Volume 56 Issue 12 December 2006

Martin Evans looks at the events of 1956 and the French war on terror, both at home and elsewhere, and how this was a turning point for French fortunes in the Algerian War of Independence.

A recent government initiative suggests Britain is failing in its policies towards children in care. Jad Adams explains how similar concerns a hundred years ago lay behind the development of the first children’s ‘village homes’.

George Bernard Shaw influenced the Abdication Crisis with a short play that has been forgotten in the last seventy years. 

While Hezbollah often hits the headlines, its history is less familiar. The emergence of Shia militancy in Lebanon was centuries in the making.

Sebastian Wormell introduces the Polish city that survived the worst of the Second World War.

The discoverer of the electron was born 18 December 1856.

The premiere of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto at the Vienna opera house on December 23rd, 1806, was not a success.

Fidel Castro's first, unsuccessful attempt at overthrowing the Cuban regime began on December 2nd, 1956.

Cartoon historian Mark Bryant looks at the origins of some of Dickens’ best-loved characters, and finds clues in the work of cartoonists of the novelist’s youth.

As  the 150th anniversary of the Victoria Cross is celebrated, Richard Vinen looks beyond the individual acts of heroism that have merited the honour, to the wider social, cultural and historical significance of  the medal.