10 Downing Street, the residence of the prime minister of the United Kingdom. (Photo by Getty Images)

Politics

The 1832 Reform Act made wide-ranging changes to the British electoral system, creating 67 new constituencies, disenfranchising 56 boroughs and reducing another 31 to a single MP. (The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

When the people spoke: the Great Reform Act.

Abraham Lincoln in 1863. The 16th president of the United States "understood the value of hard work, had deep beliefs and pursued them," says Alastair Campbell. (Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

My history hero: Abraham Lincoln (1809–65).

Winston Churchill, former prime minister of the United Kingdom, gives his 'victory' sign while making a polling day tour of his constituency during an election. (Getty Images)

Are these the most overrated people in history?.

A vintage map of Europe. One of the hardest things for small nations to accept is that they're not in control over their own destinies, says Mark Mazower. (Getty Images)

The LibraryA little history of the world: the importance of small states in global politics.

Abraham Lincoln: 5 facts

Ernest Bevin

My history hero: Ernest Bevin (1881-1951).

Clarence Harry Willcock MP, who refused to show his identity card to a policeman, 13 June 1951. (Photo by Walter Bellamy/Express/Getty Images)

My history hero: Clarence Willcock.

A second petition of 800,000 signatures, protesting against the abolition of the basic petrol ration, being presented to the House of Commons, 10 December 1947. (Photo by Harry Todd/Fox Photos/Getty Images)

E-petitions: in the name of the people?

Douglas Haig (right) watches the stamping of poppies by ex-servicemen, during a visit to the British Legion poppy factory in Richmond, 22 October 1926. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

The LibraryDouglas Haig: a postwar revolutionary?.

Vasily Grossman with the Red Army in Schwerin, Germany, 1945. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

A war of words.

Hans Litten (centre) in court while representing communists, 25 August 1932. Litten’s decision to subpoena Hitler a year earlier was to cost him his life. (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Hitler in the dock.

Schoolchildren helping workmen construct a new estate of pre-fabricated houses in Watford, Hertfordshire in 1946 following the devastation of the Second World War. (Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images)

Postwar squatters: a very British uprising.

Sir Alec Clegg was the founder of Bretton Hall College (pictured), a West Yorkshire college specialising in arts and performance. (Photo by Memitina/Getty Images)

My history hero: Sir Alec Clegg (1909-86).

The surprisingly long history of humanity's political development

Does Russia need an iron fist?.

My history hero: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938).

A big day in history: the debate on whether Britain should join the European Community.

Lincoln’s British enemies.

Two women from South America. Six centuries ago South American civilisations matched the west in some respects. (Getty Images)

The wonder of the west

Communist sport: Cold War copycats.

Burma: Why its military dictatorship still survives

The 19th-century political and social theorist Karl Marx; co-author (with Friedrich Engels) of The Communist Manifesto (1848). (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

My history hero: Karl Marx (1818–83).

A 'poster parade' of Ealing suffragettes advertising a meeting to be held on Ealing Common, 1 June 1912. (Photo by Museum of London/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

9 historical sites linked to the suffragettes movement.

Dandy Gandhi to naked Fakir: the Indian leader's revolutionary dress code.

A portrait of Winston Churchill

'Ask your father': the general election of 1945.

British soldier, explorer and big game hunter Frederick Selous, pictured in 1914. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The hunter who became a naturalist.

BBC History Magazine

The Red Flag

A statue of Lenin in Germany being removed from its plinth to be demolished. (Photo by Régis BOSSU/Sygma via Getty Images)

Looking back at The End of History

BBC History Magazine

Pistols at Dawn

Medieval petitions and 17th-century astronomers.