The Myth of Symmetry and Balance
The idea that the ancients believed in Antipodean lands to balance the globe is a modern invention – and wrong.
Volume 67 Issue 8 August 2017
The Law According to Justinian
A magisterial translation of a work that forms the basis of the European civil law tradition.
An Idea of Alexander
During the Enlightenment, Alexander the Great was reinvented as an esoteric ideal.
The Lost Obelisks of Egypt
The story of the transportation of three obelisks to London, Paris and New York captures the 19th-century mania for all things Egyptian.
Savage Nobles and Noble Savages
The great and not-so-great desert explorers of the 18th and 19th centuries are evocatively profiled.
Tacitus’ Perfect Man
Accounts of the life of Germanicus are complex, fascinating and open to interpretation.
Censoring Indian History
Laws against religious offence in India have altered the writing and understanding of the nation’s past.
The Birth of Annie Oakley
‘Little Miss Sure Shot’, Annie Oakley, was born 13 August 1860.
Florence’s Mud Angels
Backpackers, travelling through Europe, forged a new wave of international collaboration.
Let Them Eat Meat
Faced with an extortionate rise in the price of kosher meat, Jewish women in New York’s Lower East Side employed protest tactics borrowed from the radical political movements that prospered in their neighbourhood.