Volume 64 Issue 6 June 2014

Brutal Saviours of the Black Patch

In 1904, when tobacco farmers of Kentucky and Tennessee formed an association to unite against the American Tobacco Company, a vigilante splinter group decided to deliver its own brand of rough justice.

A Matter of Judgement

An inherent tension between the past and the present becomes explicit when we make our assessments of historical figures, argues Suzannah Lipscomb.

The Iron Amir: Britain in Afghanistan, 1880

In 1880, after an unsuccessful attempt to occupy the southern half of the country, British forces withdrew from Afghanistan. Bijan Omrani describes how the new ruler installed in their wake, Abdur Rahman, unified the fractured nation at a terrible cost.

Whose History is This?

Academic history is crucial to the health of the discipline, but there are many other ways of engaging with the past.

Into Battle Over Bosworth

Chris Skidmore praises Colin Richmond’s 1985 article, which offered a new theory, later confirmed, about the true location of one of the most famous battles in English history.

An African Holocaust: Rwanda, 1994

In Rwanda, Hutu turned on Tutsi and a genocide lasting 100 days began, an episode of intense violence many thought impossible in the late 20th century.

The Baby Farmer of Reading

The stigma of illegitimacy forced many women in Victorian Britain to hand over their babies to adopters or ‘baby farmers’. Barbara Butcher tells the story of Amelia Dyer, who killed numerous infants she was paid to care for.

A Splendid Little War

Roger Hudson sheds light on an 1898 image of US soldiers fighting alongside Cubans to end Spanish rule on the Caribbean island.

History on TV: The Great War

Taylor Downing looks at the making of the pioneering television series that launched BBC2 and marked the 50th anniversary of the First World War.