History Today

Esther Moir brings us on a visit to the Nonconformist chapels of England, products of a long tradition in vernacular architecture, and well adapted to the needs of local worshippers.

John Butt marks the birth of the great missionary, idealist and explorer of Africa, born at Blantyre, Lanarkshire, in March 1813.

During the years when France rose to predominance in Europe, writes J.H. Elliott, the Spanish Empire was governed by a man capable of gigantic designs, but lacking felicity in their outcome.

David Woodward introduces Alfred von Tirpitz; the creator of the German High Seas Fleet, who was also the advocate of unrestricted submarine warfare.

S. Usher introduces Sallust, himself a disillusioned politician, who envisaged no future greatness for Rome until a single man of vision should have restored the old Republican sense of obligation—the individual's obligation to the state, and the state’s obligation to the world at large.

H. Hookham introduces Augustus F. Lindley, a contemporary and opponent of General Gordon’s, who served the Taipings during their nineteenth century rebellion against the Manchu dynasty.

Established, by Louis IX at the burying-place of the French monarchy, in 1793 Saint-Denis was solemnly desecrated by order of the revolutionary Convention, determined to remove all “horrid memories” of the former royal line. By Peter Quennell.

Two very different French travellers, a romantic and a realist, have left us their opinions of the rising civilization of the United States. Arnold Whitridge assesses two contrasting historical viewpoints.

J.H. Shennan offers a study of the relationship between Russian Orthodoxy and the secular power in the time of the Tsars.

Robert Cecil describes how, despite the blandishments of commissions from Philadelphia, and the exercise of force by the Continental Congress, Canada chose to remain separate in the 1770s.