BBC History UK Magazine - February 2025

In this issue

Inside the Nazi mind - Why did millions embrace Hitler's ideology?

Children of the Blitz - The joys and tragedies of Britain's evacuees.

Gutenberg publishes a pioneering new book

‘The printing press triggers an information revolution

1 min

Nothing matches being with Alexander the Great on foot in the Hindu Kush

AT OUR LITTLE FILM COMPANY, MAYA VISION, we recently took the decision to digitise all of the rushes of our key films so that we could dispose of hundreds of boxes of tapes that had been kept in storage, throwing out stuff we thought we would never need again.

3 mins

"I FELT VERY ALONE IN A WORLD GONE HORRIBLY MAD"

It was a moment of possibilities, dislocation and dread. Dan Todman tells the story of the 1.5 million urban Britons evacuated to the countryside at the start of the Second World War

10+ mins

England's forgotten hero

When the Hundred Years' War was reaching a climax, one man was fighting tenaciously to secure the English claim to the French crown. So why, asks Joanna Arman, is Henry V's formidable brother, John, Duke of Bedford, not better known?

10 mins

How empire ruptured rural Britain

We know that enslaved Africans and their descendants suffered in the distant colonies of empire. But, as Corinne Fowler explains, the colonial system also had dire impacts on people in the countryside of the 'motherland'

10 mins

HENRY III AND THE MAGNA CARTA THAT MATTERED

King John's sealing of a charter at Runnymede in 1215 is one of the most feted moments of the Middle Ages. Yet, writes David Carpenter, it was the charter issued by his son 10 years later that became fundamental to England's history

9 mins

Fingers, frog's and fairies

Fortune telling was all the rage in the 16th and 17th centuries, and practitioners would stop at nothing to tap in to the supernatural. Martha McGill tells a story of Highland seers, tarot cards and encounters with the spirit world

8 mins

Slavery, exploitation and racism. These tragedies have long dominated histories of Africa. But there's another way to tell this story. And it's one that puts Africans right at the centre of their continent's extraordinarily rich and vibrant past

An 1414, in the Chinese city of Nanjing, a giraffe caused a stir. Amid a crowd of shocked, noble spectators, an official, leading the creature via a rope tied round its face, presented it to China's Yongle emperor. His officials said it was a qilin - an auspicious unicorn - which his sage governance had made appear.

8 mins

Viking mussels

ELEANOR BARNETT digs into archaeological research to recreate a Viking-cum-AngloSaxon seafood dish from medieval York

2 mins

Library of the dead

Highgate Cemetery, created as a fashionable resting place for wealthy Victorian dead, is a veritable who's who of London's great and good. PETER ROSS roams the avenues of this most atmospheric necropolis

2 mins

Read all stories from BBC History UK

BBC History UK Magazine Description:

BBC History Magazine is Britain’s bestselling history magazine devoted to history enthusiasts of all levels of knowledge and interest. Published 13 times a year, BBC History Magazine brings history to life with informative, lively and entertaining features written by the world’s leading historians and journalists. Whether it is the history of our politics and institutions, or the fascinating stories of our private lives through the ages, BBC History Magazine sheds new light on the past and helps make more sense of today’s world.Covering the latest new developments in history and archaeology from Britain and around the world, the latest, most thought provoking historical research and strong links with TV and radio programming maximizing use of BBC’s existing expertise in the genre.