North America

Pocahontas and John Smith in Disney's ‘Pocahontas’ (1995). (Photo by AF archive/Alamy Stock Photo)

Disney history: how has the corporation shaped our perception of the past?

PT Barnum and General Tom Thumb

The greatest show on earth? The myths of the Victorian freak show

Shakespeare and America

Greg Jenner. (Photo by Frank Monks)

Books interviewFame, fortune and falls from grace: Greg Jenner on the rise of celebrity culture

The race to save Apollo 13

Portrait of Madam CJ Walker, America's first female millionaire. (Photo courtesy of Madam Walker Family Archives/A'Lelia Bundles)

Self Made: the real story of Madam CJ Walker, America’s first black female millionaire

Shoppers crowd a Woolworths store in 1955

Q&AHas there always been panic buying? And when have people panic shopped through history?

Illustration of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). (Photo by Alamy)

Coronavirus: what might we learn from pandemics in the past?

Illustration of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). (Photo by Alamy)

Coronavirus: a historical perspective

'The Poor Actress's Christmas Dinner', a painting by pre-Raphaelite artist Robert Braithwaite Martineau, says much about the way Victorians had begun to understand the problem of loneliness. (Photo by Bridgeman Art Library)

The invention of loneliness: why being 'unhappy alone' is a surprisingly modern idea

17th September 1936: The British minister of health, Sir Kingsley Wood, watches nurses weighing newborn twins during a visit to Southmead Hospital in Bristol to see the work local authorities were doing for the maintenance and improvement of health and housing conditions. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Mum hacks: 5 tips for new mothers from history

Hadley Freeman.

Secrets of a 20th-century Jewish family: Hadley Freeman on her book House of Glass

A short history of quarantine

Anti-suffrage: the women who didn't want the vote

Hadley Freeman on a 20th-century family history

Al Pacino and Logan Lerman in Amazon Prime's 'Hunters'.

A historian’s review of Amazon’s “Holocaust revenge saga” Hunters

On his plantation in Georgia, American politician Benjamin Hawkins is teaching Creek Native Americans how to use a plow, 1805. (Photo by Granger, NYC / TopFoto)

Food and war

"We cannot walk alone": 26 August 1963 – As they hold hands, Martin Luther King Jr and the other leaders of the March On Washington For Jobs And Freedom make history. (Photo by Robert W. Kelley/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images)

The story of Martin Luther King's struggle for civil rights in America

Hidden Figures: the incredible real history behind the film

Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Donald Trump

From Lincoln to Trump: a brief history of the US Republican Party

The Stonewall Riots: the flashpoint that launched the gay rights movement in the US

An illustration depicting Governor Tryon and the Regulators, c1877.

What was the Regulator movement that features in Outlander?

Founding fathers: the men who made America

Black rights activist Malcolm X

Malcolm X: Activism, assassination and how he predicted his own death

Andrew Roberts (Photo by Helen Atkinson)

Secrets of war leadership

The Battle of Bunker Hill

From Scots Highlanders to German soldiers: the Europeans who fought on both sides of the War of American Independence

An Art Deco mechanical valentine (moving the cape causes the arms to move up and down) from the 1930s. (Photo by Alan Mays)

'Vinegar Valentines': 9 surprisingly dark Valentine's Day cards from the past

Confronting evils.

Confronting evils

Bottle of 'love potion'

General ancient history

Spanish fly, holy bread and mashed worms: history's weirdest aphrodisiacs and love potions

Charles Manson stares out from fabric on sale in San Francisco

The afterlife of Charles Manson