The Abode of Madness
The long history of no man’s land, from lawlessness and desolation to hope and regrowth.
History Matters
Thoughts, opinions and commentary on all things historical.
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The Year of the Sepoy Revolt
How events in British India were leveraged in the debate over slavery.
Blood, Stones and Holy Bones
The spiritual power of medieval relics meant that Jerusalem, or a dragon, could be remade anywhere.
A Feather in her Cap
A global trade in feathers, with London at its heart, saw hundreds of millions of birds killed every year. Emily Williamson waged a long and furious campaign against it.
A Tyrant goes on Trial
Charges were brought against Peter von Hagenbach at the ‘first international war crimes trial’, held on 9 May 1474.
Polling in a Pandemic
The general election of 1918 was a ‘cynical muddle’ held as influenza killed thousands across a country emerging from the First World War.
The Man who Haunts America
John Brown, the abolitionist firebrand, remains a potent figure in the United States’ febrile politics of race.
Book of Remembrance
A signature in a collection of autographs reveals a story of Indigenous service that extends from Australia to Canada and Trinidad.
Sheppard’s Warning
A thief who had been dead for more than a century caused a moral panic in the theatres of Victorian London.
Meeting an Urgent Need
The First World War threw widows and their brothers-in-law together, but their marriages were considered incestuous.