The twenty-first century, although in its infancy, has seen some of the most extraordinary space-related developments in human history. From the first landing on a comet in 2009 to the discovery of water on Mars in 2015, these advancements were made possible by scientific precedent of the twentieth century. Most significantly, the period of the […]

In our modern world we are, to an extent, still scarily familiar with the barbarism and ingenuity that brought many to ‘justice’, over previous centuries. The latter half of the 20th century has seen the international community come to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, along with the United Nations convening against torture and, […]

The end of 2014 closes another chapter in British military history as British and NATO troops withdraw from a conflict that became of the most controversial since The Vietnam War. In October 2001, in the wake of the 9/11 bombings committed by Al-Qaeda, troops from the United States and other NATO nations intervened in an […]

In August 1947, one of the largest and most ethnically diverse countries in the world became divided into two countries, India and Pakistan. People were forced out of the villages they had lived in for generations, in what became the largest mass migration in human history. For decades, Indians had fought to rid themselves of […]

Nearly 2800 years ago, citizens from all over the Greek world flocked to Olympia for one of the most central rituals in Ancient Greece – the Olympic Games. Perhaps unknown to many people, the Games were as much a religious festival as they were a celebration of athletic strength and power. This great event was […]

The historian Tacitus wrote, “The appearance of the country differs considerably in different parts; but in general it is covered either by bristling forests or by foul swamps”. Such was a Roman view of the whole region of Germania at the time, not just Saxony. According to Roman sources, a people known as the ‘Saxones’ […]

Born in 1946, Steve Biko was a black anti-apartheid campaigner who died in police custody in 1977. Biko established himself as a student leader in the 1960’s. His belief in the need for black South Africans to organise and liberate themselves free from liberal white influence led him to establish the Black Consciousness Movement in […]

Angela Buckley’s The Real Sherlock Holmes is Jerome Caminada, the infamous Manchester Detective. Amelia Fletcher-Jones interviews Angela and review the book. Caroline Bishop reviews Lucy Worsley’s recent BBC series and book, A Very British Murder.

President of the History Society Jamie Lawless speaks candidly to Henry Lee about life in the public eye, ‘that ball’ in 2012 and how he’s got himself back on track in 2013 in his first public interview. For a man with such responsibility on his shoulders, on first impressions Jamie Lawless has the demeanour of […]

It doesn’t take much digging to observe the British public’s disdain for politics. A perception of politicians as greedy and deceitful has been present for decades, but no single event has encapsulated this in the public consciousness more than the MPs’ expenses scandal. In May 2009, The Telegraph published its investigation into the expenses claims […]

The transatlantic slave trade, also known as the Euro-American slave trade, was the process by which slave traders transported enslaved Africans to the Americas, mostly through the Caribbean. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, there was a regular slave trade that used the triangular trade route and its Middle Passage, which lasted until the end […]

When it comes to lifestyles that involve conversing with celebrities Frank Sinatra and Barbara Windsor; appearing in famous interviews or being photographed by David Bailey, the life of an infamous gangster is the last thing that springs to mind. Yet, for Ronnie and Reggie Kray, living in 1960s London, crime was a fact of life; […]

On 26 December 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev announced the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The communist utopian dream had come painfully crashing down, freeing the world from the shackles of the Cold War and leading to the emergence of 11 new independent Eastern European nation-states. The grip of communist fear that had consumed the West for […]

When Pêro Vaz de Caminha arrived in Brazil on the 22nd of April 1500 aboard Pedro Alvares Cabral’s voyage of ‘discovery’, he was awestruck. The letter he wrote to the Portuguese King Manuel I is in stark contrast to those written by other explorers of the period.