History Today

Mae West Sentenced for Sex

Having produced, directed and starred in a lascivious play, West was charged with ‘corrupting the morals of youth’ on 19 April 1927.

Menstruation and the Holocaust

Periods are a fact of life, but little talked about. How did women in the concentration camps cope with the private being made public in the most dire and extreme circumstances?

Why Japan Stopped Fighting

After a disastrous Second World War, Japan abolished its armed forces and embraced pacifism. With renewed tensions in East Asia, can it last?

Making Sense of Things

In the medieval period you could touch the divine – and smell it, see it, hear it and taste it, sometimes all at once.

Numbers and Words

The medieval world was incredibly learned, but how did its great bank of knowledge spread – from Classical Greece to the libraries of the East and from there to the bookshelves of England?

Britain’s First Youthquake

Teenagers were agents of change in 1960s Britain, but the birth of youth movements such as the Mods was heavily indebted to the multicultural society from which they grew.