October 2019

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

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

A portrait of Russian empress Catherine the Great

Catherine the Great: Hypocrite, reactionary, usurper, sex maniac?

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)