History Today

Books of the Year 2024: Part 2

Cook and Colombia, mathematics and motherhood, wealth and warfare: 13 more historians choose their favourite new history books of 2024.

Books of the Year 2024: Part 1

Imperialism and India, spies and seafarers, paganism and the polis: the first 12 of 25 historians choose their favourite new history books of 2024.

A farmer gives milk from the holy cow to Hindus, Parsees and the British, by Ravi Varma, c. 1848-1908. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

Why Do Religions Decline?

The spiritual marketplace is crowded – is there something Darwinian about it?

Young Falangists in Spain, by Granz Grasser, 1937. Deutsche Fotothek. Public Domain.

Is it Possible to Forgive and Forget?

Where fraught national histories are concerned, do policies of remembrance and education work, or is it better to wipe the slate clean?

‘Dali Atomicus’, surrealist Salvador Dalí in mid-air, by Philippe Halsman, 1948. Library of Congress. Public Domain.

How Did the First World War Change the Arts?

Surrealism – as formulated in André Breton’s manifesto a century ago in October 1924 – is regarded as one of the First World War’s artistic legacies. What are the others?

‘Civil War’, by Édouard Manet, depicting the aftermath of the Paris Commune, c. 1871-73. Art Institute of Chicago. Public Domain.

Why Do Civil Wars Happen?

How do dissent and disagreement tip over into civil war? And is peace, when it comes, ever absolute?

A street scene in Bucharest during the Romanian Revolution, 15-25 December 1989. Forteopan (CC BY-SA).

How Do Europe’s Cold War Divisions Persist?

East was East and West was West – until 1989. The Wall is gone, but are its Cold War demarcations still there?

A minister presents Japan’s first constitution to the Meiji emperor, by Adachi Ginkō, 1889. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

Are Constitutions Necessary?

Does a state need a book of rules by which to operate? And who are those rules for, anyway?

A prehistoric man defends his family from an attacking bear, c. 1840-1900. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

What Use is Prehistory to the Historian?

History is built with words. How have historians filled the silence that came before?

Queen Mary being cheered by a crowd of workers at William Doxford & Sons Ltd, Sunderland, 15 June 1917. Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums. Public Domain.

When Did Britain’s Age of Deference End – and Why?

An old-fashioned feature of a fusty, inegalitarian past, when did the British stop knowing their place?