Today’s featured articles
Founded in Oakland, California more than half a century ago, the Black Panther Party’s revolutionary image and legacy remain as politically and racially divisive as ever.
As mentioned on the Empire podcast, Cecil Rhodes was once described as the single biggest threat to peace in southern Africa. In 1898 a bitter election campaign did little to suggest otherwise.
As mentioned on the Empire podcast, Scotland’s short-lived, catastrophic Central American colony exposed its precarious relationship with England. Was closer union an inevitable result?
Most recent
What Makes Good Historical Fiction?
The best historical novels infer aspects of lives of which no trace remains. George Garnett starts awarding grades.
Euripides’ Lost Plays
One of Greek tragedy’s ‘big names’, Euripides survives largely in scraps and fragments. What can 78 new lines from Ino and Polyidus reveal?
How Did the First World War Change the Arts?
Surrealism – as formulated in André Breton’s manifesto a century ago in October 1924 – is regarded as one of the First World War’s artistic legacies. What are the others?
The Wreck of the Vrouw Maria
On 9 October 1771 masterpieces of Dutch art destined for Catherine the Great sank with the Vrouw Maria off the coast of Finland.
‘A Great Disorder’ by Richard Slotkin review
In A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America, Richard Slotkin attempts to untangle the stories that the US tells itself about race, colonialism and the Civil War. Is it a lost cause?
Solving the Victorian Housing Crisis
The acute housing crisis of mid-Victorian Britain generated stormy opinions about the nature of state intervention and the need for ‘wholesome despotism’.
Death of the King of Siam
On 1 October 1868 King Mongkut – who reigned as Rama IV – passed away having trod a delicate course to keep Thailand free of European empires.
‘The Scapegoat’ by Lucy Hughes-Hallett review
The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham by Lucy Hughes-Hallett picks through the fragments of George Villiers, James VI & I’s favourite mistake.
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In the October issue:
The French Resistance, Mary, Queen of Scots’ royal jewels, Bolsheviks on the Silk Road, the wills of medieval kings and the Fisk Jubilee Singers.
Plus: reviews, opinion, crossword and much more!
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