History Today

Monarchs could do anything – or could they? Steven Ellis examines what happened when commands from the centre had to he executed in practice in the remoter parts of the kingdom.

Penelope Corfield looks at the controversy about religion and ancien régime in the Georgian state and comes to a pluralist conclusion.

Joseph H Berke examines how a country's internal conflicts creates opportunities for men such as Adolf Hitler.

95 years after his death, Lancaster University creates a modern masterpiece to house John Ruskin's books, manuscripts and diaries

Jeffrey Richards rekindles Humphrey Jennings' stirring wartime portrayal of firefighters who became heroes of the Blitz.

Richard Cavendish explores the Bell Foundry Museum.

Graham Seel reassesses the career of Oliver Cromwell's predecessor as Parliamentary Commander in the 1640s, Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, and argues that he has been harshly judged by English Civil War historians.

Luke Syson examines how artifice, art and political calculation combined to produce medal portraits by Sperandio of Mantua for two of Renaissance Italy's "warhorses", Giovanni Bentivoglio and Federico da Montelfeltro.

Nicholas Soteri reflects on the often-overlooked Jewish kingdom of Khazaria, and the vital role they played in balancing Christian and Muslim power in the early medieval period.

Johnathan Israel describes how the genius of the 17th-century Netherlands lay not just in painting but in a blazing a trail in civic pride and technological improvements for the rest of Europe.