2013

Lucy Inglis admires Nicholas Orme’s article on medieval childhood, first published in History Today in 2001.

Richard Weight reassesses Quentin Bell’s 1951 article on the morality of fashion, which anticipated the enormous social and stylistic changes of the 1960s.

The notorious prison was closed for good on March 21st, 1963.

Martin Evans offers a frank reassessment of his article on 30 years of Algerian independence, published in History Today in 1992.

Roger Hudson views the famous vessel from an unfamiliar perspective.

Roger Hudson pictures British gunboat diplomacy in Egypt in 1882.

Some commentators predict that the 21st century will be the ‘Asian century’, marking a significant shift in power from West to East. If so, it will not be so...

Canberra was born on March 12th, 1913.

The founder of the Baha'i religious movement proclaimed his vision on April 21st, 1863.

A new exhibition at the British Museum on the aftermath of the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79 raises questions about the relationship between past and present, says...

The right to determine who enters its territory has always been seen as a test of a state’s sovereignty, but the physical boundaries have often been vague, says...

The great political philosopher was born on April 5th, 1588.

Mihir Bose recalls a classic case highlighting the problems with Britain’s antiquated libel laws.

Christian Byzantium and the Muslim Abbasid caliphate were bitter rivals. Yet the necessities of trade and a mutual admiration of ancient Greece meant that there...

The civil war between Roman Catholics and Huguenots reached a brief peace on March 19th, 1563.

The French chanteur was born on May 18th, 1913.

Jonathan Fenby looks at a brief experiment in Chinese democracy, brought to an end by political assassination one hundred years ago this month.

While Antony and Cleopatra have been immortalised in history and in popular culture, their offspring have been all but forgotten. Yet their daughter, Cleopatra...

The term ‘Cobbett and Hunt’ was shorthand for radical politics in the early 19th century, but the petty hatred that developed between the two men had a devastating...

Michelle Liebst looks at how the career of the great explorer of Africa reflects the wider failings of Victorian imperialism.

The ruthless archbishop died on May 15th, AD 913.

The bibliophile and founder of the Bodleian Library died on January 29th, 1613.

For all its faults C.E Hamshere’s account of Francis Drake’s 16th-century circumnavigation, published in History Today in 1967, applies a historical...

In challenging times Britons seek comfort in a past that never existed. Tim Stanley shatters their illusions.

Britain’s involvement in the Middle East between the wars proved a rich seam for authors of adventure stories. Michael Paris shows how these, in turn, helped to...

The capital went underground on January 9th, 1863.

In the latest of his occasional surveys of historical fiction, Jerome de Groot casts a critical eye on the often disparaged genre of romance.

The French poet was ordered to leave his city on January 3rd, 1463.

A new online resource opens up possibilities for interpreting the infrastructure of the Roman world, says Jasmine Pui.

The indiscriminate use of ‘Nazi’ to describe anything to do with German institutions and policies during Hitler’s dictatorship creates a false historical...

Inspired by his upbringing at the English court, Hákon I – nicknamed ‘Athelstan’s foster-son’ – strove to make Norway more like his mentor’s realm, a well-...

Derek Wilson looks at Henry Tudor’s long period of exile and asks what influence it had on his exercise of power following his seizure of the English throne in...

Hal Wert tells the story of the two Lithuanian-American aviators, Steponas Darius and Stanley Girenas, whose attempt to bring honour to the land of their birth...

In our latest survey of historical fiction Jerome de Groot finds a remarkable breadth of books that address our need for present-day certainties to confound the...

Benjamin Ziemann examines the enigma of Karl Mayr, the reclusive army officer who nurtured Adolf Hitler’s early political career and participated in the Kapp...

Yvonne Sherratt explores the ways in which Adolf Hitler attempted to appropriate the ideas of some of Germany’s greatest thinkers during his brief incarceration in...

A pioneer of global governance, Lionel Curtis is all but forgotten today. His ideas, says Tom Cargill, are in urgent need of reassessment.

President Obama has more in common with Dwight D. Eisenhower than any other of his predecessors, says Michael Burleigh.

Roger Hudson looks at an episode that inspired one of the greatest films ever made.

Roger Hudson explains a moment of panic on the streets of the newly liberated French capital.

Syrie Maugham was a businesswoman and beauty whose interior designs became a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic. However her relationships with a series of...

Who is and who is not an American? The question goes back to the Revolution. The answer is always changing, says Tim Stanley.

Tim Pat Coogan points the finger of blame for the Great Famine at ministers in Lord Russell’s government, which came to power in 1846, and sees echoes of the...

George T. Beech investigates whether a King of Wessex adopted a new name for his country in 828, but failed to implement the change.

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.

Victoria Gardner looks back at earlier attitudes to Britain’s press freedom and how the withdrawal of the Licensing Act of 1662 spawned a nation of news addicts....

Seth Alexander Thévoz looks at how Victorian clubs in London’s West End played a role in oiling the nation’s political wheels.

'Magna Carta was a bitter indictment of the (mis-)rule of King John’; How far do you agree? This essay was the winner of the 2012 Julia Wood essay prize.

Deborah Cohen opens the archives of the Scottish Marriage Guidance Council, founded in 1946, and finds that couples in the postwar years were more than happy to...

Jerome Carson and Elizabeth Wakely explore the mental illnesses suffered by some famous historical figures and consider the impact on their lives and achievements...

Graham A. MacDonald reappraises the ideas and impact of the 20th-century political thinker, Michael Oakeshott.

Tom Wareham examines the role played by a legendary yet ill-fated pirate in the consolidation of England’s early trading empire.

Following his disastrous Russian campaign, the emperor of France needed money quickly. The desperate measures he took are revealed by Noelle Plack.

Roger Howard recalls a moment 50 years ago when Israel was rocked by exaggerated claims of a threat posed by Egypt.

Far from enslaving Anglo-Saxons under the Norman yoke, the Conquest brought freedom to many, as Marc Morris explains.

We downplay terrible acts from the distant past, in a way that we never would when considering more recent crimes, says Tim Stanley.

Pevsner Architectural Guides still bear the mark of their founder, despite ample revision. Jonathan Meades plots their glorious evolution.

The recent introduction of police commissioners to England and Wales is supposed to bring the force closer to the people. But, asks Clive Emsley, where is the...

The Spanish explorer landed in the New World on April 3rd, 1513.

Stephen Cooper argues that we should resist using ‘medieval’ as another word for backward. The 15th century, in particular, was a time of remarkable progress and...

Postwar Britain’s relationship with its past was laid bare in a long-running television show, argues Tim Stanley.

Roger Hudson expands on a photograph of Enoch Powell campaigning in his Wolverhampton seat in 1970.

John Gillingham challenges an idea, recently presented in History Today, that the Anglo-Saxon King Egbert was responsible for the naming of England.

Nigel Watson celebrates 80 years of the British Interplanetary Society.

The Vikings are back with a vengeance, writes Jeffrey Richards

Pilgrims were a lucrative source of income for the Church and miracles did not come free. Adrian Bell and Richard Dale discover some striking parallels with modern...

Postwar decolonisation in West Africa saw tensions rise between the fading imperial powers of France and Britain, according to papers recently unearthed by Kathryn...

Of humble origins, Rodrigo Calderón became a key figure at the court of Philip III of Spain. Notorious in life, he gained dignity and immortality in death, as...

Trade was the impetus for early contacts between Russia and England, though each country had its own view of how the relationship should function. Helen Szamuely...

The earliest explorers to uncover the ancient Maya civilisation in Central America could not believe that it owed its creation to the indigenous population, whom...

The ill-fated fortress was opened on February 14th 1938.

Britain’s loss of Singapore in February 1942 was a terrible blow. But Japan failed to make the most of its prize, says Malcolm Murfett.

Hent Kalmo considers the roots of sovereignty and the changing basis determining the authority of a state to govern itself or another state at the expense of local...

The relationship between an ‘unquiet past’ and the concerns of the present has been a key feature of recent engagements with the Spanish Civil War, as Mary Vincent...

The great Confederate commander was fatally wounded at Chancellorsville on May 2nd, 1863.

The Whig interpretation of the past is a moral fable more akin to theology than history, argues Tim Stanley.

Atheism today is widely perceived to be the opposite of spirituality. This assumption is turned on its head when we look at the neglected origins of the Victorian...

In the 1800s Rome became a microcosm for great power rivalries. E.L. Devlin describes a case of ambassadorial privilege that caused controversy between the papacy...

Exhuming historical characters makes for dramatic headlines and can seem a great way to get easy answers, but we should think twice before disturbing the remains...

The Oxford Dodo has defined our idea of the creature. When alive, the bird was displayed in London as part of a kind of urban freak show. In death it featured in...

Philip Baker considers the lasting impact of the Levellers’ famous efforts to reform the English state in the aftermath of the Civil Wars by means of written...

One of the great postwar publishing ventures and a highly original study of British attitudes to imperialism were among the winners at our annual celebration of...

Few foresaw the horror of the First World War. The financier Jan Bloch did and he outlined his vision to Britain’s military establishment, as Paul Reynolds...

The wedding of Elizabeth Stuart and Frederick V took place on February 14th 1613.

Enter our crossword and win the audiobook Galileo’s Daughter, read by Rula...

Enter our crossword for February and win the audiobook America: Empire of Liberty,...

Enter our crossoword for January and win the audiobook The Invention of Childhood by Hugh Cunningham and Michael Morpurgo.

Enter our crossword and win the audiobook Shakespeare’s Local: Six Centuries of History, One Pub

Enter our crossword and win the audiobook Mao: The Unknown Story, written by Jung Chang and read by Di Langford.

Enter our crossword and win the audiobook A History of Private Life...

Mark Ronan describes new efforts  at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, to decode the world’s oldest undeciphered language.

Sean McGlynn reconsiders the origins of the popular myth and suggests a new contender for the original folk hero; not an outlaw from Nottingham but a devoted royal...

The German First World War commander Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck has been described as the 20th century’s greatest guerrilla leader for his undefeated campaign in East...

Carol Dyhouse questions some of the assertions made by John Gardiner in his 1999 article about the Victorians.

The celebrated little person was married on February 10th, 1863.

Stephen Bates on the divisions that split Peel’s Tory administration in the mid-1840s, resonant of splits in the Conservative Party today.

Peter Mandler explains how the anthropologist Margaret Mead, author of best-selling studies of ‘primitive’ peoples, became a major influence on US military...

Bayreuth has much for which to thank Richard Wagner, but the determination of a Prussian princess to create something out of her dull and provincial 18th-century...

Of the many immigrants from the United Kingdom who took up arms in the war, only a small number were English. Daniel Clarke explores the experiences of those who...

A vast study of the cultural exchanges across the Atlantic between 1250 and 1820.

What do St Petersburg, Bombay, Shanghai and Dubai have in common? They were all 'ideas' before they were cities.

A scientific history of the world aimed at the teenage market.

A new book sheds new light on a scandal that marked the moment when deference died and post-Victorian Britain was born.

A new acccount of the Taiping Rebellion, an event largely forgotten in the West but of huge importance.

How the introduction of modern science in India was shaped by political and cultural imperatives.

How the automobile has shaped Britain over the past 120 years.

We label Oliver Cromwell as a Roundhead and Prince Rupert as a Cavalier, but what of the conscripts who fought on both sides?

The story behind the making of the many classic films produced at Ealing Studios.

A richly detailed history of a country that is both romantic and beautiful yet rarely at peace.

A major antidote to the dangerous view that Europe and America will increasingly come into conflict with non-Western civilisations.

Two books offer rival understandings of Mussolini's regime, and the practice of history.

‘A surprise every tenth page, a shock every twentieth’: the working life of serial writer Herbert Allingham.

A book that attempts to explain why Anglo-Americans have been so committed to international co-operation disappoints.

The story of the Georgian bachelor who, having been rejected by a paramour, attempts to cultivate an ideal spouse.

A new book shines a fresh light on the famous sea battles of the era of Nelson and Napoleon.

What people in England from the Middle Ages to the 20th century thought about death and the possibilities of an afterlife.

The psychic life of a nation told through private grief.

A biography of historian-statesman Thomas Babington Macaulay and his abolitionist father Zachary  advances the history of Britain and the British Empire....

A new book covers Egypt's intervention in Yemen, and how it led to the Six-Day War.

How the Third Reich used Leonardo, Shakespeare, Martin Luther and others to bring a veneer of intellectual credibility to underpin its ideology.

A thoughtful re-assessment of ethnic relations in Lusophone countries from Brazil to East Timor.

William Dalrymple's account of the first Anglo-Afghan war misses the big picture, argues David Loyn.

Did Scotland experience the Second World War in a distinctive way, or did it endure the conflict as part of the wider United Kingdom?

A new book on the battle is full of "contortions, omissions, misconceptions, mistakes and absurdities", argues Marc Morris.

How climate change can help understand everything from the failure of centralised states to the accelerated spread of religion.

Revisiting one of the more curious exports to India from Britain: women seeking husbands.

Paul Lay enjoys a loving, almost lecherous, illustrated book that looks back fondly at the 18th century.

In this month's quiz, we have questions on the Eiffel tower, the 'Soccer war' and John of Gaunt's medieval palace. 

In this month's quiz we have questions on fascism in Romania, the French Third Republic and bearded British prime ministers.

This month's quiz takes in Margaret Thatcher's political career, the origins of the mechanical clock and cricketing Prime Ministers.

The story of Valentine Greatrakes, whose "miraculous" healing powers wowed restoration Britain.

The wartime role of Britain's black servicemen and women.

An ambitious book outlines the circumstances in which history was produced, the objects it was intended to serve and the changing forms it took.

What do the bugged conversations of German prisoners of war reveal about Nazi Germany?

Though he has a starring role in War and Peace, Alexander I remains a shadowy figure.

The latest book by David Cannadine is a discussion of the interpretation of history, and an attempt to justify the discipline to the world.

Huge, noisy, stinky, overcrowded and unknowable in its vast, inhuman scale: life in 19th-century London.

A study of the non-Germans who fought Hitler's campaign against the Soviet Union during the Second World War.