Coming to Terms with the Past: Northern Ireland
Richard English argues that historians have a practical and constructive role to play in today’s Ulster.
Feature
History With the Boring Bits Put Back
Terry Jones, former Python, describes how a perverse fascination with the boring bits of Chaucer converted him from being a clown into a historian of the 14th century.
Felice Orsini: Striking a Blow for Freedom?
The consequences of Felice Orsini’s assassination attempt on Napoleon III were momentous and paradoxical.
Wallis Simpson and the Divorce Law
Did the British government suppress evidence that might have prevented Wallis Simpson’s divorce? Edward VIII’s marriage prompted changes to the law, but did it also break it?
The Meaning of Magna Carta since 1215
Ralph V. Turner considers how and why Magna Carta became a beacon of liberty in Britain and, increasingly, in the United States.
Britons in the Great Fire of Moscow
Some British and Irish-born Muscovites waited out Napoleon’s invasion of 1812, surviving both the French army and the five-day inferno.
Cardinal Richelieu: Hero or Villain?
The image of Cardinal Richelieu, carefully crafted during his lifetime, soon became that of a demonic schemer. How?
Britain and the Medusa Shipwreck
The French tragedy at sea, immortalised in Géricault’s masterpiece The Raft of the Medusa, was put to use in the service of British patriotism.
Did the Sewing Machine Bring Liberation or Drudgery?
With its effects felt on both the household and workplace, the invention of the sewing machine changed women’s lives. But not always for the better.
The Great Smog
Devra Davis looks at the London Smog disaster of 1952-53.