Cold War

Pripyat City Park, Wendelin Jacober, 2016. Public Domain.

‘Chernobyl Children’ by Melanie Arndt review

Chernobyl Children: A Transnational History of Nuclear Disaster by Melanie Arndt discovers how civil society flourished – and then faltered – in the fallout.

A V-2 rocket launch at Cape Canaveral, 24 July 1950. NASA. Public Domain.

How Has Space Exploration Changed History?

In November 2025 we reach 25 years of continuous human presence in space. Did reaching orbit alter the trajectory of the planet below?

A parade in Salamanca celebrates the occupation of Gijón by Francoist troops, September 1937. Geopix/Alamy Stock Photo.

‘El Generalísimo’ by Giles Tremlett book review

El Generalísimo: Franco: Power, Violence and the Quest for Greatness by Giles Tremlett considers the making of the mediocrity at the heart of modern Spain.

‘The Second Emancipation’ by Howard W. French

The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide by Howard W. French traces the line between civil rights in the US and decolonisation in Africa.

U Thant, with under-secretary-general for special political affairs Ralph Bunch, at the United Nations, Bernard Gotfryd, 1966. Library of Congress. Public Domain.

‘Peacemaker’ by Thant Myint-U review

Peacemaker: U Thant, the United Nations and the Untold Story of the 1960s by Thant Myint-U captures the optimism and ambition of Burma’s bridge between worlds.

Jess M. Ritchie demonstrating AD-X2 to the Senate Select Committee of Small Business, 1953. National Institute of Standards and Technology. Public Domain.

AD-X2: When US Politicians Took on Science

The dismissal of a government scientist over the unproven battery additive AD-X2 galvanised the American scientific community in the 1950s.

Kennedy files illustration © Ben Jones/Heart Agency.

Lost in the Kennedy Files

The release of government documents related to the Kennedy assassination will keep scholars busy for years, but will we learn anything new?

Passers-by looking at a modern sculpture in the window of a Wimpy Bar in London, c.1961. Photograph by John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins. © Estate of John Hopkins.

Wimpy vs McDonald’s: The Battle of the Burgers

In the 1970s and 1980s Wimpy faced off with McDonald’s in a battle over what it meant to eat British.

Henry Kissinger poses for a portrait in the Situation Room in the basement of the West Wing at the White House, Washington, DC, 1969. Photo © Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Getty Images.

‘Zbig’ by Edward Luce and ‘Henry Kissinger’ by Jérémie Gallon review

Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, America’s Cold War Prophet by Edward Luce and Henry Kissinger: An Intimate Portrait of the Master of Realpolitik by Jérémie Gallon reveal the parallel lives of the Cold War frenemies.