Siberia’s Surprising Musical History
How educated exiles transformed Irkutsk into ‘the Paris of Siberia’.
History Today
A Strange Pantheon
The interface between politics and war, rather than military strategy and tactics.
Don’t Be Evil
A warning housed in one of the jewels of the Italian Renaissance is as pertinent now as ever.
The Devil by the Deep Blue Sea
The allure of the sun-burnished boulevards of Marseille remains intact.
Freyja the Token of Truce
The Norse god who found a new immortality in the stage works of Richard Wagner.
March Quiz
How long was the presidency of William Henry Harrison? Which country lasted only one day?
Liverpool’s Slave Trade Legacy
Once the slave-trading capital of Britain, the memory of Britain’s empire of enslavement remains visible in Liverpool’s public buildings and streets.
Rough Roads for Travellers and Gypsies
Recent government proposals are merely the latest in a long history of hostility.
Who’s the Purest of them All?
The religious politics that reshaped 17th-century England and Scotland and propelled many towards transatlantic migration.
Breaches and Bridges
There is nothing new about political divisions, nor attempts to heal them.