History

Sarah Kinkel enjoys a refutation of the theory that Europe’s dominance was a result of military might

Efforts to improve work-life balance must address the significant amounts of time that many scholars spend travelling, says Rachel Moss

Northumbria historian discusses how her research has informed her advocacy and the abuse she has suffered for her campaigning

The Cambridge Philosophical Society’s influence on the development of scientific ideas and research cannot be overestimated, writes Geoffrey Cantor

Some awards are unfortunate, but abolishing this time-honoured practice would throw out the baby with the bathwater, says Richard Willis

Television historian on his failed attempt to ‘escape’ being a historian, Churchill’s ‘mixed’ legacy and why we need more black professors

Jonathan Mirsky on a wide-ranging, eye-opening journey tracing a revolutionary development

A survey of the country since its revolution captures key political tensions but pays little heed to a vibrant culture and people, writes Annabelle Sreberny

Book of the week: Lincoln Allison mulls the consequences of a cultural shift from traditional morality to reason

Book of the week: the horrific mutilations of wartime provided fertile ground for research, writes Linda Maynard

Tributes paid to historian who transformed our understanding of early modern England

Archaeological find means tragic explorer will no longer ‘rest unnoticed’

The press may castigate ‘snowflake students’ over free speech, but resistance to far-right speakers has a long history, says Evan Smith

Book of the week: writers shine a light on the disturbing gap between human rights and realpolitik, finds Matthew Joseph

Ann Hughes visits a time when relationships with animals combined affection and pragmatism

Scholar of race and urban history remembered

Document circulated at annual conference of American Historical Association

An insightful contribution to a crowded field invites us to consider Nazism as a promise to deliver a different kind of society, finds Hester Vaizey

Simon Young learns how soldiers used magical thinking to cope with their dreadful circumstances

Turing Institute and British Library collaborate on project to use artificial intelligence techniques to analyse texts

Book of the week: Alexandre Lefebvre asks whether it is possible to cultivate a liberal character in the modern world

King Arthur’s mystique means he can be whatever we want him to be, discovers Katherine Harvey

The author and black history researcher speaks on the importance of passing historical knowledge on to the next generation, and reveals her competitive sporting nature

Academics should not sneer at Simon Birmingham’s appeal to what ‘most Australians’ would think about projects, says Hannah Forsyth

Book of the week: James Stevens Curl is impressed by a marriage of modern architecture and monument preservation

Despite the time the playwright spent in the city, he never became a Londoner, says Lisa Hopkins

Joanna Lewis is fascinated by a study of imperial tedium, but finds it missing some key discussions

Geoffrey Alderman visits a time when truth did not matter in the face of dogma, and myth and conspiracy fed easily into racist rhetoric

Matt Graham on culture’s role in questioning and challenging postcolonial realities

Robert Gildea on a history of the South Wales mining community that is full of nostalgia but also looks to the future

The UK’s first black female history professor on universities atoning for their pasts and believing in the goodness of others

Depositories of original sources were once bulging with academics, but few scholars seem to have time to visit them now, says Arnold Harvey

Book of the week: Emily Michelson learns that the home and the items in it were the heart of Renaissance religion

Royal Historical Society survey also exposes crisis of overwork in discipline

Toronto historian warns academics against shying away from the complexities of the past

Neil Gregor tracks the power shifts in the wartime relationship between a destructive pair of leaders

Circus expert Vanessa Toulmin explains how growing up on a fairground has shaped her academic career, teaching style and approach to life

Book of the week: an intellectual superstar’s work merits more space amid the social history, says Richard Joyner

Book of the week: A. W. Purdue finds a work that combines military and social history to be gripping and poignant

Royal Historical Society report warns dynamism of discipline risks being stifled by lack of diversity

Book of the week: Were some naval powers such as Britain inherently liberal and outward-looking? asks Sarah Kinkel

Ann Hughes samples an account of household recipe creation in 17th-century England

Stuart Schrader is reminded how likely we are to be led astray if we accept state discourse at face value

An otherwise strong account of America’s scientific pioneers largely forgets women, says Leslie Kemp Poole

The capital value of slaves made it possible for white livelihoods to flourish, writes Martin Myers

A study of an amazing era of progress is as lively as the minds behind it, says Robert Lambourne

Recording the day-to-day during the Holocaust did not restore victims’ sense of self, finds Dan Stone

Book of the week: In dire political times, Lyndsey Stonebridge discovers a welcome example of slow reading

Over time, one symbol of dehumanisation has served different purposes, finds Catherine Molineux

Jenny Pickerill argues that we need more practical suggestions on how to tackle institutions’ resistance to decolonisation

The good and evil of opium is documented in this eloquent history, writes Jonathan Mirsky

This deeply researched history of a conflict has an unfinished feel, finds Kori Schake

Becket’s murder is dissected in a study of 1,000 years of the Christian West, says Rachel Moss

R. C. Richardson on a study that spans five centuries of history and takes in culture, caravans and ‘badger ham’

Melanesian cannibals and ‘uncivilised’ natives were feared and fascinating, says Lincoln Allison

Book of the week: Premiers often have a tenuous hold on power in Cabinet governments, finds Vernon Bogdanor

Bill Niven examines a project that attempted to preserve Teutonic traditions in the wake of defeat

Zoë Waxman praises a study that debunks the comforting post-war myth of the resisting majority in countries such as France, Belgium and the Netherlands

Guilt grew as green spaces became pleasurable more than productive places, says Lisa Hopkins

An original book about the changes to arts and technology reaches a disappointing conclusion, finds Scott Mandelbrote