Feature

Ronald Reagan and Star Wars

Peter Kramer tells how the popularity of the sci-fi epic proved timely for Ronald Reagan and the Strategic Defense Initiative.

The Martian Century

Roger Hennessy tells of a hundred years of investigation, imagination and speculation about life on Mars.

50 Years of the NHS

Charles Webster reflects on the achievements and shortcomings of fifty years of the National Health Service.

Images of a Dead Queen

‘There was such a generall sighing and groning, and weeping, and the like hath not beene seene or knowne in the memorie of man’: visual images of the death of Elizabeth I played a key role in her funeral and in creating the ensuing cult of Gloriana.

Partition - The Human Cost

Mushirul Hasan looks at the reflection of the trauma and tragedy of partition through literature and personal histories.

Why Chamberlain Really Fell

Tony Corfield offers a provocative new interpretation of the events that brought Churchill to power in the spring of 1940.

The Rise and Fall of the Age of Miracles

Roy Porter charts the whirlwind of medical triumphs that promised limitless progress in human health and our more sober reflections on the eve of the third millennium.

Christmas in 19th Century America

Before the mid-1800s many Americans did not dream of Christmas at all. Penne Restad tells how and why this changed – and played its role in uniting the US in social cohesion.