History Today

Lysons’ Greater London

When the celebrated antiquarian nicknamed “Stumpity Stump” toured the rustic neighbourhoods that then surrounded London, writes Meyrick H. Carré, the metropolis was on the verge of a period of ruthless expansion and development.

Jamaica and Britain

Jamaica, writes Morris Cargill, has been a British possession since the times of Cromwell.

Great Britain and the Confederate Navy, 1861—1865

The Civil War coincided with an era in naval technology that was revolutionizing sea warfare.” Could the Confederate government build a fleet of “ironclad blockade breakers” in the shipyards of neutral Great Britain? By Frank J. Merli and Thomas W. Green.

Giuseppi Garibaldi, 1807-1882

The prototype of nationalist hero, yet a great internationalist, Garibaldi believed passionately in freedom but did not, writes Denis Mack Smith, disdain dictatorial methods.

Friedrich Engels and the England of the 1840s

W.O. Henderson and W.H. Chalonert describe how it was from incomplete evidence, and in a spirit of political prejudice, that Engels compiled his famous account of the condition of the British working-classes.

Whose History is This?

Academic history is crucial to the health of the discipline, but there are many other ways of engaging with the past.

Into Battle Over Bosworth

Chris Skidmore praises Colin Richmond’s 1985 article, which offered a new theory, later confirmed, about the true location of one of the most famous battles in English history.

An African Genocide: Rwanda, 1994

In Rwanda, Hutu turned on Tutsi and a genocide lasting 100 days began, an episode of intense violence many thought impossible in the late 20th century.