Politics

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Clarence Harry Willcock MP, who refused to show his identity card to a policeman, 13 June 1951. (Photo by Walter Bellamy/Express/Getty Images)

My history hero: Clarence Willcock . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A second petition of 800,000 signatures, protesting against the abolition of the basic petrol ration, being presented to the House of Commons, 10 December 1947. (Photo by Harry Todd/Fox Photos/Getty Images)

E-petitions: in the name of the people?

Douglas Haig (right) watches the stamping of poppies by ex-servicemen, during a visit to the British Legion poppy factory in Richmond, 22 October 1926. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

The Library Douglas Haig: a postwar revolutionary?

Vasily Grossman with the Red Army in Schwerin, Germany, 1945. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

A war of words

Hans Litten (centre) in court while representing communists, 25 August 1932. Litten’s decision to subpoena Hitler a year earlier was to cost him his life. (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Hitler in the dock

Schoolchildren helping workmen construct a new estate of pre-fabricated houses in Watford, Hertfordshire in 1946 following the devastation of the Second World War. (Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images)

Postwar squatters: a very British uprising

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Sir Alec Clegg was the founder of Bretton Hall College (pictured), a West Yorkshire college specialising in arts and performance. (Photo by Memitina/Getty Images)

My history hero: Sir Alec Clegg (1909-86) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An aerial view of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. Geography has been

The surprisingly long history of humanity’s political development

Christmas Day 1991: Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev broadcasts a message to his people announcing his resignation and the imminent dissolution of the USSR. (TV GRAB/AFP/Getty Images)

Does Russia need an iron fist?

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Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. He

My history hero: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Britain's decision to join the Common Market made front page news in the early Seventies. (Photo by Douglas Miller/Keystone/Getty Images)

A big day in history: the debate on whether Britain should join the European Community

The Edinburgh memorial to Scots who fought in the Union army. Erected in 1893, it shows a former slave gazing up at Abraham Lincoln. (Getty Images)

Lincoln’s British enemies

Two women from South America. Six centuries ago South American civilisations matched the west in some respects. (Getty Images)

The wonder of the west

British prime minister Edward Heath with Olympic gold medal winner Mary Peters. (Bettmann/Getty Images)

Communist sport: Cold War copycats

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Burma: Why its military dictatorship still survives