History Today

A diplomat representing Franco’s Spain and his accomplice, an Italian Fascist, became unlikely saviours of Jews stranded amid the horrors of the Hungarian capital during the Second World War.

In the post-Taliban era, Afghanistan is seeking unifying national heroes from its past. But, as David Loyn explains, agreement on who should be celebrated is hard to reach. 

Attitudes to female sexuality in the 19th century were rigid and unflinching and those who failed to conform were ostracised and persecuted. Victoria Leslie compares how fallen women were portrayed in the arts with the real stories of those who ‘fell’. 

As interesting as counterfactualism may be, we must be careful with its use. Paul Dukes warns against placing undue reliance on what might happen at the expense of what did.  

The 'healer' and friend to Tsar Nicholas II was killed on 17 December 1916.

Winning the vote for women brought new energy to campaigns for social and political equality. Joanne Smith looks at the remarkable flowering of women’s associations in Britain during the 20th century.

The Battle of Culloden, which vanquished Stuart claims to the British throne, is a much mythologised and misunderstood event. What really happened in April 1746?   

The ideas of a French philosopher provided the great Egyptian novelist with a way of assessing the good and the bad in his nation’s past.

History on television is long overdue a radical rethink.

Kate Wiles on a ‘map to the stars’, designed to promote a Los Angeles neighbourhood to Hollywood’s new celebrities.