December 2014

Articles from the December 2014 issue of BBC History Magazine

British former field marshal Douglas Haig, inspects poppies before Armistice Day, October 1922. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

First World War

Remembering the First World War: blood, poppies and poetry

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A Grand National Union Banner depicting president Abraham Lincoln and his running mate Andrew Johnson

Lincoln: The vote that saved America

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Michael Wood on Alexander the Great

View of a sham fight on the Serpentine, Hyde Park, London, 1814

The year when fear of Napoleon stalked the land

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Cover of the Voyages Extraordinaires series by the French science fiction writer Jules Verne.

The phantom menace: 10 milestones in science fiction

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Sam’s historical recipe corner: Wassail punch

An 18th-century marble relief depicting Julius Caesar invading Britain by John Deare, a British neo-classical sculptor. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

General prehistory

Geoffrey of Monmouth: The lost voice of ancient Britain

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British statesman and writer Winston Churchill, aged 26. Photograph by Elliott & Fry. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

Books interview with Boris Johnson: “Churchill was a tremendous bully in some ways, but we needed a bully”

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One of the statues of Ramesses II at Luxor temple, which is "a wonderful place to spend a few hours". (Getty)

My favourite place: Luxor, Egypt

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A portrait of Charles II, by 17th-century painter John Michael Wright

History explorer: The Restoration

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Pliny the Elder depicted in a mid-12th century miniature, writing and giving his book to Roman emperor Vespasian. (Photo by Photo12/UIG/Getty Images)

My history hero: Pliny the Elder (AD 23–79)

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Malcolm X chats with Eric Abrahams – the Oxford Union president who vowed to “fill the room with blacks” – before giving his famous address on 3 December 1964. (Getty)

Malcolm X in Oxford: Black power amid dreaming spires

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Elizabeth Cromwell, from an engraving published in 1800 by W Richardson. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Oliver Cromwell’s shadowy queen

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