Hello and welcome to the History Extra podcast from BBC History Magazine, Britain's best-selling history magazine.

I'm Ellie Corthorne.

As 2021 draws to a close, we thought it would be interesting to take a look back at some of the moments and themes that have shaped the face of history this year.

Joining me to do so was Anna Whitelock, public historian, and the author of BBC History

magazine's Talking Points column, where she takes a look at what the historical community

are talking about online.

To help us in this quest, Anna nominated a few subjects, some silly and some serious, that have made it onto the

agenda of British historians in 2021. Thank you very much for joining me to have a look back at a

couple of key moments and debates from 2021. So as well as being a public historian, you're a

columnist for BBC History magazine and every month you write our

talking points column. So we thought you were the perfect person to do this for us because in that

column, you look at what people and public historians and historians generally are talking about

in the world of history, especially on Twitter. And you've nominated some subjects for us to discuss today. So of course,

this is not going to be a comprehensive overview of the year, nowhere near in fact, but just a

couple of moments that we're going to take a look back at that historians in Britain particularly

have been talking about this year. So just generally, how has

2021 been for historians? What's been going on in the world of public history? Well, it's been a

weird year all round, I think, hasn't it? As we've sort of tried to come out of the pandemic,

there's been a sense that in many ways, time has stood still and then historians have been

eagerly trying to get back to the archives and

get back into the classroom. So it's been a funny old period. But at the same time, I think,

history has become ever more political and you know, you only have to read the newspapers or

...