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20th Century

The LibraryIan Kershaw on the trials of writing modern history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Charles de Gaulle reconsidered. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A First World War silk screened poster c1918 showing a frightening German soldier holding a bloodied bayonet. Caption reads: "Beat back the Hun with Liberty Bonds". (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

First World War

Why did the Allies call Germans 'Huns' during World War I?

Britons under Nazi rule podcast

Britons under Nazi rule. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Nurses serve lunch to patients at a Birmingham hospital, 1939. (Photo by Humphrey Spender/Picture Post/Getty Images)

What was healthcare like in Britain before the NHS?

Composite image of famous women: Cleopatra, Marie Curie, Mary Wollstonecraft, Madame CJ Walker, Jane Austen, Emmeline Pankhurst, Ethel Smyth, the Virgin Mary, Rosa Parks, Frida Kahlo, Diana, Princess of Wales, Amelia Earhart.

100 women who changed the world

Jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis, shown here in 1969, was central to the story of jazz. (Photo by Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images)

My history hero: Miles Davis (1926–91). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Australian PoWs in a camp at the Sumatran city of Pekanbaru, c1945. More than 80,000 forced labourers, including PoWs, died during the construction of Sumatran railway, most the victims of disease, starvation and maltreatment. (Photo by State Library of Victoria)

The Sumatran Railway: the forgotten death railway. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The ‘Princes in the Tower’: Edward V and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York, disappeared in mysterious circumstances following the death of their father, King Edward IV. (The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

6 notorious unsolved crimes from history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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

Remembering the First World War: blood, poppies and poetry. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Allied soldiers with captured prisoners of war after the battle of Amiens during the First World War, 1918. (Photo by Authenticated News/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Remembering the battle of Amiens. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Britain’s foreign policy secrets. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Podcast with Jonathan Ruffle

The Tommies' final acts. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Rethinking 20th-century Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A photograph of Nelson Mandela. Peter Hain told the History Extra podcast about the South African leader’s remarkable achievements in the face of tremendous adversity. (Photo by Allan Tannenbaum/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)

Peter Hain on Nelson Mandela: “A symbol for good leadership in the world”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Nelson Mandela podcast

Nelson Mandela’s extraordinary life. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Nelson Mandela

Mandela: the 20th century’s greatest leader?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The murder of the Romanovs. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

People approach the VI Lenin Stadium, now known as the Luzhniki Stadium, in Moscow, in 1956. (Photo by James Whitmore/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images)

The history of Luzhniki Stadium, home of the 2018 football World Cup final. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Britain’s refugee camps. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

With its huge bell and five-storey pagoda, Sensoji Temple is one of Tokyo's most popular –and venerable – landmarks. (Photo by Mike Hewitt - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

My favourite place: Tokyo, Japan

Historian David Edgerton. (Photographed by Fran Monks for BBC History Magazine)

Books interview with David Edgerton: "We need to tackle British history as we would the turbulent story of Germany”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Welsh Labour politician Aneurin Bevan making a speech on the freedom of the press at a meeting of the National Council of Civil Liberties at Central Hall, Westminster, London, in 1942. (Photo by Kurt Hutton/Picture Post/Getty Images)

My history heroTanni Grey-Thompson chooses Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Sarah Churchwell and Adam IP Smith in conversation

Behold, America: Sarah Churchwell in conversation. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

National debt podcast

The national debt dilemma. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Troops in Korea, c1951. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

Forging alliances: Britain and the US in the Korean War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Restoring women’s voices. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Mona Baptiste, a Trinidad-born blues singer

“London is the place for me”: David Olusoga on the Windrush generation. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A councillor and architects discuss plans for the Moss Heights development in Glasgow, 1953. Proponents of high-rise flats believed that they would provide

The LibraryHave high-rises ever been the answer to our housing woes?

Vera Brittain, who worked as a nurse during the First World War and went on to become one of the leading writers of the interwar years. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Love, loss and distorted memories. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.