Professor Adrian Bingham
B.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities
Head of School
Professor of Modern British History
+44 114 222 2582
Full contact details
School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
葫芦影业
S3 7RA
- Profile
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I joined the University of 葫芦影业 in September 2006.
Previously I read history at Merton College, Oxford, and stayed there to study for my D.Phil. In 2002 I took up a Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Centre for Contemporary British History (CCBH), Institute of Historical Research, University of London. I remained at the CCBH to hold a three-year British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship.
My research focuses on modern Britain, with particular interests in political engagement, popular culture, the media, gender and sexuality. I have written a history of the UK since 1945: United Kingdom (Polity Press, 2022).
My most recent book is Everyday Politics, Ordinary Lives: A New History of British Democracy, 1918-1992 (Oxford University Press, 2024). The book examines how British citizens understood politics and how they viewed its relationship to their lives, from 1918 to 1992.
I have worked extensively on the national popular press in the decades after 1918, examining the ways in which newspapers both reflected and shaped British society and culture. My first monograph explored press debates about femininity and masculinity in the inter-war period. My second book, Family Newspapers? Sex, Private Life and the British Popular Press 1918-1978 (OUP, 2009) explored the role of the press as a source of information and imagery about sex, morality and personal relationships.
With Professor Martin Conboy, I have written a wide-ranging history of popular newspapers, Tabloid Century: The Popular Press in Britain, 1896 to the Present (Peter Lang, 2015). I have also worked on the press coverage of child sexual abuse.
I am a Senior Associate of History & Policy, and a trustee of the charity Learn about Britain.
- Research interests
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My main research interests are in the political, social and cultural history of twentieth-century Britain. I have worked extensively on the national popular press in the decades after 1918, examining the ways in which newspapers both reflected and shaped British society and culture. I have also worked on the press coverage of child sexual abuse. More recently, my research has focused on democratic engagement since 1918, exploring how British citizens understood politics and how they viewed its relationship to their lives.
My most recent book is Everyday Politics, Ordinary Lives: A New History of British Democracy, 1918-1992 (Oxford University Press, 2024). It investigates how British citizens understood politics and how they viewed its relationship to their lives, from 1918 to 1992. It focuses on the everyday political opinions, discussions and interactions of ordinary British people in the period from the establishment of a near democracy with the Representation of the People Act 1918 (which gave the vote to all adult men and most women over 30) up until the transformation of British political culture with the emergence of 24-hour news channels and the internet in the early 1990s.
I am co-Editor of the journal Gender & History, and I am co-Series Editor, with Dr Mark Hampton, of Bloomsbury鈥檚 A Cultural History of Media 6-volume series.
- Publications
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Books
- . Oxford University PressOxford.
- United Kingdom. Cambridge: Polity Press.
- . Oxford: Peter Lang.
- Family Newspapers? Sex, Private Life, and the British Popular Press 1918-1978. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Gender, Modernity, and the Popular Press in Inter-war Britain. Oxford University Press.
Edited books
- The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press, Volume 3: Competition and Disruption, 1900-2017. Edinburgh: EUP.
Journal articles
- . Modern British History, 35(1), 7-29.
- . History Workshop Journal, 88, 89-110.
- . Parliamentary History, 37(1), 150-167.
- . Journalism Studies, 17(4), 392-397.
- . History of Education, 45(4), 411-429.
- The daily mail and women. History Today, 66(5).
- . Journalism Studies, 14(5), 651-662.
- . Media History, 19(1), 1-2.
- . The British Journal for the History of Science, 45(4), 609-624.
- . Media History, 18(3-4), 311-326.
- . Media History, 18(1), 51-63.
- . History Compass, 10(2), 140-150.
- 鈥楾he 鈥淜-Bomb鈥: social surveys, the popular press and British sexual culture in the 1940s and 1950s鈥.. Journal of British Studies, 50(1), 156-179.
- . Twentieth Century British History, 21(2), 225-231.
- . The English Historical Review, CXXIV(507), 488-489.
- . Journalism Studies, 10(5), 639-654.
- . Media, Culture & Society, 30(4), 581-582.
- . Media History, 13(1), 79-92.
- Drinking in the last chance saloon鈥: the British press and the crisis of self-regulation, 1989-1995. Media History, 13(1), 79-92.
- . The Historical Journal, 48(4), 1055-1076.
- . Cultural and Social History, 1(2), 225-233.
- 鈥楽top the Flapper Vote Folly': Lord Rothermere, the Daily Mail and the equalisation of the franchise 1927-28鈥. Twentieth Century British History, 13(1), 17-37.
- . Gender & History, 22(1), 245-247.
- . Gender & History, 22(1), 248-249.
- 鈥樷淭he Monster鈥? The British Popular Press and Nuclear Culture, 1945- early 1960s鈥. British Journal of the History of Science, 45(4), 609-624.
Chapters
- Newspapers as a Source In Berger S (Ed.), Bloomsbury History: Theory and Method Bloomsbury
- 鈥業ntroduction: Milestones in the history of the twentieth-century press鈥 In Conboy M & Bingham A (Ed.), The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press, Volume 3 Competition and Disruption, 1900-2017 EUP
- THE PRESS AND THE LABOUR MOVEMENT, The Edinburgh History of the British and Irish Press: Competition and Disruption, 1900-2017: Volume 3 (pp. 502-516).
- Gender, Media, and Modernity, HANDBOOK OF EUROPEAN COMMUNICATION HISTORY (pp. 421-435).
- 鈥楶hotojournalism in the British Tabloids in the 1970s鈥 In Piazonni I & De Berti R (Ed.), Il fotogiornalismo negli anni settanta. Lotte, trasformazioni, conquiste (pp. 114-125).
- Conservatism, gender and the politics of everyday life, 1950s-1980s In Berthezene C & Gottlieb J (Ed.), Rethinking right-wing women: Gender and the Conservative Party, 1880s to the present Manchester University Press.
- MODERN HOUSECRAFT? WOMEN鈥橲 PAGES IN THE NATIONAL DAILY PRESS, The Edinburgh History of Women鈥檚 Periodical Culture in Britain: Women鈥檚 Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain, 1918-1939: The Interwar Period (pp. 225-237).
- , The News of the World and the British Press, 1843鈥2011 (pp. 229-243). Palgrave Macmillan UK
- 鈥楳edia products as historical artefacts鈥, The Routledge Companion to British Media History (pp. 19-28). Abingdon: Routledge.
- In Brake L, Kaul C & Turner M (Ed.), The News of the World and the British Press, 1843-2011: 'Journalism for the Rich, Journalism for the Poor' London: Palgrave Macmillan.
- , Women and the Media: Feminism and Femininity in Britain, 1900 to the Present (pp. 184-198).
- , The Aftermath of Suffrage (pp. 87-104). Palgrave Macmillan UK
- 鈥楻epresenting the people? The Daily Mirror, class, and political culture in inter-war Britain鈥 In Beers & Thomas (Ed.), Brave New World: Imperial and Democratic Nation-building in Britain between the Wars (pp. 109-128). London: Institute of Historical Research.
- , Narrating Media History (pp. 112-124).
- Palgrave Macmillan UK
- , The History of Reading, Volume 2 (pp. 139-154). Palgrave Macmillan UK
- Palgrave Macmillan UK
- , Narrating Media History (pp. 112-124).
- Routledge
- , The Aftermath of Suffrage Palgrave Macmillan
- , Middlebrow Literary Cultures Palgrave Macmillan
Book reviews
- , 15(2), 233-237.
- . The English Historical Review, 138(593), 1048-1049.
- . Social History, 48(2), 284-285.
- . Journal of British Studies, 59(3), 689-690.
- . The American Historical Review, 123(5), 1736-1737.
- . The English Historical Review, 132(559), 1667-1669.
- . Twentieth Century British History, 28(2), 307-309.
- . Journal of Family History, 41(1), 99-100.
- . The Economic History Review, 68(3), 1071-1072.
- . Contemporary British History, 29(2), 284-285.
- . The English Historical Review, 129(538), 756-758.
- . Social History, 39(1), 146-147.
- Reproduction by Design: Sex, Robots, Trees, and Test-Tube Babies in Interwar Britain.. UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY, 83(2), 486-487.
- . Twentieth Century British History, 24(3), 478-480.
- . The English Historical Review, 128(533), 1037-1040.
- . Media History, 19(2), 239-241.
- . The English Historical Review, CXXVII(526), 765-767.
- . History, 97(325), 170-172.
- . Contemporary British History, 25(4), 613-615.
- . The English Historical Review, CXXVI(523), 1575-1576.
- . The English Historical Review, CXXVI(522), 1242-1244.
- . The English Historical Review, CXXVI(521), 1022-1024.
- . The English Historical Review, CXXV(516), 1266-1267.
- . Journalism, 11(4), 501-502.
- . Oxford University PressOxford.
- Research group
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Research Supervision
I am keen to supervise postgraduate students working on the political, social and cultural history of modern Britain, particularly those with interests in the media and popular culture; gender, sexuality and class; and popular political engagement and social activism.
- Current students
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- Completed students
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- Hallam Roffrey - Boundaries of Acceptability: The Politics of Obscenity, Pornography, and Blasphemy in England, 1970-1989
- Kate McAllister (second supervisor) - Encephalitis Lethargica, viral illness, and the binary structures of the modern British health system c.1900-1975
- Isabelle Carter - The lived experience of post-war multi-storey council housing: reassessing 葫芦影业's Park Hill and Manchester's Hulme.
- Aaron Ackerley - Economic Ideas in the Interwar British Daily Press.
- Gareth Roddy - Into the West: The Literature of Travel in the Western Peripheries of the British-Irish Isles, c.1880-c.1940.
- David Holland - Natives and Newcomers, Marriage and Belonging - South Asian migration, settlement and working-class tolerance in the 葫芦影业 area during the early twentieth century.
- Lucy Bell - From Co-operation to Confrontation: Trade Unionism, British Politics and the Media, 1945-1979.
- Sarah Kenny - Unspectacular Youth? Evening Leisure Space and Youth Culture in 葫芦影业, c.1960-c.1989.
- Ross Paulger (MPhil) - Anglo-American Quality Press Narratives and Sexual Revolution, 1958-1979.
- Steve McKevitt - The persuasion industries in the UK and the inculcation of persuasion within British society from 1969 to 1997.
- Lucy Brown - Encountering Each Other: Love and Emotional Relationships between Men and Women in Britain, 1950s-1970s.
- Thomas Dowling - In Spite of History: New Leftism in Britain 1956-1979.
- Patrick Glen - Morality in the Music Press, 1967-1983.
- Helen Smith - A study of working-class men who desired other men in the north of England 1895-1957.
- Sarah Rawlins - Modernity, Identity & Englishness in the Interwar Suburban Garden.
- Laura King - Fatherhood and Masculinity in Britain, 1918-1960.
- Teaching interests
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I have taught various modules on the history of Britain, the media, and public history.
- Teaching activities
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Undergraduate:
- HST288 - Media and Popular Culture in Twentieth-Century Britain
- HST3095/3096 - Permissive Britain? Social and Cultural Change, 1956-74
Postgraduate:
- HST6052 - Stories of Activism in 葫芦影业, 1960 to the Present
- HST680 - Media and Political Culture in Modern Britain
- Professional activities and memberships
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- - Fellow
- - Senior Associate
- - Editorial Board
- - Co-Editor 2015-2020
- Gender and History: Co-Editor 2020-
Administrative roles:
- Head of Department (2018-present).
- Director of Graduate Studies (2015-17): This involves overseeing the postgraduate taught programmes and the postgraduate research supervision in the department, liaising with the postgraduate community, and supporting applications for MA and PhD funding.
- Director of Learning and Teaching (2010-14): This involves overseeing the undergraduate taught programmes in the department, monitoring student feedback, ensuring the smooth running of quality assurance processes, and assessing the overall shape of teaching provision.
- Allocations (2006-9): Overseeing the student module allocation process.
- Public engagement
I have made significant interventions in public policy-making and media debates about historical child sexual abuse. My historical evidence to the NHS/ Department of Health enquiries into the activities of Jimmy Savile (delivered in 2013, with colleagues from History & Policy) was cited in four public reports on the Savile scandal in 2014-15: Kate Lampard鈥檚 Oversight Report (June 2014) and Lessons Learnt Report (Feb. 2015) and reports on Broadmoor Hospital (June 2014) and Stoke Mandeville Hospital (Feb. 2015). Working with Professor Louise Jackson, Dr Lucy Delap and Dr Louise Settle, I have written policy papers and media articles on the history of child sexual abuse, and given presentations to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (2016) and the St Mary鈥檚 Sexual Assault Referral Centre鈥檚 annual conference (2017).
I have also contributed to policy and media debates about press regulation. One of my articles was cited in Lord Justice Leveson鈥檚 report, An Inquiry into the Culture, Practices and Ethics of the Press (November 2012).
I am involved in the project, which explore 葫芦影业's rich history of activism and collects campaign stories, memories and objects from 1960 to the present.
I am a Senior Associate of , which works for better public policy through an understanding of history by connecting historians, policy makers and the media.
As part of the department's Schools History Network we contribute to local schools' teaching by holding events for local pupils and their teachers, introducing children to advances in historical knowledge, and enabling teachers to brush up on their scholarship concerning historical events. Staff have given talks to students at local schools, but we also hold events within the department to which local pupils and teachers are invited and schools have also offered placements for our MA students.
As part of the Schools History Network the department has made a series of videos for use in the classroom. Below is a short video of myself talking about using modern newspapers as sources.