Volume 56 Issue 12 December 2006

France 1956: The Decisive Moment

Martin Evans looks at the events of 1956 and the French war on terror, both at home and elsewhere, and how this was a turning point for French fortunes in the Algerian War of Independence.

Homes in the Country?

A recent government initiative suggests Britain is failing in its policies towards children in care. Jad Adams explains how similar concerns a hundred years ago lay behind the development of the first children’s ‘village homes’.

Playing the King

George Bernard Shaw influenced the Abdication Crisis with a short play that has been forgotten in the last seventy years. 

Kraków

Sebastian Wormell introduces the Polish city that survived the worst of the Second World War.

Dickens: a Debt to Cartoons

Cartoon historian Mark Bryant looks at the origins of some of Dickens’ best-loved characters, and finds clues in the work of cartoonists of the novelist’s youth.

The Victoria Cross

As  the 150th anniversary of the Victoria Cross is celebrated, Richard Vinen looks beyond the individual acts of heroism that have merited the honour, to the wider social, cultural and historical significance of  the medal.