Politics, History & International Relations

History has recently returned to Loughborough after a 20-year absence. We celebrated the start of the new History Degree Programmes with Professor Richard J. Overy's public lecture 'History for the 21st Century' on 28 October 2009. Click here to view the Overy lecture.

Professor Chris Szejnmann, Head of History
with guest speaker Professor Richard J. Overy

The Vice-Chancellor Professor Shirley Pearce started the proceeding by welcoming the reintroduction of History and welcoming the guests. Professor Chris Szejnmann, Head of History, reflected on the subject History at Loughborough and introduced the main speaker.

Prof. Chris Szejnmann, Prof. Richard J. Overy, VC Shirley Pearce, Prof. Mark Webber

Summary of the Lecture

History as a discipline faces many challenges in the 21st century. The current popularity of 'history' has made everyone their own historian and threatens to de-professionalise the subject. The advent of the web as a research and information source also poses profound questions for history students as well as historians. The idea that history must show itself to be socially useful raises important problems of funding, dissemination and political input. Professor Overy reflected in his lecture on how history might meet these challenges and maintain the core values of the discipline.

Lecture Audience	Mark Webber, Head of Department Professor Richard J. Overy, Guest Speaker
Professor Chris Szejnmann, Head of History
Vice-Chancellor Professor Shirley Pearce
On this occasion Professor Chris Szejnmann also presented Professor Richard Overy with a Festschrift. The volume Rethinking History, Dictatorships and War. New Approaches and Interpretations (2009) seeks to honour Richard Overy, one of the great historians of his generation. The book focuses on three of the most important themes of historical studies: the way history is or ought to be written, and the nature of dictatorships and the nature of wars in Modern Europe.