Do You Padge?
With big costumes and bigger audiences, pageants were the pastime of choice in the early 20th century.
History Today
Between Galileo and Newton
Christiaan Huygens has been long overshadowed by Isaac Newton. But he is the better example of a modern scientist.
‘I Shall Live On’
The Roman poet Ovid remains our contemporary despite a gap of two millennia.
Calling Home
What does a late 19th century fashionable London house name have in common with a medieval open-field system?
Serendipity of the Scholars
History is often advanced by chance encounters, a rare luxury in our current condition.
The Burning of a British Library
Ashburnham House, which held a manuscript collection gifted to the nation in 1701, went up in flames on 23 October 1731.
The Price of Life
Africa’s continuing dependence on external credit is no accident. Today, it cripples the continent’s economy. From the 16th century, it funded the Atlantic slave trade.
The Postwar History of a Nazi Film
How a 1940 antisemitic propaganda weapon was turned against Israel.
The Rock of the English Kingdom
Despite her valiant efforts on their behalf, Margaret of Anjou would lose both her husband and her son in the dynastic tragedy of the Wars of the Roses.
Distortions and Omissions
Chinese history is dominated by a nationalist interpretation that owes much to British ideas of the 19th and early 20th centuries.