Social history

Soldiers from the Women's Royal Army Corps

Second World War

A brief guide to VE Day

A Red Cross worker in the United States, 1918

Spanish flu: the virus that changed the world

Women 'take the air' in an attempt to ward off the Spanish Flu

First World War

“Far too little, too late”: what happened when Spanish Flu hit Britain?

Madame Tussaud's exhibition at Baker Street, London. But who was her first waxwork? (Photo by Bettmann, via Getty Images)

Q&A Who was Madame Tussaud’s first waxwork?

St David painting in stained glass window, Ceredigion, UK. Exact date unknown. (Photo by David Angel/Alamy Stock Photo)

16 things you (probably) didn’t know about St David’s Day traditions

Black and white photo of a group of women marching while holding a sign saying 'International Women's Day'

A brief history of International Women’s Day: what is it and why do we celebrate it?

Amelia Earhart, Princess Diana, Emmeline Pankhurst, Rosa Parks and Marie Curie. (Photo by Getty Images)

20 inspirational quotes from women through history for International Women’s Day

The 'Iron Duke' steam locomotive with railway workers

The history of railways in Britain: from the first steam trains to the rail revolution

Though green dominates the celebrations today, the colour blue was first associated with St Patrick. The earliest depictions of the saint show him in blue garments, as in this 13th century folio, La Vie des Sains. ( Image ©The British Library Board/Leemage / Bridgeman Images)

A brief history of St. Patrick’s Day

Charles Dickens used his novels as a platform from which to attack the injustices that he believed blighted 19th-century Britain. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images)

6 articles about… the Victorian era

Victorian surgeon Robert Liston during an operation

An appointment at the house of death: the horror of the early Victorian hospital

Terracotta plaque which is believed to show the poet Sappho rejecting an amorous advance by her contemporary who is also from the island of Lesbos. (Photo by Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)

From Sappho to It’s a Sin: 9 LGBT+ histories, chosen by experts

The Featherington sisters (played by Nichola Coughlan, Harriet Cains and Polly Walker) curtsey to Queen Charlotte in Netflix series ‘Bridgerton’ as part of their debutante debut. (Photo by LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX © 2020)

From balls to Bridgerton: a brief history of debutantes and the social season

Graham Hutchings discusses how China was convulsed by the communist revolution of 1949. (Image by Getty Images)

Chaos & communism: China’s 1949 revolution

An Athenian red-figure kylix (cup) dating from around 510–500 BC depicts a young pentathlete pulling his older lover towards him for a kiss. In many of the city-states of ancient Greece, sex between a man and a youth was an accepted – even idealised – form of love, its virtues extolled in works by writers including Plato. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

General ancient history

Pride and prejudice: same-sex relations through history