Volume 76 Issue 7 July 2026

Margaret Bondfield gives a speech to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1932. LSE Library. Public Domain.

‘Margaret Bondfield’ by Nan Sloane review

Margaret Bondfield: The Life and Times of Britain’s First Female Cabinet Minister by Nan Sloane illuminates an overlooked trailblazer of the Labour movement.

Nuclear testing illustration © Ben Jones/Heart Agency.

The British Bombs Down Under

The legacy of a decade of British weapons testing in its vast central deserts has forced Australia into an uncomfortable reckoning with its nuclear past.

Study for a satirical print against the Jewish Naturalisation Act, by Louis Philippe Boitard, 1753. Trustees of the British Museum.

Immoral Panic: Antisemitism in Georgian England

In 1753 the journey of a minor Jewish naturalisation Act through Parliament prompted an outsized furore.

Republican forces poster, July 1936. Granger, NYC/TopFoto.

Beginning of the Spanish Civil War

On 17 July 1936 colonial troops rose against the republican government in Madrid. The Spanish Civil War had started.

European couple and a child playing with parrot, Qing dynasty hanging scroll, 18th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘The China Question’ by Ho-fung Hung review

In The China Question: Eight Centuries of Fantasy and Fear Ho-fung Hung watches the West swing from Sinophilia to Sinophobia and back again.

Dick Turpin encountering ‘the Brothers’ Gibbet’ at Gonerly, by Pickering, late 19th century. Yale Center for British Art, Yale University Art Gallery Collection. Public Domain.

The Legend of the Gibbet

Did live gibbeting ever take place in Britain? For the Victorians, the macabre question was a pressing one.

Half groat of Henry VIII, c.1544-47. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

On the Spot: Alec Ryrie

‘Who is the most overrated person in history? Henry VIII. Nasty piece of work and not as clever as he thought he was.’

Munitions worker Lottie Meade, who died in 1916. Imperial War Museum.

Human Canaries: Remembering the Munitionettes

The women who served as munitions workers during the First World War endured dismal conditions and a plethora of dangers: illness, injury, and death. Why are they barely remembered?

A Dutch Factory in Bengal, probably Cossimbazar, Hendrik van Schuylenburgh, c.1665. Rijksmuseum. Public Domain.

‘Capitalism: A Global History’ by Sven Beckert review

Capitalism: A Global History by Sven Beckert looks beyond the cities to the coffee and cotton that fuelled a global market.

Fourth of July fireworks seen over the Charles River Esplanade in Boston, 4 July 1976. Photo by Ted Dully/The Boston Globe/Getty Images.

Party in the USA: The 1976 Bicentennial in Boston

In 1976 Boston saw the bicentennial celebrations of the United States as an opportunity to revitalise the city.