Social

Goethe’s novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, was blamed for a spate of suicides during the ‘reading fever’ of the 1700s. It set a trend for manufactured outrage that is with us still.

Throughout the 20th century responses by Britons to the sexual abuse of children have been hindered by the desire to avoid scandal and blame the victim, argue Adrian Bingham, Lucy Delap, Louise Jackson and Louise Settle. 

A subtly nuanced picture of European Roma.

Were the fifties a dull decade? Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes: The Story of Women in the 1950s by Virginia Nicholson has the answer.

The archetypal image of the Weimar Republic is one of political instability, economic crisis and debauched hedonism. The cliché is being challenged.

The ‘hands-on’ parenting style, so often thought to be unique to modern western society, has deep roots in the family life of the Middle Ages, argues Rachel Moss.

Hugh Gault charts the long-running debate over the privatisation of the Post Office amid rising competition and shifting political agendas.

Once among the least monitored nations in the world, Britain is now probably the most watched. Why do Britons make so little fuss about this erosion of their ancient liberties, asks Bernard Porter?

Since Tudor times, and for four centuries, the observance of the Sabbath was strictly enjoined by Government regulation.

Anthony Babington describes life in an eighteenth century London prison for felons, debtors and rebels.