History Today

Low birth rates have obsessed the French since their defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, argues Richard Tomlinson.

What made for a good medieval king? Understanding Richard I – better known as Richard the Lionheart – is a good place to start.

To historians he seemed to be a philosopher, to philosophers an historian. But in spite of the difficulty of categorising the late Michel Foucault (1926-84), or perhaps because of that very difficulty, he has had a considerable impact on historical writing and deserves to have more.

In 1972 Albert Paul, a retired Brighton carpenter, produced a charming account of his childhood years for a local history society entitled Poverty, hardship but happiness; those were the days, 1903-17.

David Stevenson looks at the three-kingdom state in the seventeenth century.

'Measure twice because you can cut only once', is a carpenter's adage making the rounds of American history departments in the wake of the case of David Abraham.

History may ultimately be story-telling, but one moral that's lost on most historians is that every picture tells a story, says Roy Porter.

Accounts of Winston Churchill's conduct of this office in 1910-11 generally underline those incidents of public disorder rioting coal miners in Tonypandy; besieged revolutionaries in Sidney Street. Victor Bailey asserts they reveal Churchill as an illiberal, sabre-rattler, eager for armed conflict between soldiers and workers.

David Starkey visits the Lincoln Center for a night at the opera.

It is time Henry Hunt’s reputation as a vainglorious demagogue was reassessed.