History Today

Richard Cavendish describes how Major-General Edward Braddock arrived in Virginia to take command against the French in North America, but was defeated on July 9th, 1755.

Maxine Berg looks at the commercial battle to dominate Europe that ran alongside the wars with France, and the product revolution that gave Britain the edge in this field.

David Welch looks at the way that public art was used in both France and Britain to celebrate Napoleon and Nelson as national heroes, during their lifetimes and after.

Graham Gendall Norton travels in search of those who fought for the rights of all.

Laurent Joffrin looks at the paradoxes surrounding a man who has fascinated the French for two hundred years.

Christopher Woodward considers the continuing power exerted by Napoleon on the French and British during his exile on St Helena up till, and beyond, his death.

The last woman hanged in Britain was executed on 13 July 1955.

David Prior of the Parliamentary Archives explains why we should be thinking about the Gunpowder Plot unseasonably early, this year.

Jonathan Fenby asks why the greatest maritime tragedy ever to affect Britain was hushed up at the time and has remained a virtually untold story. 

The year 1915 saw the start of the Armenian genocide in Turkey. In his account of the complex historical background to these events Donald Bloxham focuses on the issue of great power involvement.