Christmas 2017

Articles from the Christmas 2017 issue of BBC History Magazine

Outbreaks of dance mania saw sufferers foaming at the mouth and trying to beat demons out of their bodies with sticks. (Photo by The Granger Collection/Alamy Stock Photo)

The medieval dance of death

A portrait of Charles Dickens. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

My history hero: Charles Dickens

From The Library

An aerial image of Maiden Castle, site of Britain's largest hillfort. (Photo by Robert Harding/Getty Images)

History explorer: life in the Iron Age

From The Library

Illustration by Lynn Hatzius

Britain’s Bonnie and Clyde

From The Library

A portrait of Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln’s funniest jokes

From The Library

The ruins of the Canadian port of Halifax in the wake of the explosion in December 1917. Almost 2,000 people were killed and 9,000 injured when two ships collided at the height of the First World War. (Photo by Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images)

First World War

Catastrophe in Canada

From The Library

Alfred the Great “managed to ensure history’s enduring affection by making sure that he wrote it himself,” argues Max Adams. (Photo by Granger Historical Picture Archive/Alamy Stock Photo)

Alfred the Great: a reappraisal

A British soldier uses a searchlight to spot German aircraft during the Second World War. Britain has lived with the fear of invasion for several centuries, a fact reflected in its architecture, its art and its people’s mental health. (Photo by David Savill/Getty Images)

The island fortress fallacy

From The Library

A portrait of Benjamin Franklin. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

How to negotiate an exit

From The Library

Richard II sails down the Thames to Greenwich to meet the rebels. (Photo by Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo)

Why did the peasants really revolt?

From The Library

A view over Yaoundé, Cameroon

My favourite place: Yaoundé, Cameroon