Period

Q&AWere vampires buried with a stake through their heart?

A painting of Lisbon depicts conspicuous displays of Portuguese imperial wealth and power – including enslaved African people

How slavery thrived in Renaissance Europe

General History

The history rich list: the 10 wealthiest people ever

Antony Beevor on the Russian revolution.

A customer shops for a pistol at Freddie Bear Sports sporting goods store in Tinley Park, Illinois

The historians’ view: what are the real issues in the US gun control debate?.

Eliza Acton: Britain’s first modern cookery writer.

Persian courtiers in the throne room at Persepolis, as depicted in a relief detail.

Persepolis: the creation of the Persian empire’s foremost citadel.

Jack Lowden as Siegfried Sassoon in Terence Davies’ feature film Benediction.

First World War

Benediction: a case of Sassoon the man v Sassoon the legend

A scene from a relief at Persepolis, ancient Persia’s magnificent ceremonial capital

The Persians: empire of the greats.

Episode 5Change & innovation in 60s Britain.

WW2’s desert war: everything you wanted to know.

Christine de Pizan: from medieval writer to feminist icon.

First World War soldier and poet Siegfried Sassoon In uniform

First World War

Poetry and protestWW1 poet Siegfried Sassoon

The effigy of King John on his tomb in Worcester Cathedral

Your guide to King John, the monarch who issued Magna Carta

Episode 3A militarised state?.

A legacy of inequality: the economic impact of empire.

A lodger disputes his bill with his landlady in this 1812 print by Thomas Rowlandson

What was it like being a renter in Georgian London?.

Irish people demonstrate in Downing Street in London in 1921. The partition of Ireland between the six north-eastern counties and the rest of Ireland took place on 3 May 1921 under the Government of Ireland Act 1920

A brief history of the partition of Ireland

Aerial view of Piccadilly Circus in London.

London history quizTest your knowledge.

Stasi poets: creative writing & the Cold War.

Firemen tackling a blitz fire at St Paul's Cathedral, London

Second World War

WW2 timeline: 20 important dates and milestones you need to know

A drawing depicting a German monoplane dropping bombs on Paris during the First World War

First World War

Creating fake Paris: how one man built a mock city to fool WW1 German bombers

The Great Seal of the Commonwealth of England

The Interregnum: Britain's republican decade.

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, at dusk

9 places where British astronomy flourished.

Cathedrals: from bishops' seats to tourist hotspots.

Portrait of James, Duke of Monmouth, the 36-year-old illegitimate son of Charles II. (Photo by Alamy)

England's greatest royal rebel: why the Duke of Monmouth was a 17th-century hero.

The Restoration: everything you wanted to know.

Eurovision: a political history.

A modern image depicts Caratacus attending a tribunal in Rome, having been captured by Claudius’ soldiers in Britain

Who were the rebels of Roman Britain?.

Episode 2Life in the late imperial age.