Robert Poole (historian)

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Robert Poole

Robert Poole (born 1957) is a UK-based historian, currently professor of history at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston. [1] He gained his PhD from the University of Lancaster in 1986, where he was associated with Prof Harold Perkin's Centre for Social History, organising the 1996 conference of the Social History Society on 'Time and the Construction of the Past'. He has also held positions at the universities of Keele, Edge Hill and Cumbria. He has also been Leverhulme Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Manchester (2000-1), an associate of the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester (2010–17), an associate of 'The Future in the Stars' research programme, Friedrich-Meinecke Institut, Freie Universität Berlin (2012–16), [2] and visiting senior research fellow to the History Group, University of Hertfordshire (2013–15).

Contents

Earthrise and the space age

Poole's book Earthrise: How Man First Saw the Earth (Yale University Press, 2008), [3] a study of the first views of Earth from space and their impact, has been identified as one of the key works of the 'new aerospace history'. [4] He has lectured on 'Earthrise' and the cultural history of the space age in London, Washington, D.C., Lucerne, [5] Paris, Berlin, and Copenhagen, broadcast on American public radio networks, [6] [7] [8] and in July 2009 wrote the op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times on the fortieth anniversary of the Lunar landing in July 1969 by Apollo 11. [9] Subsequent articles have explored the science fiction writer and techno-prophet Arthur C. Clarke, [10] '2001: a Space Odyssey and the Dawn of Man' in the 2015 collection Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives, [11] and the myth of progress in '2001: a Space Odyssey'. [12] Another recent article, 'What was Whole about the Whole Earth?', provides a missing chapter to Earthrise. [13] In early 2016 he enjoyed a Short-Term Visitor Award at the Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum, to look at the recently acquired papers of Arthur C. Clarke. [14]

Poole's Peterloo: the English Uprising, (OUP, 2019) is an account of the 1819 Peterloo massacre in Manchester, on which he has written articles in Past and Present, [15] History, [16] Labour History Review, [17] and edited collections. [18] He is historical adviser to the Peterloo 2019 commemoration programme, run jointly by Manchester Histories and the People's History Museum, [19] and to the 2017-18 community project by ReelMcr, 'Our Sam, Middleton man'. [20] He was instrumental in bringing to the John Rylands Library a full set of the radical newspaper the Manchester Observer (1818–22), now freely available online as part of the library's Peterloo collection. [21] He has given numerous public lectures and workshops, including the Manchester Histories Festivals and the 2018 BBC Civilisations festival, [22] and is an active member of the Peterloo Memorial Campaign. [23] His broadcast appearances include The Matter of the North episode 7 'The Radical North' (BBC R4 2016), [24] Elegance and Decadence: the Age of the Regency episode 3 (BBC Four, 2011), How the North was Built Part 1 (ITV, 2013), The Real Mill (Channel 4, 2014), [25] and the BBC Schools Programme Exploring the Past (2015). [26] He edited a volume of the Manchester Region History Review, Return to Peterloo, contributing essays including 'What Don't We Know About Peterloo?'. [27] . It will be followed by a biography of the Lancashire radical Samuel Bamford, on whom he has written several articles (some of them available online), and whose remarkable diaries he edited with Martin Hewitt for Sutton/St Martin's Press in 2000. [28]

Early modern England

In 2011 Poole produced a modern edition of The Wonderful Discovery of Witches in the County of Lancaster (Carnegie, 2011), the original 1612 account of the trial of the Lancashire (or Pendle) witches. [29] The introduction gave the definitive account of England's biggest peacetime witch trial, summarised in an essay for the Public Domain Review. [30] He was historical adviser to the Lancashire Witches 400 commemoration programme, [31] including a long-distance walking trail featured in BBC History magazine, [32] and to the subsequent Documenting Dissent project about prisoners of conscience at Lancaster Castle. [33] He also edited "The Lancashire Witches: Histories and Stories" (Manchester University Press 2002), a multidisciplinary book of essays. He has also written "Time's Alteration: Calendar Reform In Early Modern England" (UCL Press/Taylor and Francis, London, 1998), which explains the British calendar reform of 1752 and refutes the myth of riots over the missing eleven days. He explained this on the BBC Radio 4 programme 'In Our Time'. [34] He has contributed two articles to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: John Collier ('Tim Bobbin') 1708–1786, and William Holder 1616-1698).

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peterloo Massacre</span> 1819 killing by British troops in Manchester

The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. It was the largest ever political gathering of working class people. Eighteen people died and 400–700 were injured when cavalry charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Bamford</span> Radical reformer from Lancashire, England, 1788–1872

Samuel Bamford was an English radical reformer and writer born in Middleton, Lancashire. He wrote on the subject of northern English dialect and wrote some of his better known verse in it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Hunt (politician)</span> British MP and social reformer (1773–1835)

Henry "Orator" Hunt was a British radical speaker and agitator remembered as a pioneer of working-class radicalism and an important influence on the later Chartist movement. He advocated parliamentary reform and the repeal of the Corn Laws. He was the first member of parliament to advocate for women's suffrage; in 1832 he presented a petition to parliament from a woman asking for the right to vote.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Harding</span> British musician

Mike Harding is an English singer, songwriter, comedian, author, poet, broadcaster and multi-instrumentalist. Harding has also been a photographer, traveller, film maker and playwright.

Lancashire, like all other counties of England, has historically had its own peculiar superstitions, manners, and customs, which may or may not find parallels in those of other localities.

The Blanketeers or Blanket March was a demonstration organised in Manchester in March 1817. The intention was for the participants, who were mainly Lancashire weavers, to march to London and petition the Prince Regent over the desperate state of the textile industry in Lancashire, and to protest over the recent suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. The march was broken up violently and its leaders imprisoned. The Blanketeers formed part of a series of protests and calls for reform that culminated in 1819 with the Peterloo Massacre and the Six Acts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Nutter (alleged witch)</span> English woman accused of witchcraft (died 1612)

Alice Nutter was an English woman accused and hanged as a result of the Pendle witch hunt. Her life and death are commemorated by a statue in the village of Roughlee in the Pendle district of Lancashire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pendle witches</span> English witch hunt and trial in 1612

The trials of the Pendle witches in 1612 are among the most famous witch trials in English history, and some of the best recorded of the 17th century. The twelve accused lived in the area surrounding Pendle Hill in Lancashire, and were charged with the murders of ten people by the use of witchcraft. All but two were tried at Lancaster Assizes on 18–19 August 1612, along with the Samlesbury witches and others, in a series of trials that have become known as the Lancashire witch trials. One was tried at York Assizes on 27 July 1612, and another died in prison. Of the eleven who went to trial – nine women and two men – ten were found guilty and executed by hanging; one was found not guilty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samlesbury witches</span> 17th-century English women accused of witchcraft

The Samlesbury witches were three women from the Lancashire village of Samlesbury – Jane Southworth, Jennet Bierley, and Ellen Bierley – accused by a 14-year-old girl, Grace Sowerbutts, of practising witchcraft. Their trial at Lancaster Assizes in England on 19 August 1612 was one in a series of witch trials held there over two days, among the most infamous in English history. The trials were unusual for England at that time in two respects: Thomas Potts, the clerk to the court, published the proceedings in his The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster; and the number of the accused found guilty and hanged was unusually high, ten at Lancaster and another at York. All three of the Samlesbury women were acquitted.

<i>The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster</i> Account of witch trials of 18–19 August 1612

The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster is the account of a series of English witch trials that took place on 18–19 August 1612, commonly known as the Lancashire witch trials. Except for one trial held in York they took place at Lancaster Assizes. Of the twenty men and women accused – amongst them the Pendle witches and the Samlesbury witches – eleven were found guilty and subsequently hanged; one was sentenced to stand in the pillory, and the rest were acquitted.

The Manchester and Salford Yeomanry cavalry was a short-lived yeomanry regiment formed in response to social unrest in northern England in 1817. The volunteer regiment became notorious for its involvement in the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, in which as many as 15 people were killed and 400–700 were injured. Often referred to simply as the Manchester Yeomanry, the regiment was disbanded in 1824.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malkin Tower</span> Site related to the Lancashire witch trials of 1612

Malkin Tower was the home of Elizabeth Southerns, also known as Demdike, and her granddaughter Alizon Device, two of the chief protagonists in the Lancashire witch trials of 1612.

James Wroe (1788–1844), was the only editor of the radical reformist newspaper the Manchester Observer, the journalist who named the incident known as the Peterloo massacre, and the writer of pamphlets as a result that brought about the Reform Act 1832.

Margaret Pearson, also known as the Padiham witch because she lived in the town of Padiham in Lancashire, England, was among those tried with the Pendle witches in the Lancashire witch trials of 1612. This, her third trial for witchcraft, took place on 19 August at Lancaster Assizes in front of Sir James Altham and Sir Edward Bromley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hulton family of Hulton</span>

The Hulton family of Hulton lived and owned land in Lancashire for more than eight hundred years from the late-12th to the late-20th centuries. The family took its name from the three townships surrounding their Hulton Park Estate, Over, Middle and Little Hulton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Fildes</span> British reformer

Mary Fildes was president of the Manchester Female Reform Society in 1819, and played a leading role at the mass rally at Manchester in that year which ended in the Peterloo massacre. She was also the grandmother of the artist Luke Fildes through her son James.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lancashire Witches Walk</span> Long-distance footpath in Lancashire, England

The Lancashire Witches Walk is a 51-mile (82 km) long-distance footpath opened in 2012, between Barrowford and Lancaster, all in Lancashire, England. It starts at Pendle Heritage Centre in Barrowford before passing through the Forest of Pendle, the town of Clitheroe and the Forest of Bowland to finish at Lancaster Castle.

<i>Peterloo</i> (film) 2018 film directed by Mike Leigh

Peterloo is a 2018 British historical drama, written and directed by Mike Leigh, based on the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. The film was selected to be screened in the main competition section of the 75th Venice International Film Festival. The film received its UK premiere on 17 October 2018, as part of the BFI London Film Festival, at HOME in Manchester. The screening marked the first time that the festival had held a premiere outside London. Leigh said he was delighted that Peterloo would be premiered "where it happened".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Ethelston</span> English cleric (1790–1831)

Charles Wickstead Ethelston, also given as Wicksted (1767–1830) was an English cleric, now remembered for the part he played in his role as magistrate on 16 August 1819, ahead of the Peterloo massacre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Robert Hay</span> British barrister (1761–1839)

William Robert Hay (1761–1839) was a British barrister, cleric and magistrate, one of the Manchester group associated with the Peterloo Massacre.

References

  1. ↑ "Staff Profiles | About us |". Uclan website. Archived from the original on 27 August 2014. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  2. ↑ "The Future in the Stars: European Astroculture and Extraterrestrial Life in the Twentieth Century. Emmy Noether research group". The Future in the Stars: European Astroculture and Extraterrestrial Life in the Twentieth Century. Friedrich-Meinecke Institut, Freie Universität Berlin. 2012.
  3. ↑ "Earthrise (paperback edition)". Yale University Press.
  4. ↑ Oliver, Kendrick (2013). To Touch the Face of God: the Sacred, the Profane and the American Space Program, 1957-1975. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins UP. pp. 4–5. ISBN   978-1-4214-0788-3.
  5. ↑ "[Swiss Biennial on Science, Technics + Aesthetics]". jesslaccetti.blogspot.co.uk. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  6. ↑ 'Living on Earth'
  7. ↑ "Starry-Eyed: a History of the Heavens". Backstory.org. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. August 2013. Archived from the original on 16 October 2014.
  8. ↑ "Pale Blue Dot". National Public Radio (U.S.A.). February 2012.
  9. ↑ LA Times Archive 19 July 2009
  10. ↑ Poole, Robert (September 2012). "The Challenge of the Spaceship: Arthur C. Clarke and the History of the Future". History and Technology. 28: 255–280. doi:10.1080/07341512.2012.722793. S2CID   143528735.
  11. ↑ "Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives". Black Dog Press. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  12. ↑ Limiting Outer Space - Astroculture After Apollo | Alexander C.T. Geppert | Palgrave Macmillan.
  13. ↑ Turchetti, Simone; Roberts, Peder (2014). The Surveillance Imperative. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN   9781137438720.
  14. ↑ "Arthur C. Clarke's Personal Papers Arrive at the Museum | AirSpace". blog.nasm.si.edu. 20 April 2015. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  15. ↑ Poole, Robert (August 2006). "The March to Peterloo: Politics and Festivity in Late Georgian England". Past and Present. 192 (1): 109–153. doi:10.1093/pastj/gtl006.
  16. ↑ Poole, Robert (April 2006). "By the law or the sword: Peterloo revisited". History. 91 (302): 254–276. doi:10.1111/j.1468-229X.2006.00366.x.
  17. ↑ Poole, Robert (April 2009). "French revolution or peasants' revolt? Petitioners and rebels from the Blanketeers to the Chartists" (PDF). Labour History Review. 74 (74, 1): 6–26. doi:10.1179/174581809X408375.
  18. ↑ "Manchester University Press - Politics, performance and popular culture". Manchester University Press. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  19. ↑ "Peterloo 2019 - Manchester Histories". Manchester Histories. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  20. ↑ "'Our Sam - The Middleton Man': Community needed to help bring Middleton's most famous son back to life - The Meteor". The Meteor. 19 August 2017. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  21. ↑ "Peterloo Collection". luna.manchester.ac.uk. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  22. ↑ "Peterloo Memorial (@PeterlooMemoria) | Twitter". twitter.com. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  23. ↑ "Peterloo Massacre Memorial Campaign". www.peterloomassacre.org. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  24. ↑ "The Radical North, The Matter of the North - BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  25. ↑ "The Real Mill with Tony Robinson". Channel 4. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  26. ↑ "The Peterloo Massacre, Exploring the Past: Protest - BBC Two". BBC. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  27. ↑ "Return to Peterloo". Manchester Region History Review. Manchester Centre for Regional History, MMU. 2014. Archived from the original on 22 August 2014.
  28. ↑ "Robert Poole". academia.edu. 2014.
  29. ↑ Poole, Robert (2011). The Wonderful Discovery of Witches in the County of Lancaster. Lancaster: Carnegie. ISBN   978-1-874181-78-1.
  30. ↑ "The Lancashire Witches 1612-2012". The Public Domain Review. 22 August 2012. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  31. ↑ "Lancashire Witches 400 | Green Close". greenclose.org. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  32. ↑ Poole, R.; Close, Green (4 June 2013). The Lancashire Witches Walk. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN   9781484920718.
  33. ↑ "Documenting Dissent | A River of Dissent". www.documentingdissent.org.uk. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  34. ↑ BBC Radio 4 In Our Time website
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