Dockers unloading wine barrels

Social history

A c1880 advertisement poster for Coca-Cola. The name derived from its extracts of coca leaves and kola nuts – the former did contain small amounts of cocaine. (Photo by Bettmann via Getty Images)

Q&ADid the original Coca-Cola drink really contain cocaine?

King Arthur feasting at Camelot

Q&AHow old is the ‘British Empire’?

A decade of domesticity: how the 1950s made the modern home

Second World War

The wartime wireless and the lost voice of Cyril Lakin

Migrating to Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Jarrow March. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Professor Ronald Hutton © Jeni Nott

Witchcraft through the ages. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Woodcut of a meal shared at a witches' Sabbath. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Ronald Hutton on the Witch. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A proponent of same-sex marriage protests outside the Houses of Parliament, 3 June 2013. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

The Sexual Offences Act: a gay revolution?

An illustration of a public execution at Newgate, London, late 18th century. (Photo by Museum of London/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The LibraryA deadly obsession in Victorian London

A Calcutta pavement, c1961

After Partition: colony politics and the rise of communism in Bengal

China in World War Two. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Living through Partition. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The LibraryThe English in America. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Germany’s World War Two. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

'Poldark' character Aunt Agatha (left) draws our attention to the often-ignored figure of the 18th-century spinster, says Hannah Greig. (Image credit: BBC/Mammoth Screen/Robert Viglasky)

The real history behind 'Poldark' series three: episode six

Michael Wood… on radical Islamism. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Ironbridge over the river Severn in Telford, England. (Getty Images)

History explorer: The power of British iron. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Pilgrim Fathers leaving Delft Haven on their voyage to America, July 1620. Image dates from 1878. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

England’s migrant crisis

The LibraryFemale flyers in Nazi Germany. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

George Warleggan begins to gain power as a Justice of the Peace in the third series of 'Poldark'. (Mammoth Screen/BBC)

The real history behind ‘Poldark’ series three: episode four

Children at war. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The big question: Is Africa a prisoner of its past?

Jane Austen and Tudor London. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A map of London dating from c1572. (Getty Images)

Life in Tudor London

Anne Boleyn in the Tower

Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I in their own words: 5 fascinating letters from Tudor monarchs

Oswald Mosley receives a fascist salute from his followers in October 1936

Who were the young people drawn to Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists?

British Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher faces the press outside London's Europa Hotel following her victory in the leadership election, 20 February 1975. (Photo by Frank Barratt/Keystone/Getty Images)

Bolting to the ballot box: Snap elections through history

A brief history of... the Derby

The Six-Day War and the Great Fire of London. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.