History Today

Paul Cartledge argues that all historiography can be seen as fictionalised and relishes the fact that novelists breathe new life into ancient worlds.

A key figure in the First Crusade died on July 8th, 1115. 

E.R. Truitt revisits John Cohen’s 1963 article on the history of automata and the quest to recreate humanity.

The carnage at Texel has been largely forgotten.

Homelessness was an acute problem in the 19th-century city.

Armen T. Marsoobian explores the complex history of one of the 20th-century’s worst and most neglected crimes against humanity.

A notorious mass murderer was sentenced to death on July 1st 1915.

The life of the artist Charles Sims and his controversial, little-known mural in St Stephen’s Hall, Westminster depicting King John at Runnymede. 

Gary Sheffield casts his eye over the latest publications.

Our fascination with pirates and the search for buried treasure continues to make headlines.