Military

El Alamein: The People's Battle

Michael Paris describes the film record of the North African victory, and how the footage represents a tour de force in terms of wartime documentary and national effort.

The Realities of War

Mike Finn looks at the Liverpool press to find out what people back home were told about conditions on the Western Front.

The Tragedy of Lidice

Anthony Head describes the ways in which an atrocity has been commemorated, sixty years on.

The Wars of the Poppies

Leslie Marchant sees the Opium Wars as a philosophical clash between two cultures and two notions of government and society.