The Suez Canal Before the Crisis
When the Suez Canal was opened its creator predicted that he had marked the site of a future battlefield. When Britain occupied Egypt in 1882, it seemed inevitable they would be the ones to fight for it.
Feature
Hawking Peerages
Andrew Cook looks at the mysterious career of a man notorious for selling seats in the House of Lords.
Belsen and the BBC: What Wireless Listeners Learned
Richard Dimbleby’s account of what he witnessed at Bergen-Belsen in April 1945 has become infamous in Britain. Less well known is the work of two other BBC employees who made radio programmes about Belsen shortly after the camp’s liberation.
The Bombing of the King David Hotel
The bombing of the King David Hotel – the British headquarters in Mandatory Palestine – killed 91. What role did terrorism play in the birth of the state of Israel?
The General Strike
Martin Pugh revisits one of the most bitter disputes in history and assesses its impact on industrial relations and the wider political landscape of the twentieth century.
The My Lai Massacre and the War at Home
The US army’s mass murder of unarmed civilians at My Lai became a watershed in public perceptions of the Vietnam War.
Florence Nightingale as a Social Reformer
Lynn McDonald describes the lasting impact of Florence Nightingale on improving public health for the poor.
The Cult of St Edward the Confessor
The last truly Anglo-Saxon King was remembered with such affection he became a sainted embodiment of a pacific and idealistic form of kingship under Henry III.
How the Miners’ Strike Was Lost
Was Margaret Thatcher’s government close to defeat during the dark days of the miners’ strike of 1984-85?
Why the Light Brigade Charged
The fatalist view of the Light Brigade’s charge towards the Russian guns at Balaclava is being challenged. They had their reasons why.