The Great Peasants’ War, the firebombing of Tokyo, Pelayo and the Reconquista, delivering the Chinese Post Office, curbing the power of the popes, and more.
Plus: reviews, opinion, crossword and much more!
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More than 100,000 people took up arms across the Holy Roman Empire in the spring of 1525. What drove them? And why were they ultimately crushed?
American air raids on Japan’s capital burned the city in March 1945, killing 80,000 people in one night alone. ‘Had to be done,’ said the general who ordered it.
A battle of wills between Adolphe Sax and musical instrument makers in 19th-century France saw an unprecedented legal contest unfold.
Pelayo, King of Asturias, is Spain’s first national hero, credited with beginning the Reconquista with his victory at the Battle of Covadonga. What do we really know about him?
The Great Siege of Malta by Marcus Bull upends the myth of the Knights of Malta and their last stand of 1565.
As Late Imperial China sought to rebuild as a modern state from the ashes of war, a new national post office was born.
From a cult’s rogue personalities to its foundational ideologies, how have fringe beliefs guided the direction of the American dream?
The survival of the papacy has always been dependent on a precarious balancing act between the pope’s religious and secular powers.
The doomed film collaboration between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan resulted in two very different features serving the same fascist agenda: The Daughter of the Samurai and The New Earth.
Friends in Youth: Choosing Sides in the English Civil War by Minoo Dinshaw views the conflict through the sad case of Bulstrode Whitelock and Edward Hyde.
Pre-Islamic history was once taboo in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Will the ‘rediscovery’ of an ancient people – the Nabataeans – encourage international tourism?
