History Today

Richard the Lionheart was born in Oxford on 8 September 1157.

Laurence Rees, whose work as a TV historian has brought him face to face with many people involved in mass killings, discusses the opportunities and dangers of oral history.

Mark Bryant looks at the way caricaturists viewed the scandal engulfing France at the end of the 19th century.

David Nicholas reveals the skill and good fortune behind Britain’s First World War intelligence operation, and the coup by which the Zimmermann Telegram was cracked, tipping the balance in getting the US to join the Allied war effort.

Paul Brewer looks at the politics behind US involvement in the First World War and how President Woodrow Wilson dealt with those Americans who campaigned against it.

Alastair Bonnett tells the little-known but extraordinary ‘rags to rags’ story of a radical maverick of the early 19th century.

Jonathan Phillips explains how Damascus, ‘Paradise of the Orient’ and a spiritual home for Muslims, became a major battleground of the Second Crusade.

Mihir Bose discusses the paradox that India, a land of history, has a surprisingly weak tradition of historiography.

India cast off the monarchy in 1950, but the Nehru-Gandhi family have become republican royalty. How did one dynasty take centre stage in the world’s largest democracy?

How was rabies – a disease that still kills thousands worldwide every year – largely eradicated from Victorian Britain?