History Today

An exotic London theatre funded the building of the first Eddystone lighthouse. Alison Barnes has discovered what kind of shows it staged.

To coincide with ‘Cold War Modern’, a major new exhibition at the V & A in London, its consultant curator, David Crowley of the Royal College of Art, looks back on the 1959 Kennedy-Khrushchev ‘Kitchen Debate’ and explores how modern design became an active part of that war.

Patricia Cleveland-Peck visits Tempelhof which is about to close for ever as an airport.

Daniel Beer looks at how much Soviet labour camps owed to the theories of Russian liberals on crime, its causes and how to treat it.

Sir John Reeves Ellerman was No.1 on the UK’s 1916 rich list. William D. Rubinstein looks at the careers of this reclusive, but fabulously rich, British man of business and of his children.

Nick Pelling suggests that credit should go not to the Netherlands but much further south to Catalonia.

Pressure in the nineteenth century to introduce artificial lighting was as much about enhancing privacy as about reducing crime, according to Chris Otter.

Elizabeth Stephens examines how the surprise invasion of Israel by Egypt and its allies started the process that led to Camp David.

Ian Mortimer, who has been an archivist and a poet before becoming a medieval historian and biographer, describes why a blend of empathy and evidence is the key to getting the most out of history.

Jeremy Isaacs, the producer of The World at War and Cold War, reviews the changing nature of historical documentaries made for the small screen, and their reception by academics.