For much of the 20th century, young working-class women in England found out about procreation the ‘hard way’ or the ‘dirty way’.

Chevaliere d’Eon or Chevalier d’Eon? An 18th-century legal dispute between two French spies unravelled into a public battle ...

Caught between the antagonistic states of India and Pakistan, Kashmir is stuck in geopolitical limbo. Its location – and its ...

So when Raúl Castro called for an end to the embargo based on economic and humanitarian grounds in late December, he was ...

As convicts celebrated Queen Victoria’s birthday on remote Norfolk Island, debates raged over the purpose of punishment and ...

A new book for the new year is an old British custom, but an old book can be even better.

Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity by Diarmaid MacCulloch reminds us that when it comes to sexuality and gender, scripture is often contradictory.

Clothed in superlatives, it is one of the best-loved films ever made and still reportedly, after allowing for inflation, the most profitable. Sidney Howard’s script was so long that the movie would ...

The remarkable fall of absinthe: from 19th-century ‘Green Fairy’ to scourge of society.

Why are you a historian of modern war? My interest in war goes back to the stories my grandparents told me of life in London and Coventry during the Second World War. It would be fascinating to see ...

On 10 December 1948, after months of negotiation led by Eleanor Roosevelt, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was passed by the UN General Assembly. At first, after Eleanor Roosevelt’s husband ...