Edwardian

In the early 20th century the prison population in England and Wales was in sharp decline, despite a rise in crime. 

From imported plant species to water pollution, Britain’s 19th century wool trade transformed the world.

King Lewanika’s invitation to the coronation of Edward VII was intended to stabilise British relations with the Barotse nation. Instead, it exposed the cracks in the imperial veneer.

The First World War revealed the bad state of Britain’s teeth. Intervention was required to keep the nation biting fit.

The Edwardian era is often seen as a peaceful interlude between the violence of Victorian expansion and the First World War. In reality, Edward’s reign bore witness to dozens of conflicts across the Empire.

In Massacre in the Clouds: An American Atrocity and the Erasure of History, Kim A. Wagner offers a blow-by-blow account of Bud Dajo. But is the devil truly in the detail?

Broken Archangel: The Tempestuous Lives of Roger Casement by Roland Philipps unearths the complexities and contradictions of the Irish rebel.

What are stars made of? When a young astronomer upset standard explanations for the formation of the solar system, the establishment told her she was wrong – then stole her findings.

Despite their reputation, London’s private members’ clubs have never been entirely for men.

New books by Natasha Wheatley and Richard Cockett explain how for all its apparent anachronism the Hapsburg empire, and its capital, shaped the modern world.