Historiography

Keith Lowe argues that in history, there is no weapon quite so powerful as a good statistic.

The wars of 1839-42 and 1856-60 are a perfect case study of the divergence of opinion that the British Empire continues to generate.

Over the next four issues we will be looking at the history of the British Isles by examining its former and present constituent parts – Wales, Scotland, Ireland and, finally, England. This month Hywel Williams writes about Wales.

A public spat between a historian and a writer shows why some subject matter deserves special reverence, says Tim Stanley.

Paul Lay responds to the suggestion that we should dismiss Eric Hobsbawm because of his pro-Communist sympathies.

Blair Worden revisits Hugh Trevor-Roper’s essay on the radicalism of the Puritan gentry, a typically stylish and ambitious contribution to a fierce controversy.

Global history has become a vigorous field in recent years, examining all parts of the empires of Europe and Asia and moving beyond the confines of ‘top-down’ diplomatic history, as Peter Mandler explains.

The return of religion and the West’s current obsession with decline make Roy Porter’s profile of Edward Gibbon, first published in History Today in 1986, curiously dated.

Historian Michael Burleigh has won the prestigious Nonino International Master of his Time Prize.

Simon Heffer argues that until relatively recently most historians have been biased in their efforts to harness the past to contemporary concerns.