Volume 10 Issue 7 July 1960

The atmosphere of plot and intrigue that surrounded the last few years of the Third Republic, writes Geoffrey Warner, has given French right wing extremists a taste for armed conspiracy.

From 1858 to 1870, a privileged and gifted English observer, Odo Russell, watched the declining fortunes of the Papal government. Russell reported in his strong and lucid style, writes Noel Blakiston, “as though they formed a chapter of medieval history.”

In October 1860, writes E.W.R. Lumby, a humane and liberal-minded British emissary felt obliged to order an act of vandalism in Peking.

Alex R. Myers introduces the conciliatory and resourceful, hard-working and generousthe brother of Henry V, who was both an able soldier and a gifted Regent of France. Even his treatment of St. Joan by contemporary standards seems neither harsh nor dishonourable.

For nearly three hundred years, a Macedonian-Greek dynasty, who proved themselves to be able and adaptable rulers, held sway over the ancient Egyptian kingdom. By E. Badian

How did the Allied Powers become committed to fighting the First World War on the Western Front, so that Germany, until near the end, always held the initative? John Terraine investigates.