History Matters

From imported plant species to water pollution, Britain’s 19th century wool trade transformed the world.

Less famous than its 1215 predecessor, the Magna Carta of 1225 held the true power.

Rome’s first theatre was an enormous spectacle intended to glorify Pompey’s successes. Was it all bread and circuses?

The doomed film collaboration between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan resulted in two very different features serving the same fascist agenda: The Daughter of the Samurai and The New Earth. 

A battle of wills between Adolphe Sax and musical instrument makers in 19th-century France saw an unprecedented legal contest unfold.

Are beavers beasts or fish? For medieval philosophers, this was an important question with implications for the dining table.

In 1920 the English writer Jerome K. Jerome set out the arguments in favour of Irish home rule.

Two rare textile discoveries connect 18th-century Barbadian schoolgirls to England.

The changing climate of the Little Ice Age forced radical thinkers to reconsider humanity’s place in the universe.

What makes someone a king? More importantly, what unmakes a king? Henry II’s experiment in co-kingship saw one Henry III fall and another rise.