History Today

Ts’ên Shên was one of the celebrated poets of the T’ang dynasty. Here, Arthur Waley explores his body of work and the tumultuous career that propelled it.

J.D. Hargreaves appraised Swindon, “a city very much itself”, with a view of its idiosyncrasies, architecture and people.

Despite a lack of style or personality, W.N. Medlicott argues, Neville Chamberlain overcame his unique capacity for being misunderstood to achieve a record of consistency.

Charles Seltman shows how Egyptian memories of Crete and its inhabitants may have given rise to the Platonic legend of the lost island of Atlantis.

The journeys of Gospel books from 11th century Europe, M.A. Braude writes, illustrates their historical significance.

Only a staff composed of men of military genius, and backed by a decisive and imaginative government at Westminster, could have secured a victory in the American War of Independence. Eric Robson reflects on how men of considerable talent, and of much good-will, failed in an impossible task.

Da Vinci's scientific observations proved inseparable from his intentions as a painter, Kenneth Clark writes. But as a disciple of experience ahead of his time, the impracticability of Da Vinci's visions would come to haunt him.

A new exhibition at the British Museum on the aftermath of the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79 raises questions about the relationship between past and present, says Daisy Dunn.

Stephen Bates on the divisions that split Peel’s Tory administration in the mid-1840s, resonant of splits in the Conservative Party today.

Pevsner Architectural Guides still bear the mark of their founder, despite ample revision. Jonathan Meades plots their glorious evolution.