History Today

The British Empire was the largest in the history of the world. Brian Lapping explains how the end of that Empire was charted for television.

At the Boston Tea Party the Americans not only flouted the unpopular tax laws on tea imposed on the colony, they also retrieved the image of the Mohawk from the hands of British cartoonists and reinstated him as the symbol of American liberty.

A.J.G.Cummings explores Scotland's links with Europe from 1600-1800.

Six leading historians of science define their discipline.

Low birth rates have obsessed the French since their defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, argues Richard Tomlinson.

What made for a good medieval king? Understanding Richard I – better known as Richard the Lionheart – is a good place to start.

To historians he seemed to be a philosopher, to philosophers an historian. But in spite of the difficulty of categorising the late Michel Foucault (1926-84), or perhaps because of that very difficulty, he has had a considerable impact on historical writing and deserves to have more.

In 1972 Albert Paul, a retired Brighton carpenter, produced a charming account of his childhood years for a local history society entitled Poverty, hardship but happiness; those were the days, 1903-17.

David Stevenson looks at the three-kingdom state in the seventeenth century.

'Measure twice because you can cut only once', is a carpenter's adage making the rounds of American history departments in the wake of the case of David Abraham.