History Today

Robert Garland examines the makeup of the Greek symposium.

In the inter-war years, football was a popular sport which drew huge crowds of spectators. The totalitarian regimes of Germany and Italy, argues Peter J. Beck, were not slow to realise the propaganda, potential of their nations' sporting successes – and soon Britain recognised the value of sport to its own national image.

'London is rich in historic buildings and monuments, but behind most familiar landmarks lurk the ghosts of abandoned designs and rejected projects.' In this extract from their book London as it might have been, Felix Barker and Ralph Hyde consider bridges which were planned for the Thames.

Before the coming of industrialisation in Europe, the vast majority of men and women lived in the countryside, working the land, surviving the best they could, evolving a culture and folklore of their own.

In post-reformation England, recusants were punished for their failure to attend Church of England services. The Tichborne family, explains Teresa McLean, was amongst the most intransigent in the country and Chideock Tichborne became a romantic martyr of this opposition.

P. J. Marshall looks at the historiography of 19th European Imperialism.

The 'City of Gold' is two places, explains Gilliian Tindall. People have been coming to Bombay for 300 years, hoping to make their fortune. But in their search for gold many have died. Their bodies were laid in a place known as Sonapur, which also means 'the city of gold' since, according to an Indian saying, to die is to be turned to gold.

Montagu House was built by the first Duke of Montagu, who 'made money like a rogue and spent it like a gentleman' on his patronage of the arts, the finest examples of which were to be found in this London house which was to become the first home of the British Museum.