Beyond Bletchley: GCHQ and British Intelligence
Britain’s largest intelligence agency marks its centenary this year. While its home is a distinctive architectural structure, what goes on inside remains little known.
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In Praise of Older Women
Early modern historians, obsessed by widows and spinsters, have neglected the sexuality of other middle-aged women.
A Spiritual Wilderness
In the Victorian countryside, what did going to church on Sundays actually mean?
The Poet Who Saw Edith Cavell Die
How did the executed English nurse Edith Cavell become the unlikely protector of the German poet who pronounced her dead?
The Great Dictators
What do the tyrants of the 20th century have in common? Terror, confusion and quasi-religious followings.
Beyond Good and Evil
As a frontline soldier in the First World War, the German artist Otto Dix fell under the spell of the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and his assault on Christian morality.
Holy Women and the Rise of Royal Power in France
Medieval French monarchs used – and abused – the charismatic power of religious women.
History in Ruins
The changing fates of one of France’s grandest castles are a microcosm for its history.
Enemies of the Habsburgs
An alliance between Louis XIV and a Transylvanian prince was just one aspect of the Sun King’s ambition to dominate Europe.
Himmler's Witch Hunt
The Third Reich’s obsession with a pure Germanic past led to a renewed interest in the witch hunts of early modern Germany.