Education
History Extra
Drawn to the past
JAMES OSBORNE offers the definitive word on a game that casts players in the role of illustrators creating fantastical images for medieval manuscripts
1 min |
July 2026
History Extra
Young (and old) guns
Well into the 16th century, guns were considered unmanly - the armament of cowards and ne'er-do-wells.
1 min |
July 2026
History Extra
The president and the comedian
Details were sketchy as HistoryExtra went to press, but the latest series from Higher Ground, the production company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama, looks like it could be a hoot.
1 min |
July 2026
History Extra
Meet the Boleyns
The cultured charmer, the moneybags lord mayor, the powerful heiress, the scheming uncle. Anne's colourful family shaped the mind and character of the future queen of England, as Tracy Borman reveals
9 min |
July 2026
History Extra
Kyoto in five places
Japan’s imperial capital for 11 centuries remains its most enchanting city. LESLEY DOWNER suggests the most enticing and historic temples, gardens and palaces to visit
3 min |
July 2026
History Extra
Did a bear once serve in the Polish army?
In 1942, Polish troops making their way through Iran to join the Allied effort in Europe came across a young boy carrying a Syrian brown bear cub, whose mother had been shot by hunters.
1 min |
July 2026
History Extra
Voices from the past
What did those who lived through the American Revolutionary War 250 years ago make of the conflict as it unfolded?
1 min |
July 2026
History Extra
Is it true that Arthur Conan Doyle helped to solve real-life crime cases?
Inevitably, as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle was inundated with requests to solve mysteries, often of a criminal nature.
1 min |
July 2026
History Extra
Fight the patriarchy!
The work of modernist novelist Virginia Woolf isn't renowned for delivering laughs.
1 min |
July 2026
History Extra
National hero
In 1828, following a distinguished career in European politics and diplomacy, Ioannis Kapodistrias (1776–1831) became the first governor of Greece.
1 min |
July 2026
History Extra
What is the most inaccurate historical film?
Our team of historians, broadcasters and authors expose cinema’s most spectacular departures from historical truth
9 min |
July 2026
History Extra
Buried secrets
It's in the nature of settlements that, very often, they hide evidence of earlier human activity and habitation.
1 min |
July 2026
History Extra
CULTURAL DREAMS POLITICAL NIGHTMARES
In the 1920s and 1930s, Weimar was rife with contradictions, embracing both utopian modernism and Nazism. This German town's interwar story, says Katja Hoyer, reveals how democratic dreams can die in the face of economic ills and polarising politics
10+ min |
July 2026
History Extra
Women formed the engine room of the Viking world
The raiders and kings of the Viking Age were dependent on women who ran households, forged alliances and did the work that powered expansion
2 min |
July 2026
History Extra
A new kind of masculinity
He made starring appearances in just three feature films, yet James Dean (1931-55) is revered as one of the icons of American cinema.
1 min |
July 2026
History Extra
Meat and nut sandwich
ELEANOR BARNETT leafs through a century-old cookbook to find a historical recipe for an unusual sandwich filling
2 min |
July 2026
History Extra
Who was Peter the Wild Boy?
In the summer of 1725, a curious figure was discovered wandering naked in a forest near Hamelin, in what is now northern Germany.
1 min |
July 2026
History Extra
"WAR MINUS THE SHOOTING"
As the 2026 World Cup gets under way, Tony Shaw and Alan McDougall revisit eight football matches played during the Cold War that turned the beautiful game into a battleground of ideology, identity and state power
10 min |
July 2026
History Extra
“We're drawn to visions of perfect female monarchs. It's almost as if we prefer the image of a queen to the reality of a flesh-and-blood woman”
KATE WILLIAMS speaks to Charlotte Vosper about the changing image of female monarchs - and why we expect too much of them
10 min |
July 2026
History Extra
Ivan Stambolić
Stambolić did what he could to try to prevent the rise of Milošević, and though he failed, his conscience was clear at the start of the wars
2 min |
July 2026
History Extra
Revolutionary ideas
CHRISTIAN EMERY applauds an encyclopaedic yet accessible account detailing how post-revolutionary Iran has been scarred by theocracy and repression
2 min |
July 2026
History Extra
Home truths
HETTA HOWES finds both vivid human stories and echoes of modern inequalities in a book on women in the Middle Ages
2 min |
July 2026
History Extra
"Though things have improved, there are still battles to be fought"
THIS MONTH MARKS 50 YEARS SINCE GURDIP Singh Chaggar was stabbed to death in a racist attack in Southall, aged just 18.
2 min |
July 2026
History Extra
The Huns wanted the Roman empire to endure
These terrifying invaders posed a serious threat — but their real power lay not in destroying the empire but in exploiting its weaknesses
3 min |
July 2026
History Extra
Creative powerhouse
The new V&A East Museum in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park explores creativity across the centuries, making intriguing connections between contemporary and historical objects. CHARLOTTE VOSPER pays a visit
2 min |
July 2026
History Extra
THE HARD ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE
The US Declaration of Independence was formally adopted on one famous day in July 1776. Yet this celebrated event was the product of years of misunderstandings and escalating tensions. On the 250th anniversary of the birth of a nation, GEORGE GOODWIN traces the evolution of one of the most consequential documents in history
10+ min |
July 2026
History Extra
Who was the dog-headed saint?
St Christopher appears in many guises in early medieval sources: as a preacher to pagans, an African soldier who deserted his unit, a giant and — perhaps most bizarrely — as a dog-headed saint.
1 min |
July 2026
History Extra
JFK wasn't his family's first choice to be president
The untimely death of Joe Kennedy Jr refocused his family's White House ambitions, with dramatic consequences for American politics
2 min |
July 2026
History Extra
Deceptive agency
A look at professional liars in British intelligence is a fun read, observes MICHAEL GOODMAN
2 min |
July 2026
History Extra
Was there a real Captain Morgan?
While the logo of Captain Morgan spiced rum is the archetypal buccaneer, the real captain who inspired the brand’s name was not exactly a peg-legged, Jolly-Roger-flying, treasure-burying pirate.
1 min |