History is made at night

Burns Night once more, the Scottish poet Robert Burns being born on this day in 1759. I have had my vegetarian haggis and a glass of Laphro...

Richard Norton's Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook includes lots of fascinating material, not least in relation...

In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens describes a gathering of the wealthy in pre-revolutionary France: 'But, the comfort was, th...

The death of artist Lucian Freud this week reminded me of going to his big exhibition at Tate Britain in 2002. As a sometime mandolinist th...

My recent hypothesis that the vuvuzela is becoming the protest instrument of choice for the emerging movement against austerity has received...

A British government in debt following an expensive war seeks to make people pay through unpopular policies - sounds familiar? This instance...

In previous posts on the origins of rave, ravers and raving , we have established that the use of these terms in relation to parties goes ba...

It's time for that Burns night post again : Music historians have long noted the influence of the Scottish ballad tradition on the devel...

How do social classes come about? From a Marxist point of view, class is defined by people's relationship to the means of production - t...

This weekend there has been a 'festival of New Orleans' in London, with Dr John playing for free at the O2 arena in Greenwich. Unfor...

A low key Burns Night tonight (compared with last year's ). There's a vegetarian haggis in the oven and a bottle of Laphroaig in t...

Albion rose from where he labourd at the Mill with Slaves Giving himself for the Nations he danc'd the dance of Eternal Death (William B...

The Waltz was the focus of outrage as the dance spread from Austria and Germany to France and England in the late 18th and early 19th centur...

Where do the licensing laws that control where and when people can drink, dance or listen to music come from? The principle behind them is q...

"In 1757 the following Bill, presented by Sir John Fielding, was passed by Parliament: 'Any house, room, garden or other place whic...