English

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  Discovering Literature: Medieval

  Explore unique collection items & a variety of articles relating to some of the earliest works of & figures in of English literary history.

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  Discovering Literature: Shakespeare & Renaissance writers

  Learn more about the world of Shakespeare & Renaissance writers. Explore a range of critical views on key plays & poems.

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  Discovering Literature: Restoration & 18th century

  Explore the lives & works of key writers from a period that ushered in political unrest, social change & new literary forms.

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  Discovering Literature: Romantics & Victorians

  Discover some of our greatest literary treasures from the Romantic & Victorian periods, & learn about the historical, social & political contexts in which they were written & set.

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  Discovering Literature: 20th century

  Explore the ways in which key 20th-century authors & playwrights experimented with new forms & themes to capture the fast-changing world around them.

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  British Accents and Dialects

  Do you call a ‘bread roll’ a cob, batch, barm cake or scuffler? How do you pronounce the words cup and plant? Discover the diversity of spoken English in the second half of the 20th century.

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  Poetry & Performance

  Listen to well-known figures perform readings of poetry by some of Britain & America’s most distinguished poets. Access audio recordings & explore the connections between the poets’ lives & their work.

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  English Language & Literature Timeline

  From the 11th century to the present day, follow the evolution of the English language & our literature decade by decade to uncover the richness & diversity of our poetry & prose.

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  Texts in Context

  Texts in Contexts unites a rich, yet disparate collection of over 400 texts: from the first English dictionary, to cook books, shopping lists & song lyrics, explore how language is changed by context & through time.

Religious Studies

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  Discovering Sacred Texts

  Discover the richness & diversity of the texts from some of the world’s greatest faiths. Explore sacred texts from Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism & the Baha’i Faith, Jainism & Zoroastrianism.

History

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  Asians in Britain

  Uncover the rich & diverse history of Asians in Britain, from 1858 to 1950, through this collection of contemporary accounts, posters, pamphlets, diaries, newspapers & reports.

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  Campaign for Abolition

  Learn about the origins & history of the transatlantic slave trade & the subsequent campaign for its abolition. What can we learn from the abolitionists about equality & justice?

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  Dreamers & Dissenters

  How do people respond to the world they live in when they disagree or dream of change? This site introduces some of the visionaries, dissenters & rule breakers of past centuries.

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  Georgian Britain

  The Georgian period was a time a great change, as cities grew, trade expanded & popular culture blossomed.

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  Magna Carta

  Explore the origins & 800-year legacy of Magna Carta, & discover its relevance to justice, liberty & the law today.

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  Playtimes

  A collection of articles, film & audio recordings documenting 100 years of children’s songs, rhymes & games.

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  The Middle Ages

  Find out about social history in the Middle Ages by exploring illuminated manuscripts and articles revealing the everyday lives of people across the social spectrum.

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  Timelines: Sources from History

  From medieval times to the present day, explore collection items chronologically in this beautiful interactive timeline. Discover a wide range of historical sources that reflect everyday life & major political events.

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  Victorian Britain

  Discover historical sources and articles written by experts that reveal the everyday reality of living in Victorian Britain.

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  Voices of the Holocaust

  Listen to clips taken from the oral testimonies of Jewish men & women who survived the horrors of the Holocaust.

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  Votes for Women

  Explore short articles & examine scrapbooks, political pamphlets, photographs & posters to discover how suffragists & suffragettes campaigned for democratic rights.

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  West India Regiments

  Explore changes in racial thought & how British-armed people of African descent served within the wider British army in the 18th & 19th centuries.

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  Windrush Stories

  Explorations of race, migration & culture. Windrush Stories invites us to consider the ongoing relationship between Britain & the Caribbean.

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  World War One

  Discover how World War One affected people on different sides of the conflict via this collection of over 500 historical sources contributed by libraries from across Europe.

Citizenship

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  My Digital Rights

  Magna Carta: My Digital Rights provides free classroom resources to support students and teachers as they consider their rights, safety & responsibilities online.

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  Sisterhood & After

  Listen to the women at the forefront of Britain’s Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1970s & 80s. Learn about what motivated the movement & how women and society reacted to the fight for equality.

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  Spare Rib

  Explore digitised images from this ground-breaking 20th-century magazine – from sexuality & health to childcare, the arts & legal rights, Spare Rib offers a wealth of themes to investigate.