Social

J.W. Newmarch Holmes transports the reader to Novgorod, the hub of a mercantile empire in medieval Russia.

George Woodcock describes how the destruction of the Inca economy brought untold suffering to their former subjects; and there were many Indian revolts, brutally crushed by the Spaniard, during the course of the next two centuries.

Christopher Hill introduces Roger Crab, former Cromwellian soldier and hatter of Chesham, who took literally the text: “Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor.” Vegetarian, teetotal, celibate, he led the life of a hermit. This is the first of two studies in 17th-century eccentricity.

Despite its isolation from the mainstream of human development, Basil Davidson writes, African society before the coming of the Europeans was neither savage nor stagnant.

Both before and after the fall of the Republic, Roman satirists give us an extraordinarily vivid picture of the society in which they lived, with its materialism, its opportunism, its unceasing pursuit of power and wealth.

C.M. Yonge shows how, during the nineteenth century, the British public began to take a keen interest in the wonders of their native beaches.

Guy Atkins explains what made the postcard such an extraordinary and successful phenomenon of the early 20th century and draws parallels with today’s social media.

F.E. Halliday finds that every age, from the first Elizabethan to the present one, has evolved its own methods of producing Shakespeare; sometimes with results that might have surprised the dramatist.

Most of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in or around the City of London. By the time he retired, Greater London – a residential as well as a commercial metropolis – was beginning to spring up beyond its ancient limits.

Shakespeare was born into an England rejoicing in the peace and prospects of a new reign, but anxious about the future, writes Joel Hurstfield.