Britain

In Church Going: A Stonemason’s Guide to the Churches of the British Isles, Andrew Ziminski deconstructs the humble parish church.

National security during the Second World War was threatened by the ‘enemy within’ – working-class women, suspected of betraying their country by taking in deserters and escapees.

Pilgrimage is not meant to be easy, but it remains a popular pursuit – even for non-believers.

November 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of the first passenger trains between London and Paris. What does the history of the Channel Tunnel tell us about Britain’s relationship with its neighbours?

The First World War revealed the bad state of Britain’s teeth. Intervention was required to keep the nation biting fit.

How the first Conservative leadership election modernised the party in the 1960s.

The acute housing crisis of mid-Victorian Britain generated stormy opinions about the nature of state intervention and the need for ‘wholesome despotism’.

In 1874 a choir of African American singers concluded a successful tour of Britain, singing songs that confronted American racism. Victorian audiences had never heard music like it.

In the 18th century the existence of extraterrestrial life went from debatable hypothesis to fundamental tenet of Enlightenment thought.

‘What is the most common misconception about my field? That the republic was an absolute failure and the Restoration inevitable.’