Christmas with the Byzantine Emperor, how ancient Greece shaped British India, Lutheran organs, Victorian detectives, Second World War deserters, and more.
Plus: reviews, opinion, crossword and much more!
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Henry IV had a special guest for Christmas in 1400: the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos. United by their Christian faith, they were nonetheless on separate sides of the East-West schism. How did they celebrate?
British agents of empire saw their actions in India through the texts of their classical educations. They looked for Alexander, cast themselves as Aeneas and hoped to emulate Augustus.
Can The Green Ages: Medieval Innovations in Sustainability by Annette Kehnel find anything worth recycling in medieval modes of living?
The real female Victorian detectives were every bit as bold as their fictional counterparts – and far more prevalent than we might assume.
Pilgrimage is not meant to be easy, but it remains a popular pursuit – even for non-believers.
Indulgent symbol of papist excess or mouthpiece for God’s second greatest gift? What place was there for the organ in the Reformation church?
The spiritual marketplace is crowded – is there something Darwinian about it?
National security during the Second World War was threatened by the ‘enemy within’ – working-class women, suspected of betraying their country by taking in deserters and escapees.
In The Tafts, George W. Liebmann celebrates an American political dynasty dedicated to public service. Why are they often overlooked?
What explains the Iranian state’s remarkable soft power? The answer lies in its rich – and often romanticised – history.
A viking mercenary who fought on three sides, who was Thorkell the Tall?
Imperialism and India, spies and seafarers, paganism and the polis: the first 12 of 25 historians choose their favourite new history books of 2024.
In Church Going: A Stonemason’s Guide to the Churches of the British Isles, Andrew Ziminski deconstructs the humble parish church.
Cook and Colombia, mathematics and motherhood, wealth and warfare: 13 more historians choose their favourite new history books of 2024.
Unconventional and provocative, did the Dada artist sometimes known as Arthur Cravan save his boldest work for last?
How did the People’s Republic of China cope with a literary canon filled with un-communist ideas? Comics called lianhuanhua were the answer, at least for a while.
William Strickland died on 8 December 1598. He was said to have introduced the turkey to England, but the truth followed him to his grave.
Who were the women who fought the decisive battle against racial segregation in the American South?
On 10 December 1948, after months of negotiation led by Eleanor Roosevelt, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was passed by the UN General Assembly.
‘What is the most common misconception about my field? That the history of war is the same as military history.’
