Social history

Soldiers drafted in to work during a coal porters’ strike in London, shovelling coal

The Great Unrest: what caused the industrial action of 1911–14?

Postal workers at a rally outside the houses of parliament, December 2022 and (right) ambulance staff march through London, 1979

Britain’s century of strikes: the history behind today’s industrial action

The Eridge Hunt, Boxing Day 1952

A brief history of Boxing Day

A carving of the Sator Square, 2nd-4th century

General ancient history

Q&A What is the Sator Square, and how old is it?

The House of Commons in Sir Robert Walpole's administration

Your guide to The South Sea Bubble

Cover illustration from Le Petit Journal, 1908, showing Ferdinand I of Bulgaria declaring independence (centre) and Franz Joseph I of Austria Hungary seizing Bosnia and Herzegovina from a forlorn-looking Ottoman sultan, Abdülhamid II (Photo by Archives Charmet / Alamy Images)

Divided they fell: how war, revolution and sectarianism led to the end of the Ottoman empire

Dancers demonstrate the Charleston, c1926. The dance is often associated with ‘flappers’ – newly enfranchised women with bobbed hair, short skirts and supposedly looser morals – and characterised by frenetic up and down movements and swivelling, akimbo limbs. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

Forbidden dances and deadly marathons: 5 facts about the history of dancing

Christmas merriment in an old English manor in the 1500s

How to host a medieval Christmas

A montage of images, including: Ukrainians in Rome protest against the Russian invasion; 2: Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai- shek (right) in 1949, when he retreated to Taiwan; 3: The future Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III, 1950; 4: Former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and prime minister Liz Truss, October 2022

2022: The historians’ view

The characters Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, from Charles Dickens's work 'A Christmas Carol'

Did Charles Dickens invent Christmas as we know it today?

An illustration of the Great Fire of London, c1675. St Paul's Cathedral is seen in flames (Photo by Museum of London/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

What if... The Great Fire of London never happened?

A statue of Thutmose III who, in the second millennium BC, conquered more land than any other pharaoh, ransacking the region for booty and tribute. (Image by AKG Images)

The dark side of ancient Egypt

Perhaps the most charming idea about the origins of the festive tradition of kissing under the mistletoe derives from a Viking myth of Frigg, goddess of love and marriage, and her ill-fated son Balder. (Photo by Jurg Waldmeier/StockFood Creative/Getty Images Plus)

Q&A Why do we kiss under the mistletoe?

American actress Charlotte Cushman and Matilda Hayes

How Georgian and Victorian same-sex couples co-opted marital traditions and made them their own

Pod Sean Connolly WL

General History

The Irish across the globe