Jacquard Patents His First Loom
On 23 December 1800 Joseph Marie Jacquard set out to revolutionise weaving – and took his first step towards greatness.
Recently published
The Maharajah’s English Tutor
The Raj’s control of India’s princely states was never absolute, as the British-appointed tutor to the last maharajah of Travancore discovered.
William Golding’s Island of Savagery
The Second World War disrupted narratives of mankind’s ‘progress’, but – as William Golding captured so vividly in Lord of the Flies – human history has always been a balancing act between enlightenment and calamity.
Oswald of Northumbria: An English Saint in the Alps
The English saint Oswald of Northumbria proved incredibly popular in the medieval German-speaking world. How did he get there?
‘The French Revolution: A Political History’ by John Hardman review
It may not have been the first, argues John Hardiman in The French Revolution: A Political History, but it was the first of its kind.
Tito: Britain’s Man in Belgrade
During the Cold War successive British governments did all they could to maintain a friendship with Tito’s Yugoslavia. Why was the communist strongman so important to Westminster?
Timekeeping in Early Modern England
In early modern England the time and date was often an informal matter, which had the potential to pose problems.
On the Spot: Alan Knight
‘Which moment would I most like to go back to? Just before the Big Bang. I realise there are risks attached.’
Joyce Butler and the Sex Discrimination Act
After a long battle, Britain’s Sex Discrimination Act came into force in 1975. What did it do for women?
‘A Popular History of Idi Amin’s Uganda’ by Derek R. Peterson review
A Popular History of Idi Amin’s Uganda by Derek R. Peterson looks for the ordinary people who kept the regime’s wheels turning.