History Today

Teapot protesting the Stamp Act, c. 1766-75. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

How Britain lost America

By the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763 Britain had become a global power. However, the conflict’s colossal expense and the high-handed approach of British politicians led to the American Revolution.

A mezzotint of convicts for transportation, c. 1781. National Library of Australia. Public Domain.

All the World’s a Penal Colony

When the European powers began exporting convicts to other continents, they did so to create a deterrent and to establish new settlements across the world.

Hippopotamus amphibius, an illustration from William Jardine’s The Naturalist’s Library, 1833-43.

Hippos of the Thames

The discovery in Victorian London of the remains of ancient animals – and a fascination with their modern descendants – helped to transform people’s ideas of the deep past, as Chris Manias reveals.

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Roger Casement, the Irish Volunteer

The trial for treason and execution of Roger Casement – humanitarian, homosexual and Irish Nationalist – which took place, in the wake of the Easter Rising of 1916, continues to resonate, as Andrew Lycett explains.

Soul survivors: Christ with the Virgin and St John in Langford

After the Norman Conquest

Eleanor Parker is inspired by a visit to a village church in Oxfordshire that bears witness to one of the most turbulent and transformative periods in English history.