Political

Fiercely anti-Communist, Clement Attlee found Britain’s intelligence agencies to be invaluable tools.

In his lifetime George Downing was regarded as ‘ready to turn to every side that was uppermost’, but even Pepys was grudgingly forced to admit his qualities in eighteenth-century political life.

Alexander Kerensky, the last Russian premier before the Bolsheviks took power, decided to continue the war with Germany. He and his nascent democracy would pay the price.

The earliest surviving written evidence of a Romance language, the Oaths of Strasbourg were sworn on February 14th, 842.

When Joe Biden said ‘God save the Queen’, was he heralding the end of the republic?

Turkey has a long history of coups, but the failed İzmir plot to assassinate Atatürk in 1926 had a lasting impact. One foreign journalist recorded the reprisals that followed with admiration – which soon turned to fear.

Churchill’s vision of Britain’s role in the world may provide the key to Brexit.

The contrast between Abraham Lincoln and Donald Trump could hardly be more striking, but such is the continually evolving politics of the Grand Old Party.

Donald Trump has often been likened to Aaron Burr, described as ‘one of the most unprincipled men in the United States’. His isolationism, however, owes more to Thomas Jefferson.

French history since the revolution has been marked by promises of progress that end in bitter failure. The election of Léon Blum’s Popular Front in 1936 was one such example.