Asia

German prisoners of war

Second World War

What would you have done? 6 terrible choices people had to make during the Second World War

New issue World 20 800x530

Issue 20 of BBC World Histories is out now

Elizabeth I preferred thoughtful new year gifts suited to her own tastes such as cloth, personal jewellery and trinkets. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Sobriety, royal presents and Victorian-era musings on failure: an unexpected history of New Year

Rosa Parks rides on a Montgomery bus

From Sutton Hoo to Rosa Parks: 50 giant leaps in history

The destroyer USS Shaw explodes in a massive fireball at Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. The attack led almost immediately to Germany declaring war on America, and so brought Stalin an unexpected ally of colossal potential power, says Laurence Rees. (Bettmann/Getty Images)

Second World War

Why December 1941 was the most important month of the Second World War

(Illustration by Laurie Avon for BBC History Magazine)

37 books for history lovers: BBC History Magazine’s Books of the Year 2019

Three elderly men on a bench in London's Southall, circa 1980. (Photo by Getty Images)

Asians in 1980s Britain

The battleship USS California following the attack at Pearl Harbor

Second World War

12 things you (probably) didn’t know about Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor sparked an aircraft-manufacturing drive – and, for the first time, allowed US women to perform jobs previously held only by men. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Pearl Harbor aftermath: the fallout from the attack

Lord Louis Mountbatten with his fiancee Edwina Ashley in 1922. (Photo by Getty Images)

The Mountbattens: success and scandal

Lauren Bruner and Iyozo Fujita

Second World War

Pearl Harbor: 5 frontline stories from people who were there

Mixed signals: A shortwave radio listening post in California, set up to report and translate broadcasts from Asia. (Photo by AP/Shutterstock)

Second World War

Caught off guard: why didn’t America see Pearl Harbor coming?

A young American woman gazes at a human skull, sent to her by a boyfriend during WW2

Second World War

Opinion: Midway’s treatment of the Japanese enemy highlights the power and limits of empathy

Chinese propaganda poster, c1969. (Photo by Getty images)

Maoism

Maoism

Julia Lovell’s Maoism: A Global History wins 2019 Cundill History Prize