Education
BBC History Magazine
Walking A Dangerous Road
The recent death of Sarah Everard sparked outrage, with protests breaking out across the United Kingdom. NELL DARBY argues that women’s safety in public spaces has never been assured, with the threat of violence stalking the streets from the Victorian era to the present day
6 min |
June 2021
BBC History Magazine
Tulsa Race Massacre
A century ago, America’s simmering racial tensions boiled over on the streets of one Oklahoma city, leaving dozens dead and hundreds more injured. Scott Ellsworth explores what remains the worst single incident of racial violence in US history – the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
10 min |
June 2021
BBC History Magazine
Triumph and tragedy
GILES MILTON applauds a masterful new account of the Special Operations Executive and the female agents who put their lives on the line to sabotage the Nazi war machine
2 min |
June 2021
BBC History Magazine
Empire of chains
CLARE ANDERSON embarks on a lively journey through a series of convict tales that shed new light on centuries of penal transportation across the British empire
4 min |
June 2021
BBC History Magazine
Georg Elser Hitler's Would-Be Killer
In the latest instalment of our occasional series profiling remarkable yet unheralded characters from history, Roger Moorhouse introduces a little-known carpenter-turned-assassin whose daring attempt to kill Hitler almost succeeded
6 min |
Christmas 2020
BBC History Magazine
Our Dangerous Devotion To The Second World War
The west’s enduring obsession with the battle against Nazism is hampering its efforts to meet the challenges of the modern world
10 min |
Christmas 2020
BBC History Magazine
A Taste For Strange Meats And Husbands' Buttocks
From chewing coal to salivating over starch and shells, pregnant women in early modern England were consumed by a number of outlandish cravings. Jennifer Evans explores how doctors made sense of these bizarre – and sometimes dangerous – desires
7 min |
Christmas 2020
BBC History Magazine
Wonder of its age
Nestled in the Northumbrian hills, Cragside looms large through the trees. JULIAN HUMPHRYS explores the extraordinary Victorian mansion and gardens which were masterminded by an equally extraordinary engineer
2 min |
Christmas 2020
BBC History Magazine
RICHARD THE RADICAL
For centuries Richard III has been cast as a diabolical despot who would stop at nothing in pursuit of power. But, argues Matt Lewis, in reality, Richard was a champion of the common man – and it was this that ultimately led to his downfall
10+ min |
Christmas 2020
BBC History Magazine
Life After Death
Laurence Rees recommends a moving and often surprising examination of the difficulties faced by children rebuilding their lives after surviving the Holocaust
2 min |
October 2020
BBC History Magazine
Spanish Civil War - Fighters Against Fascism
Alejandro Quiroga recommends a book that tells the stories of international soldiers who signed up to fight in the Spanish Civil War, and questions what motivated them
2 min |
October 2020
BBC History Magazine
We Should Keep Rewriting History: Our ‘Island Story' Is Not Set In Stone
I had made up my mind not to talk about the ‘Life in the UK’ British history test. Earlier this summer, 181 historians and authors had their say about its factual inaccuracies; about the lack of social history; the omission of black history; the downplaying of Britain’s role in the slave trade. But this, in a real sense, represents the ‘official’ narrative of our history. When the prime minister said, in response to the fall of Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol, “we cannot pretend to have a different history”, we have to assume that this is what he means.
3 min |
October 2020
BBC History Magazine
How Covid-19 Is Forcing Universities To Change
Covid-19 has compelled history departments in UK universities to radically alter their teaching methods. Richard Toye explores the challenges that online teaching poses and how they can be overcome
6 min |
October 2020
BBC History Magazine
“So many people knew their parents had gone through the Holocaust and grew up with this shadow of trauma”
Barrister and TV presenter ROBERT RINDER tells us about his two-part documentary dealing with the legacy of the Holocaust and its impact on his family – and why it’s vital to talk about the trauma
2 min |
October 2020
BBC History Magazine
ROMAN - Murder most foul
MICHAEL SCOTT considers a grisly new title that contains a blood-soaked collection of Roman murder tales
2 min |
October 2020
BBC History Magazine
Paraguay's child-soldiers fought with wooden sticks, painted as muskets
Outside of South America – where it remains an open wound – the War of the Triple Alliance is largely forgotten. It lasted from 1864 to 1870 and pitted
3 min |
October 2020
BBC History Magazine
ANNE BOLEYN'S FINAL BATTLE
Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife, famously lost her head at her husband’s behest. Tracy Borman, the presenter of a new TV series on Anne’s fall from grace, delves into the queen's dramatic final days
10 min |
October 2020
BBC History Magazine
Churchill ‘considered nuclear attack' on the USSR
The statesman was prepared to deploy extreme measures against the forces of communism, new research reveals.
3 min |
October 2020
BBC History Magazine
A life lived to the full
DIANE ATKINSON salutes an impressive new biography charting the action-packed life of Sylvia Pankhurst, from suffragette hunger strikes to secret missions to revolutionary Russia
4 min |
October 2020
BBC History Magazine
Lost and found
RICHARD SUGG delves into the murky depths of Britain’s social history with a book that dredges up the hidden stories of everything we have chucked away over the last 500 years
2 min |
July 2020
BBC History Magazine
Who's holding the baby?
Since the turn of the 20th century, Britain’s working mothers have been faced with the ultimate juggling act: holding down a job while raising a family. Helen McCarthy traces women’s attempts to solve the childcare conundrum
10 min |
July 2020
BBC History Magazine
Under the shadow
DAVID LAVEN considers an important, but disappointing, new survey of Fascist Italy at war, from the invasion of Ethiopia to the alliance with Nazi Germany
2 min |
July 2020
BBC History Magazine
MY HISTORY HERO: Beatrice shilling 1909–90
Cathy Newman, journalist and broadcaster, chooses
2 min |
July 2020
BBC History Magazine
Garibaldi was feted by our Victorian ancestors in an unprecedented way
DAVID OLUSOGA explores lesser-known stories from our past
3 min |
July 2020
BBC History Magazine
Family fortunes
MARK CORNWALL recommends a masterful account of a dynasty that dominated Europe for more than four centuries and spread its influence across the globe
5 min |
July 2020
BBC History Magazine
THE FIGHT TO THE END... AND BEYOND
As Britons celebrated VE Day, German troops were engaged in pitiless clashes on the Dutch island of texel against rebel fighters-from Georgia, Eric Lee tells the story of the final battle of Europe's second World War
9 min |
June 2020
BBC History Magazine
The 14th Century… When Things Weren't What They Used To Be
Hannah Skoda explores how late medieval Europe saw an upsurge in misty-eyed yearning for the ‘good old days’
8 min |
Christmas 2016
BBC History Magazine
Politicians cherry pick from history, if they take much notice of it at all
Why do so many politicians write history books? Does a knowledge of the past help with the challenges of today? And should MPs pay more attention to history? Our reviews editor, Matt Elton, headed to Westminster to ask a panel of history-loving politicians.
9 min |
Christmas 2016
BBC History Magazine
A Surgeon With A Secret
As part of our occasional series profiling remarkable yet unheralded characters from history, introduces Dr James Barry, the medical pioneer and eminent surgeon to aristocracy, who was forced to conceal a fundamental fact – that ‘he’ was in fact a ‘she’.
5 min |
February 2017
BBC History Magazine
7 Ways To Say “I Love You”
In medieval Europe, young lovers used all manner of media to declare their passion for one another – from exquisite French songbooks to lowly pieces of cattle bone. With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, Kimberley-Joy Knight introduces seven tokens of love from the Middle Ages
5 min |