Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

The Pilgrim fathers arrive at Plymouth, Massachusetts on board the Mayflower. (Photo by Harold M. Lambert/Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

"They decided that God must be leading them to North America": the Puritans journey to the Mayflower. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Some of the 5,000 Jewish and non-Aryan German child refugees, the 'Kindertransport', arriving in England at Harwich from Germany, 2 December 1938. (Photo by Getty Images)

Revisiting the Kindertransport. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The tomb of Pharaoh Djoser, built at Saqqara

Timeline: the evolution of ancient empires

As seen in this early 19th-century depiction of an initiation, Masons have long used secrecy to "create a sense of awe and specialness around their rituals". (Image by Alamy)

A history of Freemasonry: from Enlightenment ideals to satanic conspiracy stories

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

Exclusive podcastDominic Sandbrook on the 1980s. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The story of the Freemasons. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The pilgrim fathers

Your guide to the Pilgrim Fathers, plus 6 interesting facts

Afua Hirsch with the Samburu people, Kenya

Africa’s cultural liberation. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Roman republic

Your guide to the Roman Republic

Iron Age bronze head

The Celts in Britain: everything you need to know

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

Mosaic showing gladiators, Roman Civilization, 4th century

Bread and circuses: what happened in the amphitheatres of the Roman empire?

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.

Night view of people jammed into Times Square, New York, celebrating the end of the war in Europe. (Photo by Herbert Gehr/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty

Was 1945 the world's zero?

14th century miniature showing a child's baptism. (Photo by Getty Images)

Exclusive podcastWhat’s in a medieval name?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall: everything you need to know

Athenian red-figure cup showing a seated man with a naked boy in the inside tondo, 470 BC

What was pederasty in ancient Greece?

The real Harlots: Hallie Rubenhold on Covent Garden's courtesans

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

Documents that changed the world. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A medieval king dining

Pig-chickens, beavers’ tails and turtle soup: 8 fascinating foods through history

Dr Michael Mosley holds up a tapeworm

Tapeworms, arsenic and magic soap: fact-checking history’s weirdest fad diets and weight-loss gimmicks

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.

Ancient Greece: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Magic stone in Laraibina village in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea on September 27, 2009. This magic stone is hidden in a tree in Laraibina village. It is very useful to call the rain or to make some magic actions on people. It is forbidden to touch it, only the witch doctor can hold it. The same kind of stones exists in Vanuatu. (Photo by Eric LAFFORGUE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

A sweeping history of magic – from witchcraft to shamanism

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.

Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII

QuizHenry VIII's wives

National guardsmen confront confront citizens during Chicago's race riots

Red summer of 1919: the history of Chicago's race riots

BlogMedieval(ish) matters #15: What's lurking in the background of medieval maps? And what did medieval people really know about the wider world?