‘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.
Victorian
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.
Border Control: How States Get Recognised
What makes a state? Is it its people, its borders, its government, or does it rest on recognition from international powers? Across the 19th and 20th centuries, the process by which states have been created and recognised has taken many forms.
‘The Indefatigable Asa Briggs’ by Adam Sisman review
The Indefatigable Asa Briggs: A Biography by Adam Sisman is a detailed portrait of that voluminous chronicler of Victorian things.
‘Fenwomen’ by Mary Chamberlain review
Mary Chamberlain’s groundbreaking oral history turns 50. This new edition of Fenwomen: A Portrait of Women in an English Village invites reflection on half a century of change.