The First Venice Biennale
By the late 19th century the relationship between art and Italy felt consigned to history. On 30 April 1895 creativity and controversy returned with the first Venice Biennale.
Victorian
End of the Pastry War
Mexico’s disgraced saviour General Antonio López de Santa Anna completed his comeback on 9 March 1839 as the Pastry War came to a close.
Chivalry in Chains: Prisoners in the Crimean War
During the Crimean War soldiers died in appalling conditions, but the treatment of enemy prisoners was surprisingly humane.
‘Hard Streets’ by Jacqueline Riding review
Hard Streets: Working-Class Lives in Charlie Chaplin’s London by Jacqueline Riding goes where few historians dare: south of the river.
The British Empire’s Brothels
British servicemen overseas bought sex, sometimes in brothels run by the British army. In the 1970s they began to talk about it.
Did Sauropods Walk or Waddle?
Sauropod dinosaurs were the largest land animals ever to have lived – but how did they live?
The Rise and Fall of the US Army Camel Corps
The vast deserts of the American West posed logistical problems for the US Army. Camels offered a novel solution.
Drinking to Australian Democracy
The colony of New South Wales did not have its own parliament until 1856, but it did have a tradition of public dinners and politically charged toasts.
The Birth of Spiritualism
On 14 November 1848 the Fox sisters conjured up a movement when they made contact with the dead – or so they claimed.
‘The Heretic of Cacheu’ and ‘Worlds of Unfreedom’ review
The Heretic of Cacheu by Toby Green and Worlds of Unfreedom by Roquinaldo Ferreira, painstakingly recreate the worlds at the beginning and end of Portugal’s slave trade.