History Today

Dickens and the Construction of Christmas

The best-loved of Britain's novelists penned a tale that struck a potent chord in the popular revival of the season of goodwill. Geoffrey Rowell explains its appeal and its powerful religious and social overtones.

Eton's Great War Scandal

Andrew Robinson looks at the 1915 uproar about a speech on 'Christian Charity' towards Germany which cost the headmaster of Britain's most famous public school his job.

Fontainebleau

Charles Giry-Deloison looks for the realpolitik behind the Renaissance splendours of Francis I's Fontainbleau.

The Peopling of Canada

Phillip Buckner looks at the characteristics of a double wave of colonisation between 1700 and 1900, which gave Canada its unique character.