The First Space Age 1945-75 by Robert J Poole
A US public radio broadcast from August 2015. A section on the first Earthrise photo featuring Bi... more A US public radio broadcast from August 2015. A section on the first Earthrise photo featuring Bill Anders starts about 15 minutes in: http://backstoryradio.org/shows/starry-eyed/
Earthrise: How Man First Saw the Earth, Sep 2008
The most important result of the manned space programme was the discovery of the whole Earth. 'Ea... more The most important result of the manned space programme was the discovery of the whole Earth. 'Earthrise' looks at the history of the first sight of Earth from space: how it was imagined beforehand; how the photos from space came to be taken; and their impact, both at the time and since. The years of the Apollo programme, 1968-72, were also the years of the eco-renaissance. See attachment for table of contents and chapter 1. See www.earthrise.org.uk for colour pictures and more.
History and Technology 28, 3, Nov 29, 2012
Arthur C. Clarke’s 1946 essay on ‘The Challenge of the Spaceship’ was one of the founding manifes... more Arthur C. Clarke’s 1946 essay on ‘The Challenge of the Spaceship’ was one of the founding manifestoes of the Space Age, and helped to establish him as the West’s leading techno-prophet. Restating his ideas in subsequent factual and fictional works, Clarke successfully propagated the belief that man’s destiny lay in space and that the process was already underway. On the surface Clarke’s oeuvre offers a classic astrofuturist model of progress as technology-driven, but on closer examination it also incorporates a more pessimistic, historically based strand of philosophy, British rather than American. This essay traces the genesis of Clarke’s early work and the influence upon him of the historian Arnold J. Toynbee and the moral philosophers Olaf Stapledon and C.S. Lewis. Toynbee was essentially a Christian pessimist who believed that western civilization was on the way out; his long historical perspectives were an important source of inspiration for Clarke, leading him to a cyclical rather than a simply progressive model of history which contemplated both the beginning and the end of civilizations. The concerns of Stapledon and Lewis with grand narratives of decline and redemption were also influences on Clarke. All this needs to be understood in relation to both the European experience of World War I and to the coming of the atomic bomb, the latter a profound influence on Clarke’s generation. Such perspectives gave European astroculture a more modulated vision of the human future in space than the technologically based astrofuturism which dominated in the USA.
This is a paper I tried out at the 'Cold War Blue Planet' conference at CHSTM, University of Manc... more This is a paper I tried out at the 'Cold War Blue Planet' conference at CHSTM, University of Manchester, in June 2012. It's in note form and it's missing the pictures, but I hope it makes some sense. At the time I hadn't read Paul Edwards' excellent book A Vast Machine, which asks some of the same questions, so it would be much better if I were to give it now. I'm now revising it for publication - all comments and corrections welcome to this work in progress.
Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives, 2014
This illustrated essay looks at the 'Dawn of Man' section of '2001: A Space Odyssey' and argues i... more This illustrated essay looks at the 'Dawn of Man' section of '2001: A Space Odyssey' and argues it is the key to the whole film. Clarke and Kubrick drew on recent thinking on human origins, particularly the 'killer ape' hypothesis in Robert Ardrey;s 'African Genesis'. To appear in 'Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives', to be published by Black Dog Press, London, Spring 2014.
'All Things Considered' series, US National Public Radio, Feb 12, 2010
This 'audio gallery' appears as part of a web page about the 'Pale Blue Dot' photograph of Earth ... more This 'audio gallery' appears as part of a web page about the 'Pale Blue Dot' photograph of Earth taken by the Voyager space probe from the edge of the solar system in 1992. You can also hear the 6-minute programme, which presents new material about how the photograph was taken - or, rather, nearly not taken.
A 30-minute programme Radio 4 programme marking the fortieth anniversary of the last Apollo missi... more A 30-minute programme Radio 4 programme marking the fortieth anniversary of the last Apollo mission and the famous Blue Marble photo (covered towards the end). There's a fine middle section on Russell Schweickart's life-changing experience of viewing the Earth from orbit, which later became an important resource for the Nuclear Freeze movement of the early 1980s. For earlier broadcasts, see below.
Since 1972 no-one has left Earth orbit, which means that the space age proper now belongs to the middle-aged...
'Living on Earth' series, US National Public Radio, Dec 12, 2008
A broadcast to mark the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 8 Earthrise photograph, downloadable from ... more A broadcast to mark the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 8 Earthrise photograph, downloadable from the NPR website.
Los Angeles Times, Jul 19, 2009
Op ed piece for the Los Angeles Times to mark the fortieth anniversary of the first Moon landing.
History Today, Jan 2001
An illustrated piece on Stanley Kubrick and Arthur Clarke's remarkable film '2001: a Space Odysse... more An illustrated piece on Stanley Kubrick and Arthur Clarke's remarkable film '2001: a Space Odyssey' to mark the coming of the year 2001. The most scientifically accurate film ever made for its time (according to David Kirby), the making of '2001' was a space programme in its own right. The film also marked the apex of twentieth century optimism about unlimited human progress, and tapped into important ideas about human evolution, violence, artificial intelligence, and extraterrestrial intelligence.
The Lancashire Witches 1612-2012 by Robert J Poole
This is a reading edition of the original 1612 book of the trial of the Lancashire Witches, Engla... more This is a reading edition of the original 1612 book of the trial of the Lancashire Witches, England's biggest peacetime witch trial. It comes with an extended introduction looking afresh at the trial: the events revealed (or constructed) in the text, the course of the dramatic trial, and the long afterlife of the fame of the Lancashire Witches. The book is published in paperback by Carnegie, and sections of the original text are available at the website under 'more info' (and under 'Profiles' at the side of this page).
Public Domain Review
A summary of the case done for the Public Domain Review - an excellent online review well worth a... more A summary of the case done for the Public Domain Review - an excellent online review well worth a visit for all its content. To see some of the commemorations of 2012 click the link to the Lancashire Witches website under 'Profiles' to the left.
This book of essays was published by Manchester University Press in 2002 and reissued in 2012. He... more This book of essays was published by Manchester University Press in 2002 and reissued in 2012. Here is the table of contents and the introductory material, which summarises the book. You can still buy it - preferably not from Amazon because if they paid their taxes like the rest of us it would make cuts in public library services unnecessary.
Peterloo and the radical movement by Robert J Poole
'New Approached to the History of Popular Protest' conference, History Workshop/University of Hertfordshire., Jul 1, 2011
A discussion paper on James C. Scott's book 'Domination and the Arts of Resistance'. It argues th... more A discussion paper on James C. Scott's book 'Domination and the Arts of Resistance'. It argues that Scott's insightful account of the resistance of the powerless has limited relevance to the political protest of early nineteenth-century England. To adapt his work to more open polities (even very unequal ones) we need to take more account of the dynamics of historical change.
Coming from Manchester in 1817, the march of the 'Blanketeers' has generally been taken to be som... more Coming from Manchester in 1817, the march of the 'Blanketeers' has generally been taken to be something to do with the industrial revolution: at least an eruption of distress, at most an attempted revolution. This article returns to the sources to show how both the march and the attempted risings that followed were related to a coherent national strategy of petitioning and remonstration for parliamentary reform that began with the London Hampden Club and ended with the Pentridge rebels. Gradualism had not yet been invented. Petitioning, remonstration, and rebellion were all constitutionalist strategies, related to episodes from the English past such as the 'peasants' revolt' of 1381 and the 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688. The appeal was as much to the throne as to parliament. Much about the agitation of 1816–17 prefigures the Chartist experience: the constitutional forms of petitioning and remonstrating, the shift of the initiative from London to the provinces, the dilemma over 'ulterior measures', and the appeal over the head of parliament to the crown. The paper identifies a mixed tradition of popular monarchism and 'Robin Hood republicanism' running from the early modern period and the Jacobites to the Chartists and beyond.
Past and Present 192, Aug 2006
This article, which has six illustrations, examines a little-noticed but vital element of the gre... more This article, which has six illustrations, examines a little-noticed but vital element of the great 1819 radical rally in Manchester: the similarity between the way the march was organised and the customary wakes or rushbearing processions which took place in the area at the same season. I argue that this was no coincidence, and that as radicals were still feeling their way as citizens they adapted the forms and symbolism of community to political purposes. I go on to look at the wider connections between politics and festivity, and to suggest that this cultural dimension helps to explain the ferocity of the authorities in what was to become the 'Peterloo massacre'. (See also the earlier piece on Middleton Rushbearing, in the 'Samuel Bamford' section).
A review of David Worrall's book 'Theatric Revolution' (Palgrave, 2006) for the online 'Reviews i... more A review of David Worrall's book 'Theatric Revolution' (Palgrave, 2006) for the online 'Reviews in History'. Since then Worrall has published another valuable book of essays, 'The Politics of Romantic Theatricality 1787-1832' (Palgrave 2007).
History, April 2006, Apr 2006
This article looks again at the ‘Peterloo massacre’ of 16 August 1819 in Manchester, and offers n... more This article looks again at the ‘Peterloo massacre’ of 16 August 1819 in Manchester, and offers new evidence from the Home Office Disturbances Papers about how it came about and who was responsible. In Section I the revisionist case that Peterloo was a conflict rather than a massacre is examined and found wanting. Section II argues that in the months before Peterloo, the Home Office had consistently urged the Lancashire magistrates to combat radical agitation ‘either by the law or the sword’; its well-known advice for restraint on 16 August was a piece of qualified back-pedalling which came too late. It also argues that the authorities misinterpreted the peaceful mass platform agitation of 1819 in the light of their experience of the attempted insurrections of 1817. Section III shows that the prosecution at the Peterloo trial privately conceded that its own version of events had been discredited. Section IV suggests that both conservative and progressive versions of what happened at Peterloo are constricted by whiggish assumptions, proposes some questions for further study, and offers a brief summary explanation of the Peterloo massacre.
Review in History (online), Dec 2009
A review of Adrian Randall's 'Riotous Assemblies' and Katrina Navickas's 'Loyalism and Radicalism... more A review of Adrian Randall's 'Riotous Assemblies' and Katrina Navickas's 'Loyalism and Radicalism in Lancashire' for the free online journal 'Reviews in History', two landmark works in the history of popular protest.
Teaching History 129, Dec 2007
A short account of recent scholarship on the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, together with some suggestio... more A short account of recent scholarship on the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, together with some suggestions for teaching it in schools. By coincidence, the same month in 2007 saw the inauguration of a new plaque to Peterloo in Manchester, brought about partly by a request from local school pupils for the event to be better commemorated.
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The First Space Age 1945-75 by Robert J Poole
Since 1972 no-one has left Earth orbit, which means that the space age proper now belongs to the middle-aged...
The Lancashire Witches 1612-2012 by Robert J Poole
Peterloo and the radical movement by Robert J Poole
Since 1972 no-one has left Earth orbit, which means that the space age proper now belongs to the middle-aged...