1997

Christopher Ray argues that Hitler's high-profile plan for invading Britain was a blind - his main intention was to fool Stalin into believing he was safe.

How did Britain come to make the promises to Poland that resulted in a declaration of war against Germany in September 1939? Sir Nicholas Henderson unravels a...

A series of books on 17th-century England, reviewed by Blair Worden.

Peter Bakewell

John Morrill looks at two varying works on 17th century Britain.

M. Naeem Qureshi on a remnant of empire which has moved beyond being a mere repository of the Raj.

Bernice Archer opens our new series with an account of the intriguing hidden messages stitched into Red Cross quilts by British women POWs of the Japanese.

Steve Smith on two books which explore early 20th-century Russian history.

Susan Layton on how the Russians viewed the Chechens in their struggle for autonomy - in the 1840s as well as the 1990s.

Penny Young investigates the Tawila tanks of Aden, in Yemen.

David Washbrook on how the trauma of mutiny was catalyst to a new imperial vision - courtesy of skilful Victorian public relations for the subcontinent.

Fools' gold, Dr Faustus - traditional images of a Renaissance black art. But was there more to it than that? Zbigniew Szydlo and Richard Brzezinski offer...

Joad Raymond on a previously unpublished insight into the personality and projection of 'Lord Oliver' during Britain's unique 1650s experience.

Edited by Chris Given-WilsonWestminster Abbey and the Plantagenets: Kingship and the Representation of Power, 1200-1400Paul Binski

Alex Barker discusses St Augustine's Abbey Museum.

Robert Pearce reviews a biography of the Conservative politician and Prime Minister.

Tony Aldous reports on the latest developments in archaeological practice.

David Nash on how Victorian arguments about design in the universe echo in science-theology debates today.

Blair has a hard act to follow, according to Robert Pearce's assessment of the architect of the previous Labour landslide in 1945.

Daryl Best on use and abuse in Australia's environmental history.

The Soviet Union is now history but what do the ordinary people who lived through its last decades remember about it and what verdict do they give? Per Manson...

Jean Alphonse Bernard considers the two key provinces and how they became touchstones and then powderkegs in the nationalist aspirations of both sides.

‘Bedlam’ has become a by-word for a wild and crazy place, but what is the historical reality behind a distinguished London institution? Roy Porter offers an...

November 10th, 1697

Russell Chamberlin looks at the renaissance of Bolivia's Jesuit mission

Matthew Christmas sifts through recent approaches to class and gender in history.

Ivan Roots estimates the impact of two new studies of early Stuart Politics.

Christopher Ray welcomes the first titles of a lively new series for sixth formers and university students.  

Jeremy Black notes the limitations of a famous series.

Robert Pearce commends two sixth-from guides to modern British politics.

Jeremy Black recommends a fine summary of a still-underrated 19th-century British statesman.

Robert Pearce looks at a useful guide to a misunderstood politician.

Peter Wilson recommends an indispensable overview of the growth of Britain's Navy.

C.D.C. Armstrong reviews four important publications on Tudor government and politics.

John Geipel on how the enforced diaspora of the slave trade shaped South America’s largest nation.

Tony Aldous investigates the story behind Grey Street in Newcastle upon Tyne

Sarah Foster offers a fascinating account of how Irish identity, with its sectarian implications, asserted itself in the manufacture and purchase of luxury goods...

Ivor Wynne Jones on how a dusty garage in Cairo was once the unlikely setting for keeping up British morale with 'Music for All'.

Richard Cavendish visits Capesthorne Hall in Cheshire.

Partha Mitter looks at how tensions and cultural interchange between Indians and Britons are conveyed in the imagery of the colonial period.

Dirk Bennett sheds new light on the origin and history of chariot racing as a sport, and explores its popular and political role from pre-classical Greece to the fall...

The decisive victory for the Holy Roman Empire was won on April 24th, 1547.

Janis Wilton records the stories of 19th-century Chinese immigrants and their descendants, and explores their relationship with ‘White Australia’.

David Bates examines a Tudor Christmas Fare at Hampton Court Palace.

Ron White draws on the diaries of Samuel Pepys to paint a picture of the festive season in the 1660s.

Henry PhillipsThe Making of the French Episcopate, 1589-1661J. Bergin

Andrew Roberts defends Britain's war hero against his detractors, in our Longman/History Today Awards Lecture.

Richard Cavendish describes the brief rule of Cola di Rienzi following his coup d'etat on May 20th, 1347.

October 5th, 1497

500 years after their uprising against Henry VII, Mark Stoyle discusses why the Cornish were different - and often rebellious - in Tudor and Stuart England.

Richard Bellamy demonstrates the contemporary relevance of an eighteenth-century debate.  

The latest titles on the history of crime and authority.

Richard Cavendish remembers the events of May 16th, 1847.

Stuart Andrews on three titles which looks at the Founding Fathers.

November 4th, 1847

January 27th, 1898

Richard Cavendish unravels Crimean and other military links at Deene Park in Northamptonshire.

With Hong Kong returning to Chinese rule, Roger Thompson looks at when the colony influenced reformers who tried to bring the ballot box to the Middle Kingdom....

Tony Aldous discovers a secret pocket of historic mills and warehouses in the Bow Creek area of London.

Richard Cavendish takes an indepth look into the history of Eastnor Castle.

Sean McGlynn reviews three titles on medieval chivalry and warfare.

Frank Prochaska reviews two volumes on the British monarchy in the modern age.

Richard Cavendish charts the life and work of Edmund Burke, who died on July 9th, 1797.

Pawn of elder statesmen or, as Matthew Christmas argues, another Henry VIII in the making?

Michael Rice

David Kirby on three titles concerned with rulers, conflict and early modern Russia.

Martin Dedman recalls the background to European Monetary Union.

Asa Briggs reviews a biography by Christine Sutherland

Martin Evans reviews two titles on Liberation and Resistance

Richard Cavendish remembers the events of March 31st, 1547.

Paul Preston amplifies recent claims that Franco offered safe havens to fugitive Nazis

David Parker defends a controversial term against its critics.

Judith Brown assesses the curious coupling of sage and politician that achieved much - but not all - for Hindu aspirations.

Michael Leech commemorates the 1,000th birthday of Gdansk.

A History of the Jews in the English-Speaking World: Great Britain by W. D. Rubinstein (Macmillan viii + 539 pp.)

Richard Evans tells the little-known story of how 19th-century Germany attempted to solve its prison problems by secretly sending felons to the United States as...

Alistair Goldsmith describes how Glasgow's police force endeavoured to preserve the city's standing as it played host to a series of international set-pieces....

Barry Coward looks at the latest publications on Puritans and Quakers and how they shaped 17th century England.

Michael Leech on the efforts to save and excavate the site of the original Globe Theatre in London.

Shulamith ShaharThe Eye of the Beholder. Deformity & Disability in the Graeco-Roman WorldRobert GarlandOld Age in Late Medieval EnglandJoel T. Rosenthal

Standing up for truth and justice - or mid-Victorian realpolitik? Klari Kingston looks at the twists and turns of British foreign policy leading up to the Crimean War...

Denise Silvester-Carr investigates the restoration of Hardwick Hall, home of Bess of Hardwick.

Richard Rex argues that the main inspiration for the king's pick-and-mix religion was neither Protestant nor Catholic but Hebraic.

Greg Walker challenges the view that court intrigue, favourites, 'new men' and new manners took root under the Tudor monarch.

What led middle-class students to join the urban guerrilla movement against the military regime in Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s? Alzira Alves de Abreu reports on...

Paul Goalen on questions of national identity in the classroom.

Daniel Jonah GoldhagenConfronting the Nazi Past: New Debates on Modern German HistoryEdited by Michael BurleighFascist Italy and Nazi Germany: Comparisions and...

Catherine Horwood looks at how the launch of Good Housekeeping in the UK 75 years ago heralded a new image of domestic activity.

Daniel Snowman on commerce and opera over fifty years at Covent Garden.

Katharine MacDonogh examines three titles on the Napoleonic Wars.

In the first of a new series, profiling the issues raised by key A-level quetsions, Gareth Affleck identifies the points to discuss.

Barber examines the medieval Christian view of Muslims and Islam. Casting Islam and Muslims as the enemy was crucial in the Crusades, and the context of conflict...

‘There was such a generall sighing and groning, and weeping, and the like hath not beene seene or knowne in the memorie of man’ words that conjure up recent scenes of...

John Cabot set sail from Bristol, England, on his ship The Matthew looking for a route to the west on May 20th 1497 (other documents give a May 2 date)....

December 26th, 1797

Paul Murphy on the Raj pioneers who set in train thoughts of conservation in independent India.

Vernon Hewitt on one of the bitterest legacies of partition that remains unsolved fifty years on.

Penny Young details the archaeological work being carried out to save an early Christian church on the Black Sea coast.

Max Beloff reviews a fresh account of de Gaulle and the Free French movement.

Martin Evans on witnesses from the Battle of Algiers, forty years on - and their contribution to the debate on contemporary history.

Onward Christian Socialists? Mark Bevir takes a timely look at a little-known phenomenon that was part of turn-of-the-century radicalism in Britain.

Penelope Corfield shows that ridiculing the learned professions is not a new thing.

Charlotte Crow introduces a CD-Rom which explores the history of the River Thames.

John Plowright reconsiders a lost leader and the battle he won to maintain public order.  

Benjamin Thompson reviews two new titles on medieval lordship.

by Frederic J. Baumgartner and Robert J. Knecht

January 30th, 1948

Ian Fitzgerald describes the maiden flight of the 'Spruce Goose', the largest seaplane ever built, on November 2nd, 1947.

Jeremy Black shows how historical atlases have for centuries recorded more than objective fact.

The son of a fisherman's revolt against Spanish taxes on fruit in Naples, on July 7th, 1647, was part of a wider challenge to Spanish overlordship throughout the...

Geoffrey Treasure reassesses a tarnished reputation.  

Beatrice Heuser rounds up the latest military publications in paperback.

Alexander Bely remembers the events of October 26th, 1497.

Michael Collins deals with two publications on financial history.

July 24th, 1847

Ian Fitzgerald surveys developments on the Internet, videos and CD-ROMS relating to the history world.

Robert Irwin on how Islam saw the Christian invaders.

April 15th, 1797

John Dunne follows historians along the trail signposted by Geyl fifty years ago.

Michael Rapport describes the last days of the old Revolutionary regime and the circumstances leading to the young general’s triumph at the coup of 18-19 Brumaire.

In the first of our mini-series on the Nazis and social culture, Lisa Pine looks at how lessons in the classroom were perverted in the service of the Third Reich...

June 5th, 1647

Richard Wilkinson argues that Cromwell had what it took to rule Britain but failed to achieve his own idealistic programme.

Eric Evans reviews a complex study of debates about the nature of history.

Angela Morgan traces the recovery of a Saxon horse and rider, recently discovered in Suffolk.

Robert Pearce gives us a view of George Orwell for the 1990s

Lucy Jayne Kamau looks at the competing versions of the nineteenth-century pioneer past that folk history and the heritage industry have forged.

Murial Chamberlain argues that current conceptions of Britain's power in the Victorian era owe more to his media management than to his foreign policy.

Industrial Society and Culture

Susan Mary Grrant reviews paperbacks on the twin subjects of slavery and abolition

Mushirul Hasan looks at the reflection of the trauma and tragedy of partition through literature and personal histories.

by Kenneth Maxwell; John Hardman; and by Munro Price

Ian Locke investigates an intriguing and little-known attempt to commandeer Third Reich assets as reparations - and its mixed results.

Two works exploring 17th- and 18th-century France.

The houses built by Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, are a reflection of his career under Henry VIII, says Maurice Howard, and the King's manipulation of those...

Elizabeth Longford juxtaposes two heavyweights of the 19th century.

It was like a page from the Arabian Nights. Aladdin’s lamp had been rubbed and suddenly from the dry, brown bare desert had appeared paintings, not just one nor a...

Richard Wilkinson challenges the consensus of contempt for the Nazis' leading diplomat.

'All roads lead to Rome' – tribute to a phenomenon that held a world empire together. But who built them and how were they planned and maintained? Logan Thompson...

Steve Gunn samples two books on English government and politics in the Middle Ages.

Clive Foss tells how the airship phenomenon caught the imagination of the Soviet Union – becoming a key propaganda tool to Stalin, both at home and abroad.

Alex Barker reports on a History conference at the Tower of London

Why did Goering and Goebbels fall out over a performance of Richard III? Gerwin Strobl on this and other intriguing reasons why the Bard mattered to the Third Reich...

January 12th, 1848

October 13th, 1947

Mark Bevir reports on two books which look at western socialism in the twentieth century.

Richard Cavendish describes the launch of the Second Crusade on May 19th, 1147.

Coming home to mother? Bhikhu Parekh on the impact the subcontinent’s peoples have had (and continue to have) in Britain itself.

Our seasonal round-up of the latest history titles from the publishing world catering for the general reader and specialist alike.

Chris BryantMichael Heseltine: A BiographyMichael Crick

C. John Sommerville on networking in 17th-century coffee houses.

Patrick O'Brian evaluates the costs and benefits of Hanoverian and Victorian government.

A cabinet of curiosities or a medium for enlightening the general public? Patricia Fara looks at how debate over democratising scientific knowledge crystalised in...

Lev Razgon's unique and chilling encounter with one of Stalin's mass murderers.

A.J. NichollsDissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the end of East GermanyCharles S. Maier

Miriam Griffin studies three works on Roman history

Ronan Thomas takes a look at the cultures of Korea after becoming independent from Japan in 1945.

John France recounts the against-the-odds narrative of the capture of the Holy City by the forces of the First Crusade.

Sheila Rowbotham reviews two titles on aspects of social history

The man who conquered Mexico died on December 2nd, 1547.

Christopher Harvie brings into the light a little-known pioneer of European federalism

John Law assesses two works on a power struggle in 15th-century Italy.

by Jay Winter and Blaine Baggett

Graham Roberts reveals the techniques displayed in an early example of Soviet film propaganda made to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution.

Julia Findlater explores two publications on the heritage industry and archaeology.

The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History by David Lowenthal (Viking xii + 338pp. ) The Discovery of the Past: The Origins of Archaeology by Alan Schnapp (...

The last years of Charles II saw London a hotbed of political and religious conflict. Exploiting it, with powerful backers at court, was a ‘hit squad’ whose...

Peter Cotgreave explains how modern scientists can use their predecessors' data.

Rosemary Horrox delves into two volumes on the reign of Henry VI.

Ray Boston examines two books on cartoons and caricatures.

Edward Royle explains how labels were used in early industrial Britain for propaganda rather than description.  

Edited by H.R. Kedward and Nancy WoodMarching to Captivity. The War Diaries of a French PeasantGustave Folcher, translated by Christopher HillRescue as Resistance....

Malgorzata Dabrowska challenges two books on Byzantium.

Francis Robinson considers what the Muslims wanted - and what they got - out of the decision to divide the subcontinent on religious lines.

Graham Darby argues that the Bolshevik success of 1917 was rooted in the failings of the Provisional Government and the aspiration of ordinary people.

Robert Pearce distributes a survival kit for the most hazardous causation question of all.

To be a pilgrim - a choice that led not to contemplation but to holy war in the climate of eleventh-century Europe. Marcus Bull asks why.

Robert Bruce asks if China has refound Confucius.

Peter BrownThe Frankish World, 750-900Janet L. NelsonThe New Cambridge Medieval History Volume II, c.700-c.900ed. Rosalind McKitterich

Richard Hodges unites oral tradition and archaeological evidence to reconstruct the story of the Dark Age destruction of an Italian monastery

A History of the Ritual Year in Britain by Ronald Hutton

Introductory chronology for this special commemorative issue marking 50 years since Britain relinquished colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent.

Stephen Howe samples two titles on British politics, society and royalty

Henry Chadwick explores two publications on the strength and fall of the Romans.

Joshua Kleinfeld explores Lincoln’s attitudes towards the constitution and civil liberty during the Civil War, and finds their impact still reverberating in the US...

In the conclusion to our series, Nigel Saul discusses attempts to revive the crusading zeal in late medieval Europe and explains why they failed to rekindle the...

Derek Aldcroft argues that the statesmen of 1919 failed to act in the interests of Europe as a whole.

Richard Hodges reviews a book on the Vikings.

Martin Pugh charts the Women's Movement's origins and growth 1850-1939.

John Spurr reviews two books on the Glorious Revolution.

The 1997 Julia Wood Award. The winner of the first prize is Criseyda Cox of Cheltenham Ladies' College, for the essay on Thomas Hobbes published below.

Paul Doolan looks at the continuing controversy over Dutch 'police operations' post-1945 in Indonesia.

Felipe Fernández Armesto reflects on the death of some historical figures.

Pamela Tudor-Craig questions why modern improvements to the wheelchair have not not kept pace with earlier centuries.

Edward Pearce on how the Conservative Party have faced defeat in yesteryear.

Pamela Tudor-Craig on the intriguing webs of history tied into the toy theatre.

Edward Pearce on Anglo-Irish affairs between the bid for Irish Home Rule in 1886 and the outbreak of civil war.

Brian Winston casts a critical eye over Leni Riefenstahl's cinematic paean to Nazi aesthetics.

C.D.C. Armstrong looks at three new Tudor studies.

Ann Hills takes a look at the development of tourism in former Communist countries.

Our survey of reactions and prospects for the subject in British universities after the Dearing Report.

Ivan Roots applies the 'new British' perspective to the 1650s.

June 5th, 1947

Michael Leech previews the Jan van Eyck exhibition at the National Gallery.

Ian Fitzgerald takes a look at virtual reality history sites.

Dresden was carpet-bombed by the allied forces over two nights in February 1945. Anthony Clayton on how the aftermath of war has tested belief in the city.

Gavin Weightman finds historical precedents for Britain’s response to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Nigel Saul sets the scene for our major new series on the crusades of the eleventh century.

Simon Thurley sniffs the air in William III's Privy Garden at Hampton Court.

The End of Empire in Africa

Tanika Sarkar examines the evolving position of women in India before 1947 and since independence.

St Paul's Cathedral was opened on December 2nd, 1697.

Sexual improprieties and rows between religious orders - not 1990s scandal sheet headlines about the Catholic Church, but a tale from 13th-century Spain, unravelled...