History Today

The second phase of the Battle of Jutland was dominated by Jellicoe's resolve to renew the action and Scheer’s determined and successful efforts to escape. By Geoffrey Bennett.

The first news of the Battle of Jutland in 1916 startled the British public, who had looked forward to an emphatic victory at sea. Geoffrey Bennett asks, what exactly happened in the course of this momentous and controversial engagement?

‘We shall never see his equal in any age’, wrote Madame de Sévigné of this simple and heroic soldier. By Aram Bakshian Jr.

Just over a hundred and thirty years ago, writes Sarah Searight Great Britain acquired New Zealand with a minimum of political and financial fuss.

Burke and Wills crossed the continent of Australia; but, writes S.H. Woolf, tragedy marked their way back.

As a chaplain in New South Wales, Marsden from Yorkshire became one of the founders of Australian sheep-farming. By M.L. Ryder.

When Siam emerged from isolation, writes W.S. Bristowe, a fiery Scottish sea captain settled for twenty years in Bangkok.

Elka Schrijver tells the story of the artists who followed the Dutch East India Company to modern day Indonesia.

First a French, then a British colony, these remote and beautiful islands are being gradually drawn into the modern world, writes J. Coen.

In the mid-nineteenth century, writes Christopher Lloyd, a young naval surgeon from Orkney played an important part in West African exploration.