History Today

The supreme direction of the First World War has remained a matter of controversy; in this essay, John Terraine contrasts Lloyd George’s hopes with the manner of their realization.

N.M. Sutherland describes how two Swiss brothers, studying medicine at Montpellier, recorded the tenor of life in sixteenth century Southwestern France.

For twenty-five years, King Mindon preserved a peaceful and progressive atmosphere in nineteenth-century Burma.

Bertha S. Dodge follows the journey of John Ledyard, a captain’s son from Connecticut, who helped to explore the Pacific and travelled across the Russian Empire.

Kevin Williams revisits H.J. Perkin’s article from 1957 on the rise of the popular press.

Penelope Corfield provides an overview of the many recent lively and entertaining studies of 18th-century Britain.

Politics should be informed not just by history but by historians, argues Suzannah Lipscomb.

A hilltop view of a smouldering city, following the devastating earthquake of April 18th, 1906.

Did the story of a stolen Roman ring provide the basis for one of the 20th century’s most popular works of fiction? Mark Horton and Lynn Forest-Hill tell the story of the archaeological dig which  fuelled the fantasies of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Amanda Foreman tells the story of the Stuart courtier, Frances, Countess of Essex.