Cold War

Pensions illustration © Ben Jones/Heart Agency.

The Problem with Britain’s Pensions

How to finance old age has been a problem since the inception of Britain’s welfare state. Why is pension reform so difficult?

Tibetans reading Tibet Daily, 1989. Ma Jingqui/AFP/Getty Images.

Tibet: History Across the Himalayas

How can historians of Tibet – a region whose history is tightly controlled by the Chinese authorities – gain access to its recent past? Comparing newspapers from either side of the Himalayas might offer a way in.

A farm worker ploughing a field in preparation for a crop of sugar beet, The Fens, 19 December 1946. Photo by Russell Westwood/Popperfoto/Getty Images.

Ploughing Up Postwar Britain

Postwar state support for agriculture in the UK has been hailed a great success, but it had unexpected consequences.

Pripyat City Park, Wendelin Jacober, 2016. Public Domain.

‘Chernobyl Children’ by Melanie Arndt review

Chernobyl Children: A Transnational History of Nuclear Disaster by Melanie Arndt discovers how Soviet civil society flourished – and then faltered – in the fallout.

A V-2 rocket launch at Cape Canaveral, 24 July 1950. NASA. Public Domain.

How Has Space Exploration Changed History?

In November 2025 we reach 25 years of continuous human presence in space. Did reaching orbit alter the trajectory of the planet below?

A parade in Salamanca celebrates the occupation of Gijón by Francoist troops, September 1937. Geopix/Alamy Stock Photo.

‘El Generalísimo’ by Giles Tremlett book review

El Generalísimo: Franco: Power, Violence and the Quest for Greatness by Giles Tremlett considers the making of the mediocrity at the heart of modern Spain.

‘The Second Emancipation’ by Howard W. French

The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide by Howard W. French traces the line between civil rights in the US and decolonisation in Africa.

U Thant, with under-secretary-general for special political affairs Ralph Bunch, at the United Nations, Bernard Gotfryd, 1966. Library of Congress. Public Domain.

‘Peacemaker’ by Thant Myint-U review

Peacemaker: U Thant, the United Nations and the Untold Story of the 1960s by Thant Myint-U captures the optimism and ambition of Burma’s bridge between worlds.