History Today

In April 1945 ten British politicians flew to Germany tasked with investigating the ‘truth’ about Buchenwald concentration camp.

Historians may no longer talk of a single Celtic culture, but in The Celts: A Modern History Ian Stewart crafts a unified history of a changing idea.

In the first millennium BC the Brahmin class organised as a community and assumed responsibility for learning the sacred Vedas. What are the origins of India’s priestly caste?

The Soldier’s Reward: Love and War in the Age of the French Revolution and Napoleon by Jennifer Ngaire Heuer and Matchmaking and the Marriage Market in Postrevolutionary France by Andrea Mansker reveal romance in a time of revolt.

When it was discovered in the 19th century, the Library of Ashurbanipal revealed an ancient Assyrian empire previously known only through myth.

‘What historical topic have I changed my mind on? Orality. Historians search for ‘lost’ manuscripts which might never have existed.’

King Lewanika’s invitation to the coronation of Edward VII was intended to stabilise British relations with the Barotse nation. Instead, it exposed the cracks in the imperial veneer.

Less famous than its 1215 predecessor, the Magna Carta of 1225 held the true power.

Surgeons trying to eliminate pain eventually arrived at anaesthesia – but not before a contest with older, more unusual therapies. Why was mesmerism so magnetic?

This Land of Promise: A History of Refugees and Exiles in Britain by Matthew Lockwood and Multicultural Britain: A People’s History by Kieran Connell foreground the castaways in our island story.