Africa & the World
Africans and the Atlantic Slave Trade: Complicity, Agency and Demand
It is one of history’s most uncomfortable debates: who sold, who bought, and who made the trade possible.
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War & Conflict
The Officer Who May Have Stopped a Nuclear War
During the Cuban Missile Crisis a trapped Soviet submarine nearly fired a nuclear torpedo. The story is true, and more complicated than the legend.
Trade & Economy
Why Britain? The Industrial Revolution Was Not Inevitable
Coal, colonies, culture or cheap labour: historians still disagree about why the machine age began where it did.
Africa & the World
The Benin Bronzes: Whose Art Is It?
In 1897 a British force burned Benin City and carried away thousands of works. The question of who should keep them is still being argued.
Science & Medicine
Why Is the 1918 Flu Called “Spanish”?
The deadliest influenza pandemic in modern history was named for the country that talked about it, not the one that started it.
Sport & Society
The Football War: Did a Match Really Start a Conflict?
Two countries fought for about a hundred hours after a World Cup qualifier. The football was a spark, not the fuel.
Sport & Society
Did Hitler Really Snub Jesse Owens?
The most famous scene of the 1936 Olympics is told as a story of one man’s contempt. The record points somewhere less comfortable.