Economic History

Will the new super-casinos bring about the demise of the commercial bingo hall? Carolyn Downs traces the history of the game back to the eighteenth century and finds that then – as now – it had a strong attraction for women gamblers.

Richard Hodges says the rubbish tips of Anglo-Saxon London and Southampton contain intriguing evidence of England’s first businessmen.

Britain’s first Anti-Slavery Act was ineffective, says Marika Sherwood – British slave traders found ways around it to carry on their profitable activities, while British commerce flourished through the import of slave-grown cotton.

Kevin Shillington looks at the impact on Africa of the slave trade, and its abolition 200 years ago this month.

Fraser Newham finds a connection running from the East India Company’s first mission to Tibet to the completion of the Golmud to Lhasa railway by the Chinese today.

Did Hitler intend to provoke a general war over Poland in September 1939 or was it a serious miscalculation? Adam Tooze examines the views of leading historians before offering his own, new, interpretation of the decisions and events in Germany that ignited the Second World War.

Matthew Greenhall looks at the place of Scots in the economic and social life of Newcastle and the surrounding areas in the late Stuart and early Hanoverian years.

Margaret Walsh tracks down an attempt to link the appeal of the greyhound with the brand values of a famous American company.

Vincent Barnett contrasts Marxist idealism with the changing economic reality in the USSR.

Mark Rathbone considers why American trade unionism was so violent for much of 1865-1980 but so much more peaceful by the mid-twentieth century.