History Today

Missing fragments of the written record are made all the more conspicuous by their absence. 

There is value in a leader who lies – but only if it is done for the greater good.

Dinner parties in the ‘Revolutionary Age’ with the publisher Joseph Johnson.

‘I change my mind – at least a little – after everything I read.’

The elixir of life, a mythical substance from ancient Chinese literature, underpins an enormous industry in modern China. 

The dissolution of the monasteries as a series of decisions and indecisions.

Four experts debunk the myth of modestly covered piano legs and point the finger of blame at ungrateful modernists.