The My Lai Massacre and the War at Home
The US army’s mass murder of unarmed civilians at My Lai became a watershed in public perceptions of the Vietnam War.
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Florence Nightingale as a Social Reformer
Lynn McDonald describes the lasting impact of Florence Nightingale on improving public health for the poor.
The Cult of St Edward the Confessor
The last truly Anglo-Saxon King was remembered with such affection he became a sainted embodiment of a pacific and idealistic form of kingship under Henry III.
How the Miners’ Strike Was Lost
Was Margaret Thatcher’s government close to defeat during the dark days of the miners’ strike of 1984-85?
Why the Light Brigade Charged
The fatalist view of the Light Brigade’s charge towards the Russian guns at Balaclava is being challenged. They had their reasons why.
Coming to Terms with the Past: Northern Ireland
Richard English argues that historians have a practical and constructive role to play in today’s Ulster.
History With the Boring Bits Put Back
Terry Jones, former Python, describes how a perverse fascination with the boring bits of Chaucer converted him from being a clown into a historian of the 14th century.
Wallis Simpson and the Divorce Law
Did the British government suppress evidence that might have prevented Wallis Simpson’s divorce? Edward VIII’s marriage prompted changes to the law, but did it also break it?
The Meaning of Magna Carta since 1215
Ralph V. Turner considers how and why Magna Carta became a beacon of liberty in Britain and, increasingly, in the United States.
Britons in the Great Fire of Moscow
Some British and Irish-born Muscovites waited out Napoleon’s invasion of 1812, surviving both the French army and the five-day inferno.