December 2013

Articles from the December 2013 issue of BBC History Magazine

Elizabeth of York has been overshadowed by more vigorous, proactive queens – unfairly so, in the eyes of Alison Weir. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Elizabeth of York: a Tudor of rare talent

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What if JFK had lived?

Illustration by Jonty Clark.

Ye Olde Travel Guide: Ballarat 1854

Simon Thurley at Cromford Mills in Derbyshire. It was here, in 1771, that Richard Arkwright set up his first water-powered mills, "bringing people to a single place where they could be organised into an efficient workforce". (BBC History commissioned portrait by Mike Abrahams)

History Explorer: the rise of the factory

Sport offered the two sides the perfect stage on which to get one over on the 'enemy', says Dominic Sandbrook. Pictured here is a queue for a football match between Arsenal and Dynamo Moscow. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The Cold War in your living room

An effigy of Henry III, king of England between 1207 and 1272, on his tomb in Westminster Abbey. (Angelo Hornak/Corbis via Getty Images)

The Plantagenet royal dynasty: England’s ultimate family drama

"Nobody could have held their nerve in Normandy like Monty did," says Al Murray of the wartime general. (Photo by Mark Kauffman/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Second World War

My history hero: Bernard Montgomery

Hamo Thornycroft's 1901 statue of King Alfred the Great in Winchester. Acknowledging the good fortune played a role in Alfred's reign is important, says Alex Burghart, "as it reveals just how fragile the conditions were that surrounded the birth of England." (Photo by RDImages/Epics/Getty Images)

Alfred the Great: do we overplay his ‘greatness’?

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, whose assassination prompted the outbreak of the First World War. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

First World War

Books interview: Margaret MacMillan on the First World War

John and Jackie Kennedy shaking hands with a crowd. Jackie continued to fight her husband's corner after his death, says Mark White. (Photo by Art Rickerby/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

JFK: style over substance?