History Today

The Nazis believed that Islamic forces would prove crucial wartime allies. But, as David Motadel shows, the Muslim world was unwilling to be swayed by the Third Reich's advances.

Roger Hudson details the rebuilding of the world’s first theme park in south London in 1853.

The man born Lev Bronstein was attacked on August 20th, 1940. He died the following day.

The extent to which Britons were involved in slave-ownership has been laid bare by a project based at University College London. Katie Donington shows how one family profited.

Bulgaria suffered a swift and devastating defeat in the First World War, due, G.D. Sheppard argues, to its peasant leader-in-waiting’s shrewd use of propaganda.

Britain’s American colonies were widely thought to be peopled by miscreants and ‘desperate villains’. Rachel Christian describes the reality for those who found a new life across the Atlantic.

With the BBC Charter renewal in the news, Taylor Downing recommends studies of the institution’s past, present and future.

The Civil War began in Scotland, so why did its radical ideas not appear to take hold north of the border?

The former city-state and birthplace of Christopher Columbus has long been a global city. 

The monumental city of Persepolis was the pride of the Persian empire until its destruction by fire. Richard Stoneman revisits its builders, Darius and Xerxes, and their role in its construction.