History Today

From Piketty’s trumpet-blast to the great deeds of medieval saints, ten leading historians tell us about their best reads from 2014.

As the Ebola outbreak in West Africa continues its dreadful march, Duncan McLean looks at the 600-year-old practice of isolating individuals and communities in order to bring an end to epidemics and assesses the effectiveness of such measures.

Vladimir Putin is by no means the first Russian leader to threaten his neighbours with force and annexations. Two centuries ago European statesmen faced a similar predicament. Only then it was Poland at stake, not Ukraine.

The crisis in Ukraine has revealed to the world the divisions that exist throughout Europe about how the Second World War is remembered. Gareth Pritchard and Desislava Gancheva look at the controversial debate around wartime collaboration.

Do war toys encourage violent behaviour and make conflict more acceptable? Or do they offer genuine insight into military history? Philip Kirby, Sean Carter and Tara Woodyer examine the evidence.

Thomas Penn and his colleagues have embarked on a project to publish a series of short biographies of England’s and, subsequently, Britain’s monarchs. Why is the study of kings and queens still relevant in our less than deferential age?

The much-loved film first appeared in theatres on December 15th, 1939.

The young men who surrounded the French king have been wrongly dismissed by some historians as effeminate, inconsequential sycophants. 

Richard Dale investigates the mysterious death of Richard Hunne in Lollards Tower at Old St Paul’s, one of the most notorious episodes of the English Reformation.

Undoubtedly our greatest naval administrator since Pepys, at the height of his career, Lord Barham had just entered his eightieth year. Bernard Pool documents his unique achievements.