Britain

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.

Will the new super-casinos bring about the demise of the commercial bingo hall? Carolyn Downs traces the history of the game back to the eighteenth century and finds that then – as now – it had a strong attraction for women gamblers.

Mark Bryant describes the life and works of Abu Abraham, the Observer’s first ever political cartoonist.

David Mattingly says it’s time to rethink the current orthodoxy and question whether Roman rule was good for Britain.