Dr David Vessey
BA, MA, PhD
Department of History
University Teacher in Modern History


+44 114 222 2602
Full contact details
Department of History
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
- Profile
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I have worked at Sheffield since 2006, initially whilst studying for my Ph.D. after also completing my B.A. and M.A. at the university.
I have previously taught at Leeds Metropolitan University, and additionally held Research Assistant posts working on projects investigating representations of entrepreneurship in British culture and the popular press.
My Ph.D. titled ‘The Downfall of the Liberal Party and the Rise of Labour: Sheffield Politics, 1903-1924’ contributed to the wider historical debate on both parties by demonstrating that Sheffield’s experience validates interpretations of Liberal decline that pre-date the First World War.
I have recently finished work on a project tracing representations of the Women’s Social and Political Union in the newspapers of Edwardian Britain.
- Research interests
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My research focuses on modern British political history, specifically the corresponding fortunes of the Labour and Liberal parties, and media history in the twentieth century.
I am currently researching British perceptions of the Soviet Union in the Stalinist era. The project will investigate shifts in popular reaction and opinion covering the Soviet Famine, purges and show trials, the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the Second World War (particularly the ‘Uncle Joe’ transformation), and the onset of the Cold War. I am also working on a forthcoming article about the Marconi scandal of 1912 and anti-Semitism in the popular press.
- Publications
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Journal articles
- ‘People want newspapers far more than weekly collections of articles’: The Sheffield Guardian, the Labour Party and the left-wing press. Labour History Review, 80(3), 249-272.
- Attercliffe, Sheffield: The Rise of Labour Examined in Two By-Elections, 1894–1909. Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 85(1), 194-212.
- First-hand Accounts? Walter Duranty, William Henry Chamberlin and Eugene Lyons as Moscow Correspondents in the 1930s. Journalism Studies, 1-17.
- Anti-Bolshevism and the periodical press in interwar Britain: the case of the Saturday Review, 1933–6. Historical Research.
- Votes for Women and Public Discourse: Elite Newspapers, Correspondence Columns and Informed Debate in Edwardian Britain. Media History, 1-15.
Book reviews
- ‘Miserable Conflict and Confusion’: The Irish Question and the British National Press, 1916-22. By Erin Kate Scheopner. Twentieth Century British History.
- ‘People want newspapers far more than weekly collections of articles’: The Sheffield Guardian, the Labour Party and the left-wing press. Labour History Review, 80(3), 249-272.
- Research group
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- Current Students
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Second Supervisor
- Teaching interests
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Undergraduate
- HST120 - History Workshop
- HST202 - Historians and History
- HST3000 - Uses of History
Postgraduate
- HST680 - Media and Political Culture in Modern Britain
- HST681 - Work Placement
- Professional activities and memberships
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Fellow of the Higher Education Academy