General Modern

Confronting evils.

Confronting evils

GettyImages-187574416-2-2edce12

A history of Valentine’s Day celebrations – from fertility festivals to the first cards

The Battle of Lepanto between Holy League soldiers and Ottoman troops

The battle of Lepanto: when Ottoman forces clashed with Christians

A replica of the Koh-i-Noor in Bangalore in 2002

Desired, stolen, cursed: the history of the Koh-i-Noor diamond

Podcast Mary Beard Transcript

A history of nakedness in art: Mary Beard on her new BBC series Shock of the Nude

John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon

Does history show that age affects US presidents’ performance? Plus, how old is too old?

Historian Mary Beard at the Oxford Literary Festival 2019. (Photo by David Levenson/Getty Images)

Mary Beard on the nude in western art

Democratic presidential candidates Birch Bayh, Jimmy Carter, Fred R Harris, Milton Shapp take on the press during the Iowa Democratic Caucus on 11 January 1976. (Photo by NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)

A brief history of the US Democratic Party

Members of the royal family at an event marking the centenary of the Royal Air Force. (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)

Opposing the royals: a brief history of republicanism in Britain

Portrait of John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan (Lord Lucan), who disappeared in 1974 following a bloody homicide

The curious case of Lord Lucan + 10 other mysterious disappearances from history

Virus H1N1

Could flu really kill thousands again?

Richard Nixon resigns

A brief history of presidential impeachment

Illustation of a pope

Holy smoke, antipopes and power struggles: a guide to popes and the papacy

Queen Victoria with Prince Albert and their children in 1846. After a painting by F Winterhalter. Victoria’s husband, Albert, “carved out for the crown a moral kind of authority as the nation’s first and model family,” says Sarah Gristwood. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

Retaining the royals: why has the British monarchy survived – and thrived?

American socialite Wallis Simpson

The vilification of Wallis Simpson: how Edward VIII’s mistress was savaged by society