What is History For? is a short series of articles in which historians explore the purpose and value of their research and craft. In this second post, Tionne Parris considers the example set by mid-20th-century Black radical women in their struggle for change. What might historical study of their approach to, and framing of, activism teach us about engaging with present-day challenges, of which the climate emergency looms largest? A version of Tionne's article was first presented at the 'What is History For?' conference held at the University of Birmingham, in May 2022.

In their new article, now published in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society', Stuart McManus and Michael T. Tworek offer a new approach to early modern global history. What they dub '(dis)entangled history' is a way to combine the conventional focus on the history of connections with a necessary appreciation of the elements of disconnection and disintegration. By tracing how discourses on cannibalism did and did not travel around the globe, they offer a theoretical statement and a concrete approach to writing about intermittent connectedness in the period 1500–1800.

Each year, the Society awards four Fellowships to students enabling them to complete a History PhD. The RHS Centenary and Marshall Fellows for 2022/23 will shortly be appointed. Here Dan Armstrong, one of current Centenary Fellows, reflects on his research in 2021/2. Dan's study is of Anglo-Papal relations between the reigns of William the Conqueror and Henry I. In this post he considers how a single source -- a letter sent to Archbishop Lanfranc from Pope Calixtus II -- frames and informs his thesis.