Premiere of The Great Dictator
Chaplin's celebrated film first appeared on 15 October 1940.
Recently published
The Media’s First Moral Panic
Goethe’s novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, was blamed for a spate of suicides during the ‘reading fever’ of the 1700s. It set a trend for manufactured outrage that is with us still.
In the Court of Haile Selassie
Three very different writers – Evelyn Waugh, Wilfred Thesiger, and Ryszard Kapuscinski – reported on the court of Haile Selassie during his reign, producing contrasting accounts of Ethiopia’s emperor.
Death of Thomas Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel
The English noble and a major figure during the reign of Henry IV died on October 13th 1415.
A Landmark Witch Trial
In 1615 Katharina, mother of the great scientist Johannes Kepler, was accused of witchcraft. Ulinka Rublack asks what her landmark trial tells us about early-modern attitudes towards science, nature and the family.
Is it British to Weep?
The reputation of Britons as a people who tightly control their emotions in the face of adversity is not necessarily a deserved one, argues Thomas Dixon.
History is Literature
Writing history with skill and verve is not a distasteful exercise.
Film Review: Suffragette
New film explores the lives of working-class women militants.
The Celts: Blood, Iron and Sacrifice
A new BBC series fails to give its subject the depth it deserves.
Goya: The Portraits
The Spanish painter's works give intimate insight into his subjects’ psychology and incisive social commentary on a dramatic period of Spanish history.