History Today

S.G.F. Brandon suggests the influence of the idea of the Devil in Christian culture has been profound, inspiring both noble works of art and the most degrading superstitions.

Tudor Edwards introduces the Second-Empire architect who was at once a fanatical restorer in the Gothic style and a daring speculator in new architectural thought.

By the close of the fourteenth century the English system of surnames had come into general use, many of them deriving from the trades and crafts followed by their bearers.

Alistair Horne describes how, during the Siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War, a fleet of balloons and a host of carrier pigeons kept the capital in touch with the outside world.

J.P. Kenyon describes how, in 1688, there were weighty reasons to suppose that the new royal heir was a changeling, smuggled to the Palace in a warming pan.

Half a century after the drama of Verdun, Alistair Horne describes the Paris meeting of two of the battle heroes, Eugen Radtke and Gustave Durassie.

Alan Birch visits mid-nineteenth century Sydney, a city formally incorporated in 1842 after fifty-four years of rapid and dramatic development.

C.R. Boxer portrays a key moment in the Thirty Years War. Dutch fortunes were not prospering when Piet Heyn revived his compatriots’ spirits by the daring capture of a Spanish treasure fleet.

In London, at Harvard, in Washington and during his extensive world travels, Henry Adams elaborated his penetrating views on the nature of history and of the American experience. By John Raymond.

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.