Professor James Thompson

Office: 1.37, 13 Woodland Road

Phone: +44 0117 928 9133

Email: [email protected]

Consultation Hours

My primary research interests lie in the political and intellectual history of Britain since 1850. I've written on class, popular political economy, Victorian scandals and trade union legislation. My monograph British political culture and idea of 'public opinion', 1867-1914 examines how Britons understood 'public opinion' prior to the rise of polling, and what this tells us about the political culture of the period. My current research reconstructs the visual culture of British politics from the 1860s to the 1930s through posters, banners, films and photographs.  I also work on the history of numeracy, and on the impact of new technology on culture and society in modern Britain. I collaborate with colleagues in AI on 'big data' research using historical sources.    

Research supervision

Professor Thompson welcomes research proposals in all areas of modern British history. He is particularly interested in proposals addressing modern British intellectual history and political culture.

Teaching

I contribute to a number of team taught units on both the BA in History and the MA in History.  This year I am teaching on:

Political Culture and Communication in Modern Britain (Level 2)

Britain's Long Nineteenth Century (Level 3)

Sexualities (Level 3)