2011

Greg Carleton explains how disastrous defeats for the Soviet Union and the US in 1941 were transformed into positive national narratives by the two emerging...

Decadent, effeminate, outdated, the image of the Cavalier remains that of his enemies, victorious in the Civil Wars. John Stubbs offers a rather more complex...

Gordon Marsden, a former editor of History Today, reflects on the advertisements that helped to fund the first 20 years of this magazine’s publication and...

The fools of the early Tudor court were likely to have been people with learning disabilities as a new project demonstrates, says Suzannah Lipscomb.

Gordon Marsden revisits Henry Fairlie's prescient obituary of Aneurin Bevan, first published in History Today in October 1960.

During the seventh century the Arabs invaded North Africa three times, bringing not just a new religion but a language and customs that were alien to the native...

Asa Briggs has been associated with History Today from its beginning. In an interview to celebrate our 60th anniversary, he tells Paul Lay about his...

The quest for spiritual virtue through personal austerity drove many Eastern Christians to lead solitary lives as hermits surviving in the wilderness. Andrew...

Graham Goodlad examines the role of Britain's postwar Labour government in the early stages of the Cold War.

The greatest artists in the history of western painting are cooped up in a holding pen on New York's Ellis Island.

For much of the British Civil Wars the colony of Barbados remained neutral, allowing both Parliamentarian and Royalist exiles to run their plantations and trade...

Richard Cavendish charts the life of the author Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was born on June 14th, 1811.

The leading Victorian radical and Liberal politician John Bright was born on November 16th 1811.

What was behind Colonel Thomas Blood’s failed attempt to steal the Crown Jewels during the cash-strapped reign of Charles II and how did he survive such a...

Jacqueline Riding examines how a 19th-century painting, created almost 150 years after the Jacobite defeat at Culloden, has come to dominate the iconography of...

Despite the popularity of shows like My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, Britain’s Gypsy Travellers still face longstanding prejudice, warns Becky Taylor.

The standing of Britain’s police forces may be in decline at home, yet their insights into policing methods and practices are still sought eagerly elsewhere,...

The successful Broadway run of The Pitmen Painters, Lee Hall’s drama set in a north-east mining community, has introduced US audiences to a remarkable...

Michael Mullett shows that key Protestant reformers were influenced by Erasmus's Christian Humanism, as well as by Luther's theology.

Stephen Alford admires a perceptive article on Lord Burghley, Elizabeth I’s ally and consummate political fixer, by the distinguished Tudor historian Joel...

Simon Lemiuex asks why the Unionists dominated British politics between 1886 and 1906.

Richard Cavendish remembers the assassination of Caliph Ali, on January 24th, 661.

Few figures in British political history have endured such lingering hostility as the statesman who did so much to forge Europe’s post-Napoleonic settlement, says...

Robert Bickers looks at an emerging archive of British photo albums that record both the drama of the 1911 revolution and the surprisingly untroubled daily lives...

Jonathan Fenby argues that the failings of China's 1911 revolution heralded decades of civil conflict, occupation and suffering for the Chinese people.

As China reclaims its central role in the world, Robert Bickers appeals to Britons and others in the West to take account of the legacy left by the country’s...

Medieval knights were the sporting superstars and military heroes of their day, who performed before an adoring public in the tournament. Nigel Saul explains their...

Andrew Boxer demonstrates the ways in which external events affected the struggles of African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s.

As the Coalition government marks its first anniversary Martin Pugh sees its blend of Liberal and Conservative policies mirrored in the long and chequered career...

Concorde began regular test flights above Britain 40 years ago this month. Jad Adams looks back to a time when, wracked by industrial decline, a nation embraced...

Hugh Thomas tells Paul Lay about his unparalleled research into the lives of the extraordinary generation of men who conquered the New World for Golden Age Spain...

Glittering monument to Britain’s colonial achievement or fragile symbol of a fragmenting imperial dream? Jan Piggott charts the efforts to make Joseph Paxton’s...

Though it is immersed in the theological ideas of the Middle Ages, the cosmology of Dante’s Divine Comedy is sophisticated, sceptical and tolerant, argues...

Jean-Andre Prager demonstrates the wide-ranging impact of Darwinism. This essay was the winner of the Julia Wood Prize for 2011.

Clovis I died in Paris on November 27th 511, aged 46.

The creator of Meccano, Hornby model railways and Dinky toys died on September 21st, 1936, aged 73 and a millionaire.

Richard Cavendish remembers Ivan Pavlov who died on February 27th, 1936. Pavlov won the Nobel Prize for physiology in 1904.

John French died on May 22nd, 1925. In this article from our June 2011 issue, Adam Hochschild looks at his relationship with his sister, Charlotte Despard, a...

The Australian pioneer Robert O'Hara Burke died of starvation on June 30th, 1861.

In writing a young person’s history of Britain Patrick Dillon found himself wondering where myth ends and history begins.

At the Coronation Durbar of 1911 George V announced that the capital of British India was to be transferred from Calcutta to Delhi. But the move to the new model...

In the interests of historical research Lucy Worsley adopted the dental hygiene habits of previous centuries.

The innocence of France’s Captain Dreyfus – a Jewish officer incarcerated on Devil’s Island after he was accused of spying for Germany – has long been established...

Richard Cavendish describes Edward the Confessor's canonisation, on January 5th, 1161.

Anne Sebba revisits Michael Bloch’s article, first published in History Today in 1979, on the historian Philip Guedalla’s enthusiastic but misguided...

John Swinfield describes the bizarre politics behind the British government’s attempt to launch a pair of airships in the 1920s and how a project that might have...

The anti-government protests in Egypt earlier this year swept through Cairo and Alexandria before measures could be taken to protect antiquities in museums and...

The 50th anniversary of the trial and execution of the Final Solution’s master bureaucrat has inspired a number of books, exhibitions and films. David Cesarani...

Richard Cavendish remembers the death of Emperor Septimus Severus on February 4th, 211.

Brazil may be one of the 21st century’s emerging superpowers, but its history is a mystery to many. Gabriel Paquette tells the story of its early years as an...

Rachel Hammersley discusses how events in the 1640s and 1680s in England established a tradition that inspired French thinkers on the path to revolution a century...

Richard Cavendish explains how Europe's earliest modern-style banknotes were introduced by the Bank of Stockholm in the 17th century.

To mark the 400th anniversary of his birth, UNESCO has declared Evliya Çelebi a ‘man of the year’. His Seyahatname, or Book of Travels, is one of the...

By reinterpreting the years before 1914 William Mulligan sees the 'July Crisis' in a fresh perspective.

Though superb works of art in themselves, the wildlife paintings of Francis Barlow are full of rich metaphors that shed light on the anxieties and concerns of a...

History Today was launched in 1951, the year of the Festival of Britain. Barry Turner challenges Arthur Marwick’s impressions, first published in 1991, of...

Alex von Tunzelmann reassesses a two-part article on the troubled relationship between the United States and Cuba, published in History Today 50 years ago...

James Walvin praises Arnold Whitridge's study of the Atlantic slave trade, first published in History Today in 1958

Paul Lay introduces the June issue of our 61st volume.

Paul Lay introduces the May issue of our 61st volume.

The discovery of a letter written by the great physician sheds new light on one of the most dramatic events in Roman history, as Raoul McLaughlin explains.

Benjamin Zachariah helps to debunk the romantic 'Legend of the Mahatma'.

One hundred and fifty years after the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy, Graham Darby reassesses the contribution of one of the key players.

Gated communities may be growing in number but they are nothing new, as Michael Nelson knows from personal experience.

Richard Cavendish describes how General Somoza organised an armed uprising and seized power in Nicaragua, on June 9th 1936.

A series of violent attacks by pale shrouded figures on lone pedestrians, especially women, was widely reported in the early 19th century. Jacob Middleton...

In the late 18th century the merchants, manufacturers and traders of Liverpool founded one of the first chambers of commerce in Britain with the aim of promoting...

Tim Grady on postwar Germany’s attempts to remember the contribution made by its Jewish combatants in the First World War.

Ben Sandell examines the origins, influence and significance of a group of often misunderstood radicals.

In a reign of just 15 years Æthelstan united the English for the first time. Yet many of the facts about him remain elusive. Sarah Foot describes the challenges of...

Goa fell to Indian troops on December 19th 1961.

James Whitfield on why the theft of a Spanish master’s portrait of a British military hero led to a change in the law.

Natasha McEnroe on the reopening of a fascinating but little-known collection.

The poor economic record of Greece goes back a very long way, says Matthew Lynn.

What was it like to grow up in Nazi Germany in a family quietly opposed to National Socialism? Giles Milton describes one boy’s experience.

A peace conference held in Holland in 1899 in fact ended by rewriting the laws of war, says Geoffrey Best.

D.R. Thorpe, Macmillan's new biographer, evokes the memory of 'Supermac'.

Few English monarchs have such a poor reputation as Henry VI. Yet he was held in high regard by the Tudors, says Michael Hicks, despite losing the Wars of the...

Susan Walters Schmid puts a new study into historiographical context.

There is lots of fun in this latest round up of recent historical novels, with derring-do, cross-dressing, biblical plagues and Renaissance geniuses in the mix....

Writing her first historical novel has raised some unexpected challenges for the historian Stella Tillyard.

In the late 1890s Herbert Hoover, the future 31st President of the United States, took his new bride to Tianjin in north China to pursue his career as a geologist...

The creation of the modern unified German state in January 1871 constitutes the greatest diplomatic and political achievement of any leader of the last two...

Identifying those who took part in the recent riots in London and other English cities may prove easier than in past disorders, but the recent widespread...

A class confrontation at the Epsom Derby of 1920.

Richard Wilkinson argues against the prevailing orthodoxy.

The Italian Renaissance republics are regarded by many as pioneers of good governance. Yet republican rule often resulted in chaos and it was left to strong...

James Boswell, Samuel Johnson’s future biographer, found Glasgow a dull place. Yet it was at the city’s university that he came into contact with the political...

Despite their mutual loathing and suspicion, James I and his parliaments needed one another, as Andrew Thrush explains. The alternative, ultimately, was civil war...

A monarch’s divine ability to cure scrofula was an established ritual when James I came to the English throne in 1603. Initially sceptical of the Catholic...

Jan Gossaert made his name working for the Burgundian court and was among the first northern artists to visit Rome, writes Susan Foister, curator of...

Outremer, the crusader kingdom, and its capital Jerusalem entered a golden age during the 1130s. Simon Sebag Montefiore portrays its extraordinary cast of kings,...

Having fled Hitler’s Berlin, Oscar Westreich gained a new identity in Palestine. He eventually joined the British army, whose training of Jewish soldiers proved...

Adam Hochschild looks at an unlikely pair of siblings whose high profile yet very different approach to the events of the early 20th century reflect a turbulent...

A charming rural scene in turn of the century Ireland.

Patrick Williams reveals the courage of Henry VIII's Spanish wife.

Richard Cavendish remembers King Farouk's succession to the Egyptian throne on April 28th, 1936.

The linguistic legacy of the King James Bible is immense. But, David Crystal discovers, it is not quite the fount of common expressions that many of its admirers...

What became of the baby daughter of Henry VIII's widow Katherine Parr and her disgraced fourth husband Thomas Seymour after their deaths? Linda Porter unravels a...

Thomas Penn examines M.J. Tucker’s article on the court of Henry VII, first published in History Today in 1969.

A selection of readers' correspondence with the editor, Paul Lay.

A selection of readers' correspondence with the editor, Paul Lay.

A selection of readers' correspondence with the editor, Paul Lay.

A selection of readers' correspondence with the editor, Paul Lay.

A selection of readers' correspondence with the editor, Paul Lay.

A selection of readers' correspondence with the editor, Paul Lay.

A selection of readers' correspondence with the editor, Paul Lay.

A selection of readers' correspondence with the editor, Paul Lay.

Chris Corin ressurects the life of a Soviet survivor whose remarkable and significant career deserves to be better known.

Richard Cavendish provides an overview of the life of the French monarch who was nicknamed 'the Universal Spider'.

Robert Pearce asks why Louis-Philippe's 'July Monarchy' was overthrown.

Colin Jones and Emily Richardson reveal a little-known collection of obscene and irreverent 18th-century drawings targetting Madame de Pompadour, the favourite...

Todd Thompson describes how the relationship between a Christian missionary, nicknamed ‘Anderson of Arabia’, and a Muslim religious leader from the Italian-...

Ian Bradley on the precarious past of a pure Worcestershire water.

Richard Cavendish marks the anniversary of this great emperor's accession, on March 8th, AD161.

Mary Queen of Scots left Calais for Scotland on August 14th, 1561, aged 18 years old.

Robert Pearce has been pleasantly surprised at the quality of a new textbook.

Despite numerous attempts by radicals to reform the calendar, it is usually commerce that decides the way we measure time, as Matthew Shaw explains.

Courtly love, celebrated in numerous songs and poems, was the romantic ideal of western Europe in the Middle Ages. Yet, human nature being what it is, the...

Richard Almond describes how some rare wall paintings help shed light on medieval hunting.

Taylor Downing tells the story of the Central Interpretation Unit at Medmenham, Buckinghamshire, where the RAF’s aerial photo interpreters played a critical role...

On a research trip to Moscow in the late 1990s, Deborah Kaple was given a package of papers by a former Gulag official who believed its contents would be of great...

The current House of Commons is notable for the number of members who are also historians. Will Robinson welcomes this trend, while reminding us of Parliament’s...

The idea that the German foreign office during the Nazi period was a stronghold of traditional, aristocratic values is no longer tenable according to recent...

Richard Challoner unearths a letter, written in support of a widow and her children, which is revealing of a humanitarian aspect of Lord Nelson.

Richard Cavendish recreates the circumstances of Horatio Nelson's victory at Copenhagen on April 2nd, 1801.

Six years after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc in New Orleans Thomas Ruys Smith looks at its impact in the light of the city’s historic troubles.

Patrick Little celebrates the life and career of a major historian of Early Modern Britain.

Taylor Downing offers a tribute to the military historian who was a television natural.

Robin Waterfield looks at the influence of the mother of Alexander the Great in the years following her son’s death.

Graham Goodlad has enjoyed two biographies of towering 19th-century political figures.

Anthony Fletcher pays tribute to the great historian of English protestantism, who ventured far and wide in the academic world.

Richard Lansdown introduces Hugh Welch Diamond, one of the fathers of medical photography, whose images of the insane both reflected and challenged prevailing...

A sea voyage in the 12th century was a perilous undertaking, as a Spanish Muslim courtier’s account of his crossing of the Mediterranean demonstrates. Yet,...

Almost none of the large outdoor artworks commissioned for the 1951 Festival of Britain has survived. Alan Powers discusses one that did, a mural by John Piper,...

Pitt the Elder resigned on October 5th, 1761, at the age of 52.

Patricia Cleveland-Peck looks at the long history of plant dispersal between the New World and the Old.

One of the last popes to play a major role in international affairs, Innocent XI defied Louis XIV, the Sun King, and played a decisive part in the defence of...

Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility was first published in London by Thomas Egerton on October 30th, 1811.

The Russian prime minister was shot during festivities to mark the centenary of the liberation of Russia's serfs on September 14th, 1911.

Though their appeal seems bizarre to the modern mind, relics and reliquaries reflected an entirely logical system of belief bound up in the medieval worldview,...

Inspired by the discovery of the frozen bodies of three soldiers of the First World War, Peter Englund considers the ways we remember and write about a conflict...

At what point did it begin to matter what you wore? Ulinka Rublack looks at why the Renaissance was a turning point in people’s attitudes to clothes and their...

Ann Natanson reports on a new scheme to restore the Roman Colosseum to its former gory glory.

Chris Wickham revisits an article by J.B.Morrall, first published in History Today in 1959, on the strange, shortlived emperor who in the tenth century...

A series of archaeological discoveries off the coast of Sicily reveal how Rome turned a piece of lethal naval technology pioneered by its enemy, Carthage, to its...

Queen Anne ordered a racecourse to be built on Ascot Heath in 1711. It was officially opened on August 11th.

As the final preparations are made for the Royal Wedding on Friday April 29th, we explore the history of regal marriages, from Tudor times to the twentieth century...

Michael Bloch tells the story of one of the more unusual dynasties related to the Windsors.

As the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton approaches, Jenifer Roberts looks at the series of 18th-century weddings which led the Portuguese royal family...

Rupert Murdoch’s motives only make sense from a historical perspective, argues Piers Brendon.

Roger Moorhouse revisits a perceptive article by John Erickson on the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, first published in History Today in 2001, its...

Since its discovery in Yemen in 1972 a collection of brittle documents, believed to be among the earliest Koranic texts, has been the subject of fierce and...

Anne Ammundsen laments the lack of public access to a revelatory account of a young English officer who crossed swords – and words – with George Washington.

The historical roots of the dispute between China and Japan over control of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands reveal a great deal about the two countries’ current global...

Fifty years ago a British film challenged widespread views on homosexuality and helped to change the law. Andrew Roberts looks at the enduring impact of Basil...

Richard Wilkinson finds much to enjoy in the opening volumes of a comprehensive new series on British social history.

History is an unending dialogue between past and present. As Jeffrey Richards discusses here, this is as true of historical films as it is about the writing of...

David Cameron has called India Britain's 'partner of choice' and is anxious to forge stronger trade links with the country. Yet how well do the British understand...

At its height, the British Empire was the largest the world has ever known. Its history is central to Britain’s history, yet, as Zoë Laidlaw shows, this imperial...

The Britain that emerged victorious from the Second World War was impoverished, bomb-damaged and ration-weary. The Festival of Britain of 1951 (the year of ...

Lauren Kassell reveals how the casebooks, diaries and diagrams of the late-16th-century astrologer Simon Forman provide a unique perspective on a period when the...

In recent years British models have reappeared on the catwalk wearing real fur, though it is unlikely to ever regain the mass appeal it once had. Carol Dyhouse...

The death of Stalin in 1953 marked a shift in the Soviet Union. Robert Hornsby discusses the underground groups that mushroomed in the aftermath and how the state...

Richard Cavendish marks the anniversary of St Catherine of Siena's canonisation by Pope Pius II.

Russel Tarr compares and contrasts the rise to power of two Communist leaders.

Chris Corin elucidates important documents relating to the power struggle after Lenin's death.

Robert Service reconsiders Norman Pereira's revisionist account of Stalin's pursuit of power in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, first published in ...

Syria was among the most unstable states in the Middle East until Hafez al-Assad came to power in 1970. But, asks James Gelvin, can his son, Bashar, maintain the...

As Matthew Shaw demonstrates, scandal sold newspapers 200 years ago, just as it does today.

Christopher B. Krebs considers Irene Coltman Brown’s article on the ambivalent and ironic Roman historian Tacitus, first published in History Today in...

Medieval historian Nicholas Orme believes that the teaching of history in Britain’s universities is better now than it has ever been.

In 1538, believing his kingdom to be under threat, Henry VIII brutally settled scores dating back to the dynastic conflicts of the 15th century, as Desmond Seward...

Carl Peter Watts estimates the importance of the different reasons for British withdrawal.

As a major new exhibition on the Aesthetic Movement opens at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Richard Cavendish explores Bedford Park, the garden suburb inspired by...

Richard Cavendish describes the Battle of Albuera, on May 16th, 1811.

The ‘biggest, bloodiest and longest battle on English soil’ was fought at Towton in Yorkshire on Palm Sunday 1461. Its brutality was a consequence of deep...

Throughout its 350-year history the British army has been vulnerable to economic pressures and political interference. Its strength lies in the loyalty of its...

David Kynaston seeks answers to questions about the fragile future of an institution beloved by historical researchers.

The desire of western governments, most notably those of Britain, to apologise for the actions of their predecessors threatens to simplify the complexities of...

It is a deeply unfashionable thing to ask, says Tim Stanley, but might a nation's history be affected by the character of its people?

History tells us that the West’s embrace of liberal values was not inevitable and is unlikely to last, says Tim Stanley.

The academic training that historians undergo qualifies them to speak out on issues beyond their remit, argues Tim Stanley.

There is nothing new or exceptional about the recent English riots and they will have little long-term impact, argues Tim Stanley.

The American Civil War was not a simple struggle between slaveholders and abolitionists, argues Tim Stanley.

It is the responsibility of parents and politicians to define and pass on a nation's values and identity, argues Tim Stanley. Historians and teachers of history...

Much western commentary on the turmoil in the Arab world demonstrates historical ignorance, argues Tim Stanley.

The Victorian era was an age of faith – which is why it was also a golden period of progress, argues Tim Stanley.

George III was crowned on September 22nd, 1761, aged 22. One of the longest reigns in English history was under way.

Richard Cavendish explains how Hiram Binham discovered the 'lost city of the Incas'.

The Duke of Marlborough was dismissed from the office of captain-general on December 31st 1711.

The English diet has been mythologised as one of roasted meats and few vegetables but, as Anita Guerrini concludes from a survey of early modern writings on the...

The 264 inhabitants of the island of Tristan da Cunha were evacuated to Cape Town on October 10th, 1961.

The Spectator was first published on March 1st, 1711. 

A mid-Victorian competition to design new Government Offices in Whitehall fell victim to a battle between the competing styles of Gothic and Classical. The result...

The Hindenburg disaster marked the beginning of the end for airship travel. Yet what is often forgotten today is that, until the 1930s, airships were a...

We like to think of ourselves as having made progress from those repressed Victorians. However, since the 1970s, feminists, gay activists and historians have been...

In our series in which historians look back on the changes that have taken place in their field in the 60 years since the founding of History Today,...

Four hundred years after it was first published, the Authorised Version of the Bible remains hugely influential, especially in the US. Derek Wilson examines its...

The great trading companies that originated in early modern Europe are often seen as pioneers of western imperialism. The Levant Company was different, argues...

Richard Cavendish describes the maiden voyage of the Queen Mary on May 27th, 1936.

The Mamelukes were massacred in Cairo on March 1st, 1811.

Robin Bayley tells how his great grandfather, a Mancunian businessman, became caught up in the tumultuous period of worker unrest that paved the way for the...

The theft of the most famous painting in the world on August 21st, 1911, created a media sensation.

Seventy-five years on, the Battle of Cable Street still holds a proud place in anti-fascist memory, considered a decisive victory against the far right. In fact,...

The story of a country that has long punched above its weight is told in Scotland’s refurbished National Museum, says David Forsyth.

Alfred Nobel’s Peace Prize has become something other than its founder intended, claims Fredrik S. Heffermehl.

Few British soldiers have written of their experiences of the Northern Ireland Troubles. Here, former infantry officer Patrick Mercer recalls his tours, which...

Richard Cavendish charts the events leading up to the Mexican dictator, Porfirio Diaz's, fall from power in 1911.

While industrialists in Manchester were busily engaged in developing the factory system, investors in London were applying its principles to the capital’s old pubs...

Sean Cunningham welcomes a recent re-issue.

Stauss' 'musical comedy' was first performed in Dresden on January 26th, 1911. It was a sensation.

Enter our crossword and win an audiobook of Marie Antoinette, by Antonia Fraser.

George Garnett reflects on the Julia Wood Prize and on the state of sixth-form history.

George Augustus Frederick was appointed Prince Regent to his father King George III on February 5th, 1811. He was a heavy drinker and a compulsive gambler....

Robert Pearce asks whether Britain benefited from the 1853-56 contest.

Since the end of the Cold War there has been a marked increase in accounts of the past made by those considered to have been on the ‘losing side’ of history. But...

David Mattingly revisits an article by Graham Webster, first published in History Today in 1980, offering a surprisingly sympathetic account of Roman...

Janina Ramirez, presenter of a new BBC documentary on Iceland and its literature, explores the country’s sagas, their wide-ranging legacy and what they tell us...

Berlusconi is a product of the country's incomplete unification, argues Alexander Lee.

The first performance of The Tempest on record was at court on All Hallows’ Day, on November 1st 1611.

The  trade in human organs has given rise to many myths. We should look to its history, argues Richard Sugg, if we are to comprehend its reality.

William Beckford was the model of an 18th-century progressive and aesthete. But the wealth that allowed him to live such a lifestyle came from the slaves he...

Richard Bosworth looks at the Vittoriano, the Italian capital’s century-old monument to Victor Emmanuel II and Italian unification and still the focus of competing...

The death of Cabinet government has been a near constant theme of British politics in the 20th century. But it came closer to reality under the premiership of Tony...

Dunia Garcia Ontiveros charts the little-known history of the Sami population and the life of Knud Leem, the first person to study their language and culture....

An insight into the London Library's remarkable collection of early English versions of the Bible, at the heart of which is a copy of the King James Bible of 1611...

After he was formally condemned to death in Moscow, the Mexican government offered Trotsky refuge and protection, on December 6th 1936.

The death-obsessed and inward-looking Aztec civilisation sowed the seeds of its own destruction, argues Tim Stanley.

Mark Rathbone assesses the importance of the office of 'Veep' (VP) over the past 220 years.

The Aeneid, Virgil’s epic Latin poem, offers as profound an insight into the current Libyan crisis as any 24-hour news channel, argues Robert Zaretsky...

On the centenary of the death of W.S.Gilbert Ian Bradley examines the achievements of the surprisingly radical Victorian dramatist and librettist who, in...

A political exile, Richard Wagner found safety in Zurich, where he also discovered the love and philosophy that inspired his greatest works, as Paul Doolan...

Jez Ross corrects misunderstandings about the origins and significance of disturbances in 1549.

In the light of current events in North Africa and the Middle East, David Motadel examines the increasing frequency of popular rebellions around the world.

The conquest of Java, now part of Indonesia, is one of the least known episodes of British imperialism. But this short interregnum influenced the governance of the...

Michael Bentley looks at the father of British historiography who was an eloquent and controversial opponent of teleology.

Paul Lay responds to the controversy around David Starkey's Newsnight appearance and explains how history 'helps one develop a thick skin'.

Adam I.P. Smith reviews a work by Amanda Foreman.

Lara Feigel reviews Grace Brockington's re-evaluation of the British modernist and peace movements during the First World War.

Nick Poyntz reviews Adam Smyth's account of autobiography in early modern England.

Diana Souhami reviews Kathleen Winters' biography of Amelia Earhart.

Chris Wrigley reviews Jane Humphries study of child labour, the family and the world of work in the century from 1750.

Edward Royle reviews a biography of Charles Bradlaugh.

John Morrill reviews Andrew Barclay's account of Cromwell's election as MP for Cambridge in 1640.

Juliet Gardiner reviews this illustrated history of London in the 1920s.

Ian Bradley books which consider the historical context and background of the work of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Nigel Jones reviews a fascinating if flawed account of Hitler's years in the German army between 1914 and 1920.

E.L. Devlin reviews a book on the history of Medieval Europe.

Mark Kishlansky reviews this study of the survival and revival of the House of Lords in the period from 1660 to 1714.

Judith Brown reviews Patrick French's portrait of modern India.

Nick Liptrot reviews Richard Pells' survey of the American Modernist movement.

Archie Brown reviews three titles on the Cold War.

Vyvyen Brendon reviews F.R.H. Du Boulay's account of his family's history in India.

Anna Sanderson reviews three accounts of imperial history from the point of view of the colonists.

Hugh Stephenson reviews David Cordingly's account of the 'golden age' of piracy in the Caribbean.

William S. McFeely reviews Eric Foner's account of Abraham Lincoln's position on slavery.

Ian Burney reviews Judith Flanders' study of murder in Victorian Britain.

Anthony Bale reviews a fascinating book on the Jewish experience in medieval England.

Rosie Llewellyn Jones reviews Bobby Singh's history of the Europeans who lived at the Lahore court of Ranjit Singh in the nineteenth century. 

John Foot reviews two books on Italian history.

Kate Williams reviews two books about the men who served both under Wellington during the Peninsular Wars and under Simon Bolivar in his fight to liberate Gran...

David Waller reviews Claire Tomalin's new biography of Charles Dickens.

Nick Poyntz reviews Jonathan Green's history of how crime has been described over the past five centuries.

Jonathan Keates reviews Paul Stathern's account of a particularly bizarre moment in Renaissance history.

Jeffrey Richards discusses the recent historical blockbuster.

David Waller reviews Fiona MacCarthy's biography of Edward Burne-Jones.

Patrick Porter reviews Zara Steiner's 'superbly wrought history' of the pre-Second World War decade.

Juliet Gardiner reviews Audrey Linkman's study of death photographs.

Jeffrey Richards reviews Bettina Bildhauer's study of medieval-themed cinema.

Jeremy Black reviews Charles H. Parker's account of trade, migration, disease and religion in the early modern age.

Sheila Rowbotham reviews a collection of essays by Eric Hobsbawm.

Bernard Porter reviews Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon's account of the violence that accompanied Britain's decolonisation after the Second World War.

Edith Hall reviews David Mattingly's study of Roman imperialism.

Paul Lay interviews Michael wood, author of The Story of England, a narrative of 2,000 years in the lfie of an 'utterly ordinary' English village.

Rachel Hewitt, author of Map of a Nation: A Biography of the Ordnance Survey, discusses her work with Paul Lay.

An interview with Roger Moorhouse, the author of Berlin at War, the second recommended title in the History Today Book Club.

Paul Lay talks to the author of Jerusalem: The Biography, the History Today Book Club title for November. The two will be in conversation at the...

Paul Lay talks to Thomas Weber about his groundbreaking study, Hitler's First War.

Denis Judd on an entertaining and frequently revealing new biography of Chamberlain.

Nigel Saul reviews Edmund King's account of the civil war during King Stephen's reign.

Rohan McWilliam reviews Jacqueline Yallop's study of the way the obsession of collecting things shaped 19th-century Britain.

Matthew Sweet reviews Rodney Bolt's biography of Mary Benson.

Penny Summerfield reviews Virginia Nicholson's latest book which explores the experiences of women during and after the Second World War.

Richard Bosworth reviews David Stafford's 'official history' of SOE action during the Italian campaign.

How true is Deborah Lutz's claim that the Swinging Sixties really began in the 1860s?

Richard Serjeantson reviews Gregory Claeys' history of utopia.

Deborah Cohen reviews Francesca Beauman's history of the Lonely Hearts ad.

David Cesarani reviews Tom Segev’s biography of the man who was credited with bringing hundreds of Nazi war criminals to justice and Bob Moore's study of Jewish...

Adrian Tinniswood on a new biography of Sir Walter Raleigh: "a great Elizabethan, diminished by his lying, his self-regard, his pride".

A surprising number of Archibishops of Canterbury have met a violent end. Christopher Winn looks at some of the more notorious examples.

Jerome de Groot, Linda Porter, David Waller, Gary Sheffield and Ted Vallance share their holiday reading choices.

Which books are Britain’s top historians packing in their suitcases to read on the beach?

Continuing our summer reading special, Helen Rappaport, Richard Weight, Malcolm Gaskill, Owen Dudley Edwards and Joyce Tyldesley share their holiday choices....

In the second part of our summer reading special, Nick Poyntz, Tom Holland, Chris Wrigley, Alan Powers and Lucy Worsley share their holiday reading choices.

Mary Laven reviews Helen Berry's account of the clandestine union between Dorothea Maunsell and the castrato Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci.

Roland Quinault reviews Peter Marsh's account of the Chamberlain family.

Roger Moorhouse reviews Daniel Blatman's study of the 'death marches' at the end of the Second World War.

Nigel Saul reviews John Goodall's account of castle history.

Art historian Jonathan Black has collected Eric Kennington's wartime portraits in this book about 'heroes and heroines'.

Martin Evans looks at a new book that covers the heyday of the French Foreign Legion.

The Great War and the Making of the Modern World and With Our Backs To The Wall : two books on the First World War which 'will be tough acts to...

As our 60th anniversary year nears its conclusion we asked distinguished historians to choose their favourite works of history produced in the last 60 years and to...

This month's quiz includes questions on the Iron Curtain, the Spanish Civil War, and pirates in the Caribbean

David Priestland reviews Lenoe's account of the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934.

Richard Weight reviews Peter Catterall's edited volume of Macmillan's diaries.

Rosie Atkins reviews Margaret Willes' 'welcome insight into an often neglected period of garden history'.

Nigel Saul reviews 'one of the masterpieces of historical writing of our time'.

Juliet Gardiner reviews Michael Wallis' illustrated history of the Wild West.

Jacqueline Riding reviews Stella Tillyard's work of historical fiction set within the period of the Regency and the Peninsular War.

Hannah Greig reviews the first book-length study of London's Vauxhall Gardens for over 55 years.