History Today

With the future of the House of Lords up for debate, Edward Pearce recounts the furore surrounding the passing of the 1911 Parliament Act.

The man who brought the French to the aid of the Irish cause in the 1790s has long been an Irish national hero. Andrew Boyd finds his ideals less easy to pin down.

Richard Cavendish visits the Sussex home of the Gage family.

Bonaparte has sometimes been acclaimed as the greatest military commander in history. In our final article in this series, David Gates reviews his contribution to the art and science of warfare.

On June 15th, 1098, the army of the First Crusade discovered the Holy Lance – the very spear that had pierced Christ’s side on the cross - in the city of Antioch.

Milton Goldin explores Himmler’s ambitions to establish the SS as a ‘state within a state’, and highlights schemes the Nazis devised to finance the organisation through industrial enterprise and plundered Jewish assets.

In the aftermath of 1798 the British had to deal with thousands of political prisoners. Michael Durey traces the mixture of decisiveness, pragmatism and clemency with which they were treated.

Ian Scott traces the hundred-year history of heroin, from cough medicine to underworld narcotic. 

Giacomo Casanova died on June 4th, 1798. His autobiography guaranteed him an enduring reputation as a womaniser; but there was more to him than that.