History Today

Ann Hills assesses how the African country is protecting its past

David G. Anderson reveals an arms sale scandal in 1934 involving the British Government

Richard Cavendish breathes 18th-century elegance into the Thomas Gainsborough Musuem

Graham Norton looks at dilapidated forts and castles in West Africa

Re-opening of the National Museum.

Monks and nuns living together: not a cause for scandal but, as Barbara Mitchell explains, an intriguing window onto the variety of monastic life - under the aegis of remarkable abbesses - before the Conquest.

Charles C. Noel illustrates how the remodelling of the Spanish capital reflected the new philosophical and cultural concerns of her rulers in the 'Age of Reason'. 

David Nash considers a cause celebre that tested tensions between pious tradition and a 'progressive' age.

David Birmingham looks at how the invented traditions of 19th-century Swiss history cemented a sense of national identity.