21st Century

Expert history articles and analysis about the global events of the 21st century…

The rise and fall of Britain’s motor city.

Dan Jones on 1,000 years of British history.

The big questions of women’s history.

An illustration of a 17th century plague doctor

Fake historyHunting down false facts about the past.

Crafting historical weapons for Wolf Hall and The Witcher.

The women who fought back against Hollywood.

The NHS: a brief history.

Supporters of Donald Trump protest in Pennsylvania as the state’s electoral college casts its votes, December 2020

The constitutional crisis behind 2021's presidential transition.

Editor’s pick: Ian Kershaw on postwar Europe.

Brexit’s long historical roots.

Professor Robert Tombs, Fellow of French history at St John's College

"Both sides of the Brexit debate have got things wrong about our history": Robert Tombs on Britain's complex relationship with Europe.

Gary Oldman plays Winston Churchill in the 2018 Oscar winner 'Darkest Hour'.

Think pieceOur dangerous devotion to the Second World War.

Rege-Jean Page as Simon Basset and Phoebe Dynevor as Daphne Bridgerton

Bridgerton season one: “A period drama like no other”

2020: the historians’ verdict.

2020: The historians’ verdict.

In pictures: 150 years of the British Red Cross.

The British royal family at the Queen's annual birthday parade 2019

A brief guide to the British royal family, by The Crown’s historian Robert Lacey

Princess Anne and Queen Elizabeth II

In profile: Princess Anne, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II

Covid-19 saw the UK’s universities, such as the University of Glasgow (above), cancel in-person teaching. The logistics of teaching and studying during the pandemic are proving complex. (Photo by Dreamstime)

How Covid-19 is forcing universities to change

If you’re interested in learning about history at home, there are plenty of short courses available online on a variety of topics. (Photo by Getty Images)

How to become a history student at home.

Hiring more black academics “to teach all sorts of histories” is key to instigating real change in university history education, lecturer Charlotte Lydia Riley argues. (Photo by Shutterstock)

How can we improve diversity within history education?.

London during the Blitz - the systematic night-time bombing of the British by the Luftwaffe in 1940 - 1941. (Photo by Getty Images)

Rationing, school closures and 'Blitz spirit': how did people cope in WW2?.

US President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference. (Photo by Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Donald Trump: a president without precedent?.

The then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump taking part in the final presidential debate at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, 19 October 2016. Trump repeatedly claimed that the election was “rigged” against him. (Photo by Joe Raedle/AFP/Getty Images)

A brief history of election “rigging” in the United States.

Huge sun setting over power lines and palm trees in California. (Photo by Getty Images)

California’s century of change.

Japanese school girls wear protective masks to guard against the influenza outbreak, February 1920. (Photo by Getty Images)

A history of pandemics: from Spanish Flu to Covid-19.

Mel Gibson in a scene from the film 'Braveheart'

Good drama, bad history: 11 historically inaccurate films you need to watch

A mushroom cloud produced by the explosion of a hydrogen bomb during Operation Ivy, an American nuclear test that took place in 1952. (SSPL/Getty Images)

How have nuclear weapons shaped global politics? 10 key moments in the post-war atomic world.

Working mothers.

Britain and the slave trade.