures of Senate House Library is this ‘foundation of human progress and empowerment’, writes Dr Karen Attar.
Chronicles of a librarian’s librarian – a treasure of Senate House Library
John Evelyn, the 17th-century diarist whose Restoration diary is recognised as the most extensive and informative record of a momentous period, even advised Samuel Pepys on libraries. Dr Karen Attar, research fellow at the Institute of English Studies, looks at his legacy.
South Sea Bubble: a byword for folly and fraud
As oil prices tumble and we face high national debt, it seems particularly appropriate to reflect on the South Sea Bubble, a stock market crash from 300 years ago, and its contemporary documentation. Dr Karen Attar, research fellow at the Institute of English Studies, looks at the stories behind the headlines that were splashed across […]
More than just a typeface – 500th anniversary sharpens focus on print pioneer Christophe Plantin
Institute of English Studies research fellow, Dr Karen Attar, argues for wider recognition for the achievements of a giant of print.
India’s partition mapped out by blunders and blood
Research fellow Syed Badrul Ahsan explores the tragic and painful fault lines underpinning modern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The Year of the Nurse and what an eyewitness account reveals about ‘the lady with the lamp’
As we celebrate the Year of the Nurse and the 150th anniversary of the British Red Cross, Institute of English Studies research fellow Dr Karen Attar, takes a look at an eye-witness account of a nurse who accompanied Florence Nightingale, ‘the lady with the lamp’, to Scutari in 1854.
‘Following the science’: the role of experts in historical perspective
Historian Christopher Phillips compares specialist involvement in the Covid-19 crisis with civilian expertise in government during the First World War. Though very different situations, both point to the importance of experts in planning for and responding to an evolving challenge. Both equally demonstrate the constraints placed on outsiders when expertise comes in to close contact […]