Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

Benin Bronzes at the British Museum In London

What are the Benin Bronzes and why are they important? Explore the significance of the controversial treasures

Thomas Crapper started a plumbing business in Chelsea in 1861 and pioneered some of the most revolutionary designs of sanitary engineering in the 19th century – but he didn't 'invent' the toilet

The legend of Thomas Crapper, the man who didn't invent the toilet

A phantasmagoria by Belgian entertainer Etienne-Gaspard Robert, whose stage name was Etienne Robertson, 1797. (Photo by Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Phantasmagoria: creating the ‘ghosts’ of the Enlightenment.

Brazilian peacekeepers under UN command in Haiti during general election 2006

When should countries intervene in others’ affairs?

Illustration representing various empires across history

General ancient history

Have empires ever been a force for good?

An architectural grotesque of a woman displaying her vulva

How naughty was the past? The hidden depths of the medieval church

Robespierre’s brutal downfall.

How should we teach the slave trade?.

Building utopia after WW1.

Portraits, power and royal wigs.

Meeting in Tenochtitlan between Hernan Cortes

Two worlds collide: Spanish conquistadors and Aztecs

The transformation of India’s glamorous golden couple.

Women munition workers stacking a reserve of shell castings during WWI

Young guns: the women and children of WW1 munitions factories.

Emma Dabiri"William Cuffay's story is more relevant now than ever".

A hard-fought history of trespass.

LectureNiall Ferguson on the politics of catastrophe.

Q&A: What was the punishment of being ‘burnt in the hand’?.

Olympic history: everything you wanted to know.

Why were the Georgians fixated with fatness?.

Crown Prince Olav on his ice yacht (Getty Images)

From Hollywood to war heroes: 10 Olympians who were more famous outside sport.

Jesse Owens sprinting on a track at the Berlin Olympics.

A history of unsporting conduct at the Olympics.

The slave trade: a family history.

Chernobyl nuclear power plant a few weeks after the disaster

What was the Chernobyl Disaster?

Queen Elizabeth I dancing with Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Artist unknown. (© Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library/Alamy)

Tudor tunes: music at the courts of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and James VI and I

Should they stand or fall? The great statue debate.

Everything you wanted to know about the church in medieval England – Nicholas Orme podcast

The church in medieval England: everything you wanted to know.

Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier’s painting portrays the Declaration of the Rights of Man

How progressive was the French Revolution?

A late 18th-century painting depicting the execution of Marie Antoinette in 1793. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The smile revolution against the Reign of Terror.

Camille and Lucile Desmoulins

How the architects of the 'Terror' after the French Revolution ended up among its victims.

The vanquishers of the Bastille before the Hôtel de Ville, 14 July 1789. Found in the Collection of Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

What triggered the French Revolution?.