History

Jonathan Mirsky considers an exploration of the dynamics between two ancient rival nations

The D-PLACE tool means anthropologists and historians can finally statistically test theories about what shapes human culture and society

Book of the week: Meet the human computers in heels who juggled science and family, says Margaret A. Weitekamp

Book of the week: Randy Malamud on two scholars’ exploration of a temple of Christian fundamentalist belief

Some scholars claim plans are more about improving staff visibility to students than brightening corridors

Academics gave ghostwritten papers good marks in Australian study

University of Hertfordshire modules are marking how well classmates encourage each other to participate

Dundee academics face redundancy at end of ‘shocking’ assessment process

Book of the week: Second-wave highs, Caitlin Moran and rape culture surface in a work of mixed genres, says Emma Rees

Academics and activists to explore how the History Workshop movement can still inspire new historical research and political thinking

Stephen Halliday on a rogue whose smart manner helped him to profit in a deferential era

A penetrating and highly original historian of Anglo-Saxon England has died

Willy Maley on the many ways of interpreting that thin strip of water between England and France

Richard Joyner on the Austrian scientist Karl von Frisch, who discovered and deciphered bees’ communicative choreography

An anecdote about a sandwich illustrates the Allies’ struggle to make the Nazis pay, says Hester Vaizey

Book of the week: Joanna Lewis on nationalism’s truest friend and the books that made him a world authority

Fresh perspectives on a 19th-century Tory leader can be gleaned from his fiction, finds A.W. Purdue

Book of the week: Blacks were key agents in the international battle against slavery, Olivette Otele writes

Jörg Michael Dostal on whether one German thinker directly influenced Hitler’s geopolitics

Angelia Wilson on a time in gay culture that no one forgot

A. W. Purdue on a bold and refreshing revisionist study

Rachel Dickinson on a study that asks if 19^th-century lifestyle choices can help us solve 21^st-century problems

Martin Hall considers the consequences for universities of moving beyond reconciliation to reparation for former injustices

James Delbourgo on a study of how scientists shared information and how through it they constructed the nation as an object of study

James Crouse on the exclusive, macho culture of recreational flyers in post-Second World War US

Kate Macdonald on the publications that used humour to share the trauma of the First World War

Book of the week: The Chinese government’s persecution of Fang Lizhi remains baffling, says Jonathan Mirsky

New course in historical research follows decision to cut undergraduate fees a year early

Kristen Burton had achieved her goals, yet had to grasp how profound the transition out of grad school could be

Ballot for industrial action is called despite ongoing pay talks over pay claim for 2016-17

Lara Douds-Cook welcomes a colourful compendium of overlapping conflicts in a disintegrating and reconfiguring empire

A. W. Purdue on a perceptive look at those who shaped, and were shaped by, their times

The good, the bad and the offbeat: the academy through the lens of the national press

Do changes to degree courses reflect a more pluralistic society or are they driven by a desire for more radical approaches?

Scousers’ acts of resilience are celebrated in a study of the city’s struggles, says Lisa Mckenzie

Andrew Hadfield on the achievements of an arguably overlooked figure

Millions went West for a better life, but there were casualties in the human traffic, says Hester Vaizey

Neil Gregor on a fine study of the ever-changing landscape of orchestral musical politics in Moscow

All choices about what to exhibit or not make statements about sexuality, finds Lesley Hall

Pomp and circulation throughout the Empire linked monarch and subjects, Donald MacRaild writes

Getting politicians to learn the lessons of history can sometimes require an indirect approach, Queen Mary event hears

Forget about snakes and shamrocks, says Philip Freeman, and meet the man behind the myth

Lucy Wooding on the constant suspicion and division in the Elizabethan court

Helen Bynum on what made a married woman committed to the cause walk away from it all

The social historian, who was second v-c of Sussex and later chancellor of the Open University, was 94

A historian who transformed our understanding of the origins of ‘print culture’ has died

New book from University of Cambridge academic considers how Shakespeare became a powerful presence from Addis Ababa to Zanzibar

Hillary Clinton is not the first woman to run for the White House. Elizabeth Cobbs enjoys an entertaining look at her and her predecessors

Book of the week: A portrait of the failure who became Führer detects early signs of a Final Solution, says Robert Gellately

Memoir of scholar who fought for recognition will strike a chord with many women, says June Purvis

A leading Marxist political theorist has died

Donald MacRaild on how the Scots see themselves and their place in the UK

Joanna Lewis on a theory that valuing character over achievement helped to limit queasiness about the imperial project

As 14 February approaches, Tim Worth looks at a couple of choice Collinses and remembers what Georgian ladies had to put up with

In addition to its firepower, Britain’s fleet exerted an immense soft power that underscored the imperial project, A.W. Purdue writes

University of Oxford historian calls on academics to fight back against changes based on a ‘demonstrably inadequate account of human nature’

It’s a myth that Confucianism kept China unprepared for war: the empire had guns and was not afraid to use them, Jonathan Mirsky writes

Book of the week: Jane O’Grady on a thought experiment that is an endless platform for exploring ethical principles

Giulia Miller on a study of anti-Semitism in the academy and the struggle of displaced scholars

A double biography of an Irish suffragette and a Polish count paints a vivid picture, says June Purvis