Period

Alva Vanderbilt: life of the week.

A woman with blonde hair and wearing a navy T shirt stands looking up towards the top left of the image. She has a large white earring and stands in front of some Roman ruins

Alice Roberts: “Christianity didn’t invent itself as an empire from nothing: it adapted existing Roman structures”.

How women were erased from economic history.

The Phoenicians: everything you wanted to know.

In this c.1891 stereoscopic image by Underwood & Underwood, a cowboy in woolly chaps demonstrates lasso techniques beside a covered wagon, as others look on. Scenes like this reflect the working life and performative culture of the late 19th-century American West.

These three unsuspecting inventions won the American Wild West – but did they destroy it too?

An edited image of a man with long curly hair and a lacy ruff. The right hand side of his face is colour inverted so it appears black with a red eye

The sinister secrets of Samuel Pepys.

Katya Adler and Rita Levi-Montalcini

My history heroKatya Adler chooses Rita Levi-Montalcini.

Black women and the fight for human rights.

This 19th-century illustration, based on ancient Greek vase imagery, depicts two mounted Amazons chasing after two fleeing youths. Scenes like this reflect classical fascination with the myth of warrior women.

Were the Amazons just a “male fantasy”? Here’s the truth behind the ancient world’s warrior women

A painting showing a black beast biting the leg of an orange man dressed in a loincloth

What have the Etruscans ever done for us?.

Soviet dissidents who challenged the Kremlin

English author Agatha Christie, pictured at a dinner in 1957. By this time, she was one of the world’s best-selling writers, renowned for her detective fiction featuring characters such as Hercule Poirot.

A real Thursday Murder Club? How a team of crime fiction writers tried to save the genre (and solve crimes)

El Cid: life of the week.

Burying the enemy: commemorating the world wars' fallen foes.

After Hiroshima: the atomic plague.

The Mughal empire: everything you wanted to know.

A montage of images showing a man standing in the ruins of Hiroshima; a man dressed smartly wearing circular glasses; and a Japanese family with two parents sitting down with five children around them

Senkichi Awaya: the lost mayor of Hiroshima.

an illustration of a pale blue gravestone with several small drawings on it, including a moon, a heart, a ring and some flowers. Around the gravestone there are flowers and it is set against a bright blue background

Why we should be better about talking about death, with Dr Helen Gittos.

The Amazons: wonder-women of the ancient world.

This bas-relief fragment from the Ptolemaic period portrays Cleopatra VII, the last active ruler of ancient Egypt. As both a Greek-speaking monarch and a pharaoh, Cleopatra embodied the cultural fusion of Hellenistic Egypt

General ancient history

On the steps of a sacred temple, Cleopatra's feud with her sister came to a blood-soaked end

An illustration of a king dressed in a green and orange robe. He is wearing a crown and holding a sceptre

King Æthelstan: England's colossus.

Studio portrait of a man dressed as British detective Sherlock Holmes with a plaid cap, a pipe, and a magnifying glass. His silhouette is visible in the background

9 things you might not know about Sherlock Holmes

A black and white photograph shows two men standing with their faces very close together. They both have serious expressions on their faces and are staring down the lens of the camera. Across the bottom are the words KING & CONQUEROR

The wrong moustache in the Battle of Hastings.

A black and white photograph shows a group of Japanese military men on a train, while some young women prepare to get on the carriage. A young woman looks back over her shoulder

Kavita Puri on VJ Day: "We don't talk about the war in Asia – which was a messy, complicated conflict".

How did the Vikings shape Russia and Ukraine?.

This 19th-century facsimile shows the Duke of Salisbury, John Montacute, arriving at Conwy Castle from Ireland — a scene from Le Prinse et mort du Roy Richart. Just a year later, in 1400, Owain Glyndŵr would launch his rebellion, with castles like Conwy becoming key flashpoints in the Welsh fight against English rule.

It’s one of the most famous revolts in medieval history – but has the Glyndŵr rebellion been misnamed?

William the Conqueror: life of the week.

Why the Maginot Line couldn't save France in WW2.

Illustration of Emma of Normandy and two of her children

King and Conqueror’s most gruesome death should never have happened and would be “totally out of character”

Crime fiction history: everything you wanted to know.