History Today

From left to right: Clementine Churchill, Richard Law, Léon Blum and Winston Churchill, Chartwell, 10 May 1939. Associated Press/Alamy Stock Photo.

Radical Conservatives and the Federal Union

Britain’s Second World War Conservatives and their utopian dream of world government.

Catherine of Braganza as St Catherine of Alexandria, by Jacob Huysmans, c.1665. Royal Collection Trust/Bridgeman Images.

‘The Lost Queen’ by Sophie Shorland review

The Lost Queen: The Surprising Life of Catherine of Braganza, Britain’s Forgotten Monarch by Sophie Shorland returns the consort to her rightful place in Restoration history.

‘The moost mighty prynce Rychard’, from the Rous Roll, Warwick, 1483-85. British Library/Bridgeman Images.

Richard III and Kingly Justice for All?

Was Richard III a just king or just doing what a king should do?

Trench at Bud Dajo during the Moro Rebellion, 1906. Library of Congress. Public Domain.

‘Massacre in the Clouds’ by Kim A. Wagner review

In Massacre in the Clouds: An American Atrocity and the Erasure of History, Kim A. Wagner offers a blow-by-blow account of Bud Dajo. But is the devil truly in the detail?

Nina Simonovich-Efimova with a Petrushka puppet, 1930. Museum Archive of the Obraztsov State Central Puppet Theatre.

The Powers of Soviet Puppetry

The puppet theatres of Kazakhstan combined Soviet ideals with Kazakh traditions to educate the masses.

Black and White Milk Bar, Fleet Street, London, c.1935.

Britain’s First Milk Bar Opens

Entrepreneur Hugh Donald McIntosh struck white gold when London’s Black and White Bar opened on 1 August 1935.

A street scene in Bucharest during the Romanian Revolution, 15-25 December 1989. Forteopan (CC BY-SA).

How Do Europe’s Cold War Divisions Persist?

East was East and West was West – until 1989. The Wall is gone, but are its Cold War demarcations still there?

‘Pillars of the Constitution’, by James Gillray, 1809. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

Why is Constitutional History Back in Fashion?

Constitutional history dominated university history departments in Britain until the 1960s. It's making a comeback.

A symbolic eagle brings a note concerning treason, possibly relating to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, from Mischeefes mysterie London 1617, 1641. British Library/Bridgeman Images.

‘All His Spies’ and ‘Spycraft’ review

All His Spies: The Secret World of Robert Cecil and Spycraft: Tricks and Tools of the Dangerous Trade from Elizabeth I to the Restoration bring Tudor and Stuart espionage in from the cold.

The astronomical clock, Lyon, 17th century. Novapix/Bridgeman Images.

Calling Time on BC and AD

For more than a thousand years BC and AD have bisected our understanding of time. Should we keep them?