Peter Abelard: Knight Errant of the Medieval Schools
J.J.N. McGurk describes the life and times of a controversial philosopher of the early twelfth century.
France
Jumonville Glen: Washington’s First Campaign, 1754
Alton Ketchum describes the Founding Father's earliest military foray, against the French on the headwaters of the Ohio River.
Émile de Girardin 1806-1881
Joanna Richardson introduces the creator of the popular press in France and a supreme example of the self-made man.
Death of Edith Piaf
The Parisian idol died on 11 October 1963.
A Museum of Movement
Martin Evans explains the aims and origins of France’s national museum of immigration.
The Quai Pelletier
Andrew P. Trout describes how Pelletier sought to improve conditions of everyday life for ordinary people in seventeenth century Paris.
From Music Hall to Moulin Rouge: A History of the Cancan
Jonathan Conlin finds a surprising story of Anglo-French exchange behind the frothing petticoats and high kicks of this most Parisian of dances.
The Congress of Arras
A. Compton Reeves describes the events of 1435, the year when the rule of the house of Lancaster began to decline in England as well as France.
Voltaire and the Massacre of St Bartholomew
J.H.M. Salmon describes how Voltaire was haunted by the massacre of Huguenots in August 1572, and used his version of the complicated event in his lifelong campaign against prejudice and superstition.
The French Invasion of Italy, 1494
Towards the end of the fifteenth century, writes E.R. Chamberlin, a young French King took advantage of the Italian ‘genius for dissension’.