History Today

The RAF on Screen 1940-1942

During the early days of UK involvement in World War II, official British films deliberately created a particular view of the air war, perhaps distorting our perceptions of some key phases.

France, Burgundy and England

'Gaul in three parts' - Charles Giry-Deloison discusses how new scholarship is affecting our view of a fifteenth-century triangle of power and diplomacy in Northern Europe.

Jansen and the Jansenists

Friends of truth or intellectual subversives undermining the authority of both Rome and Versailles? Alexander Sedgwick follows the story of how a theological argument about grace and freewill became enmeshed in the politics of seventeenth-century France.

Nomonhan – The Unknown Victory

 Did a battle fought on the borders of Mongolia in September 1939 between Russia and Japan on behalf of their client states decisively affect the outcome of the Second World War and save, among others, Britain from defeat? Philip Snow looks at the background to the battle and the significance of its result.

Just Desserts

Angela Morgan discusses sugared heritage and a new exhibition