November 2020

Expert history articles from the November 2020 issue of BBC History Magazine

Claudia Jones at the Brixton offices of 'The West Indian Gazette'

Britain’s black trailblazers: 7 pioneers who changed British history

A policewoman gives directions to tourists in London in the 1920s.

“Sherlock Holmes in skirts”: the world’s first policewomen

Young Belgian refugees wave a British flag during celebrations for Belgian National Day in London during the First World War

First World War

Belgian refugees in WW1 Britain: were they welcome guests?

An allegory of France in 1870

Franco-Prussian War: the conflict that plunged Europe into a nightmare

Neil Oliver

General ancient history

Life lessons from history: Neil Oliver on searching the ancient past for timeless wisdom

A near-contemporary depiction of the 14th-century English monk, mathematician and astronomer Richard of Wallingford. Monks were among the leading scientific practitioners during the medieval period. (Photo by Bridgeman)

The genius of medieval science: from medicine to mechanical clocks

Afua Hirsh with her ‘Enslaved’ co-presenters Simcha Jacobovici and Samuel L Jackson

Afua Hirsch on tracing the story of the transatlantic slave trade