The Booker Prize-winning writer eschewed autobiographical novels for historical fiction in a bid to resolve the porous distinction between objective and subjective history, writes Alexander Lee.
The leading light of the French Annales school revolutionised the writing of history by imbuing it with wider, holistic, narratives and literary flair, says Alexander Lee.
The Austrian writer, whose short stories and novellas have recently enjoyed a new burst of popularity, used history to remind us that a better life is possible, as Alexander Lee explains in his new series.
Although he was many things to many people over the course of his career, Eco was, first and foremost, an historian railing against modernism in all its forms.
The turkey’s path to festive supremacy was much more unexpected – and glorious – than it might seem.
Does the death of French medievalist Jacques Le Goff mark the end of an era in historical scholarship, asks Alexander Lee.
It is the issue of Russian identity, rather than strategic or economic importance, that lies at the heart of the Crimean crisis, argues Alexander Lee
Buildings like the Shard may look like heralds of the future, but they are part of a long history of idealistic urban planning, says Alexander Lee.
Alexander Lee attempts to rescue the Borgia family from their baleful reputation as a political – and papal – dynasty steeped in sin.
Alexander Lee shows that Belgium’s new king will have to learn the lessons of the past.
