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As Britain got hooked on tobacco in the 17th century, smoking paraphernalia became ubiquitous. These items provide an insight into the anxieties and aspirations of the early modern psyche.

Few episodes in the history of the British Labour movement have been as mythologised as that in which six Dorset farm labourers were shipped to Australia for their trade union activities.

Laughing at experts is nothing new. Kate Davison explores our long history of puncturing the powerful with satire and humour – to keep them in line and just for the fun of it.  

Volunteer rationing in the First World War depended on patriotism, but that could only go so far.

How one man did battle with fake news in the 17th century.

The world does not influence Britain’s native culture, the world is its culture, as anyone with a grasp of the country’s history will understand, argues Suzannah Lipscomb.

James Christie first held his eponymous auction on December 5th, 1766.

A family planning clinic opened in New York on 16 October 1916. It lasted only a few days.

The Boy Scout movement produced a little-known offshoot of ‘intellectual Barbarians’, whose charismatic leader had dreams of overcoming the existential crises of the 20th century.