Volume 64 Issue 6 June 2014

An inherent tension between the past and the present becomes explicit when we make our assessments of historical figures, argues Suzannah Lipscomb.

In 1880, the British withdrew from Afghanistan. Abdur Rahman Khan, the new ruler installed after the Second Anglo-Afghan War, unified the fractured nation at a terrible cost.

Academic history is crucial to the health of the discipline, but there are many other ways of engaging with the past.

Chris Skidmore praises Colin Richmond’s 1985 article, which offered a new theory, later confirmed, about the true location of one of the most famous battles in English history.

In Rwanda, Hutu turned on Tutsi and a genocide lasting 100 days began, an episode of intense violence many thought impossible in the late 20th century.

The stigma of illegitimacy forced many women in Victorian Britain to hand over their babies to adopters or ‘baby farmers’. Barbara Butcher tells the story of Amelia Dyer, who killed numerous infants she was paid to care for.

The River Nile and a thirst for commerce and land led the armies of Rome deep into Africa. Raoul McLaughlin investigates.

Roger Hudson sheds light on an 1898 image of US soldiers fighting alongside Cubans to end Spanish rule on the Caribbean island.

Taylor Downing looks at the making of the pioneering television series that launched BBC2 and marked the 50th anniversary of the First World War.