History Today

Fairy tales, crime-fighting monks and cities of antiquity: challenge yourself with the History Today crossword for October 2023.

Hunting the Falcon: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and the Marriage That Shook Europe by John Guy and Julia Fox is a well-told account that shies away from debate.

Members of the House of Lords are traditionally prohibited from giving up their seats. What if a move to the Commons becomes a political necessity?

The latest in Rob Murray's series of Alternative History cartoons.

Colonial schools in Africa eroded national identity and pride; in Sierra Leone a new way of teaching had to be found.

Seen to be less capable because of their deafness, deaf artists in the Renaissance used their art as a powerful means of expression.

Was it the mob? A coup? Cuban dissidents? War hawks? Over 60 years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the theories are still debated. Do any of them hold up?

Japan has had a vexed relationship with Jesus ever since European missionaries arrived on its shores. Banned until 1873, successive leaders have asked whether love of the ‘two Js’ is compatible.

Confinement: The Hidden History of Maternal Bodies in Nineteenth-Century Britain by Jessica Cox looks at the engine of the Victorian population boom: motherhood.

Repulsive revelations of bodily infestations were viewed by some in medieval Europe as proof of sanctity. But for most, parasites were just plain disgusting.