The Torrid Zone
In the 18th century, Europeans in the tropics found themselves beset by an array of unpleasant afflictions. They blamed black women, the climate and the strength of their own masculinity.
Feature
Berlin’s Other Anniversary
The fall of the Berlin Wall was as much about beginnings as it was about endings. Out of the rubble came a new hope: techno music.
Virgin Islands of the Atlantic
The first ‘New World’ reached by Europeans was not in the Americas, but in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where previously uninhabited islands were transformed forever.
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.
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: Nietzsche and the Great War
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.