Just in time for Christmas, Local Studies brings you a tale of good deeds gone unrewarded, a distinct lack of human kindness, and Good Samaritan-ism coming back to haunt people. Who’s to say we aren’t festive folk in the library service? Never mind – the story here is of a stranger in a strange land

Any reader with even the most basic knowledge of the history of asylums and mental institutions – whether from academic reading or from...

In the 1830’s there was a movement towards social reform, especially towards the employment of children in the burgeoning industries of...