History Today

John Klier reviews Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s recent venture into the history of his native country.

Austin Woolrych reflects on how historians’ approaches to the events of 1640-60 have been changing over the half century that he has been working on the period.

Historians have famously been divided into parachutists and truffle-hunters. M.R.D. Foot explains how he began his careeer as a real parachutist in the SAS.

T.A. Jenkins discusses the political career of the Iron Duke.

Taylor Downing recalls the BBC series The Great War.

Michael Rosenthal and Martin Myrone look beyond the traditional view of Gainsborough and argue for a view of the painter beyond that of society portraitist, as a modernist responding to the broader themes of his times.

King Æthelred ordered the massacre of Danes in England on November 13th, 1002.

Louise Curth, Gareth Shaw and Andrew Alexander explain how the British supermarket was born.

Twelve years after the first stone of the new building was laid, the state opening of the new Houses of Parliament took place on November 11th, 1852.

Pope Boniface VIII issued the papal bull Unam Sanctam, the most famous papal document of the Middle Ages, on November 18th, 1302.