What makes someone a king? More importantly, what unmakes a king? Henry II’s experiment in co-kingship saw one Henry III fall ...

The Grammar of Angels: A Search for the Magical Powers of Language by Edward Wilson-Lee finds in Giovanni Pico della ...

Naples 1343: The Unexpected Origins of the Mafia by Amedeo Feniello struggles with sources as dubious as the Camorra ...

The concerns of daily life prompted early modern people to seek reassurance in fate, stars, and astrologers.

The Tree Hunters is, like Pakenham’s earlier books, beautifully written and enjoyable to read. It radiates pleasure in its ...

The English Puritans in 1603 had high hopes that the new Scottish king, James I, would push the Church of England nearer to Calvinism. As he rode south to London, James was presented with the ...

Ocean: A History of the Atlantic Before Columbus by John Haywood and Tracks on the Ocean: A History of Trailblazing, Maps and ...

There was no law permitting cremation, but there was no law against it either. On 13 January 1884, a Welsh druid took the ...

Perhaps the movement’s most recognisable aspect was its enigmatic leader ‘Rebecca’, purported to be taken from Genesis, in ...

In 1861 serfdom, the system which tied the Russian peasants irrevocably to their landlords, was abolished at the Tsar’s imperial command. Four years later, slavery in the USA was similarly declared ...

In its first two centuries of existence Christianity witnessed the persecution of many of its members by officials of the Roman Empire; the causes of these persecutions have been and continue to be ...