Pigeon Racing: A Miner’s World?
Men who spent their working lives underground found a new world of freedom in racing birds.
History Today
On the Spot: Shadi Bartsch
‘Classics is the playing field for some very important questions.’
The Dead Christ
Holbein the Younger’s image still startles 500 years after its creation.
Inventor of Jigsaw Puzzle Dies
John Spilsbury, the engraver behind the ‘dissected’ map, died on 3 April 1769.
Uncomfortable History
Japan’s responsibility for ‘comfort women’ is avoided by the state and written out of national histories. Activists are working to make Japan confront its past.
A Radical Pocket Book
A miniature Emancipation Proclamation helped to recruit Black soldiers during the Civil War.
The Invisible
The sobering story of the Indian Labour Corps.
Time’s Changing Tempo
A great European novel says much about its age of crisis – and ours.
Life after Death in Ancient Egypt
Despite the belief of their Pharaohs, not every ancient Egyptian was convinced of the certainty of an eternal afterlife.
On the Money
The introduction of decimal coinage to the UK was a long while coming. But the transition was surprisingly smooth.