21st Century

Expert history articles and analysis about the global events of the 21st century…

The NHS: a brief history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Supporters of Donald Trump protest in Pennsylvania as the state’s electoral college casts its votes, December 2020

The constitutional crisis behind 2021's presidential transition. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Editor’s pick: Ian Kershaw on postwar Europe. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Brexit’s long historical roots. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Professor Robert Tombs, Fellow of French history at St John's College

"Both sides of the Brexit debate have got things wrong about our history": Robert Tombs on Britain's complex relationship with Europe. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Gary Oldman plays Winston Churchill in the 2018 Oscar winner 'Darkest Hour'.

Think pieceOur dangerous devotion to the Second World War

Rege-Jean Page as Simon Basset and Phoebe Dynevor as Daphne Bridgerton

Bridgerton season one: “A period drama like no other”

2020: the historians’ verdict

2020: The historians’ verdict. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

In pictures: 150 years of the British Red Cross

The British royal family at the Queen's annual birthday parade 2019

A brief guide to the British royal family, by The Crown’s historian Robert Lacey

Princess Anne and Queen Elizabeth II

In profile: Princess Anne, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II

Covid-19 saw the UK’s universities, such as the University of Glasgow (above), cancel in-person teaching. The logistics of teaching and studying during the pandemic are proving complex. (Photo by Dreamstime)

How Covid-19 is forcing universities to change

If you’re interested in learning about history at home, there are plenty of short courses available online on a variety of topics. (Photo by Getty Images)

How to become a history student at home

Hiring more black academics “to teach all sorts of histories” is key to instigating real change in university history education, lecturer Charlotte Lydia Riley argues. (Photo by Shutterstock)

How can we improve diversity within history education?

London during the Blitz - the systematic night-time bombing of the British by the Luftwaffe in 1940 - 1941. (Photo by Getty Images)

Rationing, school closures and 'Blitz spirit': how did people cope in WW2?

US President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference. (Photo by Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Donald Trump: a president without precedent?

The then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump taking part in the final presidential debate at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, 19 October 2016. Trump repeatedly claimed that the election was “rigged” against him. (Photo by Joe Raedle/AFP/Getty Images)

A brief history of election “rigging” in the United States

Huge sun setting over power lines and palm trees in California. (Photo by Getty Images)

California’s century of change. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Japanese school girls wear protective masks to guard against the influenza outbreak, February 1920. (Photo by Getty Images)

A history of pandemics: from Spanish Flu to Covid-19. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Mel Gibson in a scene from the film 'Braveheart'

Good drama, bad history: 11 historically inaccurate films you need to watch

A mushroom cloud produced by the explosion of a hydrogen bomb during Operation Ivy, an American nuclear test that took place in 1952. (SSPL/Getty Images)

How have nuclear weapons shaped global politics? 10 key moments in the post-war atomic world

Working mothers. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Britain and the slave trade. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The British home has changed substantially in the past 300 years (Illustration by Ed Crooks)

The evolution of the British home: from the Georgian era to the present day

David Olusoga on A House Through Time. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Members of the royal family: Prince Louis; Prince George; Prince William, Duke of Cambridge; Princess Charlotte; Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge; Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall; Prince Charles, Prince of Wales; Princess Anne, Princess Royal; and Queen Elizabeth II during the Queen's annual birthday parade on 8 June 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

From The Crown to Queen Elizabeth’s corgis: 24 history questions about the royal family for your home pub quiz

Walt Disney uses a baton to point to sketches of Disneyland

The history of Disneyland: How Walt Disney created the 'Happiest Place on Earth'

Illustration of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). (Photo by Alamy)

Coronavirus: what might we learn from pandemics in the past?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). (Photo by Alamy)

Coronavirus: a historical perspective. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.