Mine is: “Maggie Thatcher, milk snatcher!” I remember going to nursery school when I was older and being surprised there was still milk. Round about that time was also the news about Idi Amin in Uganda and I remember being absolutely terrified of him: he was like the bogeyman. I looked up the dates of those events just now and realized I was no more than a year and half old at that time which means that those political memories ANTEDATE things I thought were my “first memories.” How awful that Idi Amin should be my first memory!
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Last autumn we ran an experimental online public engagement series called 'earliest political memories'. We collected a total of 68 memories that were generously contributed by members of the public. You can read all the contributions here. The series caught the attention of our colleague Rachel O'Connell in the School of English who…
In "earliest political memories"
Only after reflecting on your request did I realise that my earliest 'political' memories are all related to gender. May I share two 'proto-political' memories and one which I would term political? My first 'proto-political memory' comes from when I was a young primary school child, perhaps 7 or 8,…
In "earliest political memories"
My earliest political memory, though very distant and somewhat undefined, is the civil war in Yugoslavia when I was 7-8 years old and the eventual breakup of the country. I say distant and undefined, because at the time I didn't really understand much about what was going on, nor did…
In "earliest political memories"
Mine is: “Maggie Thatcher, milk snatcher!” I remember going to nursery school when I was older and being surprised there was still milk. Round about that time was also the news about Idi Amin in Uganda and I remember being absolutely terrified of him: he was like the bogeyman. I looked up the dates of those events just now and realized I was no more than a year and half old at that time which means that those political memories ANTEDATE things I thought were my “first memories.” How awful that Idi Amin should be my first memory!