Volume 47 Issue 12 December 1997

Dirk Bennett sheds new light on the origin and history of chariot racing as a sport, and explores its popular and political role from pre-classical Greece to the fall of the Roman Empire.

December 26th, 1797

Penelope Corfield shows that ridiculing the learned professions is not a new thing.

Richard Cavendish visits Capesthorne Hall in Cheshire.

Adrian Mourby reflects on the legacy of Nova Scotia's French Acadians.

Richard Wilkinson weighs up history's verdict on Chamberlain's Secretary of State for War, and asks whether it was Establishment anti-Semitism or professional failings in the light of Dunkirk that led to the minister's downfall in 1940.

Clive Foss tells how the airship phenomenon caught the imagination of the Soviet Union – becoming a key propaganda tool to Stalin, both at home and abroad.

David Bates examines a Tudor Christmas Fare at Hampton Court Palace.

The man who conquered Mexico died on December 2nd, 1547.

St Paul’s Cathedral was opened on 2 December 1697.