The Myth of Symmetry and Balance
The idea that the ancients believed in Antipodean lands to balance the globe is a modern invention – and wrong.
History Today
‘Crafty and Fawning’: Downing of Downing Street
In his lifetime George Downing was regarded as ‘ready to turn to every side that was uppermost’, but even Pepys was grudgingly forced to admit his qualities in eighteenth-century political life.
The Law According to Justinian
A magisterial translation of a work that forms the basis of the European civil law tradition.
An Idea of Alexander
During the Enlightenment, Alexander the Great was reinvented as an esoteric ideal.
The Lost Obelisks of Egypt
The story of the transportation of three obelisks to London, Paris and New York captures the 19th-century mania for all things Egyptian.
Savage Nobles and Noble Savages
The great and not-so-great desert explorers of the 18th and 19th centuries are evocatively profiled.
Passchendaele: What’s in a Name?
How did an evocatively named Flanders village become shorthand for a whole series of battles around the Belgian city of Ypres?
Tacitus’ Perfect Man
Accounts of the life of Germanicus are complex, fascinating and open to interpretation.
Censoring Indian History
Laws against religious offence in India have altered the writing and understanding of the nation’s past.
The Birth of Annie Oakley
‘Little Miss Sure Shot’, Annie Oakley, was born 13 August 1860.