Professor Peter Mandler is the current president of the Historical Association. As part of our 'presidents season' for the HA Virtual Branch he gave a fascinating talk on The Origins of Mass Society: Speech, Sex and Drink in Urbanising Britain, 1780-1870.

In this talk he explores the impact of the changes in the way British people lived during the industrial revolution as they moved from rural to city communities. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His latest book The Crisis of the Meritocracy: Britain's Transition to Mass Education since the Second World War will be published in 2020 by Oxford University Press.

If you're a member of the HA you can also watch a recording of the lecture online:

• Primary members view here
• Secondary members view here
• Historian members view here
• Student (14-18) members view here