Political

There is nothing new in the practice of terrorism through hostage taking. Gregor Dallas traces its roots to the events in Paris during the Spring of 1871 when the city was riven by civil strife.

Peter Beck looks back on the importance of Argentina's history.

Michael Houses looks at the grievances and history of the troubled Middle East country.

Ian Seymour looks at the involvement of Elizabeth I's astrologer in matters of state, and his diplomatic intrigues on the Continent on the eve of the Armada.

'A life of action and constant fidelity to a set of ideas': Max Beloff takes a fresh look at the career of Leo Amery with the publication of the latter's second volume of diaries – a man by no means the stereotype of an inter-war Conservative politician.

Tom Nairn looks at the role of the monarchy and its impact on British national identity.

Simon Esmonde Cleary considers a little-known anniversary - the death in 388 of an imperial usurper who became a link-man between the factual eclipse of Roman Britain and the legendary world of King Arthur.

Melanie Billings-Yun investigates President Eisenhower's motives and methods in the spring of 1954, when French collapse in Indochina brought pressures for direct American intervention against Communism.

Frank L. Holt looks at the legends and realities of Alexander's bride from Central Asia, the world she lived in and the power struggles that ensnared her.

A small, far-away country, but one whose tangled relations with its neighbours, Ian Armour suggests, lead inexorably to the debacle of 1914.