Education
BBC History Magazine
William Wilberforce 1759-1833
Former Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, chooses
2 min |
April 2022
BBC History Magazine
Digging for Victory
When war broke out in 1939, food shortages posed just as grave a threat to Britons as a German invasion. From Dig for Victory to the land girls, John Martin charts a nation’s battle with starvation
10+ min |
March 2022
BBC History Magazine
What Drove the Witch-Hunters' Cruel Crusade?
They tortured, tricked and terrorised suspects into confessions - often with undisguised relish. So, asks Marion Gibson, should the witchfinders of 16th and 17th-century Europe be dismissed as sadists and charlatans?
10+ min |
March 2022
BBC History Magazine
Suleyman was just as bellicose as his father, if not as gratuitously cruel
CHRISTOPHER DE BELLAIGUE talks to Rhiannon Davies about his book charting the early years of Suleyman the Magnificent's reign, when the sultan had to navigate the deadly machinations of the Ottoman court as well as battle Christian powers
10 min |
April 2022
BBC History Magazine
“Mary Seacole never aspired to be a pioneer of women's nursing. It is only in recent decades that we have invested her with this status”
Helen Rappaport, who has spent 20 years researching Mary Seacole's life, argues that the Jamaican healer's transformation into a modern cultural icon has obscured the real woman
10+ min |
April 2022
BBC History Magazine
We decide for ourselves who we think we are - and museums are central to that
In his new BBC Radio 4 series, curator and broadcaster Neil MacGregor explores the changing role of Britain's museums. He explains to Matt Elton why these venues are more vital now than ever
9 min |
April 2022
BBC History Magazine
THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF BRITAIN
Charles I was dead, Oliver Cromwell was on the rise, and a nation was grappling with a strange new reality - one without a monarchy. Anna Keay tells the story of the 1650s, through the eyes of three of the people who helped shape Britain's republican decade
9 min |
April 2022
BBC History Magazine
The brutish empire
ALEX VON TUNZELMANN considers a global investigation into the intrinsic connection between racialised violence and the history of the world's largest-ever empire
4 min |
April 2022
BBC History Magazine
1942 CHURCHILL'S DARKEST HOUR
If 1940 was the year in which Winston Churchill's reputation was forged, 1942 was the one in which it was almost destroyed. Taylor Downing chronicles a terrible period for the prime minister - both on the battlefield and in the court of public opinion
10+ min |
April 2022
BBC History Magazine
Lodging with Mozart (and Shelley, Franklin and Byron)
It may seem strange in our home-owning obsessed times, but thousands of Georgians – from modest milliners to world-famous poets – chose renting a room over gaining a toehold on the property ladder. Gillian Williamson explains why
10 min |
March 2022
BBC History Magazine
In Search of Unity
Richard Jevans is unconvinced by a new study that is focused on the idea of finishing the “European project” and based on the testimonies of esteemed thinkers over the centuries
4 min |
March 2022
BBC History Magazine
The Good Fight
Diane Atkinson applauds an insightful and inspiring history of political and social action by women around the turn of the 19th century
2 min |
March 2022
BBC History Magazine
Q&A - Who was history's most notorious pirate?
A selection of historical conundrums answered by experts
3 min |
February 2022
BBC History Magazine
“We have believed the Normans' view of themselves for too long”
JUDITH A GREEN talks to David Musgrove about her new book, which takes readers far beyond the familiar story of 1066, and provides a richer understanding of the Normans’ complex place in the wider history of Europe
10+ min |
March 2022
BBC History Magazine
“THE WEEK THAT CHANGED THE WORLD”
Following years of icy silence between the US and China, on 21 February 1972 president Richard Nixon arrived in Beijing for an unprecedented diplomatic mission. Rana Mitter explores how the two sides viewed an encounter that augured China’s entrance onto the global stage
10 min |
March 2022
BBC History Magazine
The secrets of the stones
Where did Stonehenge’s megaliths come from? Were they transported to Wiltshire by glacier or human hand? And how long did this Neolithic building project take? As a major exhibition on Stonehenge opens at the British Museum, Mike Pitts uses the latest research to answer the big questions about the construction of this ancient wonder
10+ min |
March 2022
BBC History Magazine
MY HISTORY HERO
Actor, comedian and BBC DJ Craig Charles chooses
2 min |
March 2022
BBC History Magazine
A SPACE MENAGERIE
During the space race, animals pavedthe way for humans to travel beyond Earth. Stephen Walker shines a light on these largely forgotten creatures and their often fatal journeys
10 min |
March 2022
BBC History Magazine
Alfred Fagon - A Unique Caribbean Voice
Having migrated from Jamaica as a teenager, Alfred Fagon emerged as a powerful playwright who created African-Caribbean characters to speak truths about the challenges facing black people in Britain. Stephen Bourne introduces a writer who helped transform black British theatre in the 1970s and 80s
5 min |
February 2022
BBC History Magazine
What Makes a Greek?
Michael Scott enjoys an informed and entertaining journey through the history of Greek-speaking people, but takes issue with the framing of the book
2 min |
February 2022
BBC History Magazine
Coded Language
Michael Wood praises a pioneering study of the transformation of Chinese script, and how this helped fuel the growth of the nation into one of the world's superpowers
4 min |
February 2022
BBC History Magazine
A National Institution
As it approached its second decade, the BBC's happy-go-lucky attitude was fading fast. And, as David Hendy reveals in the second instalment of our 13-part series tracing the corporation's cultural impact, the government was now taking a keen interest
6 min |
February 2022
BBC History Magazine
Battle of Wills
Mark White commends a wide-ranging investigation into the psychological dimensions of the Cold War and the crucial role fear played in shaping American and Soviet strategies
5 min |
January 2022
BBC History Magazine
Who is Britain's greatest monarch?
This year marks the platinum jubilee of Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-serving monarch. But which of the kings and queens since 1066 made the biggest mark on history? We asked 12 experts to offer their nominations - and to explain what made each one truly great
10+ min |
February 2022
BBC History Magazine
Cursed lives
MARION GIBSON recommends an evocative deep-dive into a witchcraft trial that rocked 17th-century New England
2 min |
February 2022
BBC History Magazine
A very ordinary king
HEATHER JONES is impressed by a new biography that reveals insights about the wartime monarch’s impressive political achievements, complex personal life and family failings
2 min |
February 2022
BBC History Magazine
A timber-framed Tardis
Incongruously sandwiched between shops and pubs in a Norfolk market town stands a Tudor building crammed with stories spanning more than two millennia of local history. PRIYA ATWAL explores Ancient House Museum of Thetford Life
2 min |
February 2022
BBC History Magazine
Emily Soldene - Actress, writer, rebel
As the darling of London’s opera scene, and then as a journalist printing scandalous revelations about the cream of society, Emily Soldene thrived in the limelight. HELEN BATTEN explains why this trendsetting, rule-breaking, genre-hopping Victorian celebrity deserves to take centre stage once more
7 min |
January 2022
BBC History Magazine
Fight for a Nation
Costas Douzinas on a study of the revolution by which Greece freed itself from the Ottoman empire and was transformed into a self-ruling nation-state
3 min |
January 2022
BBC History Magazine
Queen of Spies
Victoria controlled an extensive network of intelligence sources that fed explosive revelations to the British government - or direct to her. Rory Cormac and Richard J Aldrich investigate her adventures in espionage
10+ min |