History Today

depiction of Joan of Arc, late 15th century.

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.

Spectators on Nixon's motorcade route in China, February 1972. The sign reads ‘Long live the great, glorious and correct Communist Party of China!’ Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum/Wiki Commons.

Think About It

The seductions and delusions of mass media, consumerism, ‘group think’, advertising, opinion research and conspiracy theories.

Utopian Dreams, Earthly Realities

Utopian societies promise a new way of living, but are they doomed to fail?

The Triumph of Death, by Pieter Bruegel, 1526 © Antiquarian Images/Alamy Stock Photo.

Why Europe? Y. Pestis?

How the societies that the Black Death affected were set on a path to global expansion.

The Shrimp Girl, by William Hogarth, c.1745.

Hawk this Way

London used to ring with the cries of street sellers. Changes for the city brought changes to their way of life.

Excavation of the Taplow burial mound, 19th century © The Trustees of the British Museum.

The Hills Have Eyes

Is the Buckinghamshire countryside tame commuter belt or wild border-country? It depends when you visit.

Polished Off

A panoramic portrait of Józef Piłsudski, the man who ‘towers over modern Poland’.

A department store in East Berlin, by Christof Sonderegger, September 1975. ETHBIB.Bildarchiv. Public Domain.

Stealing a Living in East Germany

Theft in East Germany was so common as to be nicknamed ‘the people’s sport’. Why were citizens of the GDR so light-fingered?

Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer and coelacanth, c.1938.

Discovery of a Living Fossil

The coelacanth, believed to have been extinct for 70 million years, was rediscovered by Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer on 22 December 1938.