Feature

view of the Suez Canal, opposite the governor’s palace, by Justin Kozlowski, c. 1869. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Public Domain.

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.

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.

Engineers clear the debris of the King David Hotel, 22 July 1946. Library of Congress, G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection. Public Domain.

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?

A military show of force during the unrest in the form of a tank and troops from Wellington Barracks. Press Photo.

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.

‘On the Southern Plains’, by Frederic Eemington, 1907. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

How The American West Was Lost

The expansion of the United States in the mid-19th century had a catastrophic effect on the Native Americans of the Great Plains.

A US soldier sets a building alight on 16 March 1968, by Ronald L. Haeberle, from Report of the Department of the Army Review of the Preliminary Investigations Into the My Lai Incident - Volume III. Library of Congress. Public Domain.

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.

Edward the Confessor touching a man afflicted with the ‘king’s evil’, from a manuscript at Cambridge University Library. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

The Cult of Edward the Confessor

Edward the Confessor, the last truly Anglo-Saxon king of England, became an embodiment of pacific and idealistic medieval kingship under Henry III. Why?

Pigs, by George H. Seeley, c.1920-30. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Public Domain.

Animal Farm and Soviet Satire

George Orwell’s ‘fairy story’ on the USSR was politically inconvenient in 1945. Opinions on Animal Farm were soon revised, but its targets – and its author – are easily misunderstood.