History Today

Graham Seal explores the life and legend of Ned Kelly.

Gustav Henningsen on the Navarre witch-trials of the 17th century.

Adams was a remarkable man and the most able member of America's most celebrated political dynasty. He was a polymath, second only to Jefferson as the most intellectually gifted American President. As Maldwyn A. Jones explains, his presidency was to prove short and frustrating; his contribution to American political life, outstanding.

'Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh' was the chant of radicals in the 1960s and 1970s, idolising the Communist leader who led Vietnam's Revolutionary struggle first against French colonialism and then against the United States' involvement in Vietnam. 

The Roman invasion of Britain divided its constituent kingdoms and tribes. Some supported the Romans, others fiercely opposed their occupation and suffered dreadfully as a consequence. In the face of continuing resentment at their occupation the Romans, argues Graham Webster, changed from a policy of repression, and began to pay careful attention to the feelings and aspirations of their British subjects.

The history of the making of maps should be a source for historians at at least three levels; the geographical, the technical and the political. An exhibition has recently opened at the British Library commemorating the work of Christopher Saxton, 'the father of English cartography' and a short book, Christopher Saxton and Tudor Mapmaking by Sarah

Princess Abida Sultaan, granddaughter of the last woman ruler of Bhopal, Begum Sultan Jahan, examines the rule of the Begum dynasty.

The beautiful summer palaces of Yuan Ming Yuan outside Peking, designed by Europeans for the Emperor of China in the middle of the eighteenth century, have now been recognised as a curiosity of their country's heritage.

Popular art in the form of cartoons, caricatures and simple engravings offered great potential for political propaganda as the revolutionary leaders discovered.