Volume 57 Issue 3 March 2007
Richard Cavendish remembers the events of March 4th, 1857
Britain’s first Anti-Slavery Act was ineffective, says Marika Sherwood – British slave traders found ways around it to carry on their profitable activities, while British commerce flourished through the import of slave-grown cotton.
Cartoon historian Mark Bryant tells how a cartoonist made a President cuddly and sparked the creation of the world’s favourite soft toy.
During the Seven Years War, Admiral Byng was charged with 'failing to do his utmost'. He was executed on board the Monarch on March 14th, 1757.
John Kennedy’s commitment to put a man on the Moon in the 1960s is often quoted as an inspired civic vision. Gerard DeGroot sees the reality somewhat differently.
Dan Snow, who has explored historic battles on television with his father Peter, tells Peter Furtado about the rich collection of stories surrounding his family over the last century.
Kristian Ulrichsen believes that the politicians and planners behind the 2003 invasion ignored the lessons of the first British occupation of Iraq, which began with the capture of Baghdad from the Ottomans in 1917.
Richard Cavendish marks the anniversary of the death of an important Renaissance political figure, on March 12th, 1507.
Christopher J. Walker asks whether the two religions that frequently appear locked in an inevitable clash of civilizations in fact share more than has often been thought.
Philip Morgan explains why Italians have tended to gloss over the period 1940-43, when Mussolini fought against the Allies, preferring to remember the years of German occupation 1943-45.
Giorgio Riello and Peter McNeil find shoes a fascinating key to social mores, and discuss what choice and design of footwear can tell us about morality, mobility and sexuality in Europe over the centuries.
Kevin Shillington looks at the impact on Africa of the slave trade, and its abolition 200 years ago this month.
This West African state was a focus of the slave trade for centuries, and the first African colony to win independence, exactly fifty years ago. Graham Gendall Norton finds lots of history to explore.
Penelope J. Corfield considers how catastrophic visions of the end of the world have recurred throughout history, in all societies and religions.
As a new exhibition on the history of camouflage opens at the Imperial War Museum this month, Tim Newark reveals the contribution made by English Surrealists to wartime defence schemes.
Andrew Ellis introduces a huge on-going project to publish a series of catalogues showing every oil painting in public ownership in the United Kingdom.
Among the many organizations we rely on to produce this magazine each month, two of the finest are the London Library and the British Library.
The ‘voice of history’ was heard loud and clear when the Historical Association, was awarded the prestigious Longman History Today Trustees Award early in January at a party hosted by History Today at the National Army Museum. Adam Tooze of Jesus College, Cambridge, won the Book of the Year Award for his wide-ranging economic history of the Nazi years in Germany, The Wages of Destruction at the same event.