Britain

Kim Philby: Living a Lie

Almost everything written about and by Kim Philby is wrong, claims Boris Volodarsky. The Soviet spy and his KGB masters sought to exaggerate his successes against the West, beginning with the fictions that surround Philby’s first mission during the Spanish Civil War.

Chatham House and the Lessons of History

The Royal Institute of International Affairs, better known as Chatham House, celebrates its 90th birthday this summer. Roger Morgan looks at the organisation’s original aims and its pioneering role in the study of contemporary history. 

History in Schools: A Tsar is Born

Following an invitation to help advise the government on the school history curriculum, what can a high-profile ‘telly don’ like Niall Ferguson bring to the classroom? Seán Lang wonders.

The Great Exhibition: Commerce & Christianity

The Great Exhibition of 1851 was not only a celebration of Victorian Britain’s scientific and economic pre-eminence but also a hymn to the religion that underpinned it, argues Geoffrey Cantor.

UK: A disunited kingdom

Jonathan Clark offers a historian’s perspective on what the recent general election might mean for Britain’s future political make up.

First World War: When Enemies United

Before the First World War, Irish Unionists and Nationalists were poised to fight each other over the imposition of Home Rule by the British. Then, remarkably, they fought and died side by side, writes Richard S. Grayson.