China’s First International Students
Realising the world was changing around them, the Qing government began sending students abroad.
History Matters
Thoughts, opinions and commentary on all things historical.
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‘Can’t Tek No More’
Franco Rosso’s film Babylon presented the lives of Black Londoners in a way few had done before.
Desperate Measures
Driven to extremes by the expectations loaded on them, some men turned to self-castration.
Baby Boom or Bust?
The Covid pandemic seems to have caused a birth dearth. Historically, how have countries responded to falling birthrates?
Trading Places
Women and the birth of England’s stock market.
The Abode of Madness
The long history of no man’s land, from lawlessness and desolation to hope and regrowth.
The Year of the Sepoy Revolt
How events in British India were leveraged in the debate over slavery.
Blood, Stones and Holy Bones
The spiritual power of medieval relics meant that Jerusalem, or a dragon, could be remade anywhere.
A Feather in her Cap
A global trade in feathers, with London at its heart, saw hundreds of millions of birds killed every year. Emily Williamson waged a long and furious campaign against it.
A Tyrant goes on Trial
Charges were brought against Peter von Hagenbach at the ‘first international war crimes trial’, held on 9 May 1474.