Volume 75 Issue 3 March 2025
‘The Soldier’s Reward’ and ‘Matchmaking and the Marriage Market...’ review
The Soldier’s Reward: Love and War in the Age of the French Revolution and Napoleon by Jennifer Ngaire Heuer and Matchmaking and the Marriage Market in Postrevolutionary France by Andrea Mansker reveal romance in a time of revolt.
On the Spot: Annabel Teh Gallop
‘What historical topic have I changed my mind on? Orality. Historians search for ‘lost’ manuscripts which might never have existed.’
The Real Magna Carta
Less famous than its 1215 predecessor, the Magna Carta of 1225 held the true power.
Mesmerism: Pain Management before Anaesthetics
Surgeons trying to eliminate pain eventually arrived at anaesthesia – but not before a contest with older, more unusual therapies. Why was mesmerism so magnetic?
‘This Land of Promise’ and ‘Multicultural Britain’ review
This Land of Promise: A History of Refugees and Exiles in Britain by Matthew Lockwood and Multicultural Britain: A People’s History by Kieran Connell foreground the castaways in our island story.
The Affair of the Sausages
On 9 March 1522 the Swiss Reformation began with an ‘ostentatious eating of sausages.’
The Wild Hunt in England
The monks of Peterborough told strange tales of the Wild Hunt. Were they ghostly apparitions or wishful thinking?
Pompey’s Greatest Show on Earth
Rome’s first theatre was an enormous spectacle intended to glorify Pompey’s successes. Was it all bread and circuses?
Maiden Flight of the Spitfire
On 5 March 1936 the prototype Spitfire made its maiden flight. Its creator R.J. Mitchell would not live to see its finest hour.