What makes someone a king? More importantly, what unmakes a king? Henry II’s experiment in co-kingship saw one Henry III fall ...

The Grammar of Angels: A Search for the Magical Powers of Language by Edward Wilson-Lee finds in Giovanni Pico della ...

In 1861 serfdom, the system which tied the Russian peasants irrevocably to their landlords, was abolished at the Tsar’s imperial command. Four years later, slavery in the USA was similarly declared ...

The concerns of daily life prompted early modern people to seek reassurance in fate, stars, and astrologers.

The East African groundnuts scheme was postwar Britain’s equivalent of the Millennium Dome. In pursuit of a laudable objective, millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money was poured diligently into a sump ...

The Tree Hunters is, like Pakenham’s earlier books, beautifully written and enjoyable to read. It radiates pleasure in its ...

Ocean: A History of the Atlantic Before Columbus by John Haywood and Tracks on the Ocean: A History of Trailblazing, Maps and ...

Modernity is a ubiquitous phenomenon which defines the age in which we are living, heralding progress and enlightenment – ...

Naples 1343: The Unexpected Origins of the Mafia by Amedeo Feniello struggles with sources as dubious as the Camorra ...

There was no law permitting cremation, but there was no law against it either. On 13 January 1884, a Welsh druid took the ...

Perhaps the movement’s most recognisable aspect was its enigmatic leader ‘Rebecca’, purported to be taken from Genesis, in ...