History Today

‘Man has made himself what he is today.’ Joe Rogaly writes how important biological changes have recently transformed his whole existence.

At Oxford, in 1833, writes K. Theodore Hoppen, a group of earnest reformers set out to infuse new spiritual life into the Established Church.

Nicholas Lane recounts the story of marine insurance, from coffeehouse days to worldwide fame.

Robert Knecht revisits an article marking 400 years since the assassination of Henry III of France and asks why the last Valois king has attracted so little attention from English-speaking historians.

John Henderson challenges received ideas on how medieval and early modern societies dealt with perils such as plague.

The suffering of prisoners of war at the hands of the Japanese during the Second World War has coloured the British view of the conflict in the Far East. Clare Makepeace highlights a little known aspect of the captives’ story: their quest for compensation.

Jessie Childs recounts the chilling story of an exorcism performed in an Elizabethan household in Hackney.

The strangeness of the past can be evoked more effectively in pick and mix fantasies than in those novels, films and TV dramas that aspire to realism, argues Suzannah Lipscomb.

Chris Wrigley explores the hugely beneficial impact of the First World War on the British tobacco industry and looks at how smoking became an approved symbol of comradeship and patriotism.