History Today

David Wurtzel has been reading the diary of Lester Ziffren, the United Press correspondent in Madrid who, seventy years ago this month, witnessed the start of the Spanish Civil War.

David Anderson, Huw Bennett and Daniel Branch believe that the Freedom of Information Act is being used to protect the perpetrators of a war crime that took place in Kenya fifty years ago.

Tobias Grey uncovers interesting work in France that brings the latest forensic technology to the aid of historical mysteries.

Patricia Cleveland-Peck introduces a beautiful string of Spanish religious foundations.

Brian James revisits Ypres, where new ways of commemorating the events of the First World War are enthralling visitors of all generations.

The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code both drew from pseudohistory linking France’s Merovingian dynasty to the bloodline of Jesus Christ.

Max Adams looks at the works of the artist John Martin, his radical schemes to improve Victorian London, and his broad circle of friends at the forefront of political and cultural change in the first half of the 19th century.

Chandak Sengoopta looks at how the discovery of hormones, the body’s chemical messengers, revolutionized ideas of human nature and human potential in the twentieth century.

Cartoon historian Mark Bryant looks at the work of the man who invented the art of political cartooning, and asks what effect his drawings had on one of their targets.

The Labour party's first parliamentary leader was born on August 15th, 1856.