History Today

Parliament and the Prying Proclivities of the Registrar-General

In the month that the population of Britain will be counted for the eighteenth time, Sydney D Bailey argues that census taking, 'molesting and perplexing every single member of the kingdom... for the sake of political arithmetic' has always been a sensitive subject, reflecting the social concerns of the age.

Santo Domingo's Struggle for Independence from Haiti

In 1844 the people of the former Spanish colony of Santo Domingo rose in rebellion against the Haitians who had occupied their island since 1822. But instead of trying to establish genuine independence for their Dominican Republic, its political leaders did their best to trade it off to France and then to Spain which briefly re-annexed it in 1861.

Makers of the Twentieth Century: Mao Zedong

That Mao Zedong has changed the course of modern history is beyond dispute. the extent of his influence, both in China and abroad, has however been a matter of fierce debate since his death in 1976.

Mediterranean Corsairs

Mia Rodríguez-Salgado looks at the lives and impact of the Christian and Muslim corsairs on the early modern seas.

Marcus Garvey and Kwame Nkrumah

Ian Duffield argues that, more than any other African leader Kwame Nkrumah - together with the man whose examples and ideas gave him so much inspiration, Marcus Aurelius Garvey - was responsible for bringing black people into the mainstream of 20th-century history.

War and the Past

David G. Chandler completes his series with a look at drill books and tactics.

The Myth of Santiago

James Marshall-Cornwall explores how, in the Middle Ages, devout pilgrims journeyed to Santiago de Compostela in the belief that they were paying homage at the tomb of Spain's patron saint.