Today’s featured articles
We remember the Dutch Golden Age for its paintings – which may be why so few realise that it was Europe’s publishing powerhouse.
Hoping to weaken the rebels’ cause, Britain offered freedom to enslaved people who joined the British army. At the end of the American Revolutionary War that promised freedom had to be honoured – but how and where?
As Revolution broke out and turned to Terror, British citizens living in France found themselves transformed from friends of liberty to an enemy within.
Most recent
The British Bombs Down Under
The legacy of a decade of British weapons testing in its vast central deserts has forced Australia into an uncomfortable reckoning with its nuclear past.
Immoral Panic: Antisemitism in Georgian England
In 1753 the journey of a minor Jewish naturalisation Act through Parliament prompted an outsized furore.
Beginning of the Spanish Civil War
On 17 July 1936 colonial troops rose against the republican government in Madrid. The Spanish Civil War had started.
‘The China Question’ by Ho-fung Hung review
In The China Question: Eight Centuries of Fantasy and Fear Ho-fung Hung watches the West swing from Sinophilia to Sinophobia and back again.
The Legend of the Gibbet
Did live gibbeting ever take place in Britain? For the Victorians, the macabre question was a pressing one.
On the Spot: Alec Ryrie
‘Who is the most overrated person in history? Henry VIII. Nasty piece of work and not as clever as he thought he was.’
Human Canaries: Remembering the Munitionettes
The women who served as munitions workers during the First World War endured dismal conditions and a plethora of dangers: illness, injury, and death. Why are they barely remembered?
‘Capitalism: A Global History’ by Sven Beckert review
Capitalism: A Global History by Sven Beckert looks beyond the cities to the coffee and cotton that fuelled a global market.
Current issue
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In the July 2026 issue:
The Declaration of Independence, Black Loyalists, how England learned Old English, sacrifice and early Christianity, and the Hans Crescent strike.
Plus: reviews, opinion, crossword, debate, and much more!
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