History Today

Paul Rich describes how the aggressive imperialism of the late Victorian age co-existed uneasily with the intellectual search for English 'roots' in a pre-industrial and mythical past.

The Argentinian writer Borges described the combatants in the Falklands War as being like 'two bald men fighting over a comb.' But thirty years before, Britain and Argentina nearly came to blows over territory far more remote and inhospitable.

Despite his passion for fame and a formal crown, Charles the Bold's Burgundy was a patchwork of territories and not a modern state. Richard Vaughan investigates.

Ann Hills on how Korea’s rich history is displayed.

Penelope Johnston takes a look at a Far East collection in Canada

Clare Foster examines the history of revolutionary Nicaragua

Jeremy Black examines the claim that Louis XV may have used contraception.

'Stirring up divine discontent' by education to effect a transformation of the social order became the credo of one of Victorian Christian Socialism's most colourful characters, far outpacing the more temperate aims of its founders.

The recent recovery of large quantities of porcelain from the South China seas highlights eighteenth-century Europe's insatiable desire for tableware from the Orient.