Washminster

Washminster
Washminster

Thursday 5 January 2012

American Politics Group

Today in Manchester, the annual conference of the American Politics Group begins. The APG was founded in 1974 and "is the major professional organisation for the researchers and teachers in the UK whose work concentrates on the government and politics of the USA." Details of the conference can be found here.

I'm particularly looking forward to the sessions which look at the Healthcare issue, (and to an updated version of Dr Alex Waddon's paper which was initially presented at the annual colloquium  at the British Library in November) and to the session on the Tea Party movement. There's a session on development of the Right in America, upon which I have a particular interest, and some sessions on recent political history.

I will give a report after the conference and review some of the papers presented.

For me, this is going to be a year for visiting Manchester. Apart from kicking off the year with the APG, I'll be back for the Labour Party Conference in September/October. The city hosts the People's History Museum, which is both a fascinating museum and has important archives which I have used in the past - and will probably do so again this year - for my historical research into Parliament.