Social

Martin Pugh argues that life during the interwar years was brighter than has often been suggested, in spite of its association with economic depression and the rise of Fascism.

 In 1909 Beatrice Webb produced a controversial report which proposed abolishing the stigma and penury of the Poor Law and its workhouses. James Gregory argues that this plea for a less judgemental approach to poverty created the foundations of the modern Welfare State.

Richard Sugg searches history to explain the phenomenon of aggressive cannibalism, following recent allegations from Iraq.

Asya Chorley describes the relationship between China, Britain and Tibet in the early twentieth century, and shares the unique experiences of the first European women to be invited to Lhasa by the XIII Dalai Lama.

Kenneth Fincham and Nicholas Tyacke look at the ways ordinary people responded to  religious changes within their places of worship from the Reformation to the Restoration.

For Sidney and Beatrice Webb, recording the struggles of early trade unionism - and subsidising its publication - were an integral part of their social commitment, by Chris Wrigley.

Clive Gamble revisits the moment at which archaeologists realized that human prehistory was far longer than biblical scholars had imagined; and links this to today’s debates about the antiquity of the human mind with its capacity for self-aware thought.   

Jim Downs says that the Democrats should blame history for the dilemma they face in having to choose between Clinton and Obama for this year’s presidential nomination.

David Abulafia considers Columbus’ first encounters with the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, and shows how they challenged European preconceptions about what it meant to be human.

Robert Gildea describes a new Europe-wide project to investigate the impact of 1968 and its sometimes bitter legacy.