Harry Ranken Memorial Lecture
Harry Ranken was a graduate of the University of Glasgow and a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Before the Great War he was a distinguished expert in tropical diseases. He was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously for ‘gallantry in the face of the enemy’ during the First Battle of the Aisne in September 1914.
Harry Ranken Memorial Lecture 2024-25
Thursday 6 March 2025, 5pm
In the Boyd Orr Building, Lecture Theatre Room 513
Professor Guillaume Piketty, Sciences Po
“Societies After Hostilities: Coming Out of War”
Diplomatic negotiations and political upheavals, joyous yet often bittersweet homecomings, the restoration of private and family life, gratitude and cultural demobilization, mourning, trauma and healing, traces of war and memories... the mere mention of these themes highlights the richness and topicality of what is now commonly referred to as “coming out of war” processes. This lecture will consider the ways and means by which individuals who—for different reasons and with varying status—have experienced a conflict gradually emerge from it, with more or less success. It will focus in particular on the sensitive, emotional and intimate dimension, as well as on the long-term prospects of this “coming out of war”. It will examine the possible sources available to historians for investigating such complex topics, the pitfalls that lie in wait for these historians, and how this work can affect them personally. The Second World War provides a wealth of examples, owing to its enormous scale, its great diversity of postwar experiences, and the extreme violence it saw. But other conflicts will be examined from a comparative perspective, and in possible relation to current events.
Guillaume Piketty is Professor of History at Sciences Po, in Paris. His research focuses on the social and cultural history of World War II in France and in Europe, and, more broadly, on war, resistance, coming out of war, and society from the US Civil War onwards. Notably, his work includes working on these subjects from the perspectives of the history of senses and sensitivities as well as the history of emotions and intimacy.
Harry Ranken Memorial Lecture 2022-23
Thursday 13 October 2022, 5.15 - 7pm
In the Humanities Lecture Theatre
Professor Peter Wilson: A Genius for War? Reflections on German Military History 1500 to the Present
Professor Peter Wilson is the Chichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford. His work examines the impact of war in European and World Development as well as the history of the Holy Roman Empire. Professor Wilson has published extensively on these subjects. His most recent books include Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples since 1500; Lützen: Great Battles and The Holy Roman Empire. A Thousand Years of Europe’s History.
Watch the recorded lecture:
Harry Ranken Memorial Lecture 2021-22
Rebecca Donner: All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days
Thursday 5 May 2022
All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler became an instant New York Times bestseller and has won a dazzling array of prizes including the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award, the 2022 PEN America/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award. A deeply researched fusion of biography, espionage thriller, and scholarly detective story, All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days was named a Best Book of 2021 by the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times.
Harry Ranken Memorial Lecture 2020-21
The 2020 Harry Rankin Memorial Lecture was held virtually, and in two parts. Our speaker, Professor Joanna Bourke, offered a pre-recorded a lecture (available below), which was followed by a live Q&A session.
Harry Ranken Memorial Lecture 2018-19
The Peacemakers and the Challenge of International Order in 1919
Professor Georges-Henri Soutou - Institut de France
17 January 2019
Harry Ranken Memorial Lecture 2017-18
The inaugural 2017 Harry Ranken Memorial Lecture was delivered by Professor Sir Hew Strachan on "The US entry to the First World War: Centennial reflections'.
