Feature

resident Harry S. Truman reviews a Japanese sword on the USS Missouri (BB-63) surrender table, 1945. Naval History and Heritage Command. Public Domain.

Truman and the Atom Bomb

Alonzo Hamby considers Harry Truman's First World War experiences and explores the dilemmas that influenced his decision to drop atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Germany's Unconditional Surrender

The German historian Reimer Hansen chronicles the last days of the Nazi regime and shows how the detailed response to the Allied demands had a critical impact on the shape of post-war Europe.

Victors' Justice? The Nuremberg Tribunal

Michael Biddiss looks at how the victorious Allies dealt with the unprecedented prosecution of genocide and mass atrocities by the Nazi leadership and how fair the proceedings were to those in the dock.

Khazaria: A Forgotten Jewish Empire

Nicholas Soteri reflects on the often-overlooked Jewish kingdom of Khazaria, and the vital role they played in balancing Christian and Muslim power in the early medieval period.

Senators Thomas J. Walsh (Montana) and Pat Harrison (Mississippi) on the podium at the Democratic National Convention, New York, 25 June 1924. Library of Congress. Public Domain.

‘Snarling Roughhouse’: The 1924 Democratic Convention

A 17-day political dogfight at the 1924 Democratic National Convention revealed the faultlines in American society, from prohibition to Protestantism to the shadow of the Ku Klux Klan.

Dickens and the Construction of Christmas

The best-loved of Britain's novelists penned a tale that struck a potent chord in the popular revival of the season of goodwill. Geoffrey Rowell explains its appeal and its powerful religious and social overtones.

Joseph Stalin, by Samuel Johnson Woolf, 1937. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Muriel Woolf Hobson. Public Domain.

Stalin and the Communist Party in the 1920s

By the late 1920s, Stalin and the Soviet Union seemed on the road to totalitarianism. Did the system spawn a monster – or a monster the system?

The Fall of the Mighty

Douglas Johnson compares and contrasts the downfalls of Neville Chamberlain and Margaret Thatcher.

Japanese children in uniforms raise their arms to salute emperor Hirohito, c. 1932. Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe. Public Domain.

Emperor Hirohito’s War

What did Hirohito really think of the Second World War? After his death, diaries and memoirs from the Shōwa emperor’s court began to shed light on his role in the conflict.