Main Man
The ‘pragmatic and principled’ Harold Wilson.
History Today
Decline and Fall
Vladimir Putin has decried the ‘decadent West’ as destined to fail as a result of its degeneracy. Fears of decadence are not new.
Powerful Inversion
Understanding the Indigenous American past, from the earliest records of settlement up to the Ghost Dance revitalisation movement.
Genes‘R’Us: Science and Ideology in the Lysenko Controversies
The debate over whether nature or nurture guides who we are is as dependent on politics and ideology as it is on scientific research.
Heirs and Spares
It was not easy to be the second son. The younger brothers of the French kings could choose either to rebel or reconcile, but neither option was straightforward.
Jane Austen and the King of Skiffle
A folk favourite loved by Jane Austen and Abraham Lincoln, ‘The Irishman’ has revolutionary roots that have been forgotten.
Hotel Days
Diplomatic negotiations at the 1921 Cairo Conference carved out a new geostrategic order.
Opium for the Masses
In Republican China, amid the chaos of dynastic collapse and war, opium became a rare stable currency, yielding huge riches for those who knew how to work the system.
Joan of Arc’s Trial Begins
The interrogations at the heresy trial began in Rouen on 9 January 1431.
Care in the Community
Though often constrained by limited medical knowledge, 18th-century communities offered practical and emotional support to those experiencing mental distress.