History Today

Rana Mitter recalls the career of a man who once ruled an area larger than France and Germany, but who spent forty years in Chiang Kai-shek’s gaols.

The clergyman and chemist Joseph Priestley died February 6th, 1804, aged seventy-one.

Terry Jones, former Python, describes how a perverse fascination with the boring bits of Chaucer converted him from being a clown into a historian of the 14th century.

John Hannavy investigates the perennially fascinating ‘pit brow lasses’.

Ruth Bottigheimer argues that the survival of our best-loved fairy tales owes more to popular print tradition than to fireside story-telling passed down through the generations.

Roger Owen considers bell’s impact on the much maligned consul-general of Egypt.

John Guy, author of a new biography of Mary, Queen of Scots, explains how working in the archives made him fascinated with sixteenth-century history.

Daniel Snowman meets the historian of Germany, defender of history and expert witness in the Irving trial.

Lawrence Paterson tells the story behind a new book of rare photographs published this month detailing life aboard a German Second World War submarine.

Nicky McHugh describes recent developments in Hartford, Connecticut, at the home of Mark Twain for those seeking a close encounter with America’s literary past.