Britain

Taxation 1688-1914

Patrick O'Brian evaluates the costs and benefits of Hanoverian and Victorian government.

The '45

Presentation of the past as a seed-bed of modernity gives it bogus relevance to modern concerns. Two hundred and fifty years after the battle of Culloden Jeremy Black looks at a classic instance – the military challenge of the Jacobites.

Scotch Comfort and Joy

Robin Bruce Lockhart celebrates the past and present of the immortal dram and its historic links with our seasonal festivities at Christmas and New Year.