On the Home Front
A lively, privileged group of young intellectuals grew ever more alarmed by the crises that struck Britain in the mid-1740s.
Volume 70 Issue 5 May 2020
A Painting Tells a Thousand Words
The Painted Hall at Greenwich: how it was commissioned, its narrative and its meaning.
The Rise of the Working Wife
Though remembered as the era of the housewife, momentous change in the status of British women began in the 1950s.
The Key to Success?
The mobilisation of economic, diplomatic and military resources.
Beethoven’s 250th Symphony
As music became an art for all the people of Europe, Ludwig van Beethoven, born 250 years ago this year, became the hero and the symbol of an aspiring German nation.
The Forging of a Communist
The historian Eric Hobsbawm kept faith with the Marxist orthodoxies of his youth even after the Soviet invasions of Hungary in 1956, of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Why?
Colonial Projections
Studying African history through the lens of cinema.
Still Fighting the Civil Wars
The uneasy balance between rulers and counsellors has been a feature of British politics for centuries.
The Great Migration Mystery
It was once believed that swallows spent their winters on the Moon, or asleep on river beds.
The Pilgrims’ Progress
With every major anniversary, our perspective on the voyage of the Mayflower changes. This year’s 400th will address the legacy of colonialism.