Recently published

Scene from the Legend of the True Cross, c.14th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

Making Crusading Great Again?

Would St Augustine have considered the US attack on Iran a just war? The pope and the vice president are split on the matter.

Portrait of Hipólito da Costa holding a copy of the Correio Braziliense, c.1810. Acervo do Ministério das Relações Exteriores - Coordenação-Geral de Patrimônio Histórico (CGPH/MRE). Public Domain.

The Free Brazilian Press

Brazil’s first newspaper was published from London by an exiled Freemason on first-name terms with British royalty. Who was Hipólito da Costa and what was his news?

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.

Franklin D. Roosevelt shortly before his public address in Chautauqua, New York, 14 August 1936. Associated Press/Alamy.

1936’s Promise of Peace: Roosevelt on Campaign

In August 1936 Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a boldly pacifist campaign speech, promising no American would have to go to war. It had seemed a realistic promise.

Nuclear testing illustration © Ben Jones/Heart Agency.

Behind the Times

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.

History Matters

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.

History Matters

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.’