Politics

Illustration by Joey Guidone

The big question: has terrorism ever achieved its aims?

William Cecil, also known as Lord Burghley, with Queen Elizabeth I. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Your guide to William Cecil, chief adviser to Queen Elizabeth I

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Ernest Bevin

Ernest Bevin: working-class warrior . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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

Donald Trump: a president without precedent?

Roman republic

Your guide to the Roman Republic

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

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Male and female militia fighters on the march at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, July 1936. (Photo by Getty Images)

The Spanish Civil War: everything you wanted to know . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Parnethon, Athens

How to build a democracy (Athenian-style)

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Fasil Ghebbi, a 17th-century fortress city in Gondar, Ethiopia. (Photo by Getty Images)

Peter Frankopan on global history in 2020 . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Brothers in arms Louis IX on his way to the Seventh Crusade, 1248. The French king kept his three brothers onside – preventing any potential family infighting – by providing them with huge lordships. (Photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

Medieval dynasties: how to stay on the throne . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A contemporary painting shows Parisians seizing weapons from the Hôtel des Invalides on 14 July 1789, ahead of the storming of the Bastille later that day. Before revolution swept through Paris, peasants across the country were abolishing a whole social order from below.

The French Revolution: a tale of two revolutions

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Black Lives Matter activists in Seattle, June 2020. “Accounts of the past have failed to properly address persecution,” says Peter Frankopan. (Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images)

Interview: Peter Frankopan on the state of global history . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Egyptian ships sunk at the entrance of the Suez Canal at Port Said

Your guide to... the Suez Crisis

The Suez canal

How significant was the Suez Crisis?

The battle of First Bar, 1841

Your guide to... the Opium Wars