History Today

Zola in England

Joanna Richardson describes the two visits of Zola to England. The writer first arrived in 1893 and again, five years later, during the Dreyfus Case.

York Minster before the Reformation

York Minster was dedicated in 1472 after two and a half centuries of building. L.W. Cowie describes how it still affords insight into medieval life.

Woodes Rogers: Privateer and Pirate Hunter

M. Foster Farley describes the life of a great mariner and intrepid privateer; Woodes Rogers was at length appointed by a grateful government Governor-in-Chief of the Bahamas.

William Bartram in America’s Eden

Bartram, like his father, was an eminent naturalist from Philadelphia. J.I. Merritt III describes how his extensive travels in the American South inspired, among others, both Coleridge and Wordsworth.

William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland

William Augustus was he first of the house of Hanover to be born in England. Rex Whitworth describes how, politically, the Duke became almost First Minister of the Crown.

Who was John the Baptist?

In the New Testament layers of tradition overlay accounts of John the Baptist. J.K. Elliott describes how these accounts were imposed by writers who altered historical details to suit their own doctrinal ends.