Social

Chris Durston records how the monstrous and the supernatural were seized on by political and religious factions in seventeenth century England as signs of judgment.

Rebel without a cause? Paul Cartledge probes whether the chequered career of one of fifth-century Athens' most famous sons reveals more about conflicting codes of loyalty than just the machinations of a turncoat.

A myth for all seasons - the treatment through the centuries of Spain's medieval hero as a blend of Robin Hood and King Arthur provides revealing insights into the political needs of both his contemporary and more recent biographers.

R.J.A.Wilson accounts for the making of Roman Britain.

'Stirring up divine discontent' by education to effect a transformation of the social order became the credo of one of Victorian Christian Socialism's most colourful characters, far outpacing the more temperate aims of its founders.

Attempts by returning First World War servicemen to unionise were portrayed in intelligence reports as part of a sinister Bolshevik prelude to revolution in Britain.

Nicholas Orme shows how Catholic and Protestant reformers alike campaigned rigorously against medieval attitudes to prostitution which were far less restrictive and oppressive than is often supposed.

Service to the Crown might bring hereditary office and a title for the upwardly mobile of Louis X/V's France, but not acceptance by the traditional 'aristocracy of the sword'. Close scrutiny reveals attempts to incorporate a new breed of noble into an essentially static society.

The newly-found voices of the slaves caught up in the American Civil War, and heard through letters to their families, are a testimony to their tenacity and unity in the struggle for emancipation.