Concrete Plans
The architects who adapted to the demands, whims and chicanery of the Stalinist state.
History Today
A Worthy Cause?
During the Franco-Prussian War a British wine merchant was imprisoned in Cologne, accused of being a spy. The public clamoured for the government to secure his release, but wartime diplomacy was not so straightforward.
Gifts for the Nation
Class interest and ostentatious generosity are the hallmarks of elite charity. So, too, is a fixation with posterity.
The Long Shadow of the First Crusade
The First Crusade unleashed shockwaves felt across all of Christendom. New chapters to a story started in 1099 are still being written.
Confess Your Sins
In 17th-century Tuscany and Malta some women were able to hold their abusers, members of the clergy, to account.
Moscow’s Divide and Rule
The Ukrainian-Polish border is a symbol of both international solidarity and the continuing threat that xenophobia poses to the European project.
The Black Legend of the House of Dudley
Three generations of the cursed House of Dudley stained the executioner’s block in 16th-century England. Were its members murderous villains working to overthrow the Tudor crown, or shrewd political agents struggling to survive?
When the World Came to Shanghai
In the 1930s several prominent Black intellectuals visited Shanghai, bringing politics, culture and anti-colonial fervour with them.
The Murder of Hintsa
The death and mutilation of the chief of the Xhosa in 1835 at the hands of the British was a ‘barbarous’ deed, concealed by the perpetrators in a web of lies.
Mind the Authority Gap
History books by men are bought in far greater quantities than those by women. Why?