Volume 65 Issue 12 December 2015

Rethinking Napoleon’s Roots

How far did Napoleon’s Corsican childhood and his father’s role in the island’s brief period of autonomy influence his later life?

The Greatest Civilisation Ever Forgotten?

The civilisation that arose in the Indus valley around 5,000 years ago was only discovered in the early 20th century. Andrew Robinson looks at what we know about this extraordinary culture.

Books of the Year 2015

From Aristotle to El Alamein, via the Silk Road and Charlemagne's vast empire, ten leading historians tell us about their best books from 2015.

Cadbury’s Congo Mission

Seconded to central Africa following the outbreak of the Second World War, John Cadbury became a master of logistics in one of the world’s toughest environments, as David Birmingham reveals. 

Dust Bowl Blues

A photograph taken during the Great Depression prompts Roger Hudson to re-evaluate Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Corruption and Anti-Corruption in Britain

We may know it when we see it, but corruption is not a fixed concept. Mark Knights explains how 300 years of scandal have forged perceptions of what is – and what is not – corrupt.