History Today

On the anniversary of the London writer’s birth, Peter Martin celebrates the legacy of a man admired for his insight and humanity, qualities forged in the darker and less well analysed episodes of his life.

Recent research by medical scientists and historians suggests that George III had manic depression rather than porphyria. Scholars will need to take a fresh look at his reign, writes Timothy Peters.

Richard Overy examines recent analyses of how Europe became embroiled in major conflict just two decades after the trauma of the Great War and we look at events and broadcasts commemorating September 1939. 

The repatriation of British soldiers’ bodies from Afghanistan goes against a long tradition of burying the war dead in some foreign field and brings the conflict closer to home, writes Nick Hewitt. 

Sex, scandals and celebrity were all part of a blame and shame culture that existed in the 18th century, one that often fed off the misfortune of women at the hands of men. Prostitutes, courtesans and ladies with injured reputations took up the pen in retaliation.

In the mid-1930s many millions of British people voted overwhelmingly against any return to conflict. But events in Spain changed public opinion and by 1939 it was widely accepted that fascism could only be opposed successfully through military action, writes Richard Overy.

With the trial of the former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic due to begin, Nick Hawton reflects on his time reporting in a region where history is still used to justify war.

From A.J.P. Taylor’s mesmerising lectures in front of a black backdrop to technicolour Civilisation and the ground-breaking World At War, Taylor Downing looks at the early days of history on television.

In the wake of the parliamentary expenses scandal, some MPs have met their constituents to explain themselves, with bruising consequences. Jon Lawrence looks back to when such holdings-to-account were commonplace and benefited democracy.

Peter H. Wilson unravels one of the most notoriously bloody and complex conflicts in European history to answer the question.