Volume 76 Issue 7 July 2026

Calendar miniature for July showing haymaking, from a book of hours illustrated by Simon Bening, France, 1510-25. British Library/Bridgeman Images.

The Meadows of Medieval Summer

Chaucer’s meadows are romantic landscapes of leisurely frolicking. But for medieval haymakers July meant a month of hard graft.

Japanese soldiers marching into Beijing on the cover of Asahigraph magazine, 1 September 1937. Private Collection. Public Domain.

‘Blood Dawn’ by Hans van de Ven review

Blood Dawn: World War II and the Making of Modern Asia by Hans van de Ven finds Japanese grievance and ambition in the eye of the storm.

Architectural relief showing a suovetaurilia ceremony, Rome, early first century AD. Erich Lessing/Bridgeman Images.

How Sacrifice Shaped Early Christian Identity

Today sacrifice is seen as a barbaric, pagan practice, but it was central to the formation of early Christian identity.

Hormuz Island, from Civitates Orbis Terrarum, by Braun & Hogenberg, 1572. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Public Domain.

The Crusade of Hormuz

Looking for a new route to Jerusalem, medieval crusaders turned to the Strait of Hormuz.

Page from the Textus Roffensis, Rochester, 12th century. Rochester Cathedral.

How England Learnt Old English

In the 16th and 17th centuries, as scholars first started to translate and study Old English, they struggled to reconcile England’s past with its present.

Alternative Histories: The High Seas, 1770

A student photographed for the Picture Post’s ‘Is There A British Colour Bar?’ feature, 2 July 1949. Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

The Hans Crescent Strike: The Students at the Hotel

Eager to create goodwill towards Britain in its former colonies, the postwar government encouraged students from across the Empire to study in London. Housing them was a problem, as events in the summer of 1951 revealed.

George Washington with his enslaved personal servant, William Lee, by John Trumbull, 1780. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

What Became of the Black Loyalists?

Hoping to weaken the rebels’ cause, Britain offered freedom to enslaved people who joined the British army. At the end of the American Revolutionary War that promised freedom had to be honoured – but how and where?

Colonel John Nixon making the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence in the State House Yard, Philadelphia, 8 July 1776. English engraving, 1783. Granger/TopFoto.

Disputing the Declaration of Independence

That the United States declared its independence in July 1776 is well known; that the British state commissioned, but never published, a counter-declaration is not.