History Today

Alan Sked surveys the historiographical treatment of the notoriously long-winded Habsburg politician.

Paul Thompson looks at the newest and oldest form of history.

Daniel Bertaux presents an oral history of a traditional French industry.

Douglas Johnson asks what political or military intrigues lay behind the sudden recall to power, twenty-five years ago this month, of Charles de Gaulle, the wartime leader of the Free French.

Gladiatorial shows turned war into a game, preserved an atmosphere of violence in time of peace, and functioned as a political theatre which allowed confrontation between rulers and ruled.

Jonathan Steinberg reveals his fondness for facts, the underpinnings of history.

In the second of our article on Governing the Capital, Ian Doolittle argues that it was during the great reforming Liberal ministry of Gladstone in 1880-85, that the City of London came nearest to being voted out of existence

Until 1883, the Football Association Cup was won every year by former public schoolboys. As Christopher Andrew shows here, at the Cup Final that May, a working-class team from Lancashire snatched the honours from the Old Etonians.