History Today

A Monastic Hegira

Tudor Edwards describes how the austere order of Trappists in Normandy was driven by the French Revolution to seek refuge in Switzerland, Austria and Russia.

England Through Camden’s Eyes

While we return again and again to the proto-historians of the classical world, we neglect those pioneering figures closer to us in space and time. Why is this, wonders Mathew Lyons?

Marshal Vauban, Part II: Writer and Critic

Besides his work as a military engineer, Vauban published books on a variety of subjects, from religious tolerance to pig-breeding and royal taxation. By F.J. Hebbert and G.A. Rothrock.

The British in Argentina

Cyril Hamshere describes how the British community in Argentina came to be, at one point, the largest outside the Empire.

Richard Thornton, 1776-1865: A Victorian Millionaire

Although unmentioned in modern reference books and works of economic history, Thornton was one of the greatest commercial figures of the day and, writes W.G. Hoskins, when he died, left “by far the largest fortune of the century to that date.”

The Last Journey of Mungo Park

Michael Langley describes how Park’s second journey of exploration down the River Niger was ended by his mysterious death at Bussa.