Traditions constitute the invisible, under-the-surface flow of history

LIVING HISTORY IN THE AMERICAS

ROME GLORIED IN CLEOPATRA'S TALE OF DECADENCE, LUST AND DEATH

Joyce Tyldesley on an Egyptian queen’s ill-fated entanglements with three Roman generals

Flying the royal nest

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s departure from the royal family is the latest in a string of shock exits from the monarchy dating back centuries. TRACY BORMAN looks to the past to consider how one can leave “the Firm” successfully – and the difficulties of life as a royal exile

Rome's Reluctant Killer

Marcus Aurelius may not have sought war, but when it came he was more than ready. Shushma Malik reveals how a man of peace became one of Rome’s greatest warrior-emperors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

“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

ROMAN - Murder most foul

MICHAEL SCOTT considers a grisly new title that contains a blood-soaked collection of Roman murder tales

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

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

Churchill ‘considered nuclear attack' on the USSR

The statesman was prepared to deploy extreme measures against the forces of communism, new research reveals.

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

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

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

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

MY HISTORY HERO: Beatrice shilling 1909–90

Cathy Newman, journalist and broadcaster, chooses

Garibaldi was feted by our Victorian ancestors in an unprecedented way

DAVID OLUSOGA explores lesser-known stories from our past

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

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