Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

Who’s holding the baby? How working mothers navigated the 20th century. 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.

Globe Theatre illustration

The Globe theatre fire of 1613: when Shakespeare’s playhouse burned down

The Baillie Family c1784, by Thomas Gainsborough

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

Pompeii,Italy

What was life like in ancient Pompeii? Mary Beard shares an A-Z guide

Mel Gibson in a scene from the film 'Braveheart'

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

This photo dated 1948 shows the devastated city of Hiroshima some three years after the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city on 6 August 1945, at the end of World War 2. Around 140,000 people, or more than half of Hiroshima's population at the time, died in the first atomic bombing – with another 70,000 people perishing in the bomb dropped over Nagasaki 9 August 1945. (Photo credit should read AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

In pictures: the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

How much do you know about the Vikings? Test your knowledge with our quiz. This mid-19th century painting shows Viking ships on the River Thames. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

QuizHow much do you know about the Vikings?

Crowds flock to the beach at Hastings in August 1938. (Photo by Photo12/UIG/Getty Images)

Summer holiday revolution: when were Britons first allowed to take paid holiday?

Prospectors pan for gold in Siberia during the 19th century.

Where did the major gold rushes of the 19th century happen? And why were people so keen to join the gold rush?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Prospecting towns like Dawson boomed during the gold rush.

The dark side of the 19th-century gold rush. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

c1962: Military personnel in a car pass through the US Army's Checkpoint Charlie on the Berlin Wall. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

A brief history of Checkpoint Charlie

Two lovers rest after a hunt, Codex Manesse

Saturday lecture: Medieval love and marriage. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The ruined monastery walls of Lindisfarne priory on Holy Island, on 27th June 2019, on Lindisfarne Island, Northumberland, England. The monastery of Lindisfarne was founded by Irish monk Saint Aidan, and the priory was founded before the end of 634 and Aidan remained there until his death in 651. The Holy Island of Lindisfarne, also known simply as Holy Island, is an island off the northeast coast of England. Holy Island has a recorded history from the 6th century AD; it was an important centre of Celtic and Anglo-saxon Christianity. After the Viking invasions and the Norman conquest of England, a priory was re-established. (Photo by Richard Baker / In Pictures via Getty Images Images)

BlogMedieval(ish) matters #8: Did medieval people care about the time? And did they get bored?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

English admiral Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596), circa 1585. (Photo by Getty Images)

Francis Drake: slave trader. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Francis Drake portrait

Francis Drake’s forgotten role in the English slave trade

American spotlight: how today’s protests echo historical outrage. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Violence erupted in New Orleans, and white southerners killed and injured more than 100 freed slaves during a riot against reconstruction plans. (Image by Alamy)

Rebuilding America after the Civil War: what was the Reconstruction era and why did it fail?. 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.

A police officer uses his baton on a protester in Glasgow, 1919

1919: Britain's red summer. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

American civil rights leader Martin Luther King

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

People flee to boats on the River Thames to escape the Great Fire of London, September 1666.

Coffee, plague and the Great Fire: the pleasures and perils of living in Restoration London. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Statue of Admiral Horatio Nelson in Trafalgar Square London

Should we judge historical figures by the morals of today?

(Photo by Michele Falzone via Getty Images)

10 things you (probably) didn't know about ancient Egypt

Michael Wood on statues"These ‘history wars’ over statues are really about something bigger: about different views of the past, and who controls it". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The unexpected Tudors. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

From Nelson to Churchill: challenging British heroes with Afua Hirsch. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Abolition in Britain: the link between slavery and the British national identity

An 1826 illustration from 'The Black Man's Lament

David Olusoga"Thousands of Britons opposed abolition – because they owned slaves"

Saturday lecture: Medieval disease and medicine. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.