History Today

Frank L. Holt looks at the legends and realities of Alexander's bride from Central Asia, the world she lived in and the power struggles that ensnared her.

Alexander Johnson on how changes in the Manpower Services Commission will impact on state-run projects.

Annette Bingham traces the status of a synagogue in the Far East

Were the Germans justified in executing a British merchant captain for ramming a U-boat in March 1915? Phyllis Hall considers a curious episode from the First World War.

J.S. Cummins considers the impact of syphilis on the 16th-century world – a tale of rapid spread, guilt, scapegoats and wonder-cures, with an uncomfortable modern resonance.

Judith Herrin considers the Jekyll-and-Hyde output of Justinian's court historian, alternately respectful official chronicler and tabloid-style exposer of imperial scandal.

The grandest African ruins south of the Sahara and the enigmatic discovery of Ming China there.

A small, far-away country, but one whose tangled relations with its neighbours, Ian Armour suggests, lead inexorably to the debacle of 1914.