History Today

Homes in the Country?

A recent government initiative suggests Britain is failing in its policies towards children in care. Jad Adams explains how similar concerns a hundred years ago lay behind the development of the first children’s ‘village homes’.

Playing the King

George Bernard Shaw influenced the Abdication Crisis with a short play that has been forgotten in the last seventy years. 

Kraków

Sebastian Wormell introduces the Polish city that survived the worst of the Second World War.

Dickens: a Debt to Cartoons

Cartoon historian Mark Bryant looks at the origins of some of Dickens’ best-loved characters, and finds clues in the work of cartoonists of the novelist’s youth.

The Victoria Cross

As  the 150th anniversary of the Victoria Cross is celebrated, Richard Vinen looks beyond the individual acts of heroism that have merited the honour, to the wider social, cultural and historical significance of  the medal.

The Long Goodbye

Forget Tony Blair or Margaret Thatcher, says Klaus Larres; Winston Churchill was the supreme prevaricator when it came to giving up power.