Accessorising the past

We've added accoutrements to our outfits for centuries, from buckles to buttons - but they aren't just important for fashion's sake. Cordula van Wyhe and Susan Vincent reveal what six accessories can tell us about historical attitudes to gender, empire and more

Into the wild

From its earliest days, the BBC set out to chronicle the natural world - an ambition that, as DAVID HENDY explores, reached new heights from the late 1970s with David Attenborough's string of wildlife blockbusters

A yearning process

HELEN CARR applauds a timely examination of the great British obsession with venerating the past, and its impact on our understanding of the challenges we face in the present

WAR WITHOUT END

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 is widely viewed through the prism of the great Cold War confrontation between east and west. Yet, writes Elisabeth Leake, the occupation also ignited a tinderbox of local grievances that continue to torment the country to this day

When the Black Death arrived in Europe, it was like striking a match in tinder

The medievalist and historian of medicine Monica H Green tells Ellie Cawthorne how scientific advances have changed our thinking on what caused the Black Death - and why it was so devastating

The survivor, the "incurable" and the scapegoat

History is too often presented as tales of "great men" - yet the experiences of ordinary women speak eloquently about the reality of lives past. Lucy Worsley introduces three outwardly unremarkable people caught up in pivotal events

THE SIEGE

When some 6,000 parliamentarians tried to prise a few hundred royalists out of Basing House in 1643, they began a brutal siege that would drag on for years - and see thousands slaughtered. Jessie Childs tells the story of a desperate struggle that became a defining episode of the Civil War

The strike has links to a far longer story of female south Asian protest

KAVITA PURI explores lesser-known stories from our past

All at sea

Maritime

A journey into the Elizabethan mind

The Elizabethans were desperate to untangle the mystery of their "inward selves". Helen Hackett reveals how they used ancient teachings, Christian doctrine and new scientific discoveries to make sense of the mind

Grave insights

BRENNA HASSETT recommends an account of life and individual deaths - in Britain during the first millennium AD

Raised by wolves

Feral children have fascinated and frightened people for centuries, raising questions about what it means to be human. Richard Sugg shares the stories of some of these wild children - and explains why their return to society was not always a happy one

Medieval Christians were capable of imagining goddess-like beings that looked thoroughly pagan

RONALD HUTTON talks to Rhiannon Davies about his new book exploring four female deities who straddled the pagan and Christian worlds in the Middle Ages

The final slog

TAYLOR DOWNING salutes an account of the often overlooked last days of the Second World War in Europe, when Allied troops faced stubborn resistance from German forces

Generating fear

STEPHEN WALKER gives a nervous welcome to a history of nuclear power, which focuses on the accidents and the disasters that have plagued the sector

First letters

LANGUAGE

A cultural institution

Mixing music with drama and the ancient with the cutting-edge, the BBC's Third Programme set out to scale the shining peaks of "high culture". But, says DAVID HENDY, its lofty aims alienated as much as they allured

A congregation of voices

SARAH FOOT enjoys a new history of the Church of England, a book that finds space for the reflections of ordinary parishioners as well charting the deeds of the great and the good

Black Communities Have Had to Pay for the Failures of Emancipation

Kris Manjapra speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about his new book, which explores how emancipations of enslaved people have left troubled legacies that still endure today

Sounds of the Sixties

Facing fleets of pirate radio stations and teenagers hungry to hear the latest hits, the BBC had to change its tune. David Hendy explores how the corporation attempted to reach new audiences in the 1960s

A Cruel Renaissance

“Wicked, an abomination, and against all humanity.” These words, uttered in 1416, shine a light on a dark truth: that slavery thrived in Renaissance Europe. Hannah Skoda tells the stories of people living in bondage in a period when ideals of liberty and the nobility of human nature didn't apply to all

How Britain Became a Cultural Colossus

The secret to the nation's status as a creative superpower lies not in stability and peace but a past dominated by invasion, disruption and war

Feather beds, cockfights and midnight flights to the moon

From seeing feathers as omens of death to saving soldiers with homing pigeons, our interactions with birds have always been contradictory. Roy and Lesley Adkins select five chapters from avian history to illuminate this complex relationship

Gods among men

JANE DRAYCOTT applauds an ambitious journey through the global history of emperors, from the most ancient civilisations to the 20th-century demise of world-spanning realms

EMPIRE OF THE GREATS

Not even a 2,000-year smear campaign, instigated by the Greeks, can obscure the staggering achievements of the ancient Persians. Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones tells the story of the Iranian dynasty that forged the greatest empire the world had ever known

Jesse Owens 1913-80

He was a bit of a showman and even raced against horses for money. When asked why, he said: You can't eat four gold medals'

Spinning stories

HELEN CARR assesses a magisterial overview of how people have represented the past, from medieval propaganda to historical fiction

The family behind the Tudors

The name Tudor has reverberated down the centuries, but another family lurked in the background, helping the dynasty to greatness - and sometimes seeking to tear it down. Joanne Paul chronicles the meteoric rise and deadly fall of the Dudleys

Voyage into the unknown

MARGARET SMALL commends a new biography of Ferdinand Magellan that looks beyond the Portuguese explorer's globe-circling achievements to reveal the man behind the myth

Victoria Drummond Engineering trailblazer

A century ago, the barriers facing any woman longing for a career in marine engineering seemed almost insurmountable - but not quite. JO STANLEY introduces a woman who had the talent, bravery and determination to make her mark in the male-dominated maritime world