Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

The French actress Sarah Bernhardt

Greg Jenner on the history of celebrity. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Charles I. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Has history been unfair to Charles I?

Pompeii wall painting depicting an erotic satyr and nymph

In bed with the Romans: a brief history of sex in Ancient Rome

On the trail of the lost pianos of Siberia (Photo by Michael Turek)

Russia’s musical journeys. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Walt Disney uses a baton to point to sketches of Disneyland

The history of Disneyland: How Walt Disney created the 'Happiest Place on Earth'

Pocahontas and John Smith in Disney's ‘Pocahontas’ (1995). (Photo by AF archive/Alamy Stock Photo)

Disney history: how has the corporation shaped our perception of the past?

Blitz spirit: how ordinary people coped with WW2. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Children play as air raid wardens during the Blitz in London

Q&AHow did WW2 affect schools in London?

PT Barnum and General Tom Thumb

The greatest show on earth? The myths of the Victorian freak show

Shakespeare and America. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet

Jane Austen’s tips for “health and happiness”

Greg Jenner. (Photo by Frank Monks)

Books interviewFame, fortune and falls from grace: Greg Jenner on the rise of celebrity culture. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Jesus appears before Pontius Pilate in a crowd scene from Oberammergau's 2010 Passion Play. The Bavarian town stages the mammoth production once every ten years, with a cast made up entirely of local residents. (Photo by Brigitte Maria Mayer Passionsspiele Oberammergau 2020)

Travel to: Oberammergau, Germany. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

News in the Middle Ages. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Shoppers crowd a Woolworths store in 1955

Q&AHas there always been panic buying? And when have people panic shopped through history?

Illustration of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). (Photo by Alamy)

Coronavirus: a historical perspective. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

'The Poor Actress's Christmas Dinner', a painting by pre-Raphaelite artist Robert Braithwaite Martineau, says much about the way Victorians had begun to understand the problem of loneliness. (Photo by Bridgeman Art Library)

The invention of loneliness: why being 'unhappy alone' is a surprisingly modern idea

Elizabeth II and Prince Philip with their third son, Prince Edward, on the balcony at Buckingham Palace. (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of royal mothers and childbirth

17th September 1936: The British minister of health, Sir Kingsley Wood, watches nurses weighing newborn twins during a visit to Southmead Hospital in Bristol to see the work local authorities were doing for the maintenance and improvement of health and housing conditions. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Mum hacks: 5 tips for new mothers from history

The Duchess of Richmond's ball

Before Waterloo: what happened at the Duchess of Richmond's ball?

The reconcilliation between Thomas Becket and Henry II. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

From the handshake to the high-five: a brief history of gestures

General ancient history

When was toilet paper invented and what did people use before?

German women carrying children believed to be part of the Lebensborn programme

Second World War

The woman who gave birth for Hitler

Hadley Freeman on a 20th-century family history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Anne Frank - Getty Images

Second World War

12 things you need to know about Anne Frank and her diary

Christine de Pizan. (Photo by Getty Images)

Doctors, playwrights and feminists: meet 6 trailblazing medieval women

Wartime evacuees wash their hands

“The very sight of her hands did almost turn my stomach”: a brief history of hand-washing

Who is the greatest leader in world history?

The (not so) stinky Middle Ages: why medieval people were cleaner than we think

On his plantation in Georgia, American politician Benjamin Hawkins is teaching Creek Native Americans how to use a plow, 1805. (Photo by Granger, NYC / TopFoto)

Food and war. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.