Modern

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.

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 reception in the two centuries since her birth.

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 still popular today.

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 private museum and menagerie, which soon became a public attraction.

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

The founder of Liberal Judaism in Britain, Claude Montefiore, died a 'disappointed and embittered' man. Dunia Garcia-Ontiveros explores his vast collection of pamphlets bequeathed to the London Library.

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 explains.

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 John Bew.

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

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

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

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

Robert Pearce examines the factors that led to Prussia's victory in the German civil war of 1866.