Gun control and the Second Amendment

Dr Kevin Yuill (with Joe Street of Northumbria University) has edited a book entitled, The Second Amendment and Gun Control, Freedom, Fear, and the American Constitution (Routledge 2018). The collection of essays situates discussion about gun controls within contemporary debates about citizenship, culture, philosophy and foreign policy as well as in the more familiar terrain of politics and history. It features experts on the Constitution as well as chapters discussing the symbolic importance of Annie Oakley, the role of firearms in race, and filmic representations of armed Hispanic girl gangs. It asks about the morality of gun controls and of not imposing them. Published in the spirit of open debate about contentious subjects, it is finely balanced between those who favour more gun controls and those who oppose them. Dr Yuill’s chapter - 'From Virtuous Armed Citizen to "Cramped Little Risk-Fearing Man": The Meaning of Firearms in an Insecure Era' – argues that the two sides of the debate are simply alternative strategies to deal with existential insecurities. One side seeks a policy solution of removing all weapons while the other employs the individual strategy of packing a gun.

School of Culture research seminars

Culture Research Seminar Series 
Faculty of Education and Society

The School of Culture is pleased to announce the new season of research seminars.


All sessions except otherwise stated will be in Reg Vardy 111


10th February 12 noon, Priestman 115: Iain Rowan (Sunderland University) New approaches to storytelling in the digital age


24th February 4pm: Dr. Kevin Yuill (Sunderland University) Rebels against the infinite: Attitudes to suicide in the fin-de-siecle USA


24th March 5-7pm, City Library @ Museum & Winter Gardens: Dr. Mary Talbot (author of The Red Virgin) and Dr. Laura O’Brien (Northumbria University) Revolutionary women: Imagining Louise Michel


7th April 4pm: Dr. Delphine Doucet (Sunderland University) Priestcraft, civil religion and toleration in the early modern period


12th May 4pm: Dr. James Koranyi (Durham University) Fascist Divisions: a Romanian German "historians' dispute" at the end of the Cold War


9th June 4pm: Dr. David Fallon (Sunderland University) “Can you say I am an old man?”: Sentiment and the Mask of Ageing in Thomas Holcroft’s Duplicity (1781)

Telders lecture

Dr Kevin Yuill

Dr Kevin Yuill will present the annual Telders Lecture in the Hague on March 15th, 2016. The Telders Foundation is a Dutch think tank for liberalism, affiliated to the VVD party. It annually organizes a lecture in which a prominent academic, journalist or politician presents his or her view on recent events or current debates. The title of the lecture is 'The Implications for a Liberal Society of Legalized Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia'.

The spectre of Japan

In a recently published article on race relations in the USA, Dr Kevin Yuill explores how, before 1905, most observers assumed the inferiority of Blacks and saw race conflict as the fault of African Americans. But a new possibility arose when the fate of African Americans was linked to the rising power of Japan, occurring after the defeat of Russia by Japan in 1904–5. Race conflict, in this new model, was a form of conflict between nations. Kevin's paper explores the thesis that a liberal perspective based on developments in contemporary international relations slowly changed the way race was regarded in the United States. From 1905 onwards, a new liberal paradigm sought to manage race conflict. It was this—rather than labour-based racial antipathies or commitment to racial equality—that shaped US race relations in the twentieth century.

Yuill, K. 2015. The spectre of Japan: the influence of foreign relations on race relations theory, 1905–24. Patterns of Prejudice 49(4): 317-342.

How the right to die undermines autonomy

In an article published in the journal Ethics, Medicine & Public Health, Dr Kevin Yuill explicates the libertarian case against assisted dying. He argues that there is a broad discussion throughout many countries in the West about whether or not assisted suicide/dying will increase human happiness by decreasing suffering. Understandably, many of the articles address the issue from a medical standpoint but, at the same time, they assume that freedom will increase with legalization. Kevin's article is critical of that assumption and shows that the individual autonomy purportedly increased by assisted suicide will in fact decrease. This article stresses the dangers to general freedoms that will accompany a law that sets objective criteria for suicide, which is a subjective decision.

Yuill, K. 2015. The unfreedom of assisted suicide: How the right to die undermines autonomy.
Ethics, Medicine & Public Health 1(4): 494-502.

'I'm against euthanasia because I'm a humanist'

On 11th October 2014 an interview with Dr Kevin Yuill on the subject of euthanasia and assisted suicide was published in the Dutch magazine Trouw. In the interview, Kevin discusses the apparent contradiction - for some - encapsulated in the headline: 'Ik ben humanist en dus tegen euthanasie'. Kevin is the author of Assisted Suicide: The Liberal, Humanist Case Against Legalization (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).

In the Moral Maze

Dr Kevin Yuill has appeared on the flagship BBC Radio 4 programme Moral Maze. He was invited to be a witness in a discussion on assisted dying. What are the moral, ethical, philosophical and religious principles at stake in this debate? What happens when two moral principles collide and both sides could be right? What moral calculus can you apply to decide how to choose between right and wrong? You can listen to a podcast of the programme here.

The secret life of Britain's guns

Dr Kevin Yuill has appeared on Voice of Russia radio to discuss the pros and cons of relaxing Britain's gun laws. You can listen to a podcast of the broadcast here.

Acclaim for historian's assisted suicide book

A review in the journal Disability & Society has described the latest book by Sunderland historian Dr Kevin Yuill as a 'timely and welcome' volume in an area often under-analysed by academics. Susie Balderston, from the Law School at Lancaster University suggests that Assisted Suicide: The Liberal, Humanist Case against Legalization (Palgrave, 2013) 'maturely delineates a consistently well-argued path through the thorny discrepancies of polarised debates, past and present'. Balderston maintains that the author 'has a refreshing talent for injecting readability into thorny subjects', and concludes her review by stating that the volume is 'by far the best book on this subject in many years; the author should be proud of this important volume that brilliantly and eloquently tackles injustice and prejudice around assisted suicide'.

Kevin Yuill on FDR, immigration and race

Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933.
Source: Wikipedia

Franklin Roosevelt often receives accolades for pushing the USA towards a more liberal stance on race and immigration, even if his administration remained aloof from civil rights or immigration reforms. An article by Dr Kevin Yuill published in the journal Immigrants & Minorities: Historical Studies in Ethnicity, Migration and Diaspora questions that contention. Roosevelt, who presided over the period of the lowest immigration in the twentieth century, relied upon the break in immigration imposed by the 1924 Act (and the Depression) to consolidate a national culture based on ‘Nordic’ symbols, effectively carrying through the ‘Americanization’ initiated during World War I without coercion. While there is evidence of Roosevelt's liberal disposition towards those originating from Europe whose numbers were savagely restricted by the 1924 Immigration Act, and while Roosevelt was anxious to maintain cordial relations with Asian nations, he fully supported the Act's debarment of Asians from American citizenship. Moreover, he did so for strictly racial reasons.

Yuill, K. 2014. 'In the Shadow of the 1924 Immigration Act: FDR, Immigration and Race'. Immigrants & Minorities: Historical Studies in Ethnicity, Migration and Diaspora.

NUM minutes digitised

Dr Stuart Howard

The North East England Mining Archive and Research Centre (NEEMARC), founded by Department of Culture member Dr Stuart Howard (History and Politics) has digitised the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) Durham Association minutes books. The books, which cover the period 1876 to 1942 chronicle the records of the most powerful union in the country in what was arguably the most important region for coal mining, the North East of England. The volumes are now available online for historians, academics, universities, students, and the general public to view without having to leave their desks. They are the first NUM materials anywhere to be digitised.

Kevin Yuill's Assisted Suicide reviewed

A review of Kevin Yuill's latest book - Assisted Suicide: The Liberal Humanist Case Against Legalization (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) - has appeared in the American journal First Things. The author (Wesley J. Smith) commends the originality of Kevin's approach, commenting favourably on the book's 'compelling humanistic argument supporting the prohibition of doctor-prescribed death.'

African-Americans and Guns

Dr Kevin Yuill (History and Politics) has published an essay entitled "'Better Die Fighting against Injustice than to Die Like a Dog': African-Americans and Guns, 1866–1941." His chapter appears in the collection A Cultural History of Firearms in the Age of Empire (Ashgate, 2013), edited by Karen Jones, Giacomo Macola and David Welch.

History conference for sixth formers

Martin Luther King Jr.

On 11th September the History and Politics team will be welcoming over 120 sixth formers and their teachers from across the North East to a conference entitled 'Politics, Power and Rights'. The conference opens with a keynote address by Professor Clive Webb from Sussex University on British race relations and the American Civil Rights Movement. This is followed by parallel workshop sessions on a variety of topics, led by History and Politics staff, including 'Civil Rights before Brown v. Board of Education' (Dr Kevin Yuill); ''Charitable hatred': toleration after the Reformation' (Dr Delphine Doucet); 'Kings and Queens versus Social History' (Dr Peter Hayes). There will also be sessions on the Great Northern Coalfield 1700-1945 (Dr Stuart Howard), Britain between the two world wars (Dr Keith Wilson), revolutionary 'people' in the nineteenth century (Dr Laura O'Brien), and the second world war as a turning point for Britain (Dr Simon Henig). The closing keynote address, which reconsiders Martin Luther King's civil rights legacy, will be given by Dr Kevin Yuill.

Kevin Yuill and race in the Americas

Dr Kevin Yuill has given a paper entitled 'Japan, International Relations and the Formation of American Race Relations' at the inaugural meeting of the Race in the Americas (RITA) group in Birmingham. The paper is now being readied for publishing in a refereed journal. Kevin has also secured funding from the Regional Seminar Series Grant Scheme of the Institute for the Study of the Americas (University of London School of Advanced Study) as lead applicant, with Professor Guy Thompson and James Heath of the University of Warwick, for a seminar series in the Midlands and the North of England. The money will be used to bring speakers connected to a study of the Americas to Sunderland and other areas in the north and midlands of England.

Kevin Yuill on assisted suicide

Dr Kevin Yuill (History and Politics) has published a monograph entitled Assisted Suicide: The Liberal, Humanist Case Against Legalization (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). The book presents an up-to-date analysis of the direction discussion is taking, showing that atheists, libertarians, those favouring abortion rights and stem-cell research should stand beside their religious compatriots in opposing legalization of assisted suicide. Kevin shows that the real issue behind the debate is not euthanasia but suicide. Rather than focusing on tragic cases, he indicates the real damage that will be done if we affirm the suicidal wishes of even a small segment of the population. Analyzing the movement for the right to die in historical terms, Kevin shows that, though many proponents of a change in the law believe they are rationalist heirs of such thinkers as John Stuart Mill, legalizing assisted suicide will reduce privacy and freedom. Finally, Kevin suggests a radical alternative to legalization of assisted suicide that would embrace both the cause of freedom and the anxieties of many about securing good deaths.