History Today

An aerial view of a hydraulic system that pumped fresh water into the monastic complex.

Italy's conquest of Addis Ababa was hailed an imperial triumph by Mussolini, though most Ethiopians had only bows and arrows with which to defend themselves. 

Why is it so easy to forget an unsavoury aspect of Britain’s recent past?

Nearly 400 years after his execution, Charles I’s actions and legacy continue to divide scholarly opinion.

Pirates captured by an increasingly powerful British state were routinely executed. But what happened to the families they left behind?

The chance survival of a ‘postbag’ of letters reveals a lost world of merchants, pilgrims, bankers and scholars.

‘Word blindness’ was a recognised condition more than a century ago. But it was not until the 1970s that it began to be accepted by the medical establishment.

Though much of the West has withdrawn from empire, one of the world’s rising powers offers the latest twist on imperialism.  

Sexual exploitation by powerful men has a long history. Will it ever end?

Historians set great store by what people heard in the past, but what about those things they misheard?