Politics & Power
Did the Berlin Conference Really Carve Up Africa?
The meeting of 1884–85 is blamed for the borders of a continent. The record shows something more interesting, and more uncomfortable.
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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.
Sport & Society
Was the Ancient Olympic Truce Really a Pause in War?
We are told that Greece laid down its arms for the Games. The ancient evidence says the truce was narrower, and more political, than the legend.
Sport & Society
Did Pheidippides Really Run from Marathon to Athens?
The legend behind the world’s best-known race is told wrongly, and the correct version is more impressive.
Ideas & Belief
How Deadly Was the Spanish Inquisition?
Its reputation for mass burnings was built by its enemies. The records show something more bureaucratic, and still unjust.
Science & Medicine
Was Galileo Really Tortured by the Church?
The truth about his trial is stranger than the legend: a friend of the Pope, a bad temper and a book that insulted the wrong person.
War & Conflict
Was the Trojan Horse Ever Real?
The most famous trick in military history is missing from the earliest account of the war. That is only the first problem.