History Today

The physician died on March 5th, 1815. 

Suzannah Lipscomb looks beyond the stereotypes that surround our most infamous monarch to ask: who was Henry VIII and when did it all go wrong? 

Few foresaw the horror of the First World War. The financier Jan Bloch did and in 1901 he outlined his vision to Britain’s military establishment.

How much are actions – especially extreme ones – the result of impersonal historical forces and how much are they dependent upon the impulses of individual actors? 

Evidence suggests medieval origins for the Shroud of Turin. One of Christianity’s most venerated relics may not be biblical but its history remains remarkable.

With his own elaborate imperial court, with his family ensconced on thrones across the continent, and with his overthrow of several historic republics, Napoleon brought Europe to a pinnacle of monarchism.

Historic attachments to heroic leadership combined with a mastery of propaganda techniques to mesmerise Germany into acceptance of the charismatic authority offered by the Führer. 

Virginia Nicholson acknowledges the debt she owes as a popular historian to academics such as Roland Quinault, whose 2001 essay on Britain in the 1950s remains a rich source of information.

Roger Hudson details the defining role played by oil in the predominantly Kurdish-populated city of Kirkuk in Iraq.

Eleventh-century Córdoba was at the heart of the rich culture of Muslim Andalusia. Among its greatest creative figures was Wallada, princess, patron and poet, and one of the most influential women writers in European history.