History Matters

Get Miscellanies, our free weekly long read, in your inbox every week

The division of migrants into those who are of benefit to British society and those who are not has a long history.

Even in the 19th century the effects of natural disasters like hurricanes were never entirely natural.

A French priest’s shocking attack on religion called for the fall of altars and the heads of kings.

The medical advice in Bald’s Leechbook outlasted the language in which it was written.

The dramatic life of the outlaw and special agent Eşref Bey epitomises the end of the Ottoman Empire.

The cult of saints affected everyone in medieval Europe. A voracious souvenir market was one of its consequences.

How did an evocatively named Flanders village become shorthand for a whole series of battles around the Belgian city of Ypres?

Accounts of the life of Germanicus are complex, fascinating and open to interpretation.

Laws against religious offence in India have altered the writing and understanding of the nation’s past.

Backpackers, travelling through Europe, forged a new wave of international collaboration.