History Today

Pope Innocent III declaring the crusade against the Cathars and an attack on the Albigensians, miniature from the Grandes Chroniques de France ou de Saint Denis, 14th century. British Library/Bridgeman Images.

Hunting Heretics: Inside the Medieval Inquisition

More than 5,000 people were interviewed during the Great Inquisition of medieval Toulouse. What did this mean for those ordinary people called to give evidence?

Kikunae Ikeda, early 20th century. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Public Domain.

Kikunae Ikeda’s MSG Revolution

On 25 July 1908 chemistry professor Kikunae Ikeda gave name to an elusive new taste: umami.

‘Flattening Him Out or Broadening the Basis of Taxation’, anti-tariff poster. LSE Library. Public Domain

‘Make the Foreigner Pay’: When Britain Tried Tariffs

In 1903 a group of politicians tried to sell tariffs as a panacea to all of Britain’s problems. Would the public buy it?

Hertha Ayrton in her laboratory, by J. Russell & Sons, 1910. With permission from the Mistress and Fellows, Girton College, Cambridge.

How Hertha Ayrton Made Waves

Hertha Ayrton’s experiment in a bathtub may have saved lives in the trenches, but it caused ripples among the ranks of the Royal Society.

Indian Painter, by Eanger Irving Couse, late 19th or early 20th century. Minneapolis Institute of Art. Public Domain.

On the Spot: Kathleen DuVal

‘What’s the most exciting field in history today? Native American history – the Native nations have only begun to tell their histories.’

The love letter, by Johannes Vermeer, c.1669-70. Rijksmuseum. Public Domain.

‘I Humbly Beg Your Speedy Answer’ by Mary Beth Norton review

‘I Humbly Beg Your Speedy Answer’: Letters on Love and Marriage from the World’s First Personal Advice Column by Mary Beth Norton reveals the 17th-century origins of the agony aunt.

‘View of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye’, 18th-century engraving. Rijksmuseum. Public Domain.

God’s Machines: Descartes and Nature

How should we see the natural world? For Descartes it was a mechanism, but a wondrous one.

Arabian American Oil Co drilling rig in the desert, Saudi Arabia, by Robert Yarnall Richie, 1948. DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University. Public Domain.

‘Saudi Arabia: A Modern History’ by David Commins review

How did a Gulf backwater become a global powerbroker? Saudi Arabia: A Modern History by David Commins explores the uneasy alliance between oil, autocracy, and Wahhabism.

A members’ booklet for the Book Society and a promotional flyer. from the Centre for Ephemera Studies; Lettering, Printing and Graphic Design Collections; Department of Typography and Graphic Communication, University of Reading. With thanks to Emma Minns

The Battle for Britain’s First Book of the Month Club

Britain’s first book-of-the-month club – the Book Society – brought reading to a vast new audience. But not without some controversy.

A lawyer receiving a plea from a poor man, woodcut by Jost Amman, 1568. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

‘Language and Social Relations in Early Modern England’ by Hillary Taylor review

In Language and Social Relations in Early Modern England Hillary Taylor listens in the archives for the voices of ordinary people.