History Today

Christopher Tyerman explains why he believes the crusades were important in shaping the ideology and fiscal and political structures of the secular state.

Federico Guillermo Lorenz looks at Argentinian memories of the Second World War during and after the Malvinas-Falklands War of 1982.

Charles Freeman visits a city that has been defined by its waterways – and above all, by its bridge.

Deirdre McCloskey describes how Europe after 1600 half escaped the ancient condemnation of economic life.

The controversial decision to uncover the remains of the famous 18th-century castrato Farinelli in Bologna may or may not prove insightful for music historians ... while an exhibition on castrati in London illuminates this exclusive profession for the wider public.

Ruth Boreham outlines the history of the famous publishing dynasty whose archive has been preserved for the nation and is now accessible to all at the National Library of Scotland.

The artist, scientist, botanist, anatomist, engineer, inventor and all-round genius Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) used paper in a unique way.

J.H. Elliott looks at the differences – cultural, religious, ethnic and economic – between the Spanish and British approaches to their empires in the Americas, and asks how they turned out, both for the mother countries and for the colonies and states that eventually emerged from them.

Richard Dimbleby’s account of what he witnessed at Bergen-Belsen in April 1945 has become infamous in Britain. Less well known is the work of two other BBC employees who made radio programmes about Belsen shortly after the camp’s liberation.