October 2019

Expert history articles from the October 2019 issue of BBC History Magazine

A portrait of Russian empress Catherine the Great

Hypocrite, reactionary, usurper, sex maniac: is Catherine the Great’s reputation justified?

Jan Žižka, the general whose peasant army defied the Holy Roman Empire in the 1420s.

Christ’s communists: the radical religious sect that challenged the Holy Roman Empire

Chancellor Adolf Hitler with President Paul von Hindenburg, Berlin, 1 May 1933

Second World War

Hitler’s millionaire backers: how Germany’s elite facilitated the rise of the Nazis

Sir Max Hastings. (Image by Fran Monks for BBC History Magazine)

Second World War

Sir Max Hastings: “While the Dambuster raid’s strategic impact was almost nil, its propaganda value was immense”

Elizabeth I shown in the Darnley portrait of c1575 and (right) the French king Henri III. (Images by Alamy/Getty Images)

Henri III: Elizabeth I’s unlikely ally

Crusaders defeat the Turks at Dorylaeum in 1097, as shown in a 14th-century illumination

Crusaders: did they fight for God or gold?

St Mary's Church is revered as one of England's greatest architectural achievements. (Image by Alamy)

Explore A masterpiece of Gothic grandeur: the Church of St Mary, Warwick

Akershus Festning in Oslo, Norway

Travel Explore Oslo, Norway: Myths, Munch and fjord-side strolls

Amelia Earhart, who became the first woman to fly non-stop across the Atlantic in 1932. (Image by Bettmann/Getty Images)

My history hero Amelia Earhart (1897–1937)