History Today

Ann Hills evaluates the recently-opened island museum.

'Tis to be feared this threatening storm will not be allayed without some showers... of blood' – Chris Durston chronicles the rumours and fears of an England on the brink of fratricidal conflict.

Anne Laurence considers how the conflict between King and Parliament altered the occupations and preoccupations of England's women.

From isolation to Great Power status: Richard Perren explains how a mania for Westernisation led to Japan's transformation at the turn of the century.

Ronald Quinault wonders what Churchill would have made of Maastricht in the light of his post-war activities.

Victoria Schofield surveys the land Columbus did not visit and finds societies on the move.

John Edwards finds the roots of Spanish actions in America in the crusade mentality that won back the Iberian peninsula for Christendom in the Middle Ages.

Noble savages and savage nobles – Anthony Pagden looks at how the icons of the pre-Columbian world were polished up to mirror criollo aspirations from the 16th century onwards.

David Cordingly describes the seafaring daredevil who pirated the Caribbean 200 years after Columbus' arrival, and tells of a new exhibition at the National Maritime Museum Greenwich, dedicated to their kind.

'An event which ought to have been beneficial to all' - David Armitage looks at how the 'discovery' of America has drawn mixed reviews from the West over five centuries of commemoration