Features

Here you can explore our archive of long form pieces, written by expert historians. In these features, they explain where they found their ideas, how they crafted their stories, what new discoveries they have made and arguments they have proposed.

The Murky World of Peter Rachman post image

The Murky World of Peter Rachman

Neil Root investigates the life and times of the notorious slum landlord

How I Discovered Kathleen Harriman's Wartime Letters post image

How I Discovered Kathleen Harriman's Wartime Letters

Geoffrey Roberts weighs the historical significance of the letters written by Kathleen Harriman during the Second World War.

Gabriele Tadino Goes to Rhodes post image

Gabriele Tadino Goes to Rhodes

Edoardo Albert pinpoints a critical moment in the contest between the Venetians, the Knights Hospitaller and the Ottomans.

1877: Recruiting Sergeants in Westminster post image

1877: Recruiting Sergeants in Westminster

By the mid-Victorian Age people were beginning to look at recruiting sergeants with fresh eyes

1892: Tower Bridge, London post image

1892: Tower Bridge, London

At the end of the nineteenth century the gaunt arms of an engineering wonder stretched across the River Thames

Demosthenes post image

Demosthenes

James Romm looks back at the story of democracy’s defender

Reasons to Live – A Reconciliation with Mahmoud Darwish post image

Reasons to Live – A Reconciliation with Mahmoud Darwish

Mai Serhan reflects on an encounter with the great Palestinian poet

What the Genoese Could Have Told the Dutch post image

What the Genoese Could Have Told the Dutch

Nicholas Walton finds similarities in the histories of the Genoese and the Dutch

The Men Who Sold Honours post image

The Men Who Sold Honours

Stephen Bates looks back at a very British form of political corruption

The Low Road post image

The Low Road

Katharine Quarmby writes about the pleasures and pains of the late Georgian Era

Meet me at the Cemetery Gates post image

Meet me at the Cemetery Gates

Little spaces, profound stories. Roger Luckhurst tells us about London's hidden cemeteries

Shining a Light on Dracula post image

Shining a Light on Dracula

The true story of Vlad Dracula the Impaler