Today’s featured articles
The choice of the US dollar as the international reserve currency was controversial but practical.
Indulgent symbol of papist excess or mouthpiece for God’s second greatest gift? What place was there for the organ in the Reformation church?
The outrage that Christmas was tarnished by the ugliness of the First World War was felt by both British and German soldiers. In some cases, it led to a brief moment of truce.
Most recent
‘Disputing Disaster’ by Perry Anderson review
Disputing Disaster: A Sextet on the Great War by Perry Anderson relitigates the causes of the conflict through some of their key proponents.
Habsburg Prague, Capital of the Renaissance
Prague, under the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, became the centre of the Renaissance world, where cultures mixed and learning flourished.
Sex Before Sex Education
For much of the 20th century, young working-class women in England found out about procreation the ‘hard way’ or the ‘dirty way’.
The Long Debate on Assisted Dying
The issue of assisted dying was first put before Parliament in 1936. Many of the same questions remain, but the arguments have changed.
The Libellous Letters of the Chevalier d’Eon
Chevaliere d’Eon or Chevalier d’Eon? An 18th-century legal dispute between two French spies unravelled into a public battle about identity.
Kashmir: Prisoner of History?
Caught between the antagonistic states of India and Pakistan, Kashmir is stuck in geopolitical limbo. Its location – and its history – threaten to keep it there.
New Year, Old Books
A new book for the new year is an old British custom, but an old book can be even better.
Rum and Reform: The Party on Norfolk Island
As convicts celebrated Queen Victoria’s birthday on remote Norfolk Island, debates raged over the purpose of punishment and the merits of Alexander Maconochie’s project of moral reform.
Current issue
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In the January issue:
Kashmir between India and Pakistan, the First World War’s failed war crimes trials, reform and punishment on Norfolk Island, Renaissance Prague, women’s lives before contraception, and more.
Plus: reviews, opinion, crossword and much more!
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