Volume 54 Issue 12 December 2004
Arthur Marwick reveals how beauty moved from being enticing and dangerous to being enticing and all-powerful.
William Frend, later professor of ecclesiastical history at Glasgow University, explained how he influenced the course of European history in 1944.
Leslie Ray argues that politics and football have always been inseparable in the land of the ‘hand of God’.
Edward Higgs examines the contentious history of identification systems in modern Britain.
Adrian Mourby welcomes a new wave of opera houses around the world, and compares this with the previous surge in the late 19th century.
Letters to the Editor in December 2004
Seán Lang looks forward to the return of narrative to the teaching of history in schools.
David Bates introduces a major conference exploring the place of history in our schools and colleges.
Nicholas Vincent celebrates the founder of the Plantagenet dynasty who was crowned December 19th 1154.
Peter Day delves into documents recently released from the National Archives to review the short and sad career of Talal, father of King Hussein of Jordan.
T.A. Jenkins reviews the life and legacy of Benjamin Disraeli, statesman, novelist and man-about-town, on the bicentenary of his birth.
George Weidenfeld recalls a masterful historian of ancient Rome, and much else besides.
Martin D. Brown tells the little-known story of how British and American soldiers disappeared in Slovakia’s Tatra Mountains during the remarkable episode of Slovakia’s National Uprising against its Nazi-supporting government during the Second World War.
The only Englishman ever to be Pope, Nicholas Breakspear was elected on December 4th, 1154.
Richard Cavendish remembers the events of December 9th, 1854.
December 2nd, 1804
Anthony Fyson reads a letter from his great-grandfather, who as a young man was caught up in the Eureka Stockade, where gold-miners in Ballarat, Victoria, famously clashed with state troops, 150 years ago this month.
History Today announces its prize for the best history on television in the last year.