Like Lalande, many writers argued by analogy, a rhetorical technique that then punched considerable weight. Fuelled by ...

To the Ottomans, who took it in the 15th century, it was ‘infidel Smyrna’, the last Christian majority city in Asia. There ...

The Catholic Church’s ban on wigs in the 18th century was as revealing of attitudes towards disability as vanity and sanctity ...

Who should claim Scotland’s royal jewels? After the forced abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots, the answer was not clear cut.

Uzbekistan was a product of Islamic modernism and Soviet might. Free from the latter, the nation now seeks to foreground the ...

What happened to the French airmen in the Second World War who bombed France to help liberate it? D uring the Second World ...

The French Resistance sought liberation above all else. But what should the postwar nation look like? The question was as old ...

In 1874 a choir of African American singers concluded a successful tour of Britain, singing songs that confronted American ...

Tyrant and usurper: the last wills of Richard II and Henry IV give rare insight into the medieval monarchs who wore the crown ...

If one is looking for a single definitive cause for Europe’s collective decision to fight in 1914, the only certainty is disappointment. Yet the ready availability of sources and, until recently, ...

The forge of the Tower of London was constantly ablaze in summer 1346. England was at war with France, so, in addition to the Tower’s usual function as mint and prison, the royal fortress now served ...