Volume: 59 Issue: 6

Richard Cavendish remembers how the daredevil Jean-François Gravelet stunned the world on June 30th, 1859.

This year sees a remarkable coincidence of anniversaries that tell the history of modern China. Some will be celebrated by the authorities on a grand scale, others...

Peter Ling reviews a title on modern American history by Philip Jenkins.

A Herefordshire village near the border with Wales is the site of a major landmark of military history, argues Terry Wardle.

Editor Paul Lay introduces the June edition and is in no mood to slacken in the defence of history

A new exhibition at the London home of the German composer gives Wendy Moore an insight into the troubled personal circumstances of the man behind the soaring music...

The past is more than a set of events with an inevitable outcome. Historians must strive to capture it in all its fascinating strangeness, argues Chris Wickham, as...

In 1926 Umberto Nobile, a young Italian airship engineer, became a hero of Mussolini’s Fascist state when he piloted Roald Amundsen’s Norge over the North Pole....

June 31st, 1959 - Richard Cavendish remembers how a former-British colony gained a long-serving leader.

During his tenure as Governor of the Falkland Islands, David Tatham became fascinated with the Islands’ history. Here he describes how he worked with islanders to...

Mark Bryant looks at the lampooning of two hugely unpopular measures imposed during the administrations of two of the United States’ most distinguished presidents...

J.A. Sharpe explores a book on penal history since the medieval period

David Rooney reviews a new work by Paul Glennie and Nigel Thrift.

Geoffrey Best looks at the life of A.P. Herbert, writer, wit and MP, who played a major role in the liberalisation of British life with his reform of the draconian...

Thomas Paine, who died 200 years ago, inspired and witnessed the revolutions that gave birth to the United States and destroyed the French monarchy. A genuinely...

Richard Cavendish records how Germany sank its own navy in the aftermath of the First World War.

Paper was used in the Islamic world long before it appeared in the Christian West. But when Renaissance Europe mastered its manufacture, writes Matt Salusbury, it...

Clair Wills reviews a book on reporting in the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921) by Maurice Walsh.

In 1381 England witnessed a ‘summer of blood’ as the lower orders, emboldened by the labour shortages that followed the Black Death, flexed their muscle. Dan Jones...

Marking the 250th anniversary of General Wolfe’s victory over the French at Quebec, Jeremy Black considers the strategy employed by British forces in their...