BBC History UK
The long fight over abortion rights in the United States
Fifty years ago, the US Supreme Court's landmark Roe v Wade ruling guaranteed access to abortion throughout the United States - a decision that was reversed last summer. ALLISON MCKIBBAN charts the complex, often contradictory currents that have shaped women's reproductive rights in America
5 min |
February 2023
BBC History UK
Writing for her life
Marie Antoinette spent much of her reign engaged in a battle: first to cement her position as queen of France, and then to avoid the guillotine. Catriona Seth uses the queen's letters to trace her desperate bid for survival
10+ min |
December 2022
BBC History UK
THE BOY WHO DISCOVERED THE BOY KING
When Howard Carter located the entrance to Tutankhamun's tomb, he became an archaeological hero. Yet, as Toby Wilkinson reveals, the British Egyptologist failed to credit the person behind the historic find
10 min |
December 2022
BBC History UK
A DYNASTY OF DESPOTS
From the colossal to Tutankhamun's temples of Luxor golden death mask, the pharaohs of ancient Egypt's golden age created some of history's greatest treasures. Yet, writes Guy de la Bédoyère, behind the glittering facade lay a society built on brutality, inequality and staggering levels of corruption
10+ min |
December 2022
BBC History UK
The history that shaped the Queen’s funeral
People around the world were transfixed by the scale and splendour of Elizabeth II's funeral in September - a ceremony that drew explicitly on centuries of British royal traditions. TRACY BORMAN reveals how such events have changed, yet remained the same, across generations
5 min |
December 2022
BBC History UK
Power behind the throne
KATIA WRIGHT is entertained and (mostly) impressed by a book examining the lives and influence of five English queens of the 14th century
3 min |
December 2022
BBC History UK
Marching into infamy
RJB Bosworth reveals how the March on Rome which saw Benito Mussolini's Fascist squads seize power a century ago - set Italy on a path to totalitarianism
9 min |
December 2022
BBC History UK
QUEENS OF BLING
When Henry VIII's wives sought to project messages about themselves to the watching world, they often did so via jewellery. Using six portraits, Nicola Tallis reveals how the consorts' choice of pendants, rubies and brooches shaped their public images
6 min |
December 2022
BBC History UK
“She was in the world of change but somehow apart from it”
Throughout her reign, Queen Elizabeth II remained a constant presence in an era of vast social, technological and geopolitical transformation. Anna Whitelock charts an era in which Britain, but not its queen, changed beyond recognition
9 min |
December 2022
BBC History UK
“What unites these commanders Is selt-beliet. It they didn't have faith in themselves, no one else would”
AL MURRAY tells Spencer Mizen about his new book profiling 10 military leaders whose experiences shine a light on the Allies’ extraordinary transformation in the Second World War
9 min |
December 2022
BBC History UK
Noor Inayat Khan 1914-44
MY HISTORY HERO Actor and TV presenter Sam Naz chooses
2 min |
December 2022
BBC History UK
Ruins and royalty
Surrounded by verdant Suffolk countryside, Bury St Edmunds rose to prominence as a pilgrim hotspot in the Anglo-Saxon era before its fortunes dipped during the Dissolution. RHIANNON DAVIES pays a visit
3 min |
December 2022
BBC History UK
Past tense, future perfect?
PATRICIA FARA lauds a detailed double biography of grandfather-and-grandson thinkers whose ideas on evolution were both influential and inflammatory
2 min |
December 2022
BBC History UK
The stomach for the fight
In the Third Reich, food was not a personal matter but a way for Germans to show their patriotism and sacrifice. Lisa Pine investigates how the Nazis micromanaged what was being served on the nation's tables
10+ min |
October 2022
BBC History UK
One thing's for sure: religion will not fade away any time soon
In my job, travelling the world making films on history and culture, I've spent a lot of time exploring religion in its many manifestations. Religion, after all, is a gift for the camera: full of colour, action and often moving rituals. It's also a crystallisation in words and gestures of humanity's beliefs, hopes and dreams, making for a powerful sensory insight into the ways in which our ancestors understood their relation to the universe.
3 min |
October 2022
BBC History UK
The pleasures and pains of life as a medieval monk
Our podcast editor ELLIE CAWTHORNE tells us about a recent episode focusing on life in a monastery in the Middle Ages, and why it wasn't necessarily all that bad
2 min |
October 2022
BBC History UK
When Richard rose again
Ten years ago a skeleton in a Leicester car park transformed our understanding of a medieval king, and turned him into a media sensation. Mike Pitts tells the remarkable story of the discovery of Richard III's remains
10+ min |
October 2022
BBC History UK
The television age
In 1936, the BBC launched its new TV service - and changed British broadcasting at a stroke. DAVID HENDY charts the technological innovations that produced the so-called "magic rays" - and explores the delights they offered the viewing public
6 min |
October 2022
BBC History UK
THE RACE TO DECIPHER ANCIENT EGYPT, SACRED SCRIPT
The discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799 breathed life into a quest long deemed impossible: the reading of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Toby Wilkinson tells the tale of the two rivals who raced to be first to crack the code
10+ min |
October 2022
BBC History UK
"There's still this hangover that has to be seen through everything the prism of enslavement"
HAKIM ADI speaks to Rhiannon Davies about his wide-ranging study of the experiences of African and Caribbean people in Britain, from the height of the Roman empire to the modern day
10 min |
October 2022
BBC History UK
Political battles
ANDREW ROBERTS applauds a masterful exploration - required reading for any seeking high command - of why warfare and politics went hand in hand in the 20th century
2 min |
October 2022
BBC History UK
Marching to war
DAN JONES talks to Rhiannon Davies about his debut historical novel Essex Dogs, which follows a group of hard-bitten mercenaries fighting for their lives in the 1346 Crécy campaign
3 min |
October 2022
BBC History UK
Dancing feet
SOCIAL
1 min |
October 2022
BBC History UK
HOW TO SURVIVE THE DARK AGES
The collapse of Roman rule in Britain left a vacuum that numerous powers competed to fill - but only a few realms endured. How did some thrive while others vanished or were vanquished? Thomas Williams offers six crucial survival tips for would-be rulers of early medieval kingdoms
8 min |
October 2022
BBC History UK
FLOATING HELL
Convicts experienced notoriously miserable conditions in Georgian and Victorian Britain – and inmates of prison hulks endured the harshest of these deprivations. ANNA McKAY reveals the horrors of these “wicked Noah’s arks”
10+ min |
October 2022
BBC History UK
Science’s global revolution
James Poskett introduces some brilliant thinkers who shatter the theory that, when it came to the scientific revolution of the 16th to 18th centuries, Europe was at the centre of the universe
9 min |
October 2022
BBC History UK
To the four corners of the world
CORMAC Ó GRÁDA commends an ambitious and accessible overview of the Irish diaspora, seen through the ordinary people who travelled to countries all over the world to find new lives
2 min |
October 2022
BBC History UK
Nation building
JANET HARTLEY finds much to admire in a new history of Russia, while wanting more that might help explain the "one nation" belief that led to the recent invasion of Ukraine
5 min |
October 2022
BBC History UK
Thelonious Monk 1917-82
Singer, songwriter and composer Laura Mvula chooses
2 min |
September 2022
BBC History UK
Smooth operator
SECOND WORLD WAR | KATE VIGURS acclaims a vibrant account of the life and wartime travails of American-French cabaret artist - and covert resistance operative - Josephine Baker
2 min |