Christmas in 19th Century America
Before the mid-1800s many Americans did not dream of Christmas at all. Penne Restad tells how and why this changed – and played its role in uniting the US in social cohesion.
History Today
A Soldier's Tale from Krushchev's USSR
Grigori Chukhrai talks about the political pressures surrounding his award-winning Second World War film
Bridging BR's Heritage Gap
Ann Hills on the campaign to save Lambley Railway Viaduct, South Tyne
Republican Ruminations from Down Under
Antony Taylor finds the roots of Australian republicanism stretching back into the 19th century
All Quiet on the Western Front
Modris Eksteins on how the Hollywood treatment of Erich von Remarque's book describing the Great War 'from the other side' impacted on a Europe traumatised by slaughter and fearful of its future repetition.
Culture Under the Great Dictators, 1930-45
Painting, sculpture, photography, poster art, architecture, pageant - all were used by the totalitarian regimes in the 1930s. We review a selection of the images from the Hayward Gallery exhibition.
Futurism and Fascism
Italy's Futurists - led by Filippo Marinetti - exploded onto the European cultural scene during and after the Great War with all the garishness and fizz of some of their founder's anarchic recipes. But was the menu taken up by Mussolini and his Fascists? Richard Jensen investigates.
The X Factor in X-rays
New innovations in radiology have sparked public criticism as to its safety and cost-effectiveness. Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen's discovery of the X-ray in 1895 and its subsequent use in medicine sparked similar safety and health hazard concerns throughout its development.
The Battle for Art in the 1930s
David Elliott looks at how Mussolini, Stalin and Hitler used culture to their own ends and how the ramifications of this has continued to the present.