Issue 22 September 1995

Graham Darby looks at why things happen, and argues that short-term causes are paramount.  

We eavesdrop on Ian Dawson as he interrogates the sources and wonders whether the first Tudor was really so mysterious.

David Welch attributes the Nazi leader's electoral success to much more than slick propaganda.

Richard Wilkinson wonders why historians have accepted the Cardinal's extravagant assessment of himself.

Martin Daunton argues that Labour's commitment to public ownership owed little to socialism and more to circumstances at the end of the First World War.

Omer Bartov asks how the armies of lords and kings became the forces of peoples and nations.

T.C.W. Blanning argues that royalty in France undermined itself through mismanagement, despotism and sleaze.

Peter Riddick looks at the way oral history can add another perspective to our understanding of situations and events.

Lois Banner looks at coded messages of gender, sexuality and domination that preceded baggy trousers.