Issue 32 December 1998

Tsar Alexander II oversaw a set of reforms which held out the prospect of modernising Russia but whose failure paved the way for revolution.

In examining British politics from 1940 to 1945, Kevin Jefferys explains why the man who was widely perceived as winning the war lost the 1945 election.

Jeremy Black takes a fresh look at the complex and controversial career of the First Earl of Chatham, the 'great outsider' of Hanoverian Britain.

Jayne Rosefield looks at the interaction between the composer and the dictator. Winner of the 1998 Julia Wood Prize.