History Today

Saving Life at Sea

‘Valour and virtue have not perished in the British race’, said Winston Churchill, describing the long record of the national life-boat service.

The Homes of Family Names

W.G. Hoskins' study of English surnames shows that, even before the Industrial Revolution, country families were very often on the move.

The Golden Age of the County Map

John E. Holehouse considers the factors that led to a sudden and rapid improvement in cartographic scope and technique from 1480 onward.

Women and Literature in Eighteenth Century England

During the eighteenth century female authors became increasingly numerous and industrious; while as readers, writes Robert Halsband, thanks to the spread of the new circulating libraries, women began to form ‘a significant sector’ of the literary public.

The Liberation of Paris

In the summer of 1944, when Paris was to be liberated, and how, became for the Western allies a problem not only of military but of deep political significance.

Jonas Hanway and the Marine Society

N. Merrill Distad describes how a merchant returned to London from his travels in Russia and the East to become a notable eighteenth-century philanthropist.