Feature

Poltava: The Battle that Changed the World

In 1709 Russia emerged as a major power after a clash of armies in Ukraine. Peter the Great’s victory, Derek Wilson argues, had repercussions that last to this day.

Moriscos in the Kingdom of Granada, from a costume book by Christoph Weiditz, c. 1530-40. Germanisches National Museum. Public Domain.

Spain’s Ethnic Cleansing of the Muslim Moriscos

The expulsion in 1609 of more than 300,000 Spanish Moriscos – Muslim converts to Christianity – was a brutal attempt to create a homogenous state.

The Long Road to Equality for African-Americans

John Kirk charts the progress of the civil rights movement through its most prominent body, the NAACP.

Inauguration of Lincoln, 4 March 1861. Library of Congress.

Passing the Torch

Michael Dunne reflects on past US presidential Inaugurals, and the words which still resonate.

Edward Heath

Robert Pearce attempts to put the Prime Minister of 1970-74 into historical perspective.

‘U-turn if you want to…’

Mark Rathbone analyses the causes and consequences of sudden changes of policy in nineteenth-century British politics.

Peter III and Catherine II of Russia, later Catherine the Great, by Anna Rosina Lisiewska. Nationalmuseet Sweden. Public Domain.

The Ambassador, the Grand Duke, his Wife and her Lover

What was the nature of the clandestine correspondence between the future Catherine the Great and the British ambassador to St Petersburg?

Solving Stonehenge

Anthony Johnson argues that an accurate interpretation of the great monument rests in the sophisticated geometric principles employed by its Neolithic surveyors.