Social

As Britain gets used to the ban on smoking in public spaces, Virginia Berridge looks at the way attitudes to public health have changed in the last fifty years, particularly among the medical profession.

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.

The Indian Mutiny and Rebellion, which broke out 150 years ago this month, was the greatest revolt against British imperialism of its century. Joseph Coohill uncovers some Indian accounts of what happened and why.

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

How did Washington Post cartoonist Clifford Kennedy Berryman – with a little help from Theodore Roosevelt – spark the creation of the world’s favourite soft toy?

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

Simon Lemieux explain why witch-hunting ended when so many Europeans supported it.

Robert Pearce introduces the First Reform Act and asks why parliamentary reform succeeded in 1832 when earlier reform bills had failed.

Robin Evans examines the connections between language, culture and national identity in 19th-century Galicia.

Larry Gragg digs beneath the glitzy surface of America’s ‘sin city’ to find out how this extravagant home of gambling and glamour came into being.