Indonesia’s Heroic History
Indonesian national heroes are state approved. Is Suharto, an old president with a history of violence, worthy of the title?
Cold War
Kent Philpott and the Origins of Conversion Therapy
1960s San Francisco is remembered as the capital of gay liberation, but it also saw the birth of conversion therapy.
William Golding’s Island of Savagery
The Second World War disrupted narratives of mankind’s ‘progress’, but – as William Golding captured so vividly in Lord of the Flies – human history has always been a balancing act between enlightenment and calamity.
Tito: Britain’s Man in Belgrade
During the Cold War successive British governments did all they could to maintain a friendship with Tito’s Yugoslavia. Why was the communist strongman so important to Westminster?
Joyce Butler and the Sex Discrimination Act
After a long battle, Britain’s Sex Discrimination Act came into force in 1975. What did it do for women?
‘A Popular History of Idi Amin’s Uganda’ by Derek R. Peterson review
A Popular History of Idi Amin’s Uganda by Derek R. Peterson looks for the ordinary people who kept the regime’s wheels turning.
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?
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.
Ploughing Up Postwar Britain
Postwar state support for agriculture in the UK has been hailed a great success, but it had unexpected consequences.
‘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.