History Today

From the pit to Pythagoras, the self-made man rose to the top of the mathematical world and divided it in two. 

In the revolutionary reign of the “Tsar-Stranger”, one of the most of the most significant episodes was his visit to the England of William III.

On the women who made imperial Rome.

The Thai-Burma railway was built by prisoners of war in appalling conditions. The dead were treated with a dignity denied to the living.

Venetian officials sought to stem a ‘plague’ of sodomy by promoting the heterosexual sex trade.

An Icelandic scholar exemplifies the rich cultural exchanges of the Middle Ages. 

Afghanistan: A History from 1260 to the Present by Jonathan L. Lee is a history fit from the Taliban.

Though denied credit Rosalind Franklin’s work on the molecular structure of DNA was pivotal to Watson and Crick’s discovery of the double helix.

These Truths: a History of the United States by Jill Lepore is a reminder of how tenaciously previous generations have clung to the view that the country is the ‘last, best hope of earth’.

‘The most common misconception about my field is that classicists study a past that no longer impacts on our world today.’