History Today

Poet Laureate from 1850, writes Joanna Richardson, Tennyson became an acknowledged interpreter of Victorian morals and politics.

In British theatrical history, writes Joanna Richardson, the famous Kemble line has an almost unequalled record of achievement.

Joanna Richardson describes how, in 1865, Miss Buss told a School Enquiry Commission: 'I am sure that the girls can learn anything they are taught in an interesting manner.’

Joanna Richardson describes some French visitors to England, from Louis XVIII and Madame de Stael to Verlaine and Mallarme.

John Prest describes how the progressive Whig reformer of the 1830s became unpopular as Prime Minister after 1846.

Fifty years on from Winston Churchill’s death, Chris Wrigley surveys the literature available, highlighting key works and lesser-known titles.

Attempts to rehabilitate ‘Bad’ King John always come up against a major stumbling block: the verdicts of his contemporaries.

The arguments that took place in the village of Putney among the officers and soldiers of the New Model Army revealed fundamental divisions within the parliamentary forces.

The rise of UKIP has spread panic among Britain’s political establishment. But there is nothing new about populist movements, as David Nash reveals in this profile of the newspaper proprietor Horatio Bottomley. 

As the jihadists of ISIS continue their brutal campaign to restore the Islamic caliphate, Conor Meleady draws parallels with the ultimately futile efforts of another would-be caliph a century ago.