CATEGORIES
"From Africa to the Indian subcontinent, imperialism has left a trail of damage"
MICHAEL WOOD ON...THE BANGLADESH LIBERATION WAR
"There was a general perception that Queen Victoria's mourning was neither normal nor acceptable”
JUDITH FLANDERS talks to Rebecca Franks about her new book, which delves into the customs surrounding dying, death and mourning in Victorian Britain
WHO SHOT JFK? WAS ELIZABETH I A MAN? DID ALIENS LAND AT ROSWELL?
Rob Attar investigates the enduring power of conspiracy theories
FIVE THINGS YOU (PROBABLY) DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT...The Vikings
Ryan Lavelle, who is teaching our new History Extra Academy course, shares five surprising facts about the raiders, pirates and traders from medieval Scandinavia
Eighteenth-century mushroom ketchup
ELEANOR BARNETT shares her instructions for making a flavourful sauce with roots in south-east Asia
Goodbye to the gilded age
JOHN JACOB WOOLF is won over by an exploration of the Edwardian era, which looks beyond the golden-era cliché to find a nation beset by a sense of unease
Towering achievement
NATHEN AMIN explores a 13th-century stronghold that was built to subdue independent-minded Welsh people, yet has since become a symbol of courage in the face of overwhelming odds
KNIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION!
From the heroic glamour of Henry V to the heady nationalism of Braveheart, the medieval era has proven a rich source of material for film directors. Robert Bartlett charts Hollywood's long obsession with the Middle Ages
The Aztecs at war
RHIANNON DAVIES discovers why war was so important to the Mesoamerican people - and why they believed a badly cooked meal could prevent a soldier from shooting straight
A window onto England's soul
SARAH FOOT has high praise for a book that traces the evolution of English Christianity over the course of 1400 years, through the lives of its greatest thinkers
Ghosts of Germany's past
KATJA HOYER is impressed by a study of a nation's attempts to grapple with the crimes it perpetrated during the Second World War
The power of the few
Subhadra Das's first book catches two particular waves in current publishing.
The 'badass' icon
One of the problems with biography, if an author is not careful, is that it can quickly become hagiography.
THE GREAT WHEELBARROW CRAZE
In 1886, the nation was gripped by a bizarre trend that saw plucky Britons racing wheelbarrows across the country. David Musgrove takes up this strange-but-true story
SISTERS AT WAR
By the end of her reign, Mary I's relationship with her half-sister and successor, Elizabeth, was at an all-time low. But had the Tudor siblings always been such bitter enemies? Nicola Tallis reveals how the duo's bond was both broken and strengthened by events beyond their control
"Indigenous children were forcibly separated from their families"
HIDDEN HISTORIES... KAVITA PURI on the legacy of Canada's residential schools
ANNIVERSARIES
DANNY BIRD highlights events that took place in March in history
"People like to tell themselves that the origins of American independence were non-violent.But it's not true"
The Boston Tea Party is often cited as a model of peaceful civil protest. But, as reveals, on the 250th anniversary of this milestone in America's foundational story, it occurred against a backdrop of bloodshed
A Christmas feast
serves up festive classic favourites that graced dining tables during three eras of British history
THE RACE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC
In 1969, everyone from Prince Michael of Kent to Billy Butlin competed in a dash between London and New York aboard tandems, sedan chairs and jump jets recalls a madcap forerunner of Race Across the World
It is one of the most fascinating shows that I have ever seen
I’VE JUST RETURNED FROM A TRIP TO NEW YORK.
How do intractable conflicts come to an end?
The Israel-Gaza war is dominating the news at the moment, but rather than exploring its roots, I wanted to discuss other examples of seemingly intractable conflicts and how they come to an end. What examples from your research would you like to highlight?
The long death of the Roman republic
Julius Caesar’s murder is often seen as the event that ushered in the age of emperors. Yet structural weaknesses had plagued Rome’s republic long before his death
Up to 100 million Chinese became refugees in their own country
IF IT HADN’T BEEN FOR A JAPANESE SOLDIER needing a toilet break in July 1937, things could have been so different.
Hard times: what centuries of cost-of-living crises reveal
As prices have soared in recent months, living costs have outstripped many incomes in the UK.
THE MANY FACES OF NAPOLEON
As a major new film explores the life of the French emperor, Matt Elton asks historians Laura O'Brien and David Andress how we can make sense of the diverse and contradictory aspects of Napoleon's character and career
The queen behind the veil
Matilda of Scotland, wife of Henry I, did perhaps more than any other figure to bridge the chasm between the Anglo-Saxons and their Norman conquerors. So why, asks has she been written out of history?
Walter Cowan Britain's oldest commando
For some servicemen hardened by a long military career, death in battle is preferable to simply fading away in old age. Tells the story of one such man, a retired naval officer who leapt bravely back into the fray during the Second World War at the age of 70
"The Roman empire cannot have been governed by a series of psychopaths. It would not have survived"
MARY BEARD tells Matt Elton what life would have been like for Rome's - from the path to the top to the almost inevitable sticky end emperors
Spooks, spirits and psychiatry
ANNA MARIA BARRY recommends a new exploration of the interplay between science, faith and superstition in 19th-century attitudes to mental health