2012

Binge drinking is seen as a British disease, but its causes are complex and politicians intrude at their peril, says Tim Stanley.

Christopher Allmand examines Alain Chartier’s Le Livre des Quatre Dames, a poem written in response to the English victory at Agincourt, and asks what it...

Graham Goodlad examines the part played by military coalitions in an era of great change.

The medieval holy man was killed by the Danes on April 19th, 1012.

During the Second World War many cities were bombed from the air. However Rome, the centre of Christendom but also the capital of Fascism, was left untouched by...

The British Battalion of the International Brigades, formed to defend the Spanish Republic against the forces of General Franco, first went into battle at Jarama...

Jonathan Downs reports on the fire last December that caused extensive damage to one of Egypt’s most important collections of historical manuscripts.

Churchill’s four-year quest to sink Hitler’s capital ship Tirpitz saw Allied airmen and sailors run risks that would be hard to justify today, says...

Robin Whitlock asks if studies of the decline of societies such as that of Easter Island can shed light on contemporary concerns.

Ed Smith considers contingency, a factor central to both sport and history.

The Antipodean reformer died on May 16th, 1862.

The designer of the Colt revolver, the most celebrated killing machine in the history of the Wild West, died on January 10th 1862, aged 47.

Tom Holland argues that the return of religion and the West’s current obsession with decline make Roy Porter’s profile of Edward Gibbon, first published in ...

The last person burned to death at the stake for heresy was executed on April 11th, 1612.

Suggestions that the European Union should have control over Greece’s budget in order to curb its debt crisis have caused a fierce reaction from Athens. James...

Judith Richards strips away the veils of illusion covering the last Tudor monarch.

Eva Anna Paula Braun was born in Munich on February 6th 1912.

John Matusiak explains the nature of the power game that raged from 1540 to 1553.

As the debate continues on the causes of last summer’s English Riots, Michael Roberts examines previous attempts by reformers to address moral malaise and social...

Would a new Act in Restraint of Appeals such as Henry VIII enacted against Rome in 1533 achieve a similar objective for Eurosceptics today of ‘repatriating powers...

Frederick the Great, the man who made Prussia a leading European power, was born on January 24th, 1712.

In April 1782 the first of a series of revolutions that were to change the shape of Europe broke out in the republic of Geneva. It was fuelled by a long rift...

The historical debate over the United Kingdom has been led by those who wish to bring the Union to an end. David Torrance believes the public deserves a more...

For centuries King John has been regarded as the embodiment of an evil ruler. But, says Graham E. Seel, this image is largely the creation of monastic chroniclers...

Guibert of Nogent was a French abbot who found it difficult to adapt to the 12th-century Renaissance. Yet his writings are among the first works to examine man’s...

Jez Ross argues that Henry VII was more secure than he realised

As the debate rages about how history should be taught in state schools David Cannadine discusses his recent research project.

Blair Worden revisits Hugh Trevor-Roper’s essay on the radicalism of the Puritan gentry, a typically stylish and ambitious contribution to a fierce controversy....

Italian Fascist scouts meet a member of the Hitler Youth in Padua, October 1940: a picture explained by Roger Hudson.

The poets Gerard Manley Hopkins and Coventry Patmore both subscribed to a Tory world view, fiercely opposing the reforms of Prime Minister Gladstone. But their...

Robert Pearce gives his personal view.

Contemporary culture places a high premium on novelty. Armand D’Angour argues that we should consider the more balanced views about old and new found in...

Since the 19th century, attitudes to drugs have been in constant flux, argues Victoria Harris, owing as much to fashion as to science.

Britain’s recent disputes with the European Union are part of a
long historical narrative, argues James Ellison – but it is not the whole story.

The same spotlight of historical enquiry that scholars have long been shedding on the biblical past is now starting to illumine the origins of Islam, as Tom...

Ivan became Grand Prince on March 27th 1462, following the death of his father.

Today Jane Austen is regarded as one of the greats of English literature. But it was not always so. Amanda Vickery describes the changing nature of Austen’s...

The Maid of Orléans was born on January 6th 1412: she has been an incarnation of French national identity and pride for six centuries.

Kate Retford explains how the artist Johan Zoffany found ways to promote a fresh image of royalty that endeared him to George III and Queen Charlotte – a...

John Herschel Glenn Jr was the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20th 1962.

Alex Keller tells the story of how an unlikely friendship between a Dutch doctor and a young Italian nobleman led to the establishment of the first scientific...

Hugh Purcell tells how Kitty Bowler, a young American, captured the heart of Tom Wintringham, the 'English Captain' at Jarama.

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.

The Zoological Society of London was launched in 1826 to promote scientific research into new species. Roger Rideout describes how it amassed its specimens for its...

The election for London Mayor took place on May 3rd, marked by the bitter rivalry between the present incumbent Boris Johnson and his predecessor Ken Livingstone....

Russ Foster introduces one of Britain's least understood premiers.

When the world’s population reached seven billion it prompted a great deal of nonsense to be written about Thomas Malthus. Robert J. Mayhew sets the record...

Robert Pearce considers why Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister in 1979.

Mary Rose was the younger sister of Henry VIII. David Loades describes how this forgotten Tudor was something of a wild card.

Gemma Betros asks what kind of person Napoleon really was.

Richard Hughes uncovers the patriotic efforts of the actor and playwright Noël Coward during the Second World War and argues that he should be remembered for more...

Mihir Bose asks why sport has become so central to modern culture.

Updating an 18th-century Satire on the National Debt

Paul Lay pays tribute to the Renaissance and Early Modern historian who was a pioneer of interdisciplinary scholarship.

Otto I was crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope John XII on February 2nd 962.

The abdication crisis of 1937 forced a royalist magazine to present a different face to the world, as Luci Gosling reports.

Simon Heffer argues that until relatively recently most historians have been biased in their efforts to harness the past to contemporary concerns.

Keith Lowe on the dilemmas faced by a victorious but financially ruined Britain in its dealings with postwar Germany.

Modern dance was born with the premiere of L'apres-midi d'un faune on May 29th, 1912.

Ian Bradley looks at the life of Vincent Priessnitz, pioneer of hydrotherapy, whose water cures gained advocates throughout 19th-century Europe and beyond and are...

Derek Wilson looks at the life of a French princess, who married and helped depose an English king during a tumultuous period of Anglo-French relations that was to...

Nigel Jones traces the chequered history of European referendums and asks why they appeal as much to dictators as to democrats.

The year 1812 was a turning point in the career of the industrialist Robert Owen. Ian Donnachie examines his Essays on a New View of Society, in which...

The great military institution took flight on April 13th, 1912.

The debate on Scottish independence has been dominated by economic arguments, to its detriment, argues Tim Stanley.

What can historical fiction tell us about the past that factual history can’t? Does it distort the record and confuse the reader? What exactly is historical...

With Italy on the brink of financial collapse and in deep political crisis, the country’s 150th anniversary has been a dramatic one. It is especially timely, then...

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a masterpiece of Middle English literature, which narrowly escaped destruction in the 18th century. Nicholas Mee examines the...

The only British Prime Minister to be assassinated whilst in office was murdered on May 11th, 1812.

Constructing the Victoria Embankment on the north bank of the River Thames in London: an image analysed by Roger Hudson.

The Flemish cartographer was born on March 5th, 1512.

The Tudor historian John Guy returns to his medieval roots to examine the true nature of the relationship between Henry II and his ‘turbulent priest’ Thomas Becket...

Fundamentalism has become the face of Islam in the West. It was not always so and need not be in the future, says Tim Stanley.

Barack Obama’s admiration for the progressive Republicanism of Theodore Roosevelt ignores the true nature of both early 20th-century America and the president who...

The triumph of liberal democracy was supposed to herald an end to history. But it has returned with a vengeance, says Tim Stanley.

Thirty years after the Falklands War the bitter debate over the South Atlantic islands remains clouded in historical ignorance, argues Klaus Dodds

Patrick Bishop’s first assignment as a foreign correspondent was to accompany the British task force sent to the South Atlantic to reclaim the Falkland Islands in...

David Torrance examines a pioneering article, first published in History Today in 1990, which argued that the Scottish Enlightenment was not restricted to...

Britain and the United States may have been on the same side during the Second World War, but cinematic representations of the conflict could stir controversy...

Roger Hudson reveals a big splash: Chairman Mao photographed attempting to swim the River Yangtze in July 1966.

Ian Garrett asks why British Governments found Ireland so difficult a problem in the 19th and 20th Centuries.

One of Britain’s finest Renaissance scholars and a ground-breaking study of the night in Early Modern Europe were among the winners­ at our annual celebration of...

Two hundred years ago Britain was gripped by a wave of violent machine breaking, as skilled textile workers, invoking the mythical Ned Ludd, attacked factories and...

The black activist Malcolm X was not a civil rights leader. Nor was he a victim of the mass media. He was its beneficiary, in life and death, argues Peter Ling....

The two 16th-century battles of Panipat, which took place 30 years apart, are little known in the West. But they were pivotal events in the making of the Mughal...

Just before Christmas 2011 the Heritage Lottery Fund announced a grant of £1.8m for the restoration of Forty Hall Park, Enfield, the site of a Tudor palace and...

Global history has become a vigorous field in recent years, examining all parts of the empires of Europe and Asia and moving beyond the confines of ‘top-down’...

Roger Hudson on the vitriolic reaction to Paul Robeson's open-air concert in Peekskill, New York, 1949.

Enter this month's crossword and win the audiobook Titanic: Voices From the BBC Archives.

Enter our crossword competition and win an audiobook of A Brief History of Mathematics, written and presented by Marcus du Sautoy.

Enter our crossword and win an audiobook of 1215: The Year of Magna Carta.

Enter our crossword competition and win an audiobook of the King James Bible.

Enter this month's crossword and win an audiobook of The People's Post by Dominic Sandbrook.

Taylor Downing appreciates the continuing relevance of an article questioning the accuracy of popular views of the wartime RAF.

Graham Noble explains why the issue of equal gender rights has been so controversial in the history of the United States.

Richard Almond has trawled medieval and Renaissance sources for insights about ladies’ riding habits in the Middle Ages and what they reveal about a woman’s place...

For a century the sinking of the Titanic has attracted intense interest. Yet, as Andrew Wells explains, there have been many vested interests keen to...

Nigel Richardson describes the impact of the Titanic disaster on Southampton, the city from which she sailed and home to more than a third of those who...

The Treaty of Versailles, negotiated by the fractious Allies in the wake of the First World War, did not crush Germany, nor did it bring her back into the family...

In 1729 a young entrepreneur, Jonathan Tyers, took over the failing management of the pleasure gardens at Vauxhall. During his long tenure he was able to make it a...

Ramona Wadi reports on the continuing struggle to shed light on the death in 1973 of the Chilean singer and political activist Victor Jara.

With the New Year release of Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse Gervase Phillips explores the true story of the horses...

Roger Hudson explains the story behind a 19th-century photograph of George Washington's mausoleum.

James Romm examines some intriguing new theories about a long-standing historical mystery.

Stephen Gundle reviews two books which explore Italian culture in the postwar decades.

An examination of the practices and cultural meanings attached to the night and darkness.

A well-written narrative that explores how fallout from Anglo-French rivalry in the Middle East continues to shape the region today.

In the aftermath of American independence, Britain was forced to find another place for criminals who had previously been banished to the New World: the slave...

A 'charming book' which provides an insight into life in Early Modern England at a time of enormous stress.

A compelling addition to the history of women resisters and their moving acts of solidarity.

A pair of new books offer differing takes on the stoicism of British explorers in search of geographical extremes.

A book of dazzling erudition and lucid logic that explores the epic struggle between the art connoisseur and the forger.

A paean of praise for the 'backroom boys' of the Second World War. 

Jan Golinski's new book reveals that attitudes to weather in the 18th century were one of the great test cases for the Enlightenment project in Britain

Two excellent books demonstrate that the availability of a plentiful food supply has always been accompanied by its corollary: concern about its detrimental...

Two new books show that 16th-century history is about more than Henry VIII.

Roger Crowley's history of the rise of the empire acquired by Venice between 1000 and 1500 is a 'gripping tale of diplomatic cunning and military engagements...

A vision of the culture, politics and media of 1950s Rome through the lens of the greatest crime scandal of the day.

Roger Moorhouse on a book that provides a powerful antidote to fashionable nostalgia for life in the GDR.

Congratulations to the winner of our caption competition in December, who gave a saucy subtext to this picture from the RAF's wartime photo interpretation unit....

If people are what they eat, Winston Churchill was plain cooking, whisky, champagne and the best Havana cigar smoke; and all that these might be taken to imply....

Jeremy Paxman's book on Britain's imperial story is an idiosyncratic, droll but ultimately useful introduction to the subject.

A convincing and entertaining new book by Tim Jeal brings the story of Nile exploration up to date.

A new book that offers a laid-back approach to cultural tourism that provokes both interest and irritation.

A new book tackles some of the myths around the Gallipoli campaign, while a set of memoirs offers a contemporary account.

Paul Lay speaks to David Waller, author of The Magnificent Mrs Tennant: The Adventurous Life of Gertrude Tennant, Victorian Grande Dame.

The author of...

The winner of our Caption Competition for January.

The first major biography of Joseph Rotblat, the scientist who helped build the atomic bomb then campaigned for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

A valuable and unusual addition to the many volumes on London.

An account of a 17th-century conflict between China and the Dutch sheds fresh light on why the West rose to global dominance

Tracy Borman's latest work is a biography of Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror and the first queen of England's Norman dynasty.

How did a quintessential German scholar become an anglicised architectural pundit, broadcaster and national treasure?

This large landscape shaped book draws on Philip Davies' bestselling Lost London, whilst also featuring previously unseen photographs.

Two books that underline the extent to which the Victorians clung on to the roots and language of religious faith after they had abandoned it

Intelligence is the hidden hand of history, as three new books demonstrate.

Nigel Jones considers a new book on the mère et père of all Gallic scandals, the Dreyfus affair.

Two Tudor treats from the prolific writers A.N. Wilson and Alison Weir.

A new biography of Emperor Frederick II does a disservice to its subject matter and to a discerning public.

A new book by Ian Kershaw attempts to explain why, in 1945, Germany fought on to the bitter end.

Two new books that achieve the unexpected: saying something new about the period between the late 1920s and 1945.

In this month's quiz we have questions on the first colour feature film, a left-wing terrorist organisation and the suppression of the Knights Templar.

Wrap your brain around questions on the first English newspaper, the last king of Burma, the real Macbeth and more.

A highly original volume that provides a comprehensive analysis of the legacy of the Italian anti-fascist resistance.

Juliet Gardiner reviews John Forster's biography of Charles Dickens.

We tend to look at the 1960s as an era of free love. Yet a more profound sexual revolution happened in Britain in the 18th century.

Two new books further extend the currently fashionable genre of 'neo-Victorian novel'.

A livey and accessible biography of Queen Elizabeth's secretary of state.

Susannah Lipscomb enjoys a "historical Lonely Planet" that vividly brings the Elizabethan era to life.

An important book that demonstrates how crucial the political context is to any charge of heresy.

Rohan McWilliam reviews Matthew Sweet's 'different history of the Home Front': the Ritzkrieg and the opulent lifestyles that the rich enjoyed in London...

A fascinating new picture of Victorian family life explores sibling relationships and what it meant to be part of a ‘long family.’

David Waller reviews a fascinating chronicle which 'traces the social history of a sport almost devoid of rules'.