Education
History Extra
Going for gold
PATRICIA FARA recommends a globetrotting, time-travelling account of the roots of chemistry
2 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Viking revenge
JAMES OSBORNE indulges his love of Norse history in a role-playing game that scores high on the visuals but only skates over the underlying history
1 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Siena in five places
One of Tuscany's most magical hilltop cities is a medieval marvel of civic pride.
3 min |
May 2026
History Extra
The great survivor
When Elizabeth II ascended the throne in 1952, she could barely have conceived the currents - imperial retreat, multiculturalism, de-industrialiation – that would transform the nation during her reign. On the centenary of the Queen's birth, David Cannadine explores how she navigated seven decades of dizzying change
10 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Georgian Chocolate Tart
ELEANOR BARNETT serves up a rich chocolate tart that was once fit for a recovering king
2 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Capital ideas
A Kingdom and a Village: A One -Thousand-Year History of Moscow
1 min |
May 2026
History Extra
War report
SAM WILLIS enjoys a richly detailed and entertaining account of Admiral Horatio Nelson's greatest victory and its complicated aftermath
2 min |
May 2026
History Extra
The Peasants Revolt erupts
Popular anger at rising living costs shakes feudal England to its core
1 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Tales of coexistence
HEATHER J SHARKEY is impressed by a sweeping yet nuanced book challenging the idea that Jews and Muslims have been locked in a perpetual state of war
2 min |
May 2026
History Extra
"Narratives of victimhood, resistance and sacrifice are core to the Iranian regime's identity"
Revolution, repression and recurring crisis have shaped Iran's recent past – and continue to define its volatile present
10 min |
May 2026
History Extra
James Connolly
Novelist and short-story writer Irvine Welsh chooses
2 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Labour pains
The General Strike was the greatest display of worker solidarity in British history, but also its greatest defeat. A century after 1.7 million people downed tools and brought Britain to a standstill, Jonathan Schneer reveals why their efforts were doomed to failure
10 min |
May 2026
History Extra
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS - A medieval self-help guide
Today, we think of these vices as outdated definitions of moral flaws prohibited by the church. But as Peter Jones reveals, they were originally conceived to provide medieval solutions to universal human problems
10 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Grand designs
Encompassing an Iron Age hillfort, the ruins of a Cistercian monastery and a Jacobean banqueting house, Margam Country Park is a veritable open-air museum.
2 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Patagonian giants, a 'long-lost Shakespeare' and the chicken of prophesy
The Enlightenment was an era of open-eyed progress, of the advance of science and reason – right? So why, in the 18th and early 19th centuries, did British people continue to be hoodwinked? Madeleine Pelling exposes eight frauds and forgeries from a golden age of hoaxes
9 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Who was the best monarch in history?
Our team of historians, broadcasters and authors name kings and queens with a strong claim to greatness
9 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Medieval toilets weren't all stinky pits
Sanitation was a major concern in Europe in the Middle Ages - and the solutions, whether in castles or monasteries, came in various forms
2 min |
May 2026
History Extra
LOST STORIES FROM POMPEII
The eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 buried Pompeii and its citizens beneath pumice, stone and ash for centuries. But as Jess Venner reveals, we can now reconstruct the lives of its citizens before the catastrophe
10+ min |
May 2026
History Extra
Frederick Douglass exposed the hypocrisy of equal rights in America
EVERY 4 JULY SINCE 1897, THE NEW YORK TIMES publishes the Declaration of Independence in full.
3 min |
May 2026
History Extra
A radical feminist pioneer runs for the US presidency
Controversial candidate Victoria Woodhull chips the glass ceiling
1 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Nuclear family
CHRISTOPH LAUCHT reviews a thought-provoking exploration of childhood, protest and generational conflict in an age of global tension
2 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Christianity won over ancient Rome by behaving like a cult
Rome's polytheistic, cult-based religious order shaped life for centuries – and Christianity took centuries more to echo then replace it
3 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Life and how to live it
ELMA BRENNER salutes a well-researched guide to wellness in the Middle Ages that shows how much 'new' thinking around health has deep roots
4 min |
May 2026
History Extra
"We are not Romans or Greeks. The benefit of studying the classics is that the ancient world is not about us"
MARY BEARD speaks to Charlotte Vosper about her new book exploring why we should study ancient worlds – and the questions we should really be asking about them
10 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Power, pomp and the Peacock Throne
Five centuries ago, the birth of the Mughal empire heralded a new era of social and religious tolerance, international trade, and artistic and intellectual flourishing. Jagjeet Lally traces the fortunes and legacy of the dynasty that transformed India
10 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Mao launches the Great Leap Forward
The drive to transform China into a modern industrialised society leads to famine
2 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Music belongs to everyone, and it evokes the deepest human emotions
I RECENTLY HAD THE PLEASURE OF WORKING on an amazingly ambitious series of programmes called Key Changes: Radio 3's Essential History of Classical Music.
3 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Victorians might have been the luckiest people in history
In the middle decades of the 19th century, Britain experienced rapid industrial growth without suffering revolution or major conflict at home
3 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Henry VIII banned palm-reading
The 16th-century Tudor administration consolidated state authority and control of religion - but also criminalised esoteric practices
2 min |
May 2026
History Extra
Britain's prime minister contests an abortive duel
William Pitt the Younger defends his honour on Putney Heath
1 min |