Volume 74 Issue 6 June 2024

The lost panel of the Just Judges from the Ghent Altarpiece by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, photograph by Max Friedländer. RKD Netherlands Institute of Art History. Public Domain.

The Theft of the Ghent Altarpiece

When a priceless altarpiece was stolen from a Belgian cathedral it sparked a 90-year hunt. The crime remains unsolved.

Miyamoto Musashi duelling Sasaki Kojiro, by Yoshitori Utagawa, 1843-47. Private Collection. Public Domain.

Death of a Samurai Legend

Miyamoto Musashi was finally defeated on 13 June 1645, but it wasn’t a sword that laid the formidable samurai low.

William Shakespeare’s birthplace on Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, from Shakespeare and his Birthplace, by Emma Marshall, 1890. Look and Learn/Bridgeman Images.

Shakespeare’s Sister Speaks

Could a text thought to be by Shakespeare’s father actually be his sister’s writing?

’The Students‘, by Thomas Rowlandson, 1 January 1793. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

Moving With the Times?

Approaching history through ideas – how people thought – is not the only method, but it is one that has stood the test of time.

British soldiers inspect the documents of former SS guards at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, 15 April 1943. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

‘Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans’ by Daniel Cowling review

In Don’t Let’s Be Beastly to the Germans: The British Occupation of Germany, 1945-49, Daniel Cowling brings lost stories to light – some of them, at least.

A still from the 1955 adaptation of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo.

The Publication of Nineteen Eighty-Four

On 8 June 1949, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four was published. His final novel, its themes had been present throughout his literary career.

A woman diagnosed as suffering from melancholia. Lithograph, 1892, after a drawing made for Sir Alexander Morison. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

‘The Undesirables’ by Sarah Wise review

Sarah Wise’s The Undesirables: The Law that Locked Away a Generation lays bare the cruelty and injustice of the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913.

President Ronald Reagan and wife Nancy toast each other at the bar of O'Farrell's Pub in Ballyporeen, while on a four day visit to the Republic of Ireland, 3 June 1984. PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo.

Ronald Reagan’s European Tour

A tour of Europe cemented Ronald Reagan’s reputation as an international statesman and helped secure his re-election.

The defeat of the caliph of Baghdad, the religious head of Sunni Islam, by the Mongols, Rashid al-Din, c. 1596. Cleveland Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘The House Divided’ by Barnaby Rogerson review

In The House Divided: Sunni, Shia and the Making of the Middle East Barnaby Rogerson seeks geopolitical answers for ideological conflicts.

A prehistoric man defends his family from an attacking bear, c. 1840-1900. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

What Use is Prehistory to the Historian?

History is built with words. How have historians filled the silence that came before?