Released in 1946, Frank Capra's fable of Christmas despair in small town America has become – rather improbably – a staple of festive television. Starring Jimmy Stewart as virtuous everyman George Bailey, It's A Wonderful Life is not just a feelgood tale of moral redemption, but a clue to the shifting social terrain of post-war America.

Is it a film about capitalism? Angels? Individual liberty? The subversion of community values? The trauma of the second world war? James Butler, co-founder of Novara Media and a contributing editor at the London Review of Books, and host Eleanor Penny reflect on their very first viewing (!) of the movie.

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A huge thank you to everyone who has chosen to back our journalism this year. You’ve made everything we do possible. https://novara.media/support

Novara Audio: Radio for A Different Politics

Novara FM: It's A Wonderful Life w/ James Butler

This time next week, Keir Starmer will likely be settling into No 10 with a thumping majority. Yet Labour has largely avoided the question of what they're going to do with all that power once they get it, and the political media has barely posed the question. Meanwhile the Conservative party as we know it has shattered into pieces, and the far-right is filling the vacuum. 

To paint a picture of Britain at this historic crossroads, Eleanor Penny is joined by Novara Media co-founder and LRB contributing editor James Butler.

Watch our rolling #ElectionSesh coverage on 4 July from 9.30pm on Novara Media's YouTube.

Support people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Novara Audio: Radio for a Different Politics

Novara FM: Britain At A Crossroads w/ James Butler

In this episode, a recording of a paper by Anastasios Vavalis from Dublin City University. His paper was entitled 'Petitioning the Lord Lieutentant in Restoration Ireland: the practice of petitioning in the registers of James Butler, First Duke of Ormond'.

This paper argues that the practice of petitioning was a crucial element of the political and administrative experience in early modern Ireland. The first decade of the Restoration in Ireland, dominated by the land settlement, financial woes and the memories of conflict, saw thousands of petitions from people of all backgrounds presented to the Dublin and Whitehall administrations. Utilizing the petition copybooks of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond, this paper offers a new perspective on the political developments of the 1660s by systematically investigating a point of direct contact between state and subjects. The standardized nature of these copybooks permits a robust quantitative look into the period in question, as well as new insight into the experience and process of governance from Dublin Castle.

Tudor and Stuart Ireland

The annual Tudor & Stuart Ireland Interdisciplinary Conference welcomes established academics, early stage and independent researchers, as well as postgraduates from Ireland and beyond to present their research in a genuinely collegial environment. The conference takes place in a venue in Ireland in August every year. For more information on attending go to tudorstuartireland.com

The 12th Annual Tudor and Stuart Ireland Interdisciplinary Conference took place in the University of Galway in August 2024. The conference was organised by Marie-Louise Coolahan, Maureen Deleo, Andrew Levie, Brenda Luies, Millie Randall and Ian Wong and generously supported by the Department of English, University of Galway, and Marsh's Library.

As in previous years the majority of papers were recorded for podcasting by Real Smart Media in association with History Hub.ie. There is now an extensive archive of around 300 podcasts from previous Tudor and Stuart Ireland conferences freely available to listen to. To access this archive go to historyhub.ie or search for Tudor and Stuart Ireland on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud or on Spotify.

https://historyhub.ie/tudor-and-stuart-ireland-conference

Anastasios Vavalis - Petitioning the Lord Lieutentant in Restoration Ireland

History Hub. is based at the School of History, University College Dublin, Ireland. Our ambition is to make the most recent academic research available on-line to everyone who loves history. 

Our podcasts feature historians talking about a whole range of subjects from medieval to modern history, both Irish and international. Our From the Archives section showcases original historical documents held in the Archive at UCD. We also have a History and Policy section where historians contribute to current policy debates.

Podcasting by https://soundcloud.com/real-smart-media

New tracks tagged #James Butler