Henry Bradshaw

• BA (Hons) Politics & History
• Looking to the past not the future? An analysis of the use of history during the EU referendum campaign.

The referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union has had profound consequences for the UK’s future. Throughout the referendum campaign, the past was used as a means to both communicate, and more significantly, justify the arguments either to leave or remain in the EU. Indeed, by making deliberate references to the past, the project was able to distinguish between the two campaign’s interpretations of what role Britain should have internationally. The project ultimately found that the Remain and Leave campaigners interpreted Britain’s pathway to current membership in different ways. After which, the project then critically evaluated the language that history was framed within in order to note the differences in national identity. This was compared against the visual sources produced by the campaigns in order to assess continuities in the campaigns messages. Overall, this project further provided additional consciousness to the question of what constitutes Britishness.

Funding source: Newcastle University

Supervisor: Dr Nick Randall