History Today

The Slavery Abolition Act was passed by Parliament in 1833. What was really behind Britain’s moment of moral enlightenment?

We know that people in the past felt, but not what, how, or why. Is emotional history recoverable?

The Norman Conquest is credited with reshaping England, but was 1066 really all that?

From 1517, when Luther’s 95 Theses sparked schism and bloodshed, the Protestant Reformation divided Europe. Can we say when – or if – the conflict concluded?

History Today was first published on 12 January 1951. Our readers and contributors share their memories of the magazine 75 years on.

75 years is a long time in public history: the bridge between academia and the general reader appears to have widened since History Today was launched, but in what ways?

Finished by the First World War and buried under the nation states that succeeded it, the Habsburg monarchy had survived for centuries despite its obvious faultlines. What held it together?

African queens and Anglo-Saxon towns, Indira Gandhi and Irish STEM, Celtic Studies and the caste system: 10 more historians choose their favourite new history books of 2025.

Peasants and popes, free speech and fashion, sentimentality and special forces: the first 10 of 20 historians choose their favourite new history books of 2025.

In November 2025 we reach 25 years of continuous human presence in space. Did reaching orbit alter the trajectory of the planet below?