Recently published

‘A Continuous Performance Since Peter the Great’: Russia is shown manipulating conflict in the Balkans on the cover of Puck magazine, 7 October 1903. Library of Congress. Public Domain.

The Balkan Federation: Doomed to Disunity?

Talk of a Balkan federation became a hot topic at the end of the Ottoman Empire, eventually dying a death at the dawn of the Cold War. Was Europe’s ‘Little Orient’ destined to fall apart?

Sir Winston, his son Randolph, and grandson, Winston in coronation robes, by Toni Frissell, June 1953. Library of Congress. Public Domain.

Feature

Winston Churchill’s Gold Record

Once the Second World War was won, Winston Churchill had two preoccupations: preserving his place in posterity and making lots of money. If they could be achieved simultaneously, so much the better.

Jews captured during the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising are forced from their shelters and marched to the Umschlagplatz for deportation, 1943. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park. Public Domain.

Feature

The Warsaw Ghetto in Flames

The story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is typically one of defiance against the odds during the Holocaust. But what of those unable to fight?

Prester John on his throne in Ethiopia, from a map of East Africa in the Queen Mary Atlas, by Diogo Homem, Portuguese, 1558.

Feature

The King Who Wasn't There

Belief in Prester John, a lost Christian king ruling over a distant kingdom, gripped medieval Europe for half a millennium. Once seen as a saviour, he would become an adversary.

The Burning of Archpriest Avvakum, by Grigoriy Myasoyedov, 1897. Alamy.

Months Past

Martyrdom of an Old Believer

The Archpriest Avvakum Petrov was burned in Pustozersk on 14 April 1682.

Hercules Protects Painting from Ignorance and Envy

Review

It’s Bliss

Is knowledge a useful remedy for ignorance?

Hugh Trevor-Roper, 1983. Wolfgang Wiese/ullstein bild via Getty Images

History Matters

What Use History?

Making the case for historical literacy in government.

Miniature of the Battle of Cresson from Les Passages d’outremer by Sébastien Mamerot, c.1474. Wikimedia Commons

History Matters

Against the Odds

The Battle of the Springs of Cresson marked the beginning of the end for the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

The removal of the Cherokee, c.1850. The Granger Collection/Alamy.

Months Past

The Trail of Tears

The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on 28 May 1830, forcing the migration of five Native American nations from their homelands.