Medievalism, gender and politicised nostalgia in the British extreme right, 1962 – 1982

This project is funded by the British Academy’s 2024/25 BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants Scheme.

In this project, I will undertake a systematic analysis of archival materials related to the inner workings of the British extreme right in a significant period of change for this political movement (1962 – 1982), and will establish the political, social and emotional reasons for their nostalgia for the medieval past. This research will particularly focus on how the nostalgic functions of medievalism were instrumentalised as means of recruitment and radicalisation that targeted white boys and men with emotional appeals to their gendered and ethnic identities, and will thus have significant implications for understanding contemporary radicalisation as well as radicalisation in the recent past. Undertaking the research for, and the outcomes of, this project will inform the development of a larger scale research project that will look at medievalism in the British extreme right in a longer term context, from the early 1960s through to the contemporary moment.

Dr Rachel Moss

Dr Rachel Moss is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Northampton. A medievalist by training, she is a specialist in gender and family in late medieval England and is developing a new research strand on the role of medievalism in the extreme right. She has recently been awarded a British Academy and Leverhulme Small Grant for her project “Medievalism, gender and politicised nostalgia in the British extreme right, 1962 – 1982”.