History Today

Rachel Braverman on a shocking American realist.

The elaborate funeral portraits of Poland's 17th-century nobility are a window on their self-image and lifestyle, as Bozena Grabowska discusses here. (Translated from the Polish by George Lambor).

Tom August explores the imperial assumptions - and the hints of independence from Britannia - to be found in the paintings and artists on show in the Palace of Arts at the British Empire Exhibition.

Did Andres Aranda Ortiz die for his crimes or his anarchist beliefs in a Barcelona prison just before Christmas 1934? Chris Ealham considers an episode that lays bare the social and political tensions of a Spain on the eve of civil war.

Keith Hopkins takes us on a tour de force via original texts of the hopes, dreams, assumptions and frustrations of the Roman schoolboy.

Michael Leech on Eastern Art Deco

Colin Matthew lays out a stall for the new Dictionary of National Biography

Ian Fitzgerald on medicine and music for 'The Creation'

John Miller considers 20th-century political insiders and outsiders through the eyes of today's historians on radio.