BBC History UK
Preston Brooks assaults Charles Sumner
Blood flows in the US Senate as North and South head towards civil war
1 min |
May 2025
BBC History UK
"She said: 'If you represent Pinochet in this case, I will divorce you""
PHILIPPE SANDS tells Rob Attar about his involvement in the sensational trial of the Chilean dictator, and how it connects to a Nazi on the run
10+ min |
May 2025
BBC History UK
The other peasants' revolt
MARK STOYLE is impressed by a new account of a violent uprising that destroyed castles, monasteries and thousands of lives in 16th-century Germany
2 min |
May 2025
BBC History UK
Fire from the sky
AARON WILLIAM MOORE is impressed by a considered and inclusive account of the US bombing of Japanese civilians during the Second World War
4 min |
May 2025
BBC History UK
War of words
US efforts to spread democratic ideals through smuggled books make a gripping yarn
2 min |
May 2025
BBC History UK
A timeless love story?
Abélard and Héloïse's passionate affair in 12th-century Paris captured imaginations in France and far beyond. Yet, writes Yvonne Seale, there was a dark side to this true-life tale of forbidden love
10 min |
May 2025
BBC History UK
A model of innovation
A workers' village boasting light-filled houses and green parks set a new standard for urban planning in the 19th century. CONNIE ROUT takes a tour of Sir Titus Salt's trailblazing industrial-age project
2 min |
May 2025
BBC History UK
We are witnessing the biggest gathering of people in world history
I'M SURE, LIKE ME, READERS HAVE BEEN BOTH gripped and saddened this last month by the pictures of India's Kumbh Mela, the biggest pilgrimage in the world.
3 min |
March 2025
BBC History UK
Five shocking tales from Britain's royal palaces
Royal residences have been a hotbed of drama, violence and intrigue down the centuries, as Kate Williams reveals
4 min |
March 2025
BBC History UK
How Britain found its frequency
When radios first appeared in British homes in the early 20th century, one thing soon became clear: domestic life would never be the same again. Beaty Rubens tracks Britons' reaction to this extraordinary new technology via seven cartoons
8 min |
March 2025
BBC History UK
The Mongols conquer China
The Song dynasty meets a watery end at the battle of Yamen
1 min |
March 2025
BBC History UK
THE KING LOST KINGDOM
Battered by the Vikings, outshone by King Alfred, Mercia has long been painted as the also-ran of the Anglo-Saxon world. Yet, writes Max Adams, this mighty Midlands kingdom was at the very heart of the emergence of England
10 min |
March 2025
BBC History UK
Donald Trump has retaken the US presidency, repeating his vow to 'Make America Great Again'. But he's not the first to wield such a slogan. Back in the 1980s, Ronald Reagan stood for election with the same promise.Did he deliver?
Donald Trump's recurring battle cry \"Make America Great Again!\"- taps into a powerful sense among many Americans that life was better in the old days.
8 min |
March 2025
BBC History UK
"In times of political volatility, it's more vital than ever that we tell women's stories"
What impact has recent instability around the world had on the study of women’s history? Does our desire for strong female role models risk erasing complexity? And whose lives are still overlooked? Ahead of Women’s History Month, ELLIE CAWTHORNE spoke to three historians about the state of the discipline
10+ min |
March 2025
BBC History UK
You could say that Suetonius is the godfather of the murderous dynastic drama
Suetonius's Lives of the Caesars, a key source for the early Roman emperors, has just been translated anew by historian Tom Holland. He reveals what insights it yields into these titans of ancient history
10+ min |
March 2025
BBC History UK
There are only a handful of survivors left who can say what happened
I WAS INTERVIEWING AN ALMOST 98-YEAR-OLD man about his memories of the Second World War this week.
3 min |
March 2025
BBC History UK
Tower of light and dark
The gold-tipped monument that towers above Bath is an architectural jewel and a visceral reminder of the evils of slavery. PAUL BLOOMFIELD visits the newly restored haven built by the wealthy outcast William Beckford
2 min |
March 2025
BBC History UK
Why, the villagers wondered, were they completely green?
The story of the otherworldly children of Woolpit has long been treated as folklore - but, as John Clark explains, the tale may not be as fanciful as it seems
6 min |
March 2025
BBC History UK
The Victorians' cocaine habit
In the 19th century, a magic new drug took the medical community by storm, riding a wave of scientific endeavour.
9 min |
March 2025
BBC History UK
Nothing matches being with Alexander the Great on foot in the Hindu Kush
AT OUR LITTLE FILM COMPANY, MAYA VISION, we recently took the decision to digitise all of the rushes of our key films so that we could dispose of hundreds of boxes of tapes that had been kept in storage, throwing out stuff we thought we would never need again.
3 min |
February 2025
BBC History UK
Viking mussels
ELEANOR BARNETT digs into archaeological research to recreate a Viking-cum-AngloSaxon seafood dish from medieval York
2 min |
February 2025
BBC History UK
"I FELT VERY ALONE IN A WORLD GONE HORRIBLY MAD"
It was a moment of possibilities, dislocation and dread. Dan Todman tells the story of the 1.5 million urban Britons evacuated to the countryside at the start of the Second World War
10+ min |
February 2025
BBC History UK
How empire ruptured rural Britain
We know that enslaved Africans and their descendants suffered in the distant colonies of empire. But, as Corinne Fowler explains, the colonial system also had dire impacts on people in the countryside of the 'motherland'
10 min |
February 2025
BBC History UK
Library of the dead
Highgate Cemetery, created as a fashionable resting place for wealthy Victorian dead, is a veritable who's who of London's great and good. PETER ROSS roams the avenues of this most atmospheric necropolis
2 min |
February 2025
BBC History UK
HENRY III AND THE MAGNA CARTA THAT MATTERED
King John's sealing of a charter at Runnymede in 1215 is one of the most feted moments of the Middle Ages. Yet, writes David Carpenter, it was the charter issued by his son 10 years later that became fundamental to England's history
9 min |
February 2025
BBC History UK
England's forgotten hero
When the Hundred Years' War was reaching a climax, one man was fighting tenaciously to secure the English claim to the French crown. So why, asks Joanna Arman, is Henry V's formidable brother, John, Duke of Bedford, not better known?
10 min |
February 2025
BBC History UK
Slavery, exploitation and racism. These tragedies have long dominated histories of Africa. But there's another way to tell this story. And it's one that puts Africans right at the centre of their continent's extraordinarily rich and vibrant past
An 1414, in the Chinese city of Nanjing, a giraffe caused a stir. Amid a crowd of shocked, noble spectators, an official, leading the creature via a rope tied round its face, presented it to China's Yongle emperor. His officials said it was a qilin - an auspicious unicorn - which his sage governance had made appear.
8 min |
February 2025
BBC History UK
Gutenberg publishes a pioneering new book
‘The printing press triggers an information revolution
1 min |
February 2025
BBC History UK
Fingers, frog's and fairies
Fortune telling was all the rage in the 16th and 17th centuries, and practitioners would stop at nothing to tap in to the supernatural. Martha McGill tells a story of Highland seers, tarot cards and encounters with the spirit world
8 min |
February 2025
BBC History UK
The Elusive Pimpernel
Some suffragettes marched with banners, or printed and distributed propaganda pamphlets. Others took more direct action. DIANE ATKINSON tells the story of one activist who employed arson to spark awareness of the burning issue of women’s suffrage
6 min |