How Does History Judge Prime Ministers?
Political reputations are forged by actions, but the long view of history can be hard to predict.
Georgian
Following Threads to Colonial Barbados
Two rare textile discoveries connect 18th-century Barbadian schoolgirls to England.
War and Wilderness: British Soldiers in Revolutionary America
British soldiers fighting in the American Revolutionary War were unprepared for the terrain awaiting them across the Atlantic. Many thought that America was determined to destroy them; some felt it had succeeded.
![‘Hail! Thou Production most uncommon. Woman half man and man half Woman!’, frontispiece to An Epistle from Mademoiselle D’Eon to the Right Honorable L[or]d M[ansfiel]d, 1778.](/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_list/public/2024-12/deon_libel_history_today_0.jpeg?itok=0Q1FQcZr)
The Libellous Letters of the Chevalier d’Eon
Chevaliere d’Eon or Chevalier d’Eon? An 18th-century legal dispute between two French spies unravelled into a public battle about identity.
How Ancient Greece Shaped the British Raj
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.
Fear, Friendship and the Channel Tunnel
November 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of the first passenger trains between London and Paris. What does the history of the Channel Tunnel tell us about Britain’s relationship with its neighbours?
The Death of Clive of India
Robert Clive’s death has long been attributed to suicide. What is the evidence?
Robert Fergusson: Scotia’s Bard
The often overlooked life of Robert Fergusson, Edinburgh’s unofficial poet laureate and Scotland’s voice.
The Wreck of the Vrouw Maria
On 9 October 1771 masterpieces of Dutch art destined for Catherine the Great sank with the Vrouw Maria off the coast of Finland.
The Roman Catholic War on Wigs
The Catholic Church’s ban on wigs in the 18th century was as revealing of attitudes towards disability as vanity and sanctity.