History Today

Gilbert & Sullivan and the Victorian Age

Ian Bradley shows that the characters and plots of Gilbert and Sullivan's operas reveal much that is of interest to the historian about certain individuals and institutions of the Victorian era.

'Nightmare Republic' - Portugal 1910-1926

During the sixteen years of Portugal's first Republic there were forty-five governments. Douglas Wheeler shows how this turbulent period of parliamentary rule gave birth to the Estado Novo (the New State), Europe's longest surviving authoritarian system of the twentieth century.

The Fight for Oil: Britain in Persia, 1919

British-Russian rivalry over the control of Persia had, by the beginning of the twentieth century, a long history. Donald Ewalt shows how this conflict was greatly intensified by the discovery of oil and a growing realisation of its importance.