BBC History Magazine

The online archive of articles from BBC History Magazine

A marble bust of a man

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Julius Caesar's hellraising youth: did he really defy tyrants and crucify pirates?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A woman wearing a black dress and white hood, praying in front of a Bible

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Married three times by the age of 15: Margaret Beaufort, the woman who birthed the Tudor Dynasty. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A painting of two men, dressed in colourful robes, hug each other. One man is standing on top of a lamb, the other on a lion

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Michael Wood on the rise and fall of Asian empires. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Star witness: how the Royal Observatory transformed our understanding of astronomy and time. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Fake news and the Dreyfus affair: the media-fuelled scandal that divided France. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Books of the Year 2025

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BBC History Magazine's 2025 Books of the Year37 best books for history lovers

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After Franco: Spain's miraculous transition to democracy. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A painting of a ship with several white sails and flags on it. In front of the ship, there are large crowds of people in small boats

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Not 1066 again! Should we ditch our obsession with dates?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A red and black illustration showing a large wolf jumping up, above a man laying on the floor. Around the central wolf, there are several others

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Spectral beasts and hounds of hell: a spooky history of Britain's ghost dogs. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration showing a large white building with a triangular roof and columns. In front of it, there is an open gate with chains and several padlocks hanging from the left hand side

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Who should decide the stories museums tell?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A black and white photograph showing a young boy playing with two girls in the sand

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"Imagine starting a life with so little": the stories of South Asians in Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Two pictures of women, one modern day one looking at the camera, the other Victorian facing towards the right sit in circular frames against an orange background

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My history hero: Rain Newton-Smith chooses Helen Keller (1880-1968). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A selection of illustrations of medical procedures, including childbirth and someone vomiting, around a circular chart that depicts flasks of different coloured urine

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Marvellous medieval medicine: why their curious cures were better than you think. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A black and white photograph of a large, smoky explosion on the sea

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Terror in the deep: how Hitler's U-boats pushed Britain to the brink. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Two figures cut out from the Bayeux Tapestry and digitally rearranged, with one appearing to use an oversized needle and thread to embroider a mounted warrior below. The collage places the figures against a blank section of linen bordered by sections of the original tapestry.

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Just how many Bayeux Tapestries were there?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

a pastel coloured illustration shows two hands reaching towards two steaming cups of tea. In the background there is a cherry blossom tree and two landscapes, one of China and the other of England

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Michael Wood on China's immense suffering in the Second World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A person's hand is holding a brush, brushing dust off various objects buried in the mud

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“A tidal wave of digital material will overwhelm recordkeeping institutions”: the future of history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A landscape image shows a grey and orange stone wall in a semi-circle shape, overlooking a large hill range and a blue sky. On either side of it there are trees

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Kavita Puri's hidden histories: the enduring appeal of archaeological sites. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A pair of swords in a cross shape, on top of an orange background that features warriors fighting on horses

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The assassins' reign of terror: how these 12th-century killers spread fear in the Middle East. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A painting showing a man dressed in armour, with a blue and red flag over him, riding a white horse amongst a busy battlefield

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5 things you (probably) didn't know about the Tudors. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A collaged picture shows a marble statue of Elizabeth I wearing a large crown on the left, and a portrait of King James I, dressed in a red and white robe and crown on the right

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The lie of succession: did James I steal Elizabeth I's crown?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Isabel Allende and Inés Suárez

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My history heroIsabel Allende chooses Inés Suárez. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Four small terracotta masks in a line. The two in the middle have black hair and beards, one with a white face and the other with an orange face. The ones on either end are plain beige faces.

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The making of Rome's monster. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Two men stand next to each other holding large guns. They are dressed in black suits and ties with sunglasses and are standing against a blue and black background. Above them, the words "MIB: MEN IN BLACK" are written

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Gray Barker: UFO conspiracy theorist. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A black and white photograph of three men in military uniform. The man in the middle, is holding his arm out pointing to something in the distance and to his left, is a man using binoculars

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The Stalingrad of Africa: the story of the battle for Tunis. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

New issue November BBC History Magazine

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November 2025 issue of BBC History Magazine out now!

Coming up in the next issue of BBC History Magazine…

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Coming up in the December 2025 issue of BBC History Magazine

LEFT TO RIGHT: US president William McKinley is shot in 1901; John F Kennedy in Dallas, moments before his murder in 1963; the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981.

General Modern

"Violence and American politics have gone hand in hand right from the beginning": a history of political violence

A colourful illustration inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, showing women embroidering scenes of medieval warriors, archers and a mounted knight onto a large piece of fabric. The tapestry is draped over a tree-stump table, with balls of coloured wool scattered around it.

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Michael Wood on women’s contributions to the Bayeux Tapestry. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A woman with blonde hair and wearing a navy T shirt stands looking up towards the top left of the image. She has a large white earring and stands in front of some Roman ruins

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Alice Roberts: “Christianity didn’t invent itself as an empire from nothing: it adapted existing Roman structures”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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