History Today

The medieval era did not wallow in savage, ignorant darkness, despite what some would have us believe.

The Earth was created in seven days. On which day were the dinosaurs made?

Hitler’s Deserters: Breaking Ranks with the Wehrmacht by Douglas Carl Peifer surfaces the stories of those who sought to sit out the Second World War.

When Samuel Pepys’ diary was first published 200 years ago it was an instant hit, but rumours soon spread about what had been cut and why.

For 18th-century smugglers in Guernsey and the Isle of Man, plague was a business opportunity.

The greatest early modern authority on Ottoman Greece was Martin Cruisius – a man who had never left Germany.

In Liverpool and the Unmaking of Britain, Sam Wetherell discovers a city of slavery, ships, soccer, and socialism, whose fortunes rose and fell with the tide.

‘What historical topic have I changed my mind on? The collapse of the Soviet Union. I used to think it was a relatively peaceful event.’

Arsenic was a hidden killer in Victorian homes, but it also played a large part in the British economy. Which comes first: commerce or public health?

On 11 May 1891 the future Tsar Nicholas II narrowly escaped assassination on a trip to Japan.