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Were the Victorians the luckiest people in history?

The hidden history behind Mount Rushmore. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portrait of Juana Ines de le Cruz in a banner for the 'life of the week' HistoryExtra podcast series.

Juana Inés de la Cruz: life of the week. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A monochrome woodcut-style illustration of a small camp. Several conical tents stand in the background. In the foreground, three people are engaged in different tasks: one person carries a large bundle on their back, another kneels beside a small fire as if cooking or tending it, and a third lies on the ground wrapped in a blanket, appearing to rest. The scene emphasises daily life and work within the camp

Inside Britain's first refugee camp: a 300-year history of immigration. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The forgotten wars that redefined Europe. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A group of boys from the BBC adaptation of Lord of the Flies stand in tall grass on a tropical island, some holding sharpened wooden spears. Their clothes and faces are smeared with dirt, and they look ahead with wary, hardened expressions, palm trees and a rocky outcrop rising behind them.

What inspired the darkness of Lord of the Flies? The disturbing history behind the novel

A photograph showing a white llama grazing on the grass alongside a tall stone marble statue of a bust of man. In the background is a lake, several trees and a brown llama laying on the ground

I’ve just been to Europe’s weirdest theme park – and came face to face with Josef Stalin. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 4Does Magna Carta matter today?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Statue of Queen Victoria with a humorous added cartoon smile and speech bubble reading “We are amused.”

Think the Victorians were prudes? Their filthiest jokes will shock you

A whimsical, detailed drawing of a person with curly hair and glasses standing on a wooden platform, holding a magnifying glass and pointing toward a stream of long paper scrolls. The scrolls flow from a large, fantastical machine on the right, built from gears, pulleys, tubes, and compartments. Several gloved hands emerge from the machine, performing tasks such as ironing, cleaning, inserting coins, and feeding paper into different mechanisms. The scene suggests a playful, surreal process of sorting or transforming information, with papers looping, curling, and cascading between the person and the machine

"Forget AI – never has the role of the historian been more urgent". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration of Hannibal leading soldiers and war elephants across snowy Alpine mountains during his campaign against Rome.

General ancient history

Have archaeologists just found proof of ancient Carthage's legendary anti-Roman war weapon?

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History crossword20 February. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Slavery in the Islamic world. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Composite image featuring a portrait of Winston Churchill over scenes of the Nuremberg Trials and soldiers carrying out wartime executions.

Second World War

Before the Nuremberg Trials, this was Winston Churchill’s shocking plan for Nazi war criminals

A section of the Bayeux Tapestry showing several mounted Norman figures riding left across the scene. The men wear simple tunics and carry spears; their horses are stylised with patterned manes. On the right, a nobleman holds a falcon on his gloved hand, indicating a falconry scene. Decorative animals and small trees fill the border, and a line of Latin text runs above the figures.

Is the Bayeux Tapestry in "mortal danger"? I think that's the wrong question to ask

"She was like an angel – albeit one with claws": Zandra Rhodes chooses Adel Rootstein (1930–62) as her history hero. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Roman mosaic showing two children in tunics, one running and the other holding a small animal, set against a blue patterned background.

This ordinary ancient Roman object is still used today – and has hardly changed

"It was the greatest act of violence for 66 million years": why the modern world was born of bloodshed. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The real women behind Europe's greatest legends. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Composite image showing a portrait of a Nazi leader overlaid with handwritten documents and a concentration camp entrance with railway tracks.

How Nazi investigators used secret tools to create Hitler’s Holocaust ‘hitlist’. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 5Chevalier D’Eon | A cross-dressing 18th-century CELEBRITY spy?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Thomas Edison: life of the week. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Why Rome fell. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Following the footsteps of a WW2 prisoner of war. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A modern illustration shows a man dressed in a grey and red hooded outfit, knelt on the ground with a wooden bucket behind him and a lit lantern in front of him. He is shovelling a pile of poo

Think your job is bad? These 17 occupations from the past were much, much worse. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Episode 3Magna Carta: why didn't King John keep his word?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Ancient Egyptian wall painting showing a seated scribe writing on a papyrus scroll,.

General ancient history

3,100 years ago, ancient Egyptian workers defeated a God-King – without using any weapons

A digital collage featuring a Victorian-era woman in formal dress at the centre. Behind her are layered images including industrial smokestacks, ornate patterns, playing cards, and text from the book “The Mabinogion” by Lady Charlotte Guest. The overall style blends historical portraiture with abstract and industrial elements.

10 children and 12,000 pieces of art: the remarkable life of Lady Charlotte Schreiber. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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History crossword13 February. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Toilets through time, from sponges on sticks to medieval privies. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.