History Today

Ian Kershaw on an English translation of a German history of Nazi government

Though the real inspirations are obvious, James Clavell’s Shogun ‘exaggerates and often distorts the historical reality’ of feudal Japan.

Maggie Black continues her seasonal history of food and popular culture with a look at this period of autumnal celebration at Harvest End.

J.L. Pimlott looks at Military Administration and the Historian.

Taking the waters became a Victorian passion and spa towns flourished. In this article the first prize winner in History Today's Essay Competition Pamela Steen, a student at the Open University, describes the pleasure and the pains of this fashion.

Irene Coltman Brown provides an insight into Tocqueville, who, reflecting on the history of revolutionary France, thought that liberty alone was capable of struggling successfully against revolution.

Ziggi Alexander and Audrey Dewjee consider the life of a remarkable Victorian woman.

James Walvin looks at attitudes to black people in the context of slavery

Paul Edwards profiles two black men who settled in 18th Century Britain.

Ian Bradley shows that the characters and plots of Gilbert and Sullivan's operas reveal much that is of interest to the historian about certain individuals and institutions of the Victorian era.