Britain

The man who wrote the words of 'Hark! the Herald Angels Sing', 'Love Divine, All Loves Excelling' and hundreds of other much-loved hymns was born on December 18th, 1707.

The story of the British anti-slavery and abolitionist movements has been dominated by the figures of Clarkson and Wilberforce. Yet, the success of the Slave Trade Act of 1807 and the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 benefited from the votes of Irish MPs.

Continuing his series on how cartoonists have seen events great and small, Mark Bryant looks at the coverage of one of ‘Victoria’s little wars’.

From 1931 it looked as though Britain’s first Labour prime minister would be its last. Is it time to reappraise the political reputation of Ramsay MacDonald?

Piers Brendon asks how we can arrive at a fair judgement of the benefits of the Empire for those who enjoyed – or endured – its rule.

T.G. Otte goes to the heart of Whitehall to explore the origins and future of an important government archive which is becoming far more accessible to historians.

Robert Pearce attempts to probe the nature of the 1918-22 Coalition.

The British bombed the Danish capital for a second time, on September 2nd, 1807.

How was rabies – a disease that still kills thousands worldwide every year – largely eradicated from Victorian Britain?

As Britain gets used to the ban on smoking in public spaces, Virginia Berridge looks at the way attitudes to public health have changed in the last fifty years, particularly among the medical profession.