History Today

Richard Vinen ponders the political significance of two of France’s most potent female icons and finds there is more to them than meets the eye.

The great Victorian engineer was born on 9th April, 1806.

Editor Peter Furtado explains our current series on cartoons and its relevance today.

Stella Tillyard explains how she came to write multiple biographies of 18th-century families, most recently that of George III whose brothers and sisters were enmeshed in webs of intrigue, something that affected the King’s wider relations with his subjects.

Richard Cavendish marks the anniversary of the deportation of an important figure in Greek Cypriot nationalist history, on March 9th, 1956.

Richard Cavendish marks the founding of a famous Victorian penitentiary, on March 20th, 1806.

Richard Cavendish marks the demise of an important Renaissance figure, on March 20th, 1656.

Cartoon historian Mark Bryant looks at two humorous takes on the same subject – the Siegfried Line, as the German defensive Westwall was known by the Allies, by cartoonists from both sides of the divide during the Second World War.

Roger Tolson introduces a new exhibition of Commonwealth war artists at the Imperial War Museum, London.

Brian Girvin explains the tensions between the Irish government and many of the Irish people in their attitudes to the war against Nazism.