Was Napoleon's escape from his first exile unwittingly aided by his erstwhile opponents from Albion? Katharine MacDonogh weighs up the enigmatic response that certain British citizens showed towards their imperial prisoner.
For some in the years 1789-94, the people's drama in Paris was not fast enough at reflecting a world turned upside down. Michele Root-Bernstein looks at what was performed and how revolutionary it really was.
Why did the whole of Marshal Petain's fleet go to the bottom of Toulon harbour in November 1942? Anthony Clayton uncovers a tale of amour propre in this 50th anniversary account.
Martin Evans looks at the aftermath of the struggle for Algerian independence from France.
Michel Petheram assesses the importance and reliability of a courtier whose 'memoires' offer graphic vignettes of the last days of Louis XIV.
Peter Burke looks at how images and the image-makers made the Sun King appear as the larger-than-life 'top ruler' of 17th-century Europe.
Lions led by donkeys? Britain's most traumatic land offensive of the First World War drew to its conclusion in November 1916. Trevor Wilson and Robin Prior reassess the campaign, the wisdom of its strategy and tactics, and the reputation of its C-in-C, Douglas Haig.
During the 1950s the Algerian struggle against France and its white settlers for independence inflamed passions and hatreds in both countries – while a small number of French men and women helped the Algerian liberation movement in defiance of their government and the sentiments of the majority. What made them do it?
Stuart Andrews considers the life and radical milieu of the dissenting preacher whose support first for the American and then the French Revolutions brought him public controversy, and in the case of the latter, triggered Edmund Burke's classic denunciation of 1789.
Janet Hartley discusses the mixed responses of Russia's populations to Napoleon's great gamble on an invasion and the part they played in the eventual French catastrophe.
