Period

Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall. (BBC Pictures)

Does historical accuracy really matter in period dramas like Wolf Hall?.

St Basil's Cathdral, Moscow. (Photo by Dreamstime)

The spy who changed the Cold War.

Plaza de Armas in historic center of Cusco, Peru

ExploreCusco, Peru: Navel of the Incan world.

Crowds march through the streets of Chicago to hear Martin Luther King speak at the Illinois Rally for Civil Right on 21 June 1964

Seymour Hersh on the US civil rights movement and the Vietnam War.

The remains of a 1940 naval battle in Narvik, Norway – several battles between German and Norwegian forces took place in the Ofotfjord in the spring of 1940. (Photo by Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images)

The Navy and the battle for Britain in 1940.

Men sealing cases of Rowntree’s Elect Cocoa, York, Yorkshire, 1893. (Photo by Borthwick Institute/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Chocolate and empire: from the land where the cocoa grows.

Queen Victoria by Lucy Worsley.

Catholics massacre Protestants in Ulster in a contemporary illustration

10 great misconceptions of the Civil War.

US soldiers man a machine gun post in the Argonne Forest, during the Meuse-Argonne offensive, 1918. (Photo by US Army Signal Corps/American Stock/Getty Images)

'Foch's Grand Offensive': the biggest battle you've never heard of.

A statue of Robert the Bruce at Stirling Castle in Scotland. The castle "is in many ways like a bottleneck – so much of Scottish and British history passes through it and goes off to its eventual destination,” says Neil Oliver. (Photo by Iain Masterton via Getty Images)

BBC presenter Neil Oliver on his top 5 must-visit places in Britain.

Neil Oliver. (Photo by Bill Osment)

Neil Oliver’s history of the British Isles.

A counting of goats and rams in cuneiform script, ancient Ngirsu, Iraq, 2360 BC. (DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images)

Cuneiform: 6 things you (probably) didn’t know about the world’s oldest writing system

A depiction of HMS Endeavour off the coast of New Holland, by Samuel Atkins c1794. (Photo by UtCon Collection / Alamy Stock Photo)

5 facts about Captain Cook’s HMS Endeavour

A Battle of Britain type 'scramble', circa 1940. An improved Spitfire is pushed onto the runway by a group of pilots from the squadron. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The good war?.

The entrance to Bodiam Castle. "If any castle conjures up the ‘romance’ of the mediaeval world, this is it," says Michael Smith. (Photo by Andrew Ray/LOOP IMAGES via Getty Images)

From magnificent ruins to imposing forts: 10 must-visit British castles

Henry III (1207-72), king from 1216 until his death. Image c1250. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

10 things you (probably) didn’t know about Henry III

The Bayeux Tapestry depicts scenes of the Norman conquest of England in 1066. To characterise the English response in 1066 as "deliberately acquiescing" is a little hard on our 11th-century compatriots, says Professor George Garnett. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Did English leaders “deliberately acquiesce” to foreign rule in 1066?

Sam Willis and James Daybell. (Photo by David Hampton for BBC History Magazine)

The extraordinary history of ordinary things.

Professor Kathleen Burk and Simon Jenkins discuss Jenkins's new book, 'A Short History of Europe'. (Photo by David Hampton for BBC World Histories magazine)

Simon Jenkins and Kathleen Burk on the history of Europe.

So, you want to study history? Top tips from a graduate

Great wars were started by young men with “jangling hormones”, argues Simon Jenkins

A half-hour history of Europe.

An illustration showing the last moments of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the explorer, soldier and half-brother of Sir Walter Ralegh. (Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

The Tudor guide to colonising the world.

Ian Hislop (Photo by J.Fernandes/D.Hubbard © Trustees of the British Museum)

Dissent through the centuries.

A battle of Flodden memorial statue of one of the Hawick Callants on horseback, raising the captured banner aloft in triumph. Hawick, Roxburghshire, Scotland. (Getty Images)

History explorer: the battle of Flodden.

Studying in Venice was a course highlight for our deputy editor, Charlotte Hodgkin. (Image by Getty Images)

Study history: Lessons from abroad

Equestrian statue of Robert E. Lee, Richmond (Photo by Library of Congress)

Who should we commemorate?.

Historians Joanne Paul, Olivette Otele and June Purvis dissect the results of our recent poll: 100 women who changed the world.

Video: 100 women who changed the world.

Brazil's oldest museum was gutted by a fire that destroyed most of the 20 million artefacts it housed. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

Brazil's National Museum fire in context

A fourth to fifth-century AD Roman mosaic shows a woman spinning. The household was considered a woman's natural environment; the political arena certainly was not. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

6 women who changed the course of Roman history