Christmas 2017

Articles from the Christmas 2017 issue of BBC History Magazine

A portrait of Benjamin Franklin. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

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The Treaty of Paris 1783: how to negotiate an exit. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Alfred the Great “managed to ensure history’s enduring affection by making sure that he wrote it himself,” argues Max Adams. (Photo by Granger Historical Picture Archive/Alamy Stock Photo)

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Alfred the Great: "He was an excellent king, but that's not the whole story". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Outbreak of dance mania

Medieval

The medieval dancing plague: what caused people to dance themselves to death?

Richard II sails down the Thames to Greenwich to meet the rebels.

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Why did the peasants really revolt?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Abraham Lincoln

General Modern

Lincoln's funniest jokes

A portrait of Charles Dickens. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

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My history hero: Charles Dickens. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An aerial image of Maiden Castle, site of Britain's largest hillfort. (Photo by Robert Harding/Getty Images)

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What was life like in the Iron Age? Plus 6 places in Britain to explore. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Illustration by Lynn Hatzius

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Britain’s Bonnie and Clyde. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The ruins of the Canadian port of Halifax in the wake of the explosion in December 1917. Almost 2,000 people were killed and 9,000 injured when two ships collided at the height of the First World War. (Photo by Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images)

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Catastrophe in Canada. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A British soldier uses a searchlight to spot German aircraft during the Second World War. Britain has lived with the fear of invasion for several centuries, a fact reflected in its architecture, its art and its people’s mental health. (Photo by David Savill/Getty Images)

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The LibraryThe island fortress fallacy. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A view over Yaoundé, Cameroon

Period

My favourite place: Yaoundé, Cameroon