Secrets of the Silk Road, Britain in 19th-century Mesopotamia, heirs and spares, Catholics in Britain, Nazis in Spain, Charles Darwin, wartime London, Chinese student protests, memory in Java, the worst poet in history.
Plus: reviews, opinion, crossword and much more!
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It was not easy to be the second son. The younger brothers of the French kings could choose either to rebel or reconcile, but neither option was straightforward.
Hans Josef Lazar pulled the strings of Hitler’s propaganda in wartime Spain. Then he disappeared. Who was he?
Despite persecution, Catholics survived in Protestant England. For the authorities, they were a problem with a silver lining.
The discovery of a cave full of manuscripts on the edge of the Gobi Desert reveals the details of everyday life on the Silk Road.
Thousands of Indigenous Americans travelled to Europe – voluntarily or involuntarily – from as early as the 1490s.
Crossroads: meeting places or religious locations plagued by devils and demons?
All 19th-century British visitors to Mesopotamia knew that it was the birthplace of civilisation. Could steam power revive ancient greatness while also keeping Russia at bay?
Could a pair of ancient looking coins reveal the existence of a previously unknown Roman emperor?
Indonesia’s bloody past has produced a country populated with ghosts. Now, they are sharing their stories on YouTube.
Not a queen or a saint, witch or idealised lady-love, the Wife of Bath is a much-married working woman and an enthusiastic traveller.
Menopause is an inescapable fact of life. Why is history silent on it?
The first-known secular bell-ringing society was founded on 2 February 1604.
On 8 February 1644, Li Zicheng, a rebel warlord, proclaimed the foundation of his own Shun dynasty.
On his early travels across the world it was geology that struck Charles Darwin’s interest.
