Martin Luther: Visionary Reformer by Scott H. Hendrix
It has been 500 years since Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. Scott H. Hendrix,…
European History
Five Characteristics of a Witch – An Extract by Ronald Hutton
Witches can be defined, quite legitimately, in a number of different ways in the present world. What follows is concerned only with the most…
Crime & Violence Through the Office of the Coroner – Matthew Lockwood
Matthew Lockwood offers a fresh and fascinating history of crime and violence in England through the office of the coroner. Below, Lockwood asserts that…
Hitler’s Obsession with the Occult – by Eric Kurlander
The Nazi fascination with the occult is legendary, yet today it is often dismissed as Heinrich Himmler’s personal obsession or wildly overstated for its…
Praetorian by Guy de la Bédoyère – an extract
In his latest work, Praetorian: The Rise and Fall of Rome’s Imperial Bodyguard, Guy de la Bédoyère traces the compelling history of the elite soldiers…
The private life of Il Duce: Mussolini and his last lover Claretta Petacci – by R. J. B. Bosworth
Italian’s fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, and his young mistress Claretta Petacci, are the subject of Claretta, R.J.B. Bosworth’s most recent exploration into the politics of…
Civil Wars by David Armitage – An Extract
For much of recorded history, the most frequent, horrific, destructive and yet strangely overshadowed form of collective human violence has been civil war. It…
The First Victory: An Introduction
Andrew Stewart introduces his new book The First Victory: The Second World War and the East Africa Campaign, a riveting account of the long-overlooked achievement…
The Future of European Muslims – An Essay by Tarek Osman
In recent months, the rise of far-right parties in different European countries and events such as the UK’s vote for Brexit have prompted heated…
Accidental Circumnavigators: A story of anonymous sailors, soldiers, slaves, missionaries & adventurers
Harry Kelsey’s new book The First Circumnavigators contains fascinating stories of treachery, greed, murder, desertion and disaster, but also shows the courage, dogged persistence, leadership and…
Understanding Our Unconscious: Five Facts About Sleep by Sasha Handley
Sleep—or the lack of it—is important to everyone. Yet its history has barely been told. Sasha Handley, author of Sleep in Early Modern England, documents…
Words and Politics: Lessons from Nuremberg – by Joel E. Dimsdale
by Joel E. Dimsdale, author of Anatomy of Malice — Seventy years ago the international military tribunal at Nuremberg sentenced Julius Streicher to death…
Medieval Europe: An Extract from Chris Wickham
‘This is tremendously good. Chris Wickham has an outstandingly keen and understanding eye for the diversities of life across a broadly-framed Europe, and for…
The Euro as a Unifier? An Extract from ‘Europe Isn’t Working’
‘The euro’s architects were building on shaky ground, to say the least’ British journalists Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson are the authors of the newly…
Massacre by John Merriman – A Scholar’s Perspective
One of the most dramatic chapters in the history of nineteenth-century Europe, the Commune of 1871 was an eclectic revolutionary government that held power…