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History has always been a passion for me: from visiting castles, museums and historic sites with my family as a child to visiting castles, museums and historic sites as an adult with my long-suffering wife and son. I naturally chose to study history at university, moving across the pennines from Yorkshire to Lancashire and have remained there ever-since - though, it has to be said, I'm still a very proud Yorkshireman. History, then, is a key part of my leisure time; but so is sport (watching rather than participating for the most part nowadays - though I enjoy the odd round of golf), reading, travelling and watching the world go by from a coffee shop (or a pub!).
I teach mainly for enjoyment (I thoroughly enjoy my job): I like to inspire and inform, but more important for me is to get students to question long-held assumptions, to develop their understanding and to think about the world around them, particularly its past, in different ways.
The more you read the more informed you'll be, the more you question what you read the better your understanding will be. Do not take history at face value and always read between the lines.
Learning is a personal thing, but it is also a shared experience and this is the central mantra of my teaching. We learn from one another, it is a two-way process, and this is what we'll do in my classes.
I studied for my BA (2005), MA (2006) and PhD (2011), all in history, at Lancaster University.
Prior to joining the history department at MMU I taught in the history department at Lancaster in a variety of capacities and on a variety of courses. My PhD thesis explored the British and Continental labour and socialist movements in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, focusing specifically on H.M. Hyndman, the 'father of British Marxism'. My work focuses on a variety of historical approaches, including labour, social, cultural, political and imperial histories, as well as taking an interdisciplinary approach. In my research I interrogate issues of class, race and empire, nationalism and internationalism, industrial relations, domestic and international politics, and Marxist theory.
History Programme Leader
I am Unit Leader for the following courses:
I also teach, delivering lectures and seminars, on the following courses:
I supervise dissertations on a variety of subjects within modern British and European history.
I teach on the core MA unit Historical Research Skills and Methods and supervise a number of MA dissertations.
Peter Fyles, 'The Social Democratic Federation in East Lancashire'
David Barrett, 'Popular Music Hall Song Lyrics and the Lived Experience of the Urban Poor in Britain, c.1900-18'
My work focuses on a variety of historical approaches, including labour, social, cultural, political and imperial histories, as well as taking an interdisciplinary approach. In my research I interrogate issues of class, race and empire, nationalism and internationalism, industrial relations, domestic and international politics, and Marxist theory.
My current research explores the interrelationship of European socialists in the years preceding the First World War, especially those who were members of the Second International. I am focusing particularly on Anglo-German relations within the International, attitudes to the military matters and the arms race, collective calls for peace and the subsequent change in attitudes as war broke out.
I am also currently working on the legacy of Thomas Paine. In particular I am focusing on his legacy within the British left in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Online Publications:
M. Morris, 'Manchester's Voices of Peace', Voices of War and Peace: AHRC Engagement Centre, 3 November 2014. http://www.voicesofwarandpeace.org/portfolio/manchesters-voices-of-peace/
M. Morris, '‘The first chapter’: Magna Carta and British socialism’s struggle for freedom in late Victorian and
Edwardian Britain', Great Charter Convention Series, Politics in Spires,Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, 23 April 2015. http://politicsinspires.org/the-first-chapter-magna-carta-and-british-socialisms-struggle-for-freedom-in-late-victorian-and-edwardian-britain/
Also published at openDemocracy:
M. Morris, '‘Girls Who Would Fight’: Young Women and the Call to Arms', Voices of War and Peace: AHRC Engagement Centre, 14 June 2017. http://www.voicesofwarandpeace.org/portfolio/girls-who-would-fight/
M.Morris, 'Being Young: Understanding Young People’s Experiences in the First World War', AHRC WW1 Engagement Centre Blog, 10 May 2018. http://beyondthetrenches.co.uk/
M. Morris (2015). ‘The Most Respectable Looking of Revolutionaries’. Cultural and Social History. 12(3), pp.315-330.
M. Morris (2014). From anti-colonialism to anti-imperialism: the evolution of H. M. Hyndman's critique of empire,c.1875-1905. Historical Research. 87(236), pp.293-314.
M. Morris (2020). Histories, Memories and Representations of being Young in the First World War. M. Morris. Palgrave Macmillan.
S. Edwards, MB. Morris (2018). The Legacy of Thomas Paine in the Transatlantic World. MB. Morris. Routledge.
M. Morris (2015). ‘The Most Respectable Looking of Revolutionaries’. Cultural and Social History. 12(3), pp.315-330.
M. Morris (2015). Labour and the Caucus: Working-Class Radicalism and Organised Liberalism in England, 1868–1888. Journal of Victorian Culture. 20(2), pp.265-268.
M. Morris (2014). From anti-colonialism to anti-imperialism: the evolution of H. M. Hyndman's critique of empire,c.1875-1905. Historical Research. 87(236), pp.293-314.
M. Morris, S. Edwards (2014). Citizen of the World: The Use and Abuse of Thomas Paine, People's History Museum, Manchester, 29-30 November 2013. History Workshop Journal. 77(1), pp.342-345.
M. Morris (2023). Making Martyrs: Contested histories and the British labour and Socialist movements’ commemoration of the Dorchester labourers. In: Memory and Modern British Politics: Commemoration, Tradition, Legacy. pp.217-234.
M. Andrews, NC. Fleming, M. Morris (2020). Introduction. In: Histories, Memories and Representations of being Young in the First World War. Springer International Publishing, pp.1-7.
M. Morris (2020). ‘Girls Who Would Fight’: Young Women and the Call to Arms During the First World War. In: Histories, Memories and Representations of being Young in the First World War. Springer International Publishing, pp.119-139.
M. Morris (2019). Between Workers and Soldiers: The Relationship between the Labour Party and Ex-servicemen after the First World War. In: Veterans of the First World War: Ex-Servicemen and Ex-Servicewomen in Post-War Britain and Ireland. Routledge,
M. Morris (2018). Peace, but not at any price: British socialists' calls for peace on the eve of the First World War. In: Labour, British radicalism and the First World War. Manchester University Press, pp.17-34.
M. Morris (2018). ‘The way we are’: Class and Britishness on film. In: Histories on Screen: The Past and Present in Anglo-American Cinema and Television. Bloomsbury Publishing, pp.65-80.
M. Morris (2017). "The Neglect of Paine Seems Particularly Strange at the Present Political Juncture": Explaining British Socialists’ Relationship to Paine, c. 1884-1914. In: The Legacy of Thomas Paine in the Transatlantic World. Routledge,
SR. Edwards, M. Morris (2017). Introduction: The use and abuse of Thomas Paine in the Transatlantic World. In: The Legacy of Thomas Paine in the Transatlantic World.
M. Morris (2016). Class, performance and socialist politics: The political campaigns of early labour leaders. In: Politics, performance and popular culture: Theatre and society in nineteenth-century Britain. Manchester University Press, pp.259-275.
2019 - ‘‘Vote for the man who fought with you’: returning soldiers and British politics in the immediate aftermath of the First World War’, Veteran Politics in Europe Workshop, Manchester Metropolitan University
2015 - 'Voices of Peace, the Rhetoric of Youth and the Outbreak of War in 1914', Being Young in World War One Conference, Manchester Metropolitan University
2014 - 'Peace, but not at any price: British socialists' calls for peace on the eve of World War One', Labour and the First World War Conference, Anglia Ruskin University.
2012 - 'Theatricality and performance in the campaigns of early labour leaders', Politics, Performance and Popular Culture in Victorian England Symposium (Invited Speaker), University of Birmingham.
2011 - 'Class and the performance of socialist politics in late nineteenth-century Britain: a tale of a top hat and cloth cap', Politics, Performance and Popular Culture in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Storey Institute, Lancaster, Lancaster/Birmingham Universities.
2009 - 'Discourse of class: the political appeals of late nineteenth-century British socialists', Conference on Modern British History, University of Strathclyde.
2009 - 'The development of late nineteenth-century British socialism and the spoken word: assessing the impact', Experiencing Texts Conference, York History Research Society, University of York.
2008 - 'The jingoistic socialist: H.M. Hyndman, imperialism and India', British Labour and Imperialism Conference, University of Central Lancashire.
2008 - 'British socialism and ideas of empire: the case of H.M. Hyndman', Histfest Postgraduate Conference, Lancaster University.
2015: 'Being Young in World War One', International conference held at Manchester Metropolitan University, 6-7 November 2015.
2013: 'Citizen of the World: The Use and Abuse of Thomas Paine'. International conference hosted at the People's History Museum, Manchester, 29-30 November 2013.
I have reviewed for the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire; Routledge; Historical Research; International Labor and Working-Class History; Taylor and Francis.
2017 (with Sam Edwards): BAAS/US Embassy Small Grants Programme: 'US in the NW: The United States and North-West England, Contact, Connections and Histories' (£4270).
2016-17: AHRC First World War Public Engagement Centre at University of Birmingham Research Fund (£11,859) - co-produced research project with local youth groups on young people and the First World War. Project details can be found here: https://mcphh.org/being-young-on-the-home-front/
2013: History Workshop Journal Small Conference Grant.
Young People and the First World War - AHRC First World War Public Engagemen Centre (Voices of War and Peace - University of Birmingham) funded project working with local youth groups assessing the impact of the First World War on young people in the Greater Manchester area.
I am heavily involved in the department's Widening Particpation and School's Outreach initiatives. I have delivered a number of sessions (classes, workshops, lectures) for students from a number of local schools.
2016: Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
On the editorial board of the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire