Migration has been a crucial element of British and English history.  England emerged as a nation amid a period of migration.  Its culture is a hybrid.  Its modern experience has been shaped by an unprecedented outward and inward flow of peoples.  This lecture aims to identify what is special and characteristic about the migration history of England and Britain, and reflect on the way in which migration has affected and still affects the life of the nation.

Robert Tombs is Professor of French History at Cambridge and author of The English and their History.  He is a specialist in modern French history and on the Franco-British relationship.  His most recent work has been an excursion into English history, though with something of a French perspective.

Robert Winder is a trustee of the Migrationa Museum Project and author of Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain, among many other books on cricket, sport and history.

The Migration Museum Project (@MigrationUK) is creating a dedicated Migration Museum, telling the story of movement into and out of the UK in a fresh and engaging way. The museum will be an enquiry into who we are, where we came from and where we are going. We hope that, by revealing our shared history to be a history of migration, the museum will open up conversations and discussions about Britishness and belonging. We aim to represent the tales, the emotion and the history that have gone into shaping our national fabric; we aim to be the museum of all our stories.

Suggested hashtag for this event for Twitter users: #LSEMMP

Podcast

A podcast of this event is available to download from Migration: an English history

Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.