Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

Qing dynasty emperor Kangxi

The voices of China: 5 perspectives on an extraordinary past.

2020: the historians’ verdict.

A helmet from a chieftain's grave in 10th-century Norway. (Images by Getty)

Inside the Viking mind: the view of the Vikings' world from 5 perspectives.

A miller and a donkey

9 things you could do with a medieval ass.

Ten things to do with a medieval donkey.

Hunting down the Portland Spy Ring.

The gay MPs who opposed appeasement.

Edward Jenner

Q&AWhen did medical practitioners start to be called ‘doctor’?

David Olusoga“The Victorians constructed a great empire of abstinence”.

Cundill Prize-winner Camilla Townsend on global history.

One of the burial mounds at Sutton Hoo

How dark were the Dark Ages?.

This 15th-century painting from a manuscript shows men fishing in a river. In medieval England, eels were both meals and de facto currency. (Photo by Bridgeman)

Fishing for gold: how eels powered the medieval economy

Almond Hedgehog: A debonair addition to the hostess’s armoury in the Georgian period. (Illustration by Clair Rossiter for BBC History Magazine)

What was the best meal in history?.

Jane Austen's fiction: an accurate portrayal of life in Georgian England?.

The International Brigades: fighting fascism in Spain.

The Glorious Revolution: everything you wanted to know.

This engraving by William Hogarth shows the final instalment of a sequence of artworks called 'The Four Stages of Cruelty' (1751). In it, the fictional Tom Nero is being dissected for anatomical studies at Cutlerian theatre near Newgate prison after being hanged for murder. Nero looks like the Dead-Alive, as though he can see and smell his own executed body on the dissection table. The chief physician sits in the centre on a high-backed chair, resembling a high court judge. He is surrounded by various medical men, including penal surgeons, who did gallows work. The skeletons of dissected criminals were usually refused a Christian burial and so were displayed as specimens, as can be seen top left and top right. (Photo by Guildhall Library/Getty Images)

Surviving the gallows: the Georgian hangings that didn't go to plan.

The colonial secrets of Britain’s stately homes.

Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth II) and Princess Margaret as Prince Charming and Cinderella in a 1941 pantomime

Q&AWhat are the origins of the Christmas pantomime?

'Merry Christmas' Victorian illustration of Santa Claus holding toys and blowing on a trumpet, chromolithograph, 1915. (Illustration by GraphicaArtis/Getty Images)

Father Christmas and Santa Claus: a brief history of two Christmas champions

Ethiopia 1935: The real history behind The Shadow King.

David Olusoga“Desks went from a niche furniture item to the work station of millions”.

Zwarte Piet: the history behind the Christmas controversy

Illustration showing Roman Saturnalia banquet. (Photo by Alamy)

Saturnalia: the origins of the debauched Roman 'Christmas'

Ancient Babylon: everything you wanted to know.

A Victorian Christmas

What was Christmas like in the Victorian era?

2020: The historians’ verdict.

Chess players in the 14th century

Ancient board games: which ones did people play for fun in the past?.

A brief history of turkeys, plus why we eat a turkey dinner at Christmas

Actress Lily James and actor Michael Huisman looking at each other in a still from the film The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Life under Nazi rule: the occupation of the Channel Islands.