History Today

Roy Porter, in his Longman/History Today lecture, warns of the bad eyesight, poor posture, incomprehensible babblings, addled wits, depravity and worse that may befall those who immerse themselves too much in books.

One of the industrial disputes of early 20th century America ended in a tragic accident that was remembered in folk song. Saronne Rubyan-Ling explores the cultural, ethnic, political and economic circumstances that gave rise to the bitter conflict.

The first of the two Longman/History Today prize-winning essays on the topic ‘Is distance lending enchantment to the view historians have of the British Empire and its legacies’.

Was Richard Arkwright really the mechanical genius of the Industrial Revolution? Karen Fisk questions his record as Britain’s first cotton tycoon.

Richard Cavendish marks the anniversary of a very suspicious death, on March 10th, 1948

The illustrator and author died on March 16th, 1898.

Courtier, soldier, explorer, colonist, scholar, family man, libertine: in his life Elizabeth's favourite played many parts, and posterity has accentuated each according to the needs of the time, as Robert Lawson-Peebles explains.

Kit Wedd gives an account of the winners from History Today's 1997 history writing awards.